Was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth a colonial state?

• straipsnio tekstas

ENDuring the 2016 debate, there were also voices stressing the need for due diligence and academic rigour in the application of what was seen by some as the application of “fashionable” to descriptions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The author of this text was among those who shared this opinion. Taking into account later reactions, including responses from those who are very sensitive to colonial elements in the Polish historical narrative, it is worth asking whether the activity of all supporters of the post-colonial discourse, which is aimed at eliminating all elements of the “bad” historical tradition, reaches to the essence of the issue? Or perhaps, in such discourse, the Commonwealth is viewed not only as a real entity, a subject for objective research and analysis carried out with academic rigour, but also as a historiosophical chimera, a projection of the researchers’ imagination? [p. 127].