Teodor Jeske-Choiński (ru: Еске-Хоинский, Теодор. 27 February 1854 – 14 April 1920) was a Polish intellectual, writer, historian and literary critic. He was born to a

bureaucrat A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can compose the administration of any organization of any size, although the term usually connotes someone within an institution of government. The term ''bureaucrat'' derives from "bureaucracy", wh ...

, Fryderyk Jeske-Choiński, of the

Abdank coat of arms Abdank is a Polish coat of arms. It was used by several ''szlachta'' families in the times of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Blazoning Gules '' łękawica'' argent, crest: łąkawica as in arms. History Accord ...

, and Franciszka née Choińska. Some sources suggest that the Jeske-Choiński family was of German origin and later Polonized. He was a friend, as well as an opponent, of

Henryk Sienkiewicz Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz ( , ; 5 May 1846 – 15 November 1916), also known by the pseudonym Litwos (), was a Polish epic writer. He is remembered for his historical novels, such as The Trilogy, the Trilogy series and especially ...

. Whilst Sienkiewicz's novels were focused on Polish history, Jeske-Choiński’s looked at the broader European context. In 1900 he published ''

Tiara i korona A tiara (, ) is a head ornament adorned with jewels. Its origins date back to ancient Greco-Roman world. In the late 18th century, the tiara came into fashion in Europe as a prestigious piece of jewelry to be worn by women at formal occasions. ...

'', a novel about the dispute between the Emperor Henry IV and

Pope Gregory VII Pope Gregory VII (; 1015 – 25 May 1085), born Hildebrand of Sovana (), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 April 1073 to his death in 1085. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. One of the great ...

. Jeske-Choiński was actively engaged in ideological debates with Warsaw's positivists, who opposed the legacy of romanticism and sought to reshape Poland's national priorities through education and press control. He viewed their program as an attempt to impose a rigid intellectual hierarchy, while he himself was critical of their pragmatism and rejection of revolutionary aspirations. Joanna Michlic named him "one of the leading theorists and exponents of

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

in Poland".Joanna Beata Michlic, Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present, University of Nebraska Press 2006, str. 54-56 In 1951, the communist censors completely banned all of his books, resulting in Jeske-Choiński being largely forgotten amongst the Polish public.

References

Polish male writers 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers 1854 births 1920 deaths {{Poland-writer-stub Polish positivists 19th-century Polish historians Polish conservatives