EN
In the article the author discusses two images of Volhynia presented in the correspondence of Hugo Kołłątaj and in the diaries of Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz — the most interesting figures during Poland’s twilight years, co-authors of the May Constitution, active participants in the Kościuszko Uprising, political prisoners, outstanding politicians and writers. The former, suspected of taking part in a conspiracy movement aimed at provoking an anti-Russian uprising, was in early 1807 forced to travel to Moscow through Volhynia — an arduous journey given his age and health at the time. Niemcewicz, on the other hand, took on the role of a sentimental tourist in his diaries, a tourist visiting various sites in the borderlands, which have a permanent place in the history of the Polish state. His journeys across the Governorate of Volhynia, from 1816 and 1818, were part of a bigger enterprise which began in 1811 — of exploring “former Polish lands,” from Silesia to Odessa.