Spis treści
- Year of publication: 2022
- Source: Show
- Pages: 3-6
- DOI Address: -
- PDF: pbs/10/pbs10toc.pdf
Professor Roman Wapinski’s reflections on the role and tasks of historical biography of historical biography
In the scientific work of Professor Roman Wapiński (1931–2008), a prominent place was occupied by historical biography. This stream of his writing includes among others biographies of three important figures of the Polish political scene in the first half of the twentieth century: Władysław Eugeniusz Sikorski, Roman Dmowski, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, numerous biographical notes published in the Polish Biographical Dictionary, monographs devoted to political awareness and generational groups in the Second Polish Republic, politicians of the Polish political scene in the twentieth century. The analysis of the content of the following article boils down to the statement, which takes the form of the main research thesis (Roman Wapiński identifies with it), that the cognitive values of this genre of historical writing require further scientific research, and go hand in hand with the recognition of: “its citizenship, together with the recognition of the usefulness of some of its varieties for studying the behaviour and fates of larger communities […], besides, it is probably not so rare that this is the only way to more widespread historical education”. The article is based on selected literature on the subject. The specificity of the issue in question and the articulation of the research problem naturally influenced the selection and nature of the research methods applied. The text uses elements of discourse analysis, text analysis, historical and diachronic methods. From among the applied research techniques, the most useful turned out to be the analysis of the testimonies of political thought, the essence of which is to draw conclusions on the basis of source materials collected and relating to the undertaken research problem.
historical biography biographical note biografistyka historyczna biogram Roman Wapiński biografia myśl polityczna biography political thought
Władysław Bieńkowski and his ideas in the interwar period
The paper describes the ideological evolution of Władysław Bieńkowski (1906–1991) in the interwar period – in the Polish People’s Republic, he was first a communist activist and then a dissident. The author reconstructs the process of radicalization of Bieńkowski as an intellectual who was not a member of the Communist Party of Poland, but who after the Second World War found himself among higher-ranking communist activists. The thesis of this paper is that the dichotomy between individual freedom and participation in the communist movement, which was characteristic of Bieńkowski in the period of the Polish People’s Republic, dates back to his prewar ideas. The paper also contributes to the discussion on the attitudes of the Polish intelligentsia towards communism.
Marquisism KPP OMS Życie Władysław Bieńkowski marksizm komunizm communism
Sketch to the biography of a landowner. Marian Kiniorski (1868–1943) Marian Kiniorski (1868–1943
The article presents the life and public activity of Marian Kiniorski. He studied at the University of Agriculture in Dublany, the University of Berlin and the School of Political Sciences in Paris (until 1899). He was a modern landowner, striving for the industrialization of property, the use of new agricultural techniques and agricultural progress. He belonged to a number of societies and landowners’ organizations (including the president of the Central Agricultural Society). At the same time, he was an active political activist associated with the National Democracy (a member of the National League, then the Board of the National People’s Union and the authorities of the National Party). A member of the Russian State Duma, then a senator of the Republic of Poland, participated in debates on the land reform. Active journalist, author of specialist articles on agricultural and social topics. In 1930 he withdrew from public life, focusing on the farm. He died in Warsaw
19th–20th century gentry ziemiaństwo XIX–XX w. działalność społeczna National Democracy Narodowa Demokracja social activity gospodarka economy
Biographers usually focus on the analysis of a person’s life fortunes. According to recognised sociologists, philosophers and scientists – experts on history psychology, rarely do they analyse a selected aspect of interpersonal relations based on available historical resources. What was the essence of the bond between Piłsudski and his close companions? What was characteristic for those relations and what were their determining aspects in various periods of Piłsudski’s activity? Those are the questions that are being answered in this article. The author undertakes to reconstruct the evolution of relations between Józef Piłsudski and his companions based on numerous memoirs by his associates. His assets in competition for the leadership position, his features of character and even physical appearance are being analyzed. Objective factors, like war success, which helped him reach for authoritarian rules in Poland are pointed out. Some important questions are being answered: Who were the people that recognized his authority? Who was able to oppose him? A strong sense of historic mission to rebuild the country within Piłsudski’s circle, originating from common values shaped by national culture, has been pointed out. It is characteristic that despite the changes Piłsudski’s relations underwent, they consistently preserved the commanding character between the leader and his agents. These were formed by numerous factors, but undoubtedly the strong will of Piłsudski remained crucial. He was extremely successful in consistent building relations based on his own authority, which still resonates among his countrymen.
Piłsudski Józef przyjaciele podkomendni współpracownicy więzi autorytet friends subordinates associates bonds authority
A signpost at the crossroads. The life and thought of Józef Karol Potocki (1854–1898) of Józef Karol Potocki (1854–1898
Józef Karol Potocki vel Marian Bohusz (1854–1898) was very important and influential although forgotten thinker. His ideas of evolutionary socialism and ethnic nationalism were fundamental for both main Polish political formations of the 1st half of 20th century: Polish Socialist Party (and broader Piłsudski’s camp) and National Democracy. The very fundament of Potocki’s world-view was idea of any “cosmic energy” as prime mover of evolution. The evolution leads towards broader and broader, deeper and deeper integration, towards more complex societies. In opinion of Potocki socialism (as a system based on cooperation) would be natural result of this evolution. Historical and cultural heritage transform society into nation – community bonded by biological ancestry, economic cooperation and culture. This ethnic meaning of the Polish nation excluded Jewish minority. On the other hand, the real nation are the working people (especially peasants), not ruling classes. Nation needs an independent state as instrument of autonomous development, therefore Potocki was bitterly anti-Russian. Potocki tried to propagate the idea of a common front of socialists and nationalists for independence. Polarization of Polish public opinion in the end of 19th century made his efforts unsuccessful.
Polish social thought polska myśl społeczna ewolucja evolution nacjonalizm socialism socjalizm nationalism
Lieutenant Jerzy Rożałowski (1912–1944?) – cavalryman and underground soldier and underground soldier
The aim of this article is to present the biography of a forgotten officer of the Polish Army – Jerzy Rożałowski, who, after graduating from the Cavalry Cadet School in Grudziądz, started his service in the 1st Cavalry Regiment of Krechowiecki. In the years preceding the outbreak of World War II, he took part in over a dozen horse competitions, winning numerous awards. The promising career of a cavalryman was interrupted by German aggression and the necessity to fight for independence. After the surrender of the Polish army, Lieutenant Jerzy Rożałowski evacuated to the territory of Lithuania, where he was interned and imprisoned in a camp. In Lithuania, he then meets his future wife – Krystyna Bichniewicz, the daughter of the landowner and the great-great-granddaughter of Fryderyk Chopin’s eldest sister Ludwika Jędrzejewiczowa, with whom he married in 1940. After escaping from the internment camp, Rożałowski joined the underground and, under the name of Ryszard Porębski, commanded the 1st Infiltration and Partisan Center of the Vilnius District of the Home Army, from which in June 1944 an independent partisan unit was formed, numbering about 200 soldiers. At the same time, Rożałowski worked closely with the 7th Vilnius Brigade of the Home Army. Lieutenant Jerzy Rożałowski went missing on July 11, 1944 in Vilnius during an attempt to contact the command of the Home Army.
Home Army 1st Cavalry Regiment of Krechowiecki Lt. Jerzy Rożałowski Armia Krajowa 1 Pułk Ułanów Krechowieckich por. Jerzy Rożałowski
In search of the political concept of “Today and Tomorrow”. Witold Bienkowski’s letter to Bolesław Piasecki in 1947
Witold Bieńkowski (1906–1965) was a Polish Catholic activist, entangled in the dilemmas of the era in which he lived. Before the war, he was associated with Catholic youth movements, during the war, he was an activist of the Front for the Rebirth of Poland. Ge devotedly worked to save Jews in the Council to Aid Jews „Żegota” and in the Jewish section of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Government Delegation for Poland. However, as early as 1944 he was accused of the murder of Ludwik Widerszal and Jerzy Makowiecki, officials from the Information and Propaganda Bureau of the Home Army Headquarters. On the eve of the Warsaw Uprising, he found himself in territories occupied by the Soviet army, where he attempted to act as a government representative for the lands free from Germany. He then made contact with Bolesław Piasecki, but soon he was arrested by the Soviets, with whom he probably held secret political talks. Released by the underground branch in May 1945, at the turn of summer and autumn 1945 legalized thanks to Piasecki, soon assuming the position of editor-in-chief of the „Today and Tomorrow” magazine, and two years later he was appointed a member of the Legislative Sejm. He was a spokesman for the recognition of People’s Poland not only for geopolitical but also ideological reasons, proclaiming the need for radical socio-economic transformations, encouraging Catholics to support them. To gain the authority of this concept, he demanded that the communists should represent Catholics politically, but not in the form of a traditional Christian Democrat party, but with time he came to the conclusion that an informal political environment, even the most influential, meant less than a legal party. Therefore, he became a spokesman for the radical left-wing Catholic party, and when this vision failed, he persuaded Piasecki to formalize their movement ideologically and politically. This is documented by the quoted letter from Bieńkowski to the leader of „Today and Tomorrow” of December 1947, in which he noted that the environment may disintegrate if it is not bound by a specific form serving to implement the program. Bieńkowski quarreled with Piasecki in 1948, later becoming the press clerk of Primate Stefan Wyszyński, and briefly associated with the Christian Social Association. He died, forgotten in 1965, charged with suspicions of the murder of BIP officials. Regardless of this, Piasecki largely took up his concept, creating the „PAX” Association, grading, as Bieńkowski wanted, his leadership and giving it a clear, ambitious program of „overcoming the winner” through „multi-worldview socialism.”
„Today and Tomorrow” Witold Bieńkowski „Dziś i Jutro” Bolesław Piasecki Stowarzyszenie „PAX” myśl polityczna political thought
“Notes from the Great Times” and “Memoirs from the Years 1916–1918”. Ludomil German and his notes from the First World War the Years 1916–1918”.
The article presents the last years of the life of Ludomił German (1851–1921), a Galician teacher and school inspector, playwright, translator and politician. He was an activist of the Democratic-National Party and Polish Democratic Party, member of the Austrian parliament in Vienna (1907–1918) and the National Parliament in Lviv (1912–1914), vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies and vice-president of the Polish Circle. During the World War I, he kept a diary in which he described his activities in the Supreme National Commitee (established on August 16th, 1914), the Polish Circle and the parliament, as well as the history of the Polish Legions, the struggle for their leadership and the efforts undertaken by the leaders of Galicia and the Kingdom of Poland to unificate the Polish lands and create a more or less independent Polish state. As a supporter of the trialist option (replacing the dualistic Austro-Hungarian Monarchy with the trialistic Austro-Hungary-Poland, created as a result of the joining of the Russian Kingdom of Poland to Galicia), he saw the place of Poles at the side of the Habsburgs almost until the end of the war. He spent the end of his life in Lviv, where he also died. His diary, divided into two parts, is kept in the collections of manuscripts of the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow, Poland (number 8537 I, „Notes from great times”, original) and in the Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv (Fond 5, number 6415, vol. I–III, „Memoirs of 1916–1918, copy).
Polish Circle Supreme National Committee dzienniki Koło Polskie Naczelny Komitet Narodowy Ludomił German I wojna światowa diary World War I
On the resonator of biography. Herstory Libussy Fritz-Krockow. Written down by Christian Graf von Krockow Fritz-Krockow. Written down by Christian Graf von Krock
The author reads and interprets the work of Christian Graf von Crockow titled “The Hour of the Women”. She shows that in the process of (re)writing his sister’s story in various ways, the author strengthened the sense of her narrative – he became a “biography resonator”. The aim of the article is to analyze the aims and methods, as well as the effects of this “resonance”. It will be a look at a biographical and historical work from a literary studies, partly interdisciplinary perspective. The author argues that it is time to replace the rhetoric of the collective experience of Polish and German resettlement with an analysis of the record of an individual fate.
displacement Libussa Fritz-Krockow Christian von Krockow biografia wysiedlenia biography
Who am I? Meanders of national identity on the example of the fate of an ethnic Pole Ivan Iosifovich Osinskiy on the example of the fate of an ethnic Pole Ivan Iosifovich Osinsk
Who am I? Meanders of National Identity on the Example of the Fate of an Ethnic Pole Ivan Iosifovich Osinsky. The article presents the profile of an ethnic Pole Ivan Iosifovich Osinskiy, professor at Buryatia State University. It presents the process of formation of his national identity, the influence of individual elements (family, local community, professional environment, among others) on its formation. Emphasising Osinski’s sense of national identification is based on the model of the triad of identity: inherited, acquired, presented.
sociology of the nation socjologia narodu polskość Polishness identification tożsamość narodowa identyfikacja national identity
Leon Weintraub. A survivor for reconciliation
The group of Auschwitz survivors is numerous and rapidly shrinking. However, the accounts (could use: biographies, memoirs, recollections, stories, etc.) of those who experienced it are remarkable and still worthy of study. Moreover, testimonies from the time of the Annihilation (or Holocaust) – a message with a great weight of emotion and a particular feature of the great history, make the material collected in this way can serve as an invaluable contribution to expanding knowledge and analysis for future generations. Naturally, the educational issue is also important, although the focus will be on the cognitive role. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the fate of the life of an outstanding physician, a Polish Jew from Lodz, Leon Weintraub, who “started” his life anew three times – at the time of his birth in 1926, his liberation from the Nazi camps, and his expulsion from the country as part of the anti-Semitic campaign of March 1968. It seems that the study of the fate of an individual’s life under totalitarian systems, using the oral history method and confronting other sources, makes it possible to create a biographical sketch that is not just a collection of dry facts but enriched with elements of personal emotions, sensitivities, and feelings.
the Holocaust anti-Semitism antysemityzm Auschwitz-Birkenau II wojna światowa World War II Holocaust
Not only a general or a forgotten biography of a family with traditions. Piotr Ruciński, Jan Rozwadowski. Biography of a politician, social traditions. Piotr Ruciński, Jan Rozwadowski. Biography of a politician, social activist and scholar (until 1914), Łomianki 2020, pp. 448 activist and scholar (until 1914), Łomianki 2020, pp. 448
© 2017 Adam Marszałek Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Projekt i wykonanie Pollyart