Modern Poland Research Articles

Independence Day: Myth, Symbol, and the Creation of Modern Poland, by M.B.B. BiskupskiPatrons of History: Nobility, Capital and Political Transitions in Poland, by Longina Jakubowska

Independence Day: Myth, Symbol, and the Creation of Modern Poland, by M.B.B. BiskupskiPatrons of History: Nobility, Capital and Political Transitions in Poland, by Longina Jakubowska

Independence Day: Myth, Symbol, and the Creation of Modern Poland, by M.B.B. Biskupski

Day: Myth, Symbol, and the Creation of Modern Poland, by M.B.B. Biskupski. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012. xiii, 200 pp. $110.00 US (cloth). Historical narratives and national holidays are important elements of politics. For this reason, they are frequently objects of extensive scholarly research. The book under review is a penetrating study of the Polish national holiday, the of November 11. Yet for the author, a history of this celebration is only a pretext to analyze how various politicians, political movements, and authorities understood, shaped, and used the founding myth of contemporary Poland. Mieczyslaw B.B. Biskupski is the President of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America--a prestigious scholarly institution that fulfilled the tasks of the Polish Academy of Science in exile when Poland was under Soviet control. Biskupski holds the Stanislaus A. Blejwas Endowed Chair in Polish Studies at the Central Connecticut State University, is an experienced animator of Polish scholarly life in America and a prolific and award-winning writer. The text of is arranged chronologically. Since the person and the memory of Marshal Jozef Pilsudski became an integral part of the holiday's celebrations, the opening chapter, presents his real and symbolic contribution to Polish politics and military struggle before 1918. Since World War I ended in Eastern Europe in such a way that it was not obvious when exactly the Polish independent state emerged, the second chapter Discovering Day charts the debates over what event marked the turning point on the road to independence. Political rivalries over national symbols continued during the first years of the interwar period as the third chapter Contesting a National Myth, 1918-26 demonstrates when November 11 was formally recognized as and, despite the bitter opposition of the nationalist Right, amalgamated with the legend of Pilsudski as the founder of the new Polish state. The fourth chapter Formalization of a Discourse, 1926-35 argues that this legend was solidified after the coup d'etat of 1926, when the Marshal became the dictator. A holiday celebration ritual was established and the cult of Pilsudski overshadowed the remembrance of historical events of 1918. After the death of the Marshal his political camp disintegrated as did its grip on power. Consequently, the meaning of the holiday's celebration changed as well, as Biskupski recounts in chapter five, Independence and the Celebration of Pilsudski's Legend, 1935-39. In 1935 it was more about mourning the Marshal's death than it was about commemorating a liberation day. Later, the Pilsudski-November 11th myth became an important part of the otherwise weak Pilsudskiite ideology and power legitimization. The outbreak of World War 11 brought a catastrophe: after it lost the September campaign, Poland was occupied by the Nazis and the Soviets, and the Government-in-Exile was dominated by General Wladyslaw Sikorski and other opponents of the Marshal. …

A Savage Magnificence: Ottomanizing Fashion and the Politics of Display in Early Modern East-Central Europe

This article examines the impact of Ottoman fashions on the clothing worn by men in early modern Poland and Hungary, and argues that fashion was an optimal tool for advertising political allegiance. Ottoman garments were coveted by the nobilities in East-Central Europe, and often displayed in portraiture, because they were imbued with associations of anti-absolutism and autonomy, even if the Ottomans themselves were reviled as invasive infidels. However, the legibility of the political statement these fashions made was limited to their local contexts—when viewed by foreigners they were perceived as exotic and Otherly. Various factors enabled the popularization and subsequent politicization of Ottomanizing styles, including the Polish and Hungarian nobilities’ self-fashioning as Eastern, and the widespread availability of Ottoman and Iranian commodities through import, as war booty, and through local imitation. This essay hopes to expand our understanding of the range of early modern responses to the Ottoman East, while challenging the notion of Europe as a uniform entity to which it was opposed.

Socioeconomic differences in child mortality in central Poland at the end of the nineteenth century.

Analyses of historical or modern populations indicate a strong relationship between mortality level and standard of living, measured, among other factors, by degree of urbanization. The aim of this study was to assess mortality rates in children of up to 5 years of age in two populations living under different conditions in central modern Poland at the end of the 19th century: the rural parish of Kowal, under Russian partition, and Toruń, an industrial and urbanized centre under Prussian partition. Data on births and deaths were taken from birth certificate registries and from the Prussian statistics yearbooks for 1876-1894. Death rates of children aged 0-5 years were calculated, and also for annual age ranges. The urban population had lower birth rates (37.19‰), natural increase rates (8.0‰), population dynamics rates (1.26‰), which provide information about the relation between two components of a natural increase, i.e. births and deaths, and an over-mortality of boys in relation to girls. In the rural population these values were all higher: 53.67‰, 18.11‰ and 1.59‰ respectively. No impact was found of social stratification on child mortality in the wide age group of 0-5 years. However, for subsequent one-year age groups significant relationships between mortality level and size and industrialization level of the population centres were noted. The living conditions of infants in Toruń, although being in a better position as an area annexed by Prussia, were markedly worse than those of rural Kowal Parish. In the urban centre infant mortality was slightly over 269 for 1000 live born, and in Kowal Parish it was 163 for 1000 live born. The high infant mortality was balanced in Toruń by the higher mortality levels of children aged 2-5 years compared with Kowal Parish. Natural selection in the city had the greatest impact on infants, who did not have the protective influence of breast-feeding because women had to return to work shortly after giving birth. The lower infant mortality of mothers in the countryside due to longer breast-feeding led to larger family sizes. In 1871-1890 in the villages the number of children per women was about 7.42, whereas in Toruń it ranged from 4.4 to 5.2. The probability of death among children who survived the first year of life was higher in the countryside than the town. In the rural parish, perhaps because of cultural factors such as breast-feeding or working practices making full-time baby-sitting possible, children who did not reach the age of 1 year were not subjected to such intensive natural selection. Overall, differences in child mortality in the two centres in 19th central Poland resulted from ecological and cultural conditions, rather than from social and economical reasons (living under different partitions).

O cywilizacyjny awans Polski Roman Dmowski wobec idei modernizacji Polski 1918–1939

For a civilizational development of Poland. Roman Dmowski in the face of the idea of modernization of Poland 1918–1939 The Roman Dmowski’s propositions of modernization of interwar Poland (1918–1939) can not be considered in terms of theories of modernization created after 1945 as a coherent, logic systems. For Dmowski the modern (modernized) Poland would be a „efficient” state with capitalist economy, free market and the respect for private property, with reduced social legislation, with developed industry and agriculture, with a strong middle class, with restricted bureaucratic machine; a national state with restricting the rights of national minorities, with low number of Jews, with the limiting the powers of the legislature and a strong executive, with association polishness with catholicism and strong emphasis on the presence of catholic religion in social life. Some ideas of Dmowski were not bad (e.g. save money and reduction of excessively developed bureaucratic machine, the development of industry and agriculture, the fight against speculation), however, the proposals were often too vague or unclear or were remarkably oriented to the free market and for this reason had no chance of implementation and popularity in the atmosphere of the 20s and 30s in interwar Poland (e.g. proposal of reduction excessively developed social legislation), some of proposals were expressly anti-Semitic. Similarly, in the area of the Polish political system and political life Dmowski offered „positive” solutions (recovery and moralisation of Polish political life, raising the niveau of political culture of the Polish political elites and Polish society, strengthening of executive power) and „negative” proposals (association polishness with catholicism and his instrumental use, desire to make Poland a national state, desire to move away from the rule of parliamentary, postulate of removing the excess of the Jewish population in Poland). The least controversial were proposals in the sphere of social and mental modernization of the Polish society (attachment to the rule of law, the cultural and civilizational raising of lower strata and classes, care for a family – according to Dmowski important institution for society, increasing hard work / diligence of the Polish population, learning of positive competition or skills competition, development of the awareness of the Polish population concerning social and economic problems, emphasis on its own – Polish creativity). It is impossible unambiguously assess all Dmowski’s proposals of Poland’s modernization – they were characterized by – similar to entire creative achievements of Dmowski – some „duality” – controversional ideas were mixed with interesting concepts, sometimes original.

Pagans, Saints, and War Criminals: Direct Speech as a Sign of Liminal Interchanges in Latin Chronicles of the Baltic Crusades

In the later Middle Ages, the crusades where most European knights fought were initiated first by the Sword Brothers and then the Teutonic Knights in the lands east and south of the Baltic Sea - Livonia, Prussia, and Lithuania (modern day Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, western Russia, Kaliningrad Oblast, and Poland). This article deals with a hitherto unexplored way in which three Latin chronicles produced for the Sword Brethern and the Teutonic Order use direct speech mostly for communication by or to three groups: pagans or recent converts, supernatural beings, and those who commit crimes. As in other frontier areas, here infidel and Christian, the pious and the transgressor, heavenly voices and demons battled but also communicated. The unusual nature of their exchanges is perhaps indicated through the frequent use of direct speech as a signifier of liminal interactions in the chronicles of Peter of Dusburg, Wigand of Marburg, and Henry of Livonia.

Village court records and peasant credit in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Poland

ABSTRACTIn fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Poland, village courts facilitated the registration of a variety of private transactions among peasants. This article uses the surviving court books of this period to explore the courts' development and functions, and to analyse the numerous peasant credit contracts found in their records. The aim of the article is to show that in late medieval and early modern Poland the village courts provided a well-established system for registering peasant transactions, and that this played an important role in the development of credit and land markets.

The socioeconomic status and family context of eating attitudes and dietary behaviours of children in Polish primary schools

Aim of the studyThe aim of the study was to assess the correlation between the results of the Polish version of Maloney’s ChEAT-26, the socio-economical status of pre-pubertal pupils from Krakow schools and their family situation.Subject or material and methodsThe study group comprised 218 pupils that attended Grades from 4 to 6 and their mothers. The children’s ChEAT-26 results were related to family structure, emigration, parental education, the mother’s state of health and her subjective judgement of her state of health and her family circumstances, employment status and financial circumstances.ResultsDisordered eating attitudes of the children were elevated in families where one of the parents had emigrated. Parents with higher education levels tend to have a stronger influence on their child’s eating habits. The children of such parents are more aware of dietary standards, they tend to control their eating habits more but they also get less pleasure out of eating food. Having the mother achieve professional success, in her estimation, turned out to be positively correlated with an increased desire in her child to lose weight. A mother’s positive assessment of her family was correlated with her child’s greater compliance with the principles of healthy eating. Some of the observed correlations were different in the boys’ group and in the girls’ group.DiscussionAny discussion concerning the relationship of the obtained results with a change in the social circumstance, although likely, is only hypothetical.ConclusionsStudy has provided evidence of a connection between socioeconomic status, family variables and eating attitudes in young children in modern Poland.

Kliknij ,,Lubię to” i wyjdź na ulicę. Ruch przeciwko ACTA w perspektywie performatycznej

Katarzyna Peplinska writes about the mechanism of performing democracy in modern Poland exemplified by the Polish protest against Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The agreement has been criticized by human rights groups for the secrecy, in which it has been developed, and the potential for abuse it poses. Protest was formulated against surveillance and censorship in cyberspace. In a wider perspective this event can be called civil disobedience against democracy without public consultations. On the one hand fear of ACTA is fear of Europe ruled by oppressive corporations and politicians. On the other hand the Polish protest is also an example of governments’ fear of democracy with leading power of demos. Protesters were performing on real stage (e.g. street) and virtual one (e.g. Facebook). Hence, the Polish protest against ACTA is an example of performing the new civil society.

Fortune and Misfortune od Italian Chivalric Literature in the Early Modern Poland

Two masterpieces of the chivalric epic literature, Orlando Furioso of Lodovico Ariosto and Gerusalemme Liberata of Torquato Tasso have had their Polish versions of rare beauty and value thanks to the translator of genius, Piotr Kochanowski. The fate of their reception is, however, very different. The reasons of the absence of Orlando Furioso remain still inexplicable, while the number and diversity of the editions of its original version in Polish libraries could prove the contrary. Anyway, only detailed provenance research would establish the real origin of these books. The evolution of the reception of the Gerusalemme Liberata during the whole 17th c. is an interesting example of a fusion of both foreign and domestic motifs, and of an attractiveness of the Renaissance patterns in the new times.

Wybrane aspekty dobra rodziny oraz ochrony praw dziecka na podstawie przepisów Konstytucji Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z 2 kwietnia 1997 roku oraz nauczania Jana Pawła II skierowanego do rodaków w czasie pielgrzymek do Polski

The family is the union of two people whose relationship aims, among other things, at having children. The relationship built within the smallest cells of society, but also relationship affected by external factors. One of these external factors is the statutory law, including the constitution. The Polish Constitution with its regulations and principles protects the rights of both the child and family well-being. These rules, which form the basis of other legislative acts, should be respected and interpreted in the appropriate way. Pope John Paul II emphasized that family and children are the most important values for humanity. In papal teaching the protection of the family is discussed frequently and from many different angles. Modern Poland needs the family to exist. Hence one should not only listen to the voice of the Holy Father, but also explore the papal teachings on the family and children in Poland in subsequent research.

Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland

Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland

Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland. By Michael Ostling. Past and Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. ix + 279 pp. $110.00 cloth.

Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland. By Michael Ostling. Past and Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. ix + 279 pp. $110.00 cloth.

Samorząd wiejski w osadach olęderskich w Dolinie Dolnej Wisły w przepisach wilkierzy z XVII i XVIII wieku. Organizacja, kompetencje, zasady funkcjonowania

In the Early Modern lowlands of Lower Vistula Valley became an area where rural settlements of a new type were organized by mainly Mennonite migrants from the Netherlands, who were called ‘Oledry’. According to their long-term lease agreements signed with landlords, Oledry were granted special rights and freedom, including a right to set willkurs. These legal arrangements were lists of rules regulating relations between the neighbours as well as organization and operation of the local self-government. In the article eighteen willkurs, used in 17th and 18th centuries in villages situated in different areas of the Vistula Valley and in different kinds of land property (royal, noble and urban), were examined in search for detailed descriptions of the Oledry village courts – Schultzamts, which were bodies elected by the neighbours to keep an order within the vicinity. They consisted of a mayor (Schultz) and two (rarely one) councilors (Rathsleute), all with one or half year long term. They were given a payment collected in the village once a term for their activities and also received part of fines paid by the neighbours. Apart from executing judicial responsibilities, however without a right to judge in criminal cases, mayor and councilors supervised condition of borders, dams, dikes and fire prevention, as well as land purchases, migration of new peasants or workers to the village and setting care of orphans. Willkurs seldom mentioned other obligations of the Schultzamt and neighbours for the landlord than only collecting lease payments or taxes, which, among with other rights of Oledry, is contrary to rules provided by regulations laid by nobility and royal or church land administrators on other categories of peasants in Early Modern Poland.

Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland, by Michael Ostling

Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland, by Michael Ostling

Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland by Michael Ostling (review)

Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland by Michael Ostling (review)

MICHAEL OSTLING. Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland.

In this book, Michael Ostling offers a reassessment of the history of witchcraft in Poland, a region often treated as peripheral to the early modern witch hunts. Ostling argues that witchcraft in Poland can illuminate one of the fundamental questions of witchcraft scholarship: the relationship between indigenous and international concepts of the supernatural. Although witchcraft scholars often discuss the constructed nature of witchcraft, we frequently fall short of a subtle and comprehensive analysis of that construction. Ostling, by contrast, has succeeded admirably in doing just that. He maintains that Christianity and elite demonology are also constructions and follows this insight with a rigorous investigation of witchcraft in Poland in which he privileges neither folk nor elite culture with definitional authority. The result is an excellent monograph that faithfully reflects a regional history while offering important insights to the field as a whole. In his introduction, Ostling opens the discussion that runs as a red thread throughout the whole work: the relationships between elite and indigenous ideas. The monograph is divided into three parts: history, religion, and demonology. In the first of these, he does an excellent job of sketching the background of Polish history. The reader is thus quickly oriented to the particular social landscape of the Polish villages and small towns, where powerful rural landlords sometimes acted as a brake on persecutions and sometimes as the initiators of witch trials. Ostling argues that we should place witch trials in their context with other criminal trials. He collapses the artificial distance between the two with the crucial observation that all crimes had a religious, sinful nature, but his analysis stays focused entirely on witch trials. In discussing the charges that arose in witch trials, he emphasizes the ambiguity of forms and of practice. This ambiguity meant that identical actions could be classified as natural or magical, as religion or as witchcraft.

Michael Ostling. Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland. The Past and Present Book Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. x + 280 pp. $110. ISBN: 978–0–19–958790–2.

Michael Ostling. Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland. The Past and Present Book Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. x + 280 pp. $110. ISBN: 978–0–19–958790–2.

Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland. By Michael Ostling. Past and Present Publications. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. xiv, 279 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. Tables. Maps. $110.00, hard bound.

Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland. By Michael Ostling. Past and Present Publications. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. xiv, 279 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. Tables. Maps. $110.00, hard bound. - Volume 72 Issue 1

"Któż tam będzie wisiał?" – Bunt chłopski w miejskiej wyobraźni

“Who’s going to dangle there?” – Peasant revolt in urban imagination. On the Gore album by R.U.T.A. and on its receptionThe author presents a review of a recent album “Gore: Songs of Rebellion and Misery from 16th to 20th Century” by a Polish punk rock / hardcore group R.U.T.A. The album, which combines traditional peasant lyrics with modern arrangements and folk instruments, has received acclaim from both fans and critics, while the band declared their commitment to struggles of contemporary progressive social movements. The author analyses the lyrics situating his reflection in sociological-historical framework to discuss realities of peasants’ lives and revolts during the second serfdom in early modern Poland. The author interprets the musical form of the songs as “punk-rock assimilation” of folklore themes. The final section contains critical reflection on the album’s marketing strategy and reception with the key dissected categories being “rebellion” and “authenticity.”