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INSTYTUT ARCHEOLOGII I ETNOLOGII POLSKIEJ AKADEMII NAUK
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INSTYTUT BADAŃ LITERACKICH POLSKIEJ AKADEMII NAUK
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INSTYTUT BADAWCZY LEŚNICTWA
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INSTYTUT BIOLOGII DOŚWIADCZALNEJ IM. MARCELEGO NENCKIEGO POLSKIEJ AKADEMII NAUK
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INSTYTUT BIOLOGII SSAKÓW POLSKIEJ AKADEMII NAUK
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INSTYTUT CHEMII FIZYCZNEJ PAN
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INSTYTUT CHEMII ORGANICZNEJ PAN
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INSTYTUT FILOZOFII I SOCJOLOGII PAN
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INSTYTUT GEOGRAFII I PRZESTRZENNEGO ZAGOSPODAROWANIA PAN
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INSTYTUT HISTORII im. TADEUSZA MANTEUFFLA POLSKIEJ AKADEMII NAUK
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INSTYTUT JĘZYKA POLSKIEGO POLSKIEJ AKADEMII NAUK
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INSTYTUT MATEMATYCZNY PAN
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INSTYTUT MEDYCYNY DOŚWIADCZALNEJ I KLINICZNEJ IM.MIROSŁAWA MOSSAKOWSKIEGO POLSKIEJ AKADEMII NAUK
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INSTYTUT PODSTAWOWYCH PROBLEMÓW TECHNIKI PAN
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INSTYTUT SLAWISTYKI PAN
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SIEĆ BADAWCZA ŁUKASIEWICZ - INSTYTUT TECHNOLOGII MATERIAŁÓW ELEKTRONICZNYCH
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MUZEUM I INSTYTUT ZOOLOGII POLSKIEJ AKADEMII NAUK
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INSTYTUT BADAŃ SYSTEMOWYCH PAN
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INSTYTUT BOTANIKI IM. WŁADYSŁAWA SZAFERA POLSKIEJ AKADEMII NAUK
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- The 100-ducat coin issued under King Zygmunt III Vasa represents the earliest example of a coin of this denomination in Europe. Mintedat Bydgoszcz in 1621 using dies produced by the distinguished artist-medallist Samuel Ammon, it is widely regarded as one of the most remarkable historical coins.This article argues that one of the coins’ secondary functions was to serve as an offering by successive Polish monarchs during their coronation masses. <br>
- 11 May 1973 was the first day of the visit to Warsaw of the Soviet delegation with Leonid Brezhnev. In the afternoon of the same day, the largest printing house in Poland called the House of the Polish Word, located on Miedziana Street, burned down. The losses were enormous. Was it sabotage, deliberate arson, an accident, or a mechanical failure? This article aims to describe the circumstances and course of this event using the following methods: archival, bibliographic, literary analysis and criticism, and historical-descriptive. Among the sources used were the archival materi-als preserved at the Polish Institute of National Remembrance. <br>
- The 1335 foundation (chartering) of Kazimierz, the town situated beside Cracow, was a difficult venture as a group of settlers had to be brought from another strong urban centre. Owing to the memory of the rebellion led by alderman (vogt) Albert and due to the political situation, Casimir III the Great most probably sought assistance from the town of Sandomierz in an attempt to find an optimum solution. This supposition is confirmed by the fact that the king favoured the town after 1335 and, even more importantly, that the foundation charter and one of the first documents for the new commune were issued at Sandomierz. A close relationship between Sandomierz and Kazimierz is observable for the subsequent years.
- The 1911 Chinese republican revolution (called Xinhai Revolution) was criticised as a bourgeois ‘unfi nished’ revolution, as no more than a dynastic revolution which toppled the Qing government, or even as ‘a sham’. Starting in the 1970s, several authors noticed that the republican revolutionary movement was weak and divided, and they appreciated the substantiality and importance of Qing’s reforms.
- The 1946–1949 Chinese Civil War was long considered a war in which communist peasant guerillas defeated a US-backed army. From the 1980s, it became increasingly clear that Mao Zedong’s forces were a professional military body equipped by the Soviet Union. <br>
- The 1960s in the US were marked by social and political activity of a young generation. It was evident in, among other things, expressive stressing of their own distinctiveness. The controversy over a small plot of land in Berkeley in May 1969 became their symbol. In thehot political atmosphere of California at the end of the 1960s the dispute about the People’s Park led to a failed attempt to resolve it by force with the use of law enforcement services, and the death of one of the protesters gave the conflict much broader character than a local controversy over an unused plot of land.
- A breakthrough in perceiving the policy pursued by Chamberlain’s cabinet towards Germany took place in the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in March and April of 1939 – after a closer cooperation with Great Britain began – but its origins should be looked for in the earlier period. The purpose of the article (based mainly on the archival search in the Warsaw’s Archives of Modern Records) is to outline the way of perceiving the British policy towards Germany – from the end of the Sudeten Crisis to the breaking of the Munich Pact – by the Polish diplomatic service of that time.
- A breakthrough in the political activity of Władysław Konopczyński took place in 1922 and involved winning the seat of a parliamentary deputy from the Popular–National Union ticket. Subsequently, Konopczyński remained in the Sejm of the Republic of Poland during a whole term of office (1922–1927), frequently speaking about education and schools of higher learning, and presenting motions concerning copyright, a statue on the freedom of assembly, and, predominantly, the introduction of the numerus clausus at universities and polytechnics. In 1925–1939 Konopczyński became actively involved in a struggle against the Piłsudskiites and reacted to the May 1926 coup d’état in a series of press articles criticising both the Marshal and his supporters. This uncompromising stance earned him many enemies within the ruling circles. The political career pursued by Konopczyński was not long–lasting; in 1930 he failed in the election to the Senate, and five years later resigned from all political endeavours due to his disapproval of the dictatorial tendency within the National Party. On the eve of the Second World War Konopczyński was an adherent of the Front Morges political alliance.
- A breakthrough moment in the history of Polish post-war architecture was the Council of Party’s Architects held in June of 1949, which was the first step to the introduction of socialist realism. The doctrine “proved out” to be an effective means of control over culture in the totalitarian state, but not an artistic one. It was an utopian idea and, although politically strong, it was philosophically and aesthetically weak. Architecture as the discipline of arts that enjoyed special interest of the authorities was under much pressure and mechanisms of control. It was argued that “the domains of architecture and urban planning needed to be deliberately managed by the party”. Thus, the command over creativity was exercised, architects were devoid of their pre-war status of artists, and their contacts with the West were limited. Yet, with the lapse of time, the influence of the party’s architects in the community grew weaker and weaker. A number of favourable opportunities to inspire ferment in the artistic communities presented when internal political and economic crises began, which in consequence led to the weakening of the Polish United Workers’ Party (Polish acronym: PZPR), and the struggle for power in the USSR after Stalin’s death. In fear of the loss of control, once more the party tightened its ideological grip on the artistic communities. The political leadership decided to force the pace of implementation of the doctrine, and increased their pressure on both the Association of Polish Architects and individual artists. Finally, a section of architecture was established at the Department of Culture and Education of the Central Committee of the PZPR. However, it was too late for such measures, as was ruthlessly exposed by the National Council of Architects in 1956, a part of the “Polish October” and a turning point in the post-war history of Polish architecture.
- A collection of studies devoted to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the period from the election of Sigismund III Vasa (1587) to the death of Ladislaus IV Vasa (1632). The Republic of the Two Nations in the Light of the Union Act and its Riders discusses the provisions of the act of the Union of Lublin (1569). The components of the federation retained significant autonomy. They had a single king, joint Sejm, or Diet, and one noble nation. Poland, however, had greater representation in the bicameral Sejm, which influenced the method of making resolutions. The right of the nobles granted them in the act of the Union to acquire land properties and offices in both states was abolished by the modified legal code of the Grand Duchy and approved by King Sigismund III Vasa in 1587, so-called Third Lithuanian Statute. Its provision are described in the essay entitled The Law. The name of the Commonwealth is analysed in a separate article. The official one was formed with the name of both states, i.e. of the Polish Crown and Grand Duchy of Lithuania. At the same time in Lithuania there was registered a popular name, being the Lithuanian Commonwealtho or the Commonvealth of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the 17th century the name of Poland became equal to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (or Republic of the Two Nations), and “Polish” to denote the whole nobility or even only the Lithuanian one. An essay Frontiers and Territory presents the administrative division of the Commonwealth and the division of the Churches. The Polish-Lithuanian frontier was maintained, the freedom of crossing it was retained (but except for the army), and the duties were collected. The article Sejmiki describes the nobles assemblies that elected the representatives to the Sejm and candidates for local offices, and could impose local taxes and enlist soldiers. The dietines could transfer the powers to the occasional assembles of the nobility, for instance on the court session, or even those could decide of their own volition on matters reserved for dietines. Next essay is mainly devoted to the Principal Assemblies of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania summoned by king who also endorsed their resolutions. Their peculiarity was that they were against the Act of the Union and were not referred to in the Statute. The interrogation mark in the title Senators – the Senate of the Grand Duchy? results from the fact that it analyses the problem whether the autonomy of the Lithuanian State implied also the existence of the Senate separated from the Polish Crown. Two next articles are devoted to the questions of courts – common for the whole Commonwealth and only for the Grand Duchy (The Courts) and tax system (The Taxes). The first one pays special attention to the problems of effectiveness of the law of the Grand Duchy, of its violations and the absence of reaction when it was violated by king. The two essays refer to the nation of the Grand Duchy, its structure (Estate or the Noble Nation), and Lithuanian awareness and question of language (Consciousness – Language – Book). It shows haw the term “homeland” was used in Lithuania to denote the Grand Duchy of Lithuania within its borders at the time, and to denote the Commonwealth as a whole. Mistrust of the Crown, and the autonomy in the state and national spheres against the Crown and its nation were not accompanied by any action against the very existence of the Commonwealth. An article of Two Tumults: 1611–1639 presents, on the basis of the dietiny’s reaction to the riot in Vilnius against the Evangelical temple, the change in the nobility attitude, from the condemnation of perpetrators to defence of the Roman Catholic Church. Author describes also the famous battle of Kircholm (now Salaspilis; 1605) against the Swedes and the events in Lithuania after the death of King Sigismund III Vasa (1632). The collection is concluded by a study The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Republic of the Two Nations. <br>
- A critical issue that arose during the international crisis of 1934–38 was a potential passage of Red Army troops through Polish territory in case the USSR entered war as an ally of France (or France and Great Britain) against Germany. It became especially relevant in the summer of 1938 with the emergence of the Sudeten Crisis. The present article is the first historiographic study to discuss this issue as a separate subject. <br>
- A detailed analysis of the correspondence of Gen. Mikhail N. Krechetnikov, who was the commander of the Russian army in the war of 1792 with the task to take over the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and support the Targowica confederates in establishing local confederations, gives new, important information about these events. First of all, it shows a signifi cant discrepancy between the information contained in the published reports of Gen. Krechetnikov to Empress Catherine II and Platon A. Zubov as well as in the unpublished and little-known part of his correspondence to Nikolai I. Saltykov.
- A genealogy of the Sanguszko Family produced by Symeon Samuel Sanguszko (died 1638) has been preserved in three versions: the original and its two 18th-century copies. The work contains the fi liation of known and established manuscript texts, time of their creation, their purpose, and their archival and library history. Next, the sources of information are established: historical writings and the collective memory of the family, and based on this the historian’s craft of the author and the memory culture of his family are discussed. And fi nally, the importance of the genealogy for the Sanguszko Family’s identity and old-Polish genealogical studies is presented. The annex contains an edition of the genealogy text, reconstructed on the basis of old-Polish manuscripts and a nineteenth-century transcription of the original manuscript.
- A group of “priests patriots”, initiated in 1949 by the authorities of communist Poland, was supposed to support the process of stabilisation of the country, both through propaganda and action. The priests-patriots did not employ their own ideology, but implemented within the community of clergy basic slogans and practices of Stalinist social engineering. They mobilised the faithful to execute the Six-Year Plan, propagated the fight for peace, collectivisation of agriculture, and praised the radical socio-economic changes that were occurring at that time. They used the rhetoric of enlightenment and progress, verbally accepted class struggle condemned by the Catholic social teachings. They did not directly comment on the subject of dogmas of the Catholic faith, but in fact, they subverted the precepts of the Church (first, they refused obedience to bishops, whom they considered to be the representatives of reaction). The formation was strictly supervised by the security apparatus and was generously financed (especially in 1950–1953, when the state was fighting an intense political war with the Church hierarchy and Primate Stefan Wyszyński).The article focuses its attention on the “priests patriots” from Greater Poland and Kuyavia provinces, since in comparison to the rest of the Polish clergy, they were most active and numerous (circa ten percent of all the religious in the region). The author substantiates that they were isolated from the Polish society and regarded critically by the rest of the clergy, almost ostracised as traitors. In 1955, the material and ideological support of the state for the group ceased, which led to its dissolution.
- A history of drunkenness in the period of the Polish People’s Republic (Polish acronym – PRL) is not a history of alcohol drinking and neither a history of alcoholism. It is a history of people who drank often and excessively. Drunkenness – frequent and excessive drinking of alcohol – is one of the most important social phenomena of the PRL. <br>
- A major part of this article is based on recently rendered available sources from the SBU State Archives in Kyiv and reconstructs the last months in the life of Father Jerzy Moskwa (1910– 1941) — a Jesuit missionary and courier of Pius XIII and Metropolitan Andrzej Szeptycki (Andrey Sheptytsky). Arrested in January 1941 during his trip from the Vatican to Lviv, Father Moskwa was interrogated by the NKGB and invigilated by two co–inmates, whose detailed reports make it possible to expand knowledge about the methods and techniques applied by the Soviet services, the political and missionary plans of the Vatican involving the Soviet Union, and the infiltration of the Church in Eastern Galicia. Moreover, they comprise a study of a confrontation of the stand of a zealous Christian, represented by Father Moskwa, and Soviet mentality represented by Yevhen Hromovenko, former chief of the Intelligence of Soviet Ukraine, whom the Jesuit was converting in the cell to Christianity.
- A military cooperation of Germany with the Soviet Union prior to 1933 still at-tracts lively interest of Polish historians, who – unfortunately – base their research almost solely on Polish and English sources and literature. This results in repetition and preservation of erroneous and false information. The purpose of the present study is to rectify various per¬sisting errors of the Polish literature, on the basis of materials collected in German archives, complemented by the information from German- and Russian-language publications and three publications of documents from Russian archives.
- A new system of Polish-Lithuanian relations was shaped manly by the passivity of Poles inhabiting the eastern Lithuania in the plebiscite organised by the Lithuanian government on 9 February 1991, and a decision of the authorities of Vilnius and Šalčininkai (Polish: Sołeczniki) regions to hold a referendum, initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev, on the future of the Soviet Union to turn it into a new, loose confederation of states, which was not recognized by the Lithuanian authorities. Such an attitude of Lithuanian Poles was determined by several factors. Firstly, the Soviet social and economic structure; secondly, for a large part of people the old governments of the Vilnius and Šalčininkai districts and the memory of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic guaranteed stability and predictability. The soviet structures were more trusted than a newly introduced, not strong yet Lithuanian social and political order. The sense of threat was intensified by an unquestionable domination of Lithuanians on all levels of the new hierarchy. Social and political reforms were perceived by the Polish minority in Lithuania through the prism of a rule of the majority. For the rest of the Lithuanian society (except of the Russian minority) such an attitude was completely incomprehensible. In such complex geopolitical circumstances Poles from the regions of Vilnius and Šalčininkai decided to convene a congress of deputies of the Vilnius and Šalčininkai regions to Mostiškės. According to a project adopted at the Congress, the Vilnius district was to become “an autonomous administrative-territorial unit within the Lithuanian Republic”, with a broad political autonomy. In the opinion of Lithuanians, however, the region of Vilnius should not be “an autonomous administrative-territorial unit of the Lithuanian State”, but form a part of Lithuanian federation. This meant that the Poles wanted to enlarge the status of the Vilnius region and to strengthen its autonomy within Lithuania. The implementation of such a project would mean a decentralisation of the state. In a complex geopolitical situation of that time all attempts at the decentralisation of the country was regarded by the Lithuanian political elite as the threat of the security of the young Lithuanian state, its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
- A presentation of an edition of an inspection of customs houses and tollgates in the voivodeship of Kalisz (1571). The published inspection was the outcome of a constitution passed by the Sejm of Lublin in 1569, which resolved, i.a. to supplement the results of an inspection conducted in the mid-1560s. Akt rewizorów ziemskich województwa kaliskiego has been a source familiar to historians from the time of Karol Buczek, who wrote about it in an introduction to an edition of a road inspection issued by Bożena Wyrozumska. A present the source is kept in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw together with other lustration material. This clean copy contains numerous information about the state of roads, environmental conditions, and neighbourly relations between members of the gentry in the discussed territory. The published inspectors’ document includes numerous copies of earlier privileges consenting to the collection of customs duties or tolls in the mentioned localities.
- A preserved fragment of the Annals from the Benedictine abbey in Lubin (southern Greater Poland), and written probably at the turn of the twelfth century, contains five added notes in handwriting from the middle of the thirteenth century. All the notes pertain to the bishops of Poznań arranged into a complete sequence from 1146–1172. Comparisons of information found in the Annals with other sources show that the notes about the bishops and the dates included therein are basically credible (with one exception when the author of the added information mistook the succession of the bishops). In all likelihood, they originate from a non-extant catalogue of the bishops apparently kept at Poznań cathedral, similarly as in the case of a majority of other Polish dioceses. This was a so-called simple catalogue, recording only the names of the consecutive ordinaries as well as the dates of their ordinations and death. The Lubin Annals notes enable us to recreate a fragment from the midtwelfth century but the catalogue as such was probably written from the time of the restoration of the Poznań diocese (ca. 1075) and existed in the thirteenth century (when data were copied from it in Lubin); its loss can be associated with a destruction of Poznań cathedral, confirmed in 1313–1314.
- A reflection on the functioning of care for children and adolescents in Poland after World War II is far from full in Polish historiography.Although the postulate to centralise social care, coordinate it and increase the state’s participation in it, was put forward as early as 1944, in 1945–1947 political circumstances made it impossible for social care to be subject of endeavours of the communists.In these post-war years, the actual care for children and young people was totally dominated by social organisations. Children and adolescents were placed mainly in 380 children’s homes run by nuns, which made 43% of the total number of children’s homes residents in Poland. The “successes” of the Polish authorities in their first year of rule were limited to the takeover of a few charity organisations that were allowed to exist under the German occupation of Poland: the Central Welfare Council (Polish: Rada Główna Opiekuńcza) and Polish Red Cross (Polski Czerwony Krzyż).The later “competition” of the Polish Socialist Party (Polish acronym: PPS) and Polish People’s Party (PSL), together with what we usually call “civic society” influenced the “minimalism” of political ideas of the Polish Workers’ Party (Polska Partia Robotnicza) about this sphere of social reality, reflected mainly in pushing for the principle to build nurseries and kindergartens and in distribution of founds through the two PPR’s “own” ministries: the Ministry of Industry and Ministry of Supply. The Ministry of Industry, led by a PPR’s strong man, Hilary Minc, together with the Ministry of Supply and Trade, headed by an another PPR member, Jerzy Sztachelski, were the most important tools in the communist realisation of social care modelled on the Soviet examples.When finally the state control became possible (1949–1950), a majority of social organisations (including the charity ones) was suppressed or integrated. Such was the fate of children and adolescents organisations: the Polish YMCA , Central Committee of Social Care (Centralny Komitet Opieki Społecznej), Society of Orphans’ Nests and Kościuszko’s Villages (Towarzystwo Gniazd Sierocych i Wiosek Kościuszkowskich), “Caritas” and tens of smaller ones.
- A review of Peter Collmer’s book on the functioning of the Saxon administration of the royal estates in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between 1700 and 1763. It discusses some of the author’s theses and provides a critique of the modernisation model as applied to the early modern European state, drawing on the example of the noble Commonwealth in theeighteenth century. <br>
- A rise of interest in issues of heredity and advances in medicine in the nineteenth century resulted in the widespread medicalization of social phenomena. Theories formulated in the field of natural sciences increasingly served as a tool to explain unacceptable patterns of social behaviour, including prostitution which began to be seen as a biologically determined condition. As a main channel for the spread of STDs – some of them potentially transmissible across generations (congenital syphilis) – prostitution became one of the major concerns of medical professionals. Thus, what was previously a sin and an insult to middle-class moral standards, now came to be seen as a health menace to the entire population. In times of increased competition between nation-states, the latter argument played an even more important role, and the ruling elites sought to tighten control over what they perceived as ‘dangerous bodies’. As campaigners against the ‘great social evil’ also analysed prostitutes’ social milieu, discourses on the causes of prostitution were highly confusing. One source of confusion was Morel’s theory of degeneration, in which the author skilfully combined environmental influence with the concept of hereditary pathology. Additionally, some authors still adhered to a much older explanation for social ills. The construction of an evil ‘Other’ – typically unscrupulous Jew – responsible for planting various physical and/or moral ‘plagues’ in a victimized population, thus threatening its biological existence. The fear of deterioration, inevitably leading to extinction, unified proponents of old-style and modernist anti-vice campaigners. This article offers an overview of expert narratives on the causes of prostitution in the early decades of twentieth century Poland.
- A saying that is often quoted in Poland in relation to Jewish communists or communists of Jewish origin goes that “a Jewish communist is not Jewish anymore”. This is true concerning those Jews who considered themselves Polish communists and who worked mostly in a non-Jewish environment. However, some Jews who joined the communist party in the interwar period never denied their Jewishness. On the contrary, they lived and worked on the so-called “Jewish street”. They were not a large group, but their influence on the Polish Jewish community was inversely proportional to their number. A good example of such a Jewish communist is a Yiddish writer and activist David Sfard. Born at the beginning of the 20th century in a rabbi’s family in Volhynia (then in the Russian Empire), he received at first a traditional religious education, but after World War I he entered a secular Polish-Jewish gymnasium in Lutsk. The Polish-Soviet war of 1920 was his first meeting with the communist ideology brought to Volhynia by the Red Army. Later he studied philosophy in Warsaw and eventually received his PhD in philosophy from the university in Nancy, France. Having returned to Warsaw, he joined in 1933 the illegal Communist Party of Poland and became active in Yiddish literary circles, including the literary journal “Literarishe Tribune” (1932–1933), the crypto-communist daily “Fraynd” (1934–1935) and the famous Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists at Tlomatske 13. In 1939, at the outbreak of World War II, he escaped to the Soviet-occupied Białystok where again he worked in the Yiddish newspaper “Bialistoker Shtern”. After the Nazis attacked the USSR in 1941, he was evacuated with other Jewish writers to Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan). When he got to Moscow in 1944, he co-founded the Organizing Committee of Polish Jews at the Polish Patriots’ Union (ZPP), an organization that kept in close touch with the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. As its vice-chairman and later chairman, he coordinated the repatriation of Polish Jews to Poland and came back himself in 1946, finally settling down in Warsaw. The first-hand experience of the Soviet reality did not put off neither him, nor his fellows from the Jewish faction of the Polish Workers’ Party (PPR). On the contrary, they believed that it would allow them to build the right form of communism in liberated Poland. Their political vision of a particular Polish way to communism was labeled as nusekh Poyln, or “the Polish variant”, and its key element was Yiddish culture. [...] While David Sfard is the main hero of this book, much emphasis has also been given to his Jewish communist fellows, such as David Rikhter, Shimen Zachariasz, Hersh Smolar, Bernard Mark and Binem Heller. The whole community of Jewish communists was shown against the background of history of Jews in Eastern Europe. This book is a panorama of an individual Jewish fate in the 20 th century, a fate that became symbolic for a whole generation – the last citizens of Yiddishland.
- A selection of documents from Russian and American archives, with examples of Russian propaganda in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century, during the Crimean War and the Civil War. It demonstrates characteristic mechanisms and narratives used to influence the democratic public opinion. The example used in the article is that of Count Adam Gurowski, an intellectual and political thinker who, in the name of his own universal visions, devoted himself to serving the Russian Empire and its secret operations. In this way, he became one of the most important Russian agents of influence in America in that period. <br>
- A starost (head of a poviat or a district) was a paramount figure in the state administration of the Second Polish Republic. Aided by his office, he represented the central government within a poviat (the second-level unit of territorial administration, also translated as a district). At the same time, he played a chief role in local government. He led the Poviat Communal Association, directing the work of its legislative body (Poviat Assembly) and its executive arm (Poviat Department). He reported to the voivode (a governor of a voivodship or a province, the first-level unit of territorial administration) and – through him – to the Minister of Internal Affairs. In the years 1920-1939, there were a total of 96 poviat and town starosts in the state service in the Pomeranian Voivodeship (enlarged in April 1938 to include some poviats from the Poznań and Warsaw Voivodeships). Since Poland regained independence in 1918, starosts were involved in the reconstruction of the reborn state, the borders of which were partly established by the Treaty of Versailles and partly by force of arms. They were expected to efficiently administer and ensure the social order in poviats in the difficult interwar period, marked by economic crises and – after the May 1926 Coup – the rise of authoritarian rule. Starosts were not only administrators, from whom the superior authorities expected efficiency in management, but also political officials. On one hand, the Act of 17 February 1922 on the State Civil Service paved the way for a career in public administration that could culminate in the post of starost, a professional and politically neutral official. On the other hand, starosts’ duties in terms of ensuring public safety and order, as well as managing local government meant that they were the executors of the instructions and expectations of the voivode and his office. The political nature of the post of starost was clearly revealed after the May 1926 Coup. It brought to power a political camp, which – despite having democratic and patriotic traditions, and deserving credit for its involvement in the armed struggle for Poland’s independence – eventually moved towards authoritarianism. In the 1930s, this was manifested in the state administration’s tight control over the political and social life of the province. Starosts were the regime’s leading figures locally. This work is a study on the corps of officials who constituted the backbone of the state apparatus in interwar Poland. As such, it contributes to the history of administering Pomeranian poviats and navigating the complexities of politics and social life. It refers to the formation of the Polish state administration in Pomerania in 1919-1920 and to the changes it experienced after the May Coup. After 1926, Pomeranians holding the posts of starosts were almost completely replaced by officials coming from other parts of the country, a large percentage of whom were active officers of the Polish Army, transferred to the civil service after leaving the military. They had to cope with strong political polarization of the 1930s, face the consequences of the deep economic crisis and address the challenge posed by the German minority in Pomerania, numerous and well-organized. The outbreak of World War II in September 1939 brutally put an end to the Second Polish Republic and its territorial administration. During wartime, a significant number of starosts continued to serve the Polish state either at home – in the civilian and military structures of the Polish Underground State, or abroad – in the Polish Armed Forces. Under the German and Soviet occupation, they suffered, sometimes sacrificing their lives. After 1945, some lived in communist Poland, where many were repressed, while others remained in exile, most often in the United Kingdom, France, and the United States, where they participated in the political and social life of Polish emigration. <br>
- A statue on the Office for State Protection (Urząd Ochrony Państwa — UOP) was passed on 6 April 1990 upon a tide of transformations commenced by the Round Table debates held a year earlier. The implementation of this legal act is regarded as the date of the inauguration of shaping the special services of an independent Republic of Poland. The article attempts to describe the transformation of the communist state security organs — the Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs — into a state protection service (such as the UOP). The characteristic feature of this process was its considerable dynamics, since in the course of only several months it achieved a formal conversion of the political police, which mainly combated the democratic opposition, into a social service whose domain of activity was totally different from that of its predecessor. The article called for an analysis of a process aiming at the establishment of new special services via a number of key formal–legal documents — the outcome of a sequence of political and organisational events. The sources on which the article is based are composed, first and foremost, of documents in the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance, and in particular material describing the transformation of the SB into the UOP and the verification of the functionaries, conducted in the spring of 1990. Supplementary material originates from the archive of the Chancellery of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers and legal acts pertaining to the described problem, i.a. laws, ordinances, and orders.
- A weekly ‘Motor’, appearing from 1952 with a circulation of over 100 thousand copies was the most important magazine devoted to the subject of motorisation in Poland. Initially, it was published under the subtitle of ‘Weekly of the Road Transportation Workers’, and from 1953 on: ‘Illustrated Weekly’. The first issues were full of typical articles on drivers’ competitions, development of the industry and road transportation, and Cold War propaganda. In practice, individual motorisation was non-existent. A change was brought about by the turn of 1955 and 1956. The announcement of the mass production of totally Polish “Syrena” led to gradual evolution of the weekly’s character. It made its pages available to a larger number of the two and four wheels individual owners. Thus, an analysis included the issues for the period between 1955 and 1966. Those twelve years show the changes in individual motorisation in post-war Poland – from the announcement about the production of “Syrena” to the information about the contract with the Italian Motorisation Giant FIAT. The ‘Motor’ pages became the forum to discuss the latest car and motorcycle makes and models, shortages in the infrastructure and insufficient equipment, to exchange information about car repairing and servicing. There were also other issues brought up, such as the problem of car rationing, both of Polish and foreign makes, or an increased number of traffic accidents. All these elements show the problems that the vehicles owners in Poland of 1955–1966 had to face.
- A Workers’ Defence Committee (Polish: Komitet Obrony Robotników) founded in 1976 was the first open oppositional organisation in communist Poland. Apart from legal and financial assistance to the workers persecuted by the state authorities, the KOR organised a publication of periodicals outside the reach of the state censorship, such as the ‘Information Bulletin’ (‘Biuletyn Informacyjny’). Initially, the periodicals copies were typewritten, but at the turn of 1976 and 1977 they began to be multicopied on duplicating machines, which allowed to greatly increase their circulation. The KOR Communiqués described the scale of reprisals: a number of detained, fired and convicted workers, they reported beatings, trials and sentences. They presented detailed scopes and types of the assistance offered and informed of the police actions towards the opponents: arrests, interrogations, beatings and other persecutions. According to the main principle, only proven information was published. The information about the KOR activities was passed on to Western journals and broadcasting stations from where it was transmitted back to Poland, through the broadcasts of the BBC Radio and the Radio Free Europe.To the mid-March of 1977 the Committee had financially assisted 557 families. Cases of legal and medical help are impossible to be counted. The KOR’s representatives were sent to workers’ trials, they reached the families of imprisoned workers. The information had been gathered about the fate of almost thousand persons throughout the whole country. The operation was conducted by volunteers only, and the funds were raised through individual donations handed from person to person. The authorities of communist Poland launched a campaign to plague the opposition members with anonymous letters containing insults and threats, telephone calls and intrusions of alleged workers, but all those failed to interrupt the KOR activity.
- The accession of King Stanislaw August to the Targowica Confederation was one of the factors that signifi cantly infl uenced the fate of the Commonwealth. The king justified this step with a hopeless situation and the result of voting by the Guard of Laws. He also hoped that by joining the confederation, he would be able to infl uence its further shape. In the light of the new documents found in Russian archives, previously unknown to researchers, one can conclude that the decision was made too quickly and, moreover, the king was determined to make it without looking at the stance of the members of the Guard. As it turned out, he achieved the opposite eff ect than he expected – not only did he facilitate Russia’s pacifi cation of the country, but also he deprived himself of any infl uence on further events.
- According to the regulations on the intelligence service in the Polish Army that came into life in 1919, it was to be based on ideological principles, and the service of individuals acting for financial purposes was to be used only exceptionally, i.e. in the case of particularly precious intelligence materials. In reality, undercover agents and paid informers were used to obtain information. As a result, there were also cases of embezzlement or money wangling from the intelligence funds. <br>
- Adamczyk A., Bogusław Miedziński (1891–1972). Biografia polityczna, Toruń 2000.
- Adopting as a starting point Russia’s current war against Ukraine, the paper discusses the historical precedent of today’s events, i.e. the war between Soviet Russia and the Ukrainian People’s Republic, which was proclaimed after the Bolsheviks had seized power in Russia and the empire had disintegrated into separate state entities. The author probes into the policies implemented by the Bolshevik government along with the military occupation of Ukraine and analyses the successive stages of the Russian intervention. The paper is intended to show how the Bolsheviks strived to depict the war as an internal Ukrainian class-based confl ict rather than a case of direct Russian military aggression. In this pursuit, the Bolsheviks created a pseudo-Ukrainian Soviet government as a banner for the operations of Russian troops. The paper discusses how the conflict developed, presents a brief description of the “war communism” policy led by the Bolsheviks in Ukraine in 1919–20 to justify the exploitation of its natural resources, especially food supplies, and presents an overview of the occupation of Ukraine and the establishment of the Bolshevik regime on its territory. <br>
- After 1943, the organisation of education for Polish children in the USSR included the incorporation of communist ideology and Stalinist propaganda into the curriculum. The Polish Patriots’ Union in the USSR, which promoted the slogans of “Polish-Soviet friendship” and the post-war alliance between Poland and its eastern neighbour, was responsible for re-establishing and expanding the network of educational institutions. The practice of operating schools, kindergartens, orphanages and boarding schools under the banner of the PPU showed varying degrees of compulsory propaganda. Examining this issue on the example of South Kazakhstan (i.e., the South Kazakhstan Oblast) reveals the scale of indoctrination. It allows for an assessment of whether, in practice, more effort was made to impart knowledge or whether education served merely as a pretext for political and educational work. <br>
- After 1945, the new Polish authorities arrested thousands of people – fighters for Poland’s freedom and independence – considering them enemies of their socialist country. They were sentenced to long-term imprisonment or the death penalty. Prisoners were allowed to write letters to their families. Years later, some of these letters were published. As a special, personal statement, reflecting both the author’s mental state and the era, a letter is a very valuable research material, especially in terms of language and psychology. This article analyses letters from the correspondence of eleven prisoners who spent many years in Stalinist prisons. The research aimed to reconstruct the linguistic picture of the prisoners’ everyday life (i.a., their work) and their mental state (trauma, dreams, search for meaning in dramatic experiences). <br>
- After 22 June 1941, the German occupier launched an anti-communist propaganda campaign on the Polish lands. The tool for its implementation became, among others, brochures written in Polish, portraying the Soviet Union as a country threatening European civilisation and wishing to destroy Polishness. For this reason, much space was devoted to the Soviet-occupied eastern Polish areas, showing the brutality of everyday life under Soviet rule.
- After analysing archival documents from the US Department of State, the au-thor reconstructs the fate of the Jewish population in the Polish territories occupied by Nazi Germany. The sources quoted, confronted with the literature on the subject, made it possible to reconstruct the German policy towards Jews, including the course of the Holocaust in its most important and crucial moments. The analysis of the documents reveals the extent of the American government’s knowledge of the persecution of the Jewish population in Poland under German occupation. <br>
- After gaining independence in 1991, Turkmenistan’s domestic policy focused on eliminating foreign political and cultural infl uences. This approach effectively limited the presence of the Russian language and culture within the country. In terms of foreign policy, Turkmenistan’s economic ties necessitated cooperation with Russia. Nonetheless, the government withdrew from all organisations that integrated post-Soviet states. By the end of the 2000s, China emerged as Turkmenistan’s primary economic partner. However, by the end of the second decade, the authorities in Ashgabat, seeking to balance Chinese influence, decided to resume cooperation with Russia. Additionally, the involvement of the United States, the European Union, and India in the competition for access to energy resources in Central Asia, along with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, significantly shaped the dynamics of Russian-Turkmen relations. <br>
- After regaining their freedom after 123 years of subjection, Polish people were “inebriated with freedom”, as Józef Piłsudski said. It was in the shadow of this euphoria that important social and economic processes occurred, together with grave internal and external threats that conditioned the restoration of the Polish state under the Provisional Chief of State (11 November 1918 – 26 January 1919), and the Chief of State (26 January 1919 – December 1922).
- After the agreement concluded with the “Solidarity” in summer of 1980, it was obvious that the crisis would also have an impact on the relations between members of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PUWP). The Political Bureau of the Central Committee as well as the rest of the apparatus divided into two wings. Liberals wanted further cooperation with the Solidarity and democratisation of the Party’s structures. Conservatives (also called dogmatics) were eager to fight against the opposition and therefore maintain discipline in their own ranks in order to be more efficient in that struggle. Meanwhile, ordinary members massed in the Basic Party Organizations along with their leaders from the lower level of the apparatus started to articulate their disappointment and criticism of the PUWP policy and leadership. The phenomenon was most apparent at the universities and the most numerous industrial party cells. Basic organizations started to cooperate with each other, making the so-called “horizontal structures” (in opposition to vertical structures regulated in the Party’s statute). One of that structures was the Party Coordination Commission of the Warsaw Scientific Community. It was established in November 1980 and consisted of representatives of the universities and the Polish Academy of Sciences as well as representatives of workers invited to the Commission. The main issue discussed during the Commission meetings was general democratization, especially of the PUWP. The head of capital’s communist apparatus Stanisław Kociołek supported that movement but probably it was a tactical decision made to please own members in order to have a free hand to deal with the “Solidarity” regarded as the main threat to hegemony of the Party. This uncomfortable partnership lasted almost until the introduction of martial law in December 1981 which delegalized any informal (both dogmatic and horizontal) structures.
- After the death of Augustus II, Russiaʼs supporters mostly backed the French candidate for the throne, Stanisław Leszczyński. Russia actively tried to organise a new pro-Russian party. This article examines Russiaʼs policy after establishing a pro-Russian party in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1734-1735. Petersburg regarded the Potocki party as Russiaʼs main enemies in the Commonwealth. After the surrender of Gdańsk, Russia proceeded to build a pro-Russian party from Leszczyńskiʼs former supporters and the Potocki opponents – the Czartoryski party. The policy of St Petersburg was to be implemented by the Russian envoy to Warsaw, Herman Keyserling. “Familia” (the Czartoryski party) was seen as a popular party, highly influential in the Commonwealth, sympathetic to St Petersburg, which would secure Russiaʼs interests for many years. However, it failed to win support for the Czartoryskis from the royal court, which feared the domination of Russian partisans in the Commonwealth. <br>
- After the election of an IOC member from Poland, Prof. Jerzy Loth, the communist authorities made unsuccessful attempts to replace him with “their” people. Włodzimierz Reczek adopted a completely different approach when, in 1952, he headed the Main Committee of Physical Culture and the Polish Olympic Committee. Although the issue of changing the IOC member from Poland was important, as it was part of the Kremlin’s plan of action towards the IOC, Reczek seemingly gave up trying to make this change. Reczek’s tactics brought the results desired by the communists. In 1961, prof. Loth was replaced by Reczek in the IOC. <br>
- After the establishment of Russian rule over the territories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, efforts were initially made to integrate these areas into the empire while maintaining the existing legal system and preserving noble self-government.A key function of the noble assemblies (sejmiks), which were the institutional bedrock of this system, was the election of officials. Every three years, hundreds of representatives of the privileged estate, including members of the judiciary, were elected by the sejmiks. This article analyses the social background, education, wealth, and careers of officials in the Vilnius Gubernia from 1801 to 1831, revealing the increasing stratification within this group. <br>
- After the Great Famine in Ukraine that killed at least 3.5 million people, the Bolsheviks faced a problem of a lack of resources and people to work on the land. Thus, a decision was made to bring to the most depopulated areas peasants from Russia and Belarus, as well as some farmers from other regions of Ukraine, less affected by the famine. The action did not succeed, as a majority of peasants who were brought to Ukrainian lands devastated by the Holodomor went back to their homes.
- After the Lithuanians seized the Klaipeda District in 1923, the legal status of the Catholic Church in this area gained a political character. The negotiations between the Holy See, Germany and Lithuania concerned the establishment of a delegacy subordinate to the Warmian bishop or a separate diocese with the German bishop at its head, or even the erection of an apostolic vicariate in this region. Ultimately, Pope Pius XI by his bull Lituanorum gente of 4 April 1926 created a separate Klaipeda’s prelature with the bishop of Telsche.
- After the Napoleonic wars were over, the 1815 Congress of Vienna decided to create the Kingdom of Poland as a sovereign state of the Russian partition of Poland. One of the elements of this dependence were the Russian troops stationing in the so-called Congress Poland. The Kingdom of Poland was gradually incorporated into the military structures of the Russian Empire in the analysed period. The analysed time span, between 1815 and 1856, could be divided into two periods, with the dividing line of the November Uprising (1830–1831). In the first period the Kingdom of Poland enjoyed autonomy, with its own constitution and army, while in the second one its autonomy was suppressed, the constitution was replaced by the so-called Organic Statute, and the Polish army was substituted by the Russian army. As regards military matters, the two periods differed in many ways. In 1815–1830, there was a small number of Russian troops stationing in the Kingdom, ca 8500 soldiers. In 1831–1856, there were ca 90 000–100 000 Russian troops in the Kingdom of Poland. It is possible to distinguish two components of the Russian military presence in the Kingdom of Poland. It was a constant component in the form of local troops, and a variable component in the form of units of the Active Army. Rotation of troops is one of the most important differences between the period prior the November Uprising, when the regiments were kept in one place for many years, and after the Uprising, when the units were often moved to other regions. The personnel policy was conducted in accordance with the Russian regulations, with strong imprints left by its commanders in chief: Grand Duke Konstantin (1815–1830) and Ivan Paskevich (1831–1856). In 1815–1830 there were elite guard units with numerous Poles who had served in the Russian guard. In 1831–1856, it was the Active Army that was troops of the line with a different composition, with less educated officers and poor quality drafted soldiers. Short periods of stationing did not favour closer contacts with local people. Too familiar relations with the locals were unwelcomed by superiors and could be regarded as anti-state activity. In the first half of the 19th century, there was a small number of barracks, located in Warsaw and other larger towns of the Kingdom. In 1815–1830, the guard formations were stationed mainly in Warsaw and its neighbourhood. In the second period (1831–1856), a large majority of troops were also quartered in buildings leased by the war department or in civic lodgings. In the winter period, the training took place in the areas of permanent deployment, while in the summer period there were manoeuvres organised with the participation of different types of armed forces. The most important were the manoeuvres near Warsaw, in which participated almost all units of the infantry corps. They were observed by the commander in chief or a member of the ruling house. A practical trial of training quality of the troops was their participation in the numerous conflicts of the analysed period (from the November Uprising of 1830–1831 to the Crimean War of 1853–1856). The military formations were also used for police purposes, especially in a situation of long period of martial law (1833–1856). The Russian formations served as a cadre reservoir for many departments of the Kingdom of Poland, starting from the administration, through the police to the education. An inflow of cadres of military origins was especially evident in the mid-1830s, after a reform of army organisation which made redundant many officers who were appointed state officials. It is evident that the permanent presence of the Russian army wielded a considerable influence on the life of the Kingdom of Poland and its people throughout the whole analysed half-century, much deeper that the army’s primary tasks: the defence of the state borders and maintaining order in the occupied territories. <br>
- After the parliamentary elections in June 1989 and the beginning of the political and systemic transformations, Poland made efforts to join the Euro-Atlantic partnership, culminating in the accession to NATO and the European Union. However, Poland had to overcome many barriers, including overcoming Russia’s opposition and gaining the support of the United States and Germany, which, despite politicians’ declarations and promises, in practice was not so enthusiastic and unambiguous. The article shows Russia’s negative stance and Germany’s attitude toward Poland’s efforts to join NATO in 1989–1999.
- After the re-Catholization of the Free Imperial City of Aachen (1611–16), Protestant congregations were forced to operate underground until the Reformed Church – openly supported by the Dutch States General – found a new place of refuge in the neighbouring Dutch village of Vaals. Ca. 1680, Vaals developed into a multiconfessional site of religious freedom where Roman Catholics, Germanand Frenchspeaking Reformed, Lutherans, and Mennonites lived peacefully side by side. With the exception of everyday controversies in the early decades, the preachers of different Protestant congregations worked together. Violence on religious grounds was not part of daily life in Vaals, although it did at times intrude from the outside. Examples of this were the violent attacks on Protestant churchgoers in the middle of the eighteenth century, which were carried out by lower-class Catholics from Aachen. The Catholic clergy, on the other hand, did not engage in hate sermons. Moreover, the presence of Jews did not cause problems in Vaals and the only documented action against Jewish property was not motivated by anti-Judaism. For the Protestants of this distinctly Catholic area, Vaals became an important place of refuge for the public exercise of their faith. The diverse congregations that worshipped in Vaals knew how to cope with each other’s presence in a peaceful manner during everyday life.
- After the World War II ended, Polish destroyed roads were frequented by several thousand cars only. It was the result of both war operations and the state policy adverse to motorisation, conducted by the leadership of the state before 1939. Almost simultaneously with the establishment of the Polish Committee of National Liberation communist began to develop the administration to deal with automotive matters. To this end, there were established successively: the State Office of Cars, Commission of Motorisation at the Central Office of Planning and the Motorisation Subcommittee of the Economic Committee of the Council of Ministers. All these institutions, however, operated for a very short time, while the lack of their strictly regulated competencies resulted in the fact that they had almost no influence on motorisation policy led by the state leadership. Another significant question was an increase in the number of motorised vehicles. The most important source of cars were relief supplies distributed by the UNRRA. Apart from that, a decision was made to buy decommissioned military cars and to import new cars from Western Europe. There was also a plan to initiate the car production: lorries at Starachowice and passenger cars under foreign licenses. European markets were probed to select the best licence. Talks were conducted with Czechoslovak and French companies, but finally a decision was made to use the licence of Italian FIAT. Despite the fact that the contract was signed, Poland withdrew under Soviet pressure and was offered free of charge a licence for the production of Soviet cars GAZ M-20 Pobieda, which became a prototype of FSO-Warszawa.
- After World War II ended, Poland was one of the most backward European countries as regards the development of motorisation. It was the result both of the war destructions and the heritage ofthe Second Polish Republic. The first decade after the WWII was particularly adverse for private car owners – a small number of cars, almost nonexistent possibility to buy a car, restrictions in movement of people – all those practically brought the development of individual motorisation to a halt. Changes were brought about by the political events of 1956. The new authorities, despite their unfavourable opinions of individual motorisation, could not remain blind to the growing aspiration of Polish people, including their desire to have an own car. Another important voice belonged to a wide array of experts who regarded the development of automotive industry as a chance for modernisation, not only of Polish industry but also the Polish society itself. The discussion among experts revealed not only a ‘huge need for motorisation’ but also references to interesting transformations triggered in the societies of Western Europe by the possession of an own car. Despite significant changes in the state policy, the time of Władysław Gomułka was a wasted opportunity, and only the 1970s brought about a breakthrough in the development of mass motorisation in Poland.
- Against a comparative background of medieval myths of the origins of peoples in medieval Europe, the author performs an analysis of the dynastic myth of the Piasts. The analysis leads him to the conclusion that two mysterious strangers who in Piast’s hut performed a miraculous multiplication of beer and pork, and then a ritual cutting of hair of Piast’s son whom they named Siemowit (meaning the ruler or master of the family) and through this ceremony took him as their own son thus establishing a special link between themselves and the whole Piasts’ dynasty – were a Slavonic version of the divine twin brothers, the Dioscuri.
- The aggression of the Soviet Union on Poland on 17 September 1939 faced the Kingdom of Romania with the matter of granting aid to Poland, to which it was obliged by an alliance from 1921 onwards. The heads of the Romanian state feared sharing the fate of the Polish Republic, which fell victim not only to the USSR, but had also been defending itself for more than two weeks against an assault by the Third Reich. Wishing to save their country from a catastrophe, they were looking for a way to evade their alliance duties towards Poland. Meanwhile, in the face of an imminent disaster, Polish leaders made steps to transfer the political leadership of the country to France, in order to continue fighting for victory alongside the Western allies. To move there, they needed to obtain an agreement from Romania to transfer to one of their ports, in order to be able to continue the journey. A threat of a Soviet and German invasion meant that the authorities in Bucharest, using rather far-fetched reasons, decided to intern the Polish government.
- The publication discusses the first, little known period in the activity of the three most important Polish combatant organisations in the United Kingdom after 1945: Samopomoc Wojska – the Army Self Help Society (from 1946 known as Stowarzyszenie Polskich Kombatantów – the Polish Ex-Combatants Association ) whose members were primarily soldiers of the land forces, Samopomoc Lotnicza – the Polish Air Force Association, and Samopomoc Marynarki Wojennej – the Polish Naval Association. Among the three organisations a distinctive part was played by the Polish Air Force Association. Its special status was due to the fact that it had been established already at the end of June 1945, and thus prior to the withdrawal by the British authorities of their recognition for the Government of the Republic of Poland in London (5 July 1945; at the same time the British acknowledged the new government in Warsaw, created under the auspices of the Soviet Union). Anther feature which distinguished the Polish Air Force Association were its particularly close relations with the British hosts – airmen belonging to the Royal Air Force Association – owing to the tradition of joint combat and especially the memory of the part played by Polish airmen in the Battle of Britain (1940). <br>
- This article evaluates the situation of two renowned scientists in Poland, namely the microbiologist and serologist Ludwik Hirszfeld (1884–1954), and the metallurgist Jan Czochralski (1885–1953), during the time of the German occupation from 1939–45. Both scientists strove to continue their scientific work even under the conditions of occupation but faced substantially different treatment by the occupiers: Hirszfeld was forced to live in the Warsaw Ghetto, while Czochralski was allowed to stay in his home and work at the former Technical University of Warsaw. The article takes a comparative approach and will analyse the life situation of both scientists. This means looking at the limits of action for both scientists on one side, and on the other, at the room for manoeuvre, which, under the conditions of a brutal occupation, either emerged for the two of them or they actively created. <br>
- The aim of the article is to analyse the origins of cooperation between British institutions responsible for special operations: the General Staff Research – GS(R), later renamedMilitary Intelligence Research (MIR) with the Polish side in 1939 on the eve of the war andduring the Polish campaign. The basis of research are archival materials from Great Britainand Poland as well as memoirs and the scholarly literature on the subject.
- The aim of the article is to analyse the process of formation of the literary circle in Szczecin and to indicate its main initiators. A juxtaposition of the literature on the subject with documents issued by the government administration and the Professional Association of Polish Writers as well as letters and memories of writers makes it possible to trace the course of “cultural re-Polonization” in Szczecin. It also permits to indicate the reasons why the action was so short-lived and the motives of writers who decided to move to the city.
- The aim of the article is to demonstrate the role of national symbols in the identity processes taking place in a divided society, as is the case with Montenegro. In 2006, this country with a population of about 620 thousand people became an independent state. The Montenegrin symbol politics and the disputes surrounding it are analyzed within a wider sociopolitical and historical context. The case of Montenegro illustrates how contradictory the role of national symbols might be in a polarized society. Disagreements over symbols can therefore act as a sort of litmus test to indicate the existing political and identity divisions. Each symbolic element involved in the continuous process of negotiating identity becomes a matter of fundamental importance.
- The aim of the article is to present the activity and attitudes of the youth in pub-lic life in the Congress Poland during the First World War. The basis of the sources is the set of the printed ephemera, which were released in this time by young publishers, including the youth organisation. Regardless of the politic preferences, the youth organisations expressed the belief of the significant mission of the generation growing up during the war. The war context was often the reason of the military contents’ big presence, like the context of the statehood building justifi ed the national or sometimes even nationalist messages.
- The aim of the article is to present the forgotten work by Joachim Löisentin, titled Christliche Haußzucht..., published in Gdańsk in 1655, that is 31 years after its inception, by David Friedrich Rhete. This collection, a combination of a prayer book, a hymnal, and a religious handbook, was presented as a complementary guide for systematic and methodical catechisation, in the Lutheran spirit, in the comfort of one’s own home.
- The aim of the article is to present the genesis, progress and consequences of the so-called April–June Incidents of the 1989 in Beijing. The People’s Republic of China experienced serious internal crisis that year resulting in massive students demonstrations brutally suppressed by army. The crisis ended up with the political downfall of the China CommunistParty’s General Secretary Zhao Ziyang replaced by Jiang Zemin who continued the so-called “policy of openness” and reforms on Deng Xiaoping’s terms.
