After gaining independence, Croatia’s belonging to the Central European cultural circle was frequently emphasised in the Croatian public. Emphasising Croatia’s belonging to Central Europe, as well as understanding the Central European element of Croatian national identity imposes the need for research on Croatia’s role in that region, the attitudes towards other Central European nations as well as the echoes that the events in Central Europe produced in Croatia. The attitudes towards the Polish people and the Croatian public’s perception of events on the Polish territory take a prominent place in such an investigation. Papers published up till now have not attempted to give a complete view on PolishCroatian ties of the second half of 19th century, nor the attitudes of the Croatian public towards the Polish people during that time. The views of the Croatian public regarding particular significant topics from the Polish history of the second half of 19th century, Croatian-Polish scientific or university ties, certain segments of the Croatian reception of Polish literature etc. have not caught the attention of historians. The aim of this paper is to present the attitudes of the Croatian political and cultural milieu towards the Polish people and the Polish question in the second half of 19th century. This period witnessed the formation of first political parties in Croatia and the development of Croatian civil society. At that time on the territories of partitioned Poland one of the most significant uprisings for freedom in the Polish history – the January Uprising – broke out and failed. Research covers the period between 1860 and 1903, i.e. the fall of the Absolutism of Bach in the Habsburg Monarchy and Count Khuen-Héderváry's end of the reign in Croatia and Slavonia. The area that this research covers is the one of Civil Croatia, that is the area of Croatian lands ruled by a ban (count). The focus of research was on the writings of Croatian press, primarily newspapers. Research examined the most significant periodical publications of Civil Croatia in the second half of the 19th century. Research was focused on the study of Croatian press during important events in the territories of partitioned Poland, more precisely the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Posen and Galicia. Among the events in the Kingdom of Poland selected for this research are the patriotic demonstrations (1860-1862), the attempts on lives of prominent individuals and authority figures (1862), the January Insurrection (1863-1864) and the 100th anniversary of the battles in Warsaw during the Kościuszko uprising (1894). The events from the Grand Duchy of Posen include the incarceration of the Archbishop of Gniezno and Poznań, Mieczysław Ledóchowski (1874), the banishment of the Polish people who had citizenships of other countries (1885), the prohibition of religious education in the Polish language and the school strike in Września (1901). The writings of Zagreb press on the Polish people in the Grand Duchy of Posen between 1860-1864 were also explored. Events selected from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy include the visit of the Emperor Franz Joseph I. to Galicia (1880) and the Second Congress of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy's Slavic Journalists held in Krakow (1899). In order to get a broader picture of the attitudes of the Croatian public towards the Polish people in Galicia, the reverberations of the work of the Polish representatives at the Imperial Council in Vienna as well as the reception of the Third Congress of Slavic journalists of the AustroHungarian Monarchy in Dubrovnik (1901), in which the Polish people played a distinctive role, were explored. The research of the attitudes of the Croatian cultural public towards the Polish people covered a study on the writings on the Polish people and the Polish culture published by, what was then, Croatia's central cultural magazine Vienac and the study of the Croatian reception of slavist Bronisław Grabowski and his ties with the Croatian people. Additional research on the Polish aid to the victims of the 1880 Zagreb earthquake was carried out as well as its echoes in Croatia with an emphasis on the collection of works on behalf of the citizens of Zagreb, published by literary and art societies of both Lviv and Krakow. In the course of research of the writings of Vienac magazine the attention was also focused on Croatian-Polish scientific connections. In order to examine whether the views of the Croatian public were influenced by the Croatian students of Polish universities, available data on Croatian students, primarily at the University in Krakow, were investigated. The doctoral thesis is divided into five chapters. The first three present the attitudes of the political public of Civil Croatia towards the Polish people and the Polish question. Views on the events in Galicia and further in Austro-Hungarian Monarchy are presented in the first chapter. The second chapter discusses the views of the Croatian public on the Polish people in the Grand Duchy of Posen, while the third elaborates the views on the Polish people in the Kingdom of Poland. The attitudes of the cultural milieu are presented in the fourth chapter. That chapter is divided into following subchapters: magazine Vienac and the Polish people, Bronisław Grabowski and Croatians, and the Polish aid to the victims of the Zagreb earthquake. Croatian-Polish university ties were presented in the last chapter, with an emphasis on the Jagiellonian University. In order to facilitate the understanding of the attitudes of the Croatian public towards the Polish people, some subchapters cover Croatian-Polish ties if they followed a certain event or a person presented in that subchapter. The doctoral thesis contains selected articles on the Polish people published in the researched periodical publications, the lists of Croatians studying at the Jagiellonian University and the lists of translations of Polish literature published in Zagreb's Vienac magazine. The selected articles give a good insight into the writings of Zagreb press of that time about the Polish people, the list of Croatian students at the Jagiellonian University makes it possible to make conclusions about Croatian students in Krakow, and the list of translations of Polish literature in the Vienac magazine is a good indicator of the presence of Polish literature in the Croatian public of that time. Research concluded that in the second half of the 19th century there was no unified position about the Poles within the Croatian public. The views of the Croatian political circle on the Polish people in particular areas of partitioned Poland varied. In general the Croatian public did not express sympathy with the Polish people in the Kingdom of Poland under Russia, but it emphasized the need for the Polish reconciliation with the Russians, which should have resulted in joint effort for the benefit of all Slavic peoples. Such views were particularly accentuated during the January Insurrection (1863-1864) which was presented as a conflict between "Slavic brothers". Along with such dominant views presented in Narodne novine and Pozor, there was a part of the public that showed sympathy to Poland's aspirations to gain independence. August Šenoa belonged to the part of the public that sympathised with the Polish people. The Polish January Insurrection was the only event that was the main topic of the newspapers in Civil Croatia through a longer period of time. The attitude towards the Polish people in the Grand Duchy of Posen differed from the dominant attitude towards the Poles under the rule of Russia. The Polish people in this part of partitioned Poland under the rule of Prussia were portrayed primarily as the victims of Germanization and were sympathised with. The Polish people in Galicia were observed primarily through the prism of the work of the Polish representatives in the Imperial Council in Vienna. The feature that was often attributed to the Polish people in the context of their representatives' activities was that they were selfish. In the periods when the Polish people cooperated with the centralist party of the Austrian Germans in the Imperial Council and supported the centralistic government in Vienna, their activities were mostly subject to criticism. In addition to that, the Polish representatives were accused of working against Slavic solidarity, primarily against the Czechs. When the Poles collaborated with the federalist parties and with the Czech representatives, positive attitudes towards them prevailed. The prevailing view of the Croatian political milieu opposed the restoration of the independent and united Poland, the one which would include all the parts of the former PolishLithuanian Union. The attitudes towards the Polish in the context of culture were even and positive. The fact that the Polish people have a rich culture, especially literature, was pointed out. The presence of Polish literature in the most important cultural magazine Vienac varied. The largest number of translations of Polish literature was published while August Šenoa was the editor (1874-1881) as well as during the last five years of the publication of the magazine (18991903), while there were almost no translations between years 1890 and 1898. The texts on Croatian-Polish cultural ties recognized slavist Bronisław Grabowski as one of the most prominent people to familiarize the Polish community with the Croatian culture as well as one of the most important people of Croatian-Polish ties. He had a significant role in the Polish aid to the victims of the 1880 Zagreb earthquake. Gathered around literary and art societies, the Polish people of Krakow and Lviv published collections of works to help the victims of the earthquake. In the context of aid the Polish people were very positively portrayed in Zagreb newspapers. It was pointed out that the Poles demonstrated their solidarity with the Croatians by helping the citizens of Zagreb. Croatian students studying at the Krakow and Lviv University in the observed period were not numerous. Six Croatians, or eleven people from the area of present-day Croatia altogether, studied at the Jagiellonian University. Ivan Gostiša and Branko Vodnik were the only students of the Jagiellonian University that could have influenced the shaping of the attitudes of the Croatian public towards the Poles during the observed period. Gostiša published translations of Polish literature and a travelogue from Krakow, while Vodnik published reviews on Polish writers and scientists. Before the end of the observed period Julije Benešić, the person that marked Croatian-Polish ties of the early 20th century, began his studies in Krakow. The overview of the public attitude of Civil Croatia towards the Polish people in the second half of the 19th century published in this paper allows for a better understanding of Croatian-Polish connections of that time and points towards the events and persons that made a mark on these ties. The events that should be pointed out are the January Insurrection (18631864), the Polish aid to the victims of the Zagreb earthquake (1880-1881), congresses of Slavic Journalists of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1899 and 1901), the 25th anniversary of the literary work of Henryk Sienkiewicz celebrated in Zagreb (1901) and the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Croatian literature (1901). Among the persons who made their mark on Croatian-Polish ties between 1860 and 1903, Bronisław Grabowski, Marian Zdziechowski, Jan Szczepaniak, Paulina Konarzewska, Eugen Kvaternik, Josip Juraj Strossmayer, Franjo Marković, Ksaver Šandor Gjalski and August Šenoa stand out. Completing research for this paper does not suggest that the need for exploring CroatianPolish ties in the second half of the 19th century stops here. On the contrary, the results presented in the doctoral thesis point towards topics the historians should turn their attention to. For instance, the Polish reception to the congress of Slavic journalists in Dubrovnik, the Polish reception of the consecration of the Đakovo Cathedral (1882), Polish travelogues from Croatian lands in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Polish literature and the Polish people in the magazines Naše gore list and Dragoljub, Polish topics in the works of Croatian writers and the views of Ivan Mažuranić and Ante Starčević towards the Polish people.