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.