A Man of Honour

This is a study of the extraordinary political career of Prince Adam Czartoryski, a Polish patriot who rose to become foreign minister of the Russian Empire under Tsar Alexander I. A controversial figure in both Poland and Russia, he played a leading role in the struggle against Napoleon and was instrumental in the establishment of a Polish state at the Congress of Vienna.

This scholarly and perceptive account, based on intensive research, explores the personal, political, ideological, and economic bases of Czartoryski's long association with Russia. It assesses his role in international relations during the Napoleonic era, and examines his contribution to the cause of enlightened reform. Czartoryski emerges as an intellectualizing statesman, a committed opponent of Napoleonic imperialism, an advocate of a new European order based on nationality and liberal constitutionalism, and an early exponent of Pan-Slavism.

A Man of Honour sets Czartoryski in his context as a major figure in the political history of early nineteenth-century Europe and deepens our understanding of the complex elements at work in the emergence of modern Poland.