The Impact of the Education Reforms of the Years 1773 and 1803 on the Preservation of Polish National Identity in the Eastern Borderlands of the Former Republic of Poland

Abstract

The first Polish education reform, based on the “Acts of the Commission of National Education” formed in 1773, and the following one, pertaining to the Polish lands in the Russian partition of Poland, which were founded in the “Temporary regulations of public enlightenment”, confirmed by Tsar Alexander I in the form of the Act of May, 1803, were of particular significance for the formation and the functioning of Polish schooling and, as a result, for the formation of national and civic awareness of the Polish society. The reforms made it possible to survive the time of enslavement, particularly in the lands of the former Republic of Poland which were subject to Russian indoctrination, by educating Poles who, after the restoration of their independence, would build the Polish state together with its school system.