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© 1999, 2004 James Chastain.
La Tribune des Peuples A political daily appearing
in Paris March 15- April 13 and September 1-November 10,1849,
founded and published by Adam Mickiewicz. The daily was
sponsored by the Polish aristocrat Count Ksawery Branicki.
Apart from daily morning issues, the paper published also special
supplements showing maps of war developments in Hungary and
Italy and featuring reports from major political trials. The
journal attracted a number of Polish, French, Italian, Russian,
Rumanian activists and publicists known for their revolutionary,
democratic, and socialist views (E. Chojecki, F. Grzymala, J.
Lechevalier, H. Castille, I. Golovin, H. Ewerbeck, J. Ricciardi,
R. de la Sarga) - the number of contributors to La Tribune
exceeded 70. After publishing, on April 13, 1849 and unbeknowst
to Mickiewicz, a call of the so-called new parliamentary
executives to revolution, the journal, along with other radical
periodicals, was suspended. After the paper reappeared on
September 1, 1849, police harassment of foreign editors caused
many difficulties; Mickiewicz himself had to hide his work for
La Tribune, because of threats to deport him from France.
Eventually, pressed by the Russian embassy, French authorities
forced all Polish contributors to resign on October 16, which
eventually caused the journal's demise. La Tribune expounded the
brotherhood of nations fighting, under the leadership of France,
against despotic European monarchies headed by Russia. The
nations' cause had religious overtones as the achievement of
freedom was taken as realization of Christianity, the latter
being corrupted by the papacy and the hierarchical church which,
against the will of the nations, sought the support of Godless
monarchs. Mickiewicz in particular forcefully emphasized
religious aspects, along side patriotism. His concept of
socialism removed all attributes of economic and political theory
and meant an active and solitary striving of nations to reach
freedom and progress. As opposed to most members of the
editorial board, Mickiewicz attempted to couple socialism thus
understood with Napoleanic ideals which, for him symbolized
republicanism as opposed to dynastic Bonapartism. It was from
those premises that Mickiewicz's initial, and not uncritical,
support for Louis Napoleon, stemmed. The character and attitudes
of La Tribune were shaped mainly and decisively by Mickiewicz's
personality.
Przemyslaw Matusik