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Foreword
15
DuringBeniowski)slifetime,orthographicpracticesvariedwidelyin
Polish,wheretheEurope-widespellingstandardisationofthe19thcenturywas
takingplacerelativelyslowly.Polesrecordedtheirownandoneanother)s
surnamesinavarietyofways,whichpartlyreflectedthenecessitymanyhad
earlierexperiencedoftranscribingthemintwodifferentalphabets,Latinand
Cyrillic.Ihaveusedtheversionoftheirnamesthattheémigrésusuallyused
themselves,or,ifthereisnoevidenceonthesegrounds,thosewhichwere
mostfrequentlyusedbyothers.Ifconfusingvariantsappear,forexample
inquotations,Ihavemarkedthemfisic.”ThespellingofPolishnames
includes,whenitconformswiththeaboveyardstick,theuseofPolishletters
ą(om=rhomb),ę(em=emblem),ć(ch=chip),ł(w=will),ń(ny=onion),
ó(oo=boot),ś(sh=ship),ż,ź(s=pleasure).
Inthecaseofplacenamesandgeographicalfeatures,Ihaveusuallyused
thenamesthatwentwiththeircontemporarystateattribution,unlessthereis
awell-knownEnglishversion,asinthecaseofMoscoworBrest-Litovsk.
Itishoweverdifficulttoapplythesecriteriatothespellingofplacenames
inPolishterritories.Beniowskiwas,forexample,borninatownfoundedbythe
GrandDukesofLithuaniawhichhadbeenpartofthePolish-Lithuanian
CommonwealthforovertwohundredyearswhenitpassedtoRussiain1793,
andthePolishlanguagecontinuedtobeusedthereofficiallyuntil1848.In1922
itwasmadepartoftheUkrainianSovietSocialistRepublicoftheUSSRand
from1991ofthestateofUkraine.ThenameofthetowninPolishwas
Berdyczów;inRussianitwasBerdichevandinUkrainianBerdychiv.Thename
ofthecurrentcapitalofLithuaniapresentsasimilarproblem.Atthetimeofthe
partitions,itwasaheartlandPolishcitywithagreatPolishuniversitythat
Beniowskiattended.ThecityremainedRussianfrom1795until1922,whenit
wasreturnedtoPolandbyJózefPiłsudski.AfterGermanoccupationduringthe
secondworldwar,itbecamethecapitaloftheLithuanianSovietSocialist
Republicuntil1990andthereafterthecapitalofLithuania.ThePolescallit
Wilno,theLithuaniansVilniusandtheRussiansVilnaorVilnius.
Withtheexceptionofthegenerally-acceptedanglicisedformofWarsawfor
Warszawa,IhavedecidedinthecaseofcitiesthatwereinthePolishstatebefore
thepartitionstousethePolishnames.Thesewerethenamesthatcamenaturally
totheGreatEmigrationandresonatedintheirdebates.Theywereoftenthe
longestusedinmodernhistory,whilethenamesappropriateforlaterstate
attributionarealientoPolishhistoriographyandintroduceelementsof
confusion.
