Jadwiga Janina Cywińska, nee Malkiewicz. One of the Vilnius Six

The first published biography of one of the members of the first community of the Order of Mercy, founded by Fr. Michał Sopoćko according to the revelations received through the intercession of Sister Faustyna Kowalska; court clerk in Vilnius and Toruń.

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).

Stanisław August Morawski – an outstanding, non-media figure of the Polish community in Italy

The aim of the article is to present the biography of Stanislaw August Morawski (1922–2019) – an outstanding figure of the Italian Polonia, who avoided media publicity. On the basis of a few available book sources and biographies published after his death in the Polish and Polonia press, introduced his life in Poland and in Italy and a huge number of his activities for Poland, Poles and the Polish community in Italy. S. Morawski was, among others, for many years the president of the Rome Foundation J.Z. Umiastowska, the Lanckoroński Foundation, co-founder of the Union of Poles in Italy and a member of its board, author of many publications on the history of Poles in the Apennine Peninsula.

The article presents the biographies of representatives of the third post-war generation of Polish Jews. It attempts at reconstructing the experiences of becoming a religious Jew, choosing a Jewish path in adolescence where there is no or incomplete transmission of intergenerational cultural heritage in the family of origin. The two women’s biographies were analysed in terms of independent acquisition of cultural (religious) knowledge and the possibilities and limitations of Jewish education in our country. The research was carried out based on the biographical method and unstructured/ in-depth interviews (2018–2022). Exemplifications in the form of the two biographies serve to distinguish the stages of “becoming a religious Jew and mother” in the “found generation”, to show individual biographical events and common biographical sequences (mostly educational and parental).

Ludwik Ferdynand Jaxa-Bykowski’s stay in “Czech captivity” in 1919

An excellent biologist, anthropologist, pioneer of educational psychology and experimental pedagogy, high school teacher in Lviv, editor of pedagogical magazines, professor at the University of Poznań from 1927, author of over two hundred scientific works, he was also a political activist associated with the national camp. This publication concerns the personal experiences of Ludwik Ferdynand Jaxa-Bykowski related to the period of internment by the Czechoslovak authorities in early 1919. He left a memoir, published in the Lviv daily „Słowo Polskie”. It presents the conditions in which the internees and prisoners were kept, their daily activities, conversations and „state of mind”, the patriotism of the Polish miners, and on the other hand – the behavior of the Czechoslovak military, repressions and anti-Polish sentiments among the civilian population fueled by the authorities.

Dear Zdzisiu! Dear Bronek! Unknown family ties in Polish public life. (As exemplified by Jan Nowak-Jeziorański and Bronisław Helczyński)

The aim of this article is to present unheard-of cooperation between two prominent Polish pro-independence refugees related as kinsmen. On the basis of preserved correspondence (Polish Library in London and the Ossoliński National Institute in Wrocław) not only the family bonds between them and their families were retraced, but also examples of secret coordination of the cousins’ political activity. Both of them have been broadly recognized as distinguished representatives of Polish science and media. Their confidential cooperation is worth mentioning because of its significance for Polish pro-independence refugees in years 1951–1975. For readers it is an interesting example of effective use of family relations in public life.