Polish Journalism Pioneer at the Turn of 20th Century. Aleksander Świętochowski and His Relations with Press

From the age of 23 until his death at the age of 89, thus for more than half a century, Aleksander Świętochowski was associated with the Polish press. He was an author of texts, editor and publisher, owner of three magazines: „Prawda” („The Truth”), „Kultura Polska” („Polish Culture”), and „Humanista Polski” („The Polish Humanist”). Despite numerous additional activities in the public sphere - literary, social and educational, political - biographers unanimously believe that, above all, he was a journalist and in this role he had no equal. The aim of the article is to show life of „ The Apostle of Truth” through the prism of his relations with the press. The main theme has been set in the broader context of the political realities of the time. Due to the wide time span, the professional career dynamics of the protagonist and the evolution of his image were taken into account. Świętochowski’s approach to work, as well as his view on the surrounding reality, has been analyzed and an attempt has been made to assess the motives behind his decisions related to his profession.

Social activity of Count Mieczysław Rey (1836–1919) for children and adolescents

The aim of the article was to present the actions undertaken by count Mieczysław Rey to help children and adolescents in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The wider context of its social activities was also taken into account, including the involvement in Polish agricultural, sightseeing, social and political associations and institutions. The result is to deepen the current knowledge on the life and social activity of Mieczysław Rey, especially regarding the issue of education and upbringing of children in the countryside in Galicia.

Evacuation of Poles from Archangielsk and Murmańsk in 1919

In the three shipwrecked transports by sea in 1919, Polish soldiers and civilian refugees from Archangelsk and Murmansk - ships “Stephen”, „Caritza” and „Helena” were evacuated at least 1093 people, including 369 officers and privates. Considering that Poles left the area of northern Russia also in small groups or individually, it can be estimated that the total number of Poles evacuated in 1919 from that region exceeded 1.5 thousand. people. For comparison, evacuation by sea to Gdansk Poles from the Far East in 1920 - ships „Gweneth”, „Yaroslavl”, „Voronezh” and „Brandenburg” - covered a total of nearly 3.2 thousand. people, including 1744 officers and privates. Despite the difficulties arising from the limitation of Polish laws, the port of Gdansk in 1919-1920 was the most convenient place for receiving ships with Poles returning to the country. The dimensions of the described phenomenon are evidenced by data concerning the period from August 1919 to April 12, 1920 - in Gdańsk, 9,981 persons returning by ship to Poland were admitted at that time. Although another ship „Helena” with Polish soldiers evacuated from Arkhangelsk finished their flight not in Gdansk but in Szczecin, however, in 1920, the above-mentioned, four organized sea transports with reemigrants from the Far East came to Gdańsk. After the end of the First World War, Gdańsk fulfilled - to a limited extent - the role of the Polish „window to the world”, although it is worth noting that the implementation of the return of Polish soldiers from distant parts by the city being subject to a sharp Polish-German dispute was not used by the Polish authorities to strengthen de facto Polish position in the Baltic Sea port.

Socio-Economic Concepts of Priest Antoni Szymański

Among the Catholic thinkers and social activists of the interwar period priest Antoni Szymański is for sure an exceptional figure. He can certainly be called the leader of the Catholic-social camp in the Second Polish Republic. This is justified not only given his rich literary work in this field, but also because of the numerous functions he performed at that time. He was at the head of the Social Council of the Primate of Poland, the Union of Polish Catholic Intelligentsia, and the Catholic University of Lublin. Over the years he was the chief-editor of „Prąd”, undoubtedly one of the most important Catholic periodicals of that period. In his socio-economic views, he consistently promoted the personalist position, opposing both capitalism based on individualism, and all sorts of collectivist conceptions.

Kazimierz Dagnan: Polish National Socialist

Kazimierz Dagnan (1891-1986) was an extraordinary, but practically forgotten today, figure. The activist of the independence conspiracy before the World War I, and the Piłsudski’s legionnaire had an almost archetypal biography for a generation of fighters for independence. In independent Poland, he found himself in the government administration, but he did not limit himself to an administrative career. He followed his own path, faithful to your ideals connecting the cause of Polish independence with the idea of the emancipation of the working class. He was active on the pro-Piłsudski wing of the National Workers’ Party (NWP), and after the coup d’etat in 1926 he became involved in the splinter pro-regime NWP-Leftgroup. He was an ideologist of the national workers’ movement, stubbornly trying to radicalize him. Making a synthesis of nationalism, democracy and reformist socialism, he created the original Polish national-socialist ideology. This ideology assumed the construction of a „People’s Poland of Labour” as a democratic state in which grassroots socialization of the means of production and exchange would gradually proceed. The priority for Dagnan still was the sovereignty of the Polish state and the primacy of the Polish (ethnic) nation in this state. The political expression of this ideology was the Party of National Socialists created in 1933, which, however, did not succeed and vegetated on the margins of political life. During World War II, Dagnan returned to his native Nowy Sącz. In People’s Poland, he began a second life there - as an artist and social activist valued in the local community.

Rear-Admiral Gereon Grzenia-Romanowski (1916–1983). Biographical Sketch

The article is a biographical outline of Rear Admiral Gereon Grzenia-Romanowski (1916- -1983), who was born in a Kashubian merchant family in Chojnice. He began his military education at the Cadet Corps in Chełmno, and then continued it in Rawicz. Then he was admitted to the Infantry Officer Cadet School in Komorów near Ostrów Mazowiecka. During the September campaign 1939 he fought in the Warsaw Tank-Motor Brigade. In the years of occupation he joined the Union of Armed Struggle (ZWZ), and from 1943 he was active in the communist People’s Guard (GL). After 1945, he held many responsible positions in the Polish Army. He was, among others Deputy Commander for Political Affairs of the 12th Infantry Division (12th Infantry Division) and the 16th Kashubian Infantry Division (16th KDP). In 1956, he became the deputy commander of the Navy (MW) for political affairs. He remained in this office until 1965. In 1956, he was one of the co-founders of the Kashubian Association (later the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association). After retiring, he worked as a representative of the Polish Ocean Lines (PLO) in China. He died on January 18, 1983.

Characteristic of the Gorzów teachers in the light of personal quetionnaires from 1950

Different sources are used in biographical studies of various social groups. Similarly, for teachers you can also use a variety of materials. As far as teachers are concerned, these will be personal files, reports of pedagogical councils, as well as various questionnaires filled out for the needs of the authorities conducting or supervising. In the last case, there are, for example, questionnaries drawn up by the School Inspectorate in Gorzów, which teachers working in this city and the region were obliged to complete in 1950. Based on their analysis, you can create a certain picture of this professional group on many levels. These include, for example, age, origin and education. These questionnaires also include information on the employment of teachers, either before 1939 or during the Second World War, as well as after its completion. Additional information is forms of social involvement, and belonging to various social, professional or political parties. Questionnaries also include data on prizes and rewards. All this gives the opportunity to elaborate a certain picture of this social group. Of course, this material is the introduction to wider research on this professional group, not only in Gorzów, but also wider - regional or nationwide.

“Republic of Managers” or “Primitive Taylorism”? Economic Concepts of Aleksander Bocheński in 1980s

An important element of Aleksander Bocheński’s political reflection was the analysis of economic phenomena. It was also always intertwined with the geopolitical reflection retained in the mainstream of political realism, which was the key to his concept. Bocheński affirmed the People’s Poland as a form of Polish statehood not only in the international but also in the economic aspect. He postwar than pre-war economic achievements, seeing the Second Republic primarily through the prism of the economic crisis and the weakness of industry. Over time, he became an honest supporter of the command and distribution system, raising the importance of labor discipline and high production rates. The emergence of Solidarity, martial law and the policy of Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski’s team considered not only in terms of the threat of Soviet intervention and internal destabilization, but also the economic crisis. He wanted a deep reform of the economic system, which nevertheless did not violate the general principle of economic control by the state. In place of the „dictatorship of bureaucrats,” he proposed the „dictatorship of managers”, combined with an appropriate system of incentive motivators. This led to his criticism of the idea of introducing competition mechanisms into the PRL economy. Treating the economic system as a great conglomerate, which every employee should feel obliged to work efficiently and reliably in the name of higher goals, he seemed to create a Polish variant of Taylorism. On the other hand, despite the large anachronism of his reflection, he appreciated the importance of computerization and economic relief for private entrepreneurs. In the turn of 1989, he referred with reserve to the actions of Deputy Prime Minister Balcerowicz, raising the social costs of shock therapy and its negative effects on Polish industry. At the end of his life, he was much better at assessing the economic policies of communists than the governments of the Third Polish Republic. He did not believe in the „invisible hand of the market”, but in the decisive role of adequately managed capital, that is, an efficient state apparatus. The pre-war and post-war advocate of etatism also remained faithful to the belief that the international position of the state determined to a decisive extent its economic potential.

Edward Licht (1912–1965) – A Sketch to the Portray of Pediatrician

The article is a biographical outline of Edward Licht - an outstanding pediatrician who created medicine in Szczecin from the very beginning after the Second World War. He was involved in the scientific and didactic work of the Medical Academy (later the Pomeranian Medical Academy, currently the Pomeranian Medical University). Among the many prominent figures of Polish post-war medicine there are many people who, despite their significant contribution to the development of this field of science, have remained forgotten by the history of medicine. Among them is Edward Licht, whose research focused on the issue of children’s rheumatic diseases and tuberculosis. An important background of this article are his Jewish origins, his special fate during the war and the fate of his family.

Stanisław Kozicki on Action Francaise, Mussolini, Fascism and PolishItalian Relations. Michał Gwalbert Pawlikowski’s Notes from the Interview with Stanisław Kozicki [August 14, 1928]

Forgiveness under Consideration. Security Service on the Letter of the Polish Episcopate of February 10, 1966

Przedhitlerowskie korzenie nazizmu, czyli dusza niemiecka w świetle filozofii i religioznawstwa, eds Bogumił Grott, Olgierd Grott, von Borowiecky Publishing House, Warsaw 2018, pp. 206.

Zabawa w historię. Kilka refleksji nad książką Elżbiety Cherezińskiej “Gra w kości”, Zysk i S-ka Publishing House, Poznań 2010, pp. 406.

Realist and Romanticist. On Andrzej Werblan’s, Karol Modzelewski’s and Robert Walenciak’s „Polish People’s Republic”, [Robert Walenciak, Modzelewski – Werblan. Polska Ludowa, Iskry Publishing House, Warsaw 2017, pp. 544].