What was life like in the territories annexed by Russia in the 19th century? What were the
views and attitudes of the Poles living in lands belonging to the Russian Empire? How did
people arrange their lives when they did not take up revolutionary action and foreswore an open
struggle with the Tsarist regime? Could one be a Polish patriot without fighting gun in hand
for independence? The Russians believed that Poles were genetically preordained to be
anti-Russian. Even in the west of Europe this charge of morbid Russophobia was taken to be the
rule. It seems that this was one of the greatest falsehoods that Russian imperial propaganda
managed to implement in the West. Leszek Zasztowt unfolds in this fascinating biography a much
more complex reality through the life story of the medical scientist academic and political
activist Józef Mianowski (1804-1879) a man who served Russia and loved Poland.
