Joachim Lelewel (22 March 1786 – 29 May 1861) was a Polish historian, geographer, bibliographer, polyglot and politician.
Life
Born in Warsaw to a Polonised Prussian family, Lelewel was educated at the Imperial University of Vilna, where in 1814 he became a lecturer in history, with a brief sojourn at Warsaw, 1818–1821, where he joined the Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning. His lectures on Polish history created great enthusiasm, as shown in some lines addressed to him by Adam Mickiewicz that led to Lelewel's removal by the Russians in 1824.
thumb|left|130px|A sketch of Lelewel
Five years later, Lelewel returned to Warsaw, where he was elected a deputy to the Sejm of Congress Poland. He joined the November 1830 Uprising with more enthusiasm than energy, though Tsar Nicholas I identified him as one of the most dangerous rebels. He is considered the author of the motto: "For our freedom and yours".
In 1846 Lelewel joined the Polish Democratic Association and before the 1846 Kraków uprising he wrote an appeal "To my countrymen in the Ukraine."
In 1847, he, together with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, became a founding member and Vizepräses (vice president) of the Demokratische Gesellschaft zur Einigung und Verbrüderung aller Völker (Democratic Society for Unity and Brotherhood of All Peoples), seated in Brussels. The anarchist Michail Bakunin was strongly influenced by him.
During the first years of Alexander II of Russia as the Emperor of Russia, Lelewel laid some hope on the beginning of liberalisation.
Further reading
- Baar, Monika. Historians and Nationalism: East-Central Europe in the Nineteenth Century (2010) excerpt, pp. 19–24 and passim.
- Edward Dusza, "Joachim Lelewel," Gwiazda Polarna (The Pole Star), vol. 101, no. 10 (8 May 2010), p. 19.
- Joachim Lelewel by the Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, 2009. Retrieved 18 November 2025.
- Hleb-Koszańska H., Kotwiczόwna M. Bibliography of the Joachim Lelewel's Works (Bibliografia utworόw Joachima Lelewela). Wrocław, 1952.
- Skurnowicz, Joan S. Romantic Nationalism and Liberalism: Joachim Lelewel and the Polish National Idea, University of Michigan, 1981.