After the times of partitions and reunification of partitioned territories, organisation of science in the Second Polish Republic had become a political task, to which the scientists of all disciplines devoted themselves with great engagement. Historical studies had a special position in this process. They served finding the identity of society and the legitimacy of the modern Polish national state. On this basis not only close connection between science and politics were formed, but also personal links with often unclear boundaries between scientists and politicians. Considering the historical burden on relations to eastern neighbours, especially to Russia, research on Eastern Europe had a special responsibility. It provided the political argumentation for the Eastern European paradigms of Poland, as a location on the border of the Western civilisation, serving as a protection wall against Russian danger which proved to be especially dangerous in the form of Bolshevism for the whole area of Europe. In this field the traditional research on Russia cooperated equally close with politics and formed new fields of research, like formed in Poland Sovietology. In this constellation Poland decisively determined the level of research in Europe.

Jaroslav Bidlo and Milada Paulová: On the Institutionalisation of Czech Historical Slavonic Studies in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

This study follows the academic careers of Jaroslav Bidlo and Milada Paulová, focusing on their organisational activities in the realm of historical Slavonic studies. Both were professors of general history, specialising in the history of Eastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula at the Faculty of Philosophy (Charles University, Prague). Their names are thus tied to the development of Czech historical Slavonic studies since their beginnings in late 19th and early 20thcenturies until the 1960s.

Zygmunt Wojciechowski (1900–1955) was a historian of law at the University of Poznan. A student of one of the greatest Polish historians – Oswald Balzer – he was a medievalist, heavily involved in politics both in the times of Second Republic and the beginning of the Polish People’s Republic. His works comprised of content of cognitive qualities, but was always strongly coloured with politics. He was the creator of the theory of native Polish lands, located between Odra, Warta and Vistula Rivers. He is looking at history through the prism of Polish-German relations and he critically evaluates the history of the state, which moved away from traditional Polish settlement areas and led a disastrous policy of expansion to the East, which brought its fall and partitions. Wojciechowski welcomed the return of Poland to the western lands (recovered) in 1945, as a compensation of wrongs suffered in the struggle against Germany. The literature on works of Wojciechowski is controversial and requires recognition in a new synthetic book, which is the main thesis of this study

Włodzimierz Kulczycki (1862–1936) – a representative of the scientific elite of the Academy of Veterinary Medicine in Lwow

Vladimir Kulchytsky (1852–1936) was one of the leading representatives of the scientific elite of the city of Lviv. He was a veterinarian, zoologist, an outstanding mammalian anatomist, professor, pro-rector and rector of the Academy of Veterinary Medicine in Lviv. He did his studies in natural sciences in Vienna, then in Lviv. He also received a diploma in veterinary medicine. From 1882 to 1934 he worked at the Lviv Academy of Veterinary Medicine, first as an assistant, then as a lecturer, and from 1906 as a professor, head of the Department (Department) of Descriptive Anatomy, Topography, Histology and Embryology (later, after changes, the Department of Comparative Anatomy). He also worked as a veterinarian at the Lviv Horse Tram Society, as a city veterinarian and as a veterinarian for the control of cattle and meat on the Lviv railroads. Prof. Kulchytsky’s scientific output includes about 60 publications (compact works, studies and scientific articles, discussions, reviews, etc.). The area of research and scientific interests of V. Kulchytsky was extremely wide and at the same time diverse. He became famous as an outstanding mammalian anatomist and zoologist, creator of anatomical preparations (continuing the work of Prof. Henryk Kadyi). He conducted research work on avian anatomy and physiology, the anatomy and etiology of cattle and horse diseases. He was also involved in parasitology, hippiatry, conducted interdisciplinary studies on the borderline between ethnography and ethnology, was interested in climatology and demography of the countries of the Orient and Central Asia, Indian studies and deep-sea fauna of the oceans. He skillfully combined his collecting passion for carpentry (1906–1936) with orientalist research, becoming an undisputed authority in this field, while amassing the largest collection of old oriental textiles on Polish soil. In 1934 he received an honorary doctorate from the Academy of Veterinary Medicine in Lviv for his outstanding achievements in the field of science and his attitude during the occupation of Lviv by Russia (1914–1915).