Contempt from the old nobility or the current elite?
The salons of the Third Polish Republic have long voiced a wary stance toward the Polish nobility, a posture born from a suspicion of rural life that lingers in cultural memory. When a peasant speaks out today, echoes of former elite criticisms reappear—sometimes sharper, sometimes harsher. Joanna Kuciel-Frydryszak’s bestseller Chłopki, a didactic poem about the misery of the lowest class, has been cast as literature of the margins, yet it has also seeped into popular culture, even becoming a Netflix series titled 1670.
Among self-proclaimed guardians of culture, a recurring worry surfaces: the pity and contempt once directed at peasants by the nobility. The question remains, though: is this contempt a holdover from history aimed at the old order, or is it finding new life among today’s elites?
Contempt from the old nobility or from contemporary elites?
Consider the reflection in Defense of Serfdom by Leszczyński, which revisits a village described by the noble Józef Gołuchowski: “First the farmer misuses food that should have sufficed for him, and then asks for it to be given to him.”
Kacper Pobłocki elevates the old rudeness to a pedestal, prompting readers to ponder Didier Eribon’s meditation on how ordinary people are discussed in polite circles: “Around me, people spoke about simple folks and their way of life with contempt or disrespect.”
Across Leszczyński’s books, Pobłocki’s works, Radek Rak’s writings, and numerous interviews, journalism pieces, and hymns, a clear thread weaves through: calls to erase the nobility who once despised the peasants.
Meanwhile, contemporary readers and listeners, including supporters and critics, often direct contempt toward farmers. Protests are dismissed as political naivety, and farmers are labeled in ways that mix mockery with distrust. The online crowd’s rhetoric about tractors worth millions, subsidies, and demonstrations reflects a broader tendency to stigmatize rural life while treating urban discourse as the standard of legitimacy. The mainstream reading of elite contempt toward the common people can feel unfinished when viewed through today’s lens.
Rebel, but not against the refined figures of the Third Polish Republic
These interpretations sometimes celebrate peasant uprisings that occurred before modern state formations, with dramatic violence and dramatic consequences. They recount episodes where homes burned, harsh punishments fell on the nobility, and imperial officials benefited from quick, small payments for such acts. The shared thread is the claim that when the village rose against its lords, the cause was just because the exploited class spoke truth to power. Yet when modern agricultural workers express discontent within the new order, observers can pivot toward condemnations about sophistication or perceived threats to urban civility.
Writers connected with lodges near Czersk have weighed in on the legitimacy of peasant uprisings. In Radek Rak’s Fairy Tale with a Serpent’s Heart, Rabacja leadership is reframed as rational, set against lords trapped in unreality. Rak even repositions Jakub Szela within a larger history of violence. Leszczyński presents the peasants’ objections in vivid terms, treating even cautious mentions in ancient chronicles as a revelation of biblical proportion. Pobłocki finds satisfaction when peasants shed the masks of docility and confront their lords directly.
Today, as peasants shed old façades and stand up not only to lords but to leaders who govern from distant capitals and city cafes, critics who once championed noble superiority may shift toward a harsher, more debauched portrayal of the same figures they once defended. The dynamic persists: power is contested, and moral frames shift with the moment.
These debates touch broader questions about class, memory, and who gets to tell the story of peasant life. They illuminate how cultural production—from poetry to television to polemical essays—shapes public perception of who counts as a legitimate actor in national history.
Citation: wPolityce