ВЛАДИСЛАВ ЧАЙКОВСЬКИЙ (МУЗАФФЕР-ПАША) – ВІД КОЗАКА ДО ГУБЕРНАТОРА ЛІВАНУ

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the biography of the youngest son of Mykhajlo Czajkowski – Wladislaw (05.24.1843–28.06.1907). Wladislaw Czajkowski (Muzaffer Pasha) was one of the most influential figures of the liberal political wing in the Ottoman Empire. He was educated at the French Academy Saint-Cyr, made a career in the army (Cossack regiment, guard) and at the court of the Sultan. He distinguished himself as the author and translator of a historical work devoted to the defense of Plevna by the Turks in 1877. Muzaffer Pasha ended his life as mutasarrif (governor) of the Mount Lebanon province. The author of the paper aims to explore, based on a number of sources, the stages of a biography of Muzaffer Pasha and to find out the conflicting moments of the career of this politician. The author emphasizes that the national identification of this outstanding personality is relatively difficult to carry out, since he was born in the family of a Polonised Ukrainian and French, and later converted to Islam as citizen of the Ottoman Empire. His two sons became mid-level employees of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and one of them was buried in Istanbul as Muzaffer-Czajkowski. Having analyzed a number of sources, the author concludes that Muzaffer Pasha policy contributed to the economic recovery, ensured a balance between political and religious parties in the region. Muzaffer promoted regular reforms in the province. He tried to regulate the legislation, to increase the rights of peasants and artisans in every possible way. However, in all these reform efforts, the governor encountered resistance from the central government. He himself actively contributed to the modernization processes in the empire and had a significant impact on the establishment of a special type of political nation in Mount Lebanon.