EN
Artur Doliński (1831–1909) was born to a relatively affluent family of landed gentry in the Eastern Borderlands. He shared the fate of many intellectuals inhabiting the north-western guberniyas of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th century. Doliński’s memoirs provide valuable insights into the life of intellectual elites in Vilnius and Saint Petersburg. The family’s financial problems forced Doliński to take up employment in the Mining Department in Saint Petersburg. Doliński settled in Vilnius after retiring. His memoirs speak of the dilemma faced by a young man who was forced to leave the Eastern Borderlands and embark on a civil servant’s career in the Russian Empire for purely financial reasons. Doliński recalls his journeys from Petersburg to Vilnius, his home village of Pryciuny and Warsaw, as well as his visits to families of landed gentry in the Eastern Borderlands and western guberniyas where he traveled on business as an agent of a Russian insurance company. Doliński’s memoirs give a fascinating and detailed account of his journeys across Russia and the partitioned Poland in the 19th century.