Silva rerum
The relations between Poland and Russia have been significantly affected by national liberation conflicts. After the 1863 January uprising, approximately 40,000 Poles were sent into remote parts of Russia. Bronisław Grąbczewski was a January insurgent’s son for whom history delivered a very different fate. As a young man, he voluntarily joined the tsar’s army, which allowed him to serve far from his motherland. Central Asia was his second home for almost twenty years as he explored it during numerous Russian expeditions, including the two he led himself. Travel diaries are his testimony of these expeditions which show the way he presents the Orient. The analysis of these diaries constitutes excellent material for postcolonial studies.