Polish Armenians Research Articles

Madżarscy – renesans pamięci? (Д. В. Лисейчиков, Е. С. Глинский, Маджарские: армянский род в истории Беларуси, Национальный Исторический Архив Беларуси, Фонд Развития и Поддержки Арменоведческих Исследований «Анив», Минск-Ереван 2023, Армения–Беларусь)

THE MADŻARSKI FAMILY – RENAISSANCE OF MEMORY (МАДЖАРСКИЕ: АРМЯНСКИЙ РОД В ИСТОРИИ БЕЛАРУСИ, НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ ИСТОРИЧЕСКИЙ АРХИВ БЕЛАРУСИ, ФОНД РАЗВИТИЯ И ПОДДЕРЖКИ АРМЕНОВЕДЧЕСКИХ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ «АНИВ», МИНСК-ЕРЕВАН 2023)
 The album book, jointly published by the National Historical Archive of Belarus and the Foundation for the Development and Support of Armenian Studies, is dedicated to the Madżarski family – Armenians who came from the Ottoman Empire to operate the Radziwiłłs’ workshop manufacturing kontush sashes in Słuck (Slutsk, today in Belarus). Such sashes were an essential element of traditional Polish noble attire. The reviewed book is based on archival research and draws upon significant sources on this topic. It is also an expression of the inheritance of historical memory from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by contemporary Belarusian society and, from Polish Armenians by the current Armenian diaspora in Belarus.

(Proto)nazwiska polskich Ormian na podstawie rzymskokatolickich ksiąg metrykalnych z Kresów Południowo-Wschodnich (XVII-XIX wiek)

(PROTO)SURNAMES OF POLISH ARMENIANS BASED ON ROMAN CATHOLIC PARISH REGISTERS FROM SOUTHEASTERN BORDERLANDS (17TH-19TH CENTURIES): SELECTED ISSUESThe article is based on excerpts from Roman Catholic parish registers in Brzeżany, Kołomyja, Obertyn, and Żółkiew, serving as a significant source for anthroponymic studies of Polish Armenians. Criteria for including the collected anthroponyms in the study were defined: besides undisputed cases where the ethnicity of a person was indicated in the entry, other criteria of being Armenian were also taken into account – confessional (notes about the Armenian rite) and anthroponymic (the form of the name or surname used by Armenians). The dictionary includes 69 (proto)surnames covered in 63 entries.

O Ormianach bukowińskich i nie tylko w listach Anny Danilewicz

Anna Danilewicz was an activist among the Polish Armenians from Bukovina and Bukovinians themselves. After the Second World War she settled in Lower Silesia, returning to her roots and memories from Bukovina, Romania, in her publications. She was regarded as a great authority among the Armenians and Bukovinians. For many years the present author exchanged letters with her, letters now analysed in the article. They contain a lot of valuable information, unknown from Anna Danilewicz’s other writings. Worthy of note are also Danilewicz’s reflections on various matters.

Historia mówiona i polscy Ormianie

ORAL HISTORY AND THE POLISH ARMENIANS
 The article discusses 17 biographical interviews with the Polish Armenians, which are kept in the Archive of the Oral History of the Foundation of Karta Centre (Warsaw). This evidence has been analysed in terms of phenomena connected with ethnic identification. The main task of the author was to capture and define contents which appear most frequently in the interviews and relate to the sense of distinctiveness of the oldest living generation of the Polish Armenians.

Niemiecki przekład dzieła Minasa Byżyszkianca, Podróż do Polski (Der Reisebericht des Minas Bžškeancc über die Armenier im östlichen Europa (1830), Übersetzt und kommentiert von Bálint Kovács und Grigor Grigoryan. Herausgegeben von Bálint Kovács und Grigo

A GERMAN TRANSLATION OF THE WORK A JOURNEY TO POLAND OF MINAS BZHSHKYAN
 The author of the review characterises the contents of a German translation of the classical work concerning the Polish Armenians, i.e. A Journey to Poland of the Mechitarist Minas Bzhshkyan, published in Venice in 1830, indicating mistakes and omissions.

Badania języka ormiańsko-kipczackiego w dorobku naukowym profesora Edwarda Tryjarskiego

THE RESEARCH OF THE ARMENIAN KIPCHAK LANGUAGE IN THE SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF PROFESSOR EDWARD TRYJARSKI (1923-2021)
 The Armenian Kipchak language is the language of the Polish Armenians inhabiting the former Polish eastern borderlands (mainly cities: Lwów, Kamieniec Podolski, Zamość). The time of the highest activity of this peculiar linguistic phenomenon includes the 16th and 17th centuries. Edward Tryjarski was an outstanding Polish orientalist who conducted research on this language which is also treated as a dialect or ethnolect. The purpose of the article is to present the scientific work of Professor Tryjarski connected just with this issue.

Wystawa „Kobiety pod znakiem Krzyża. Ormiańskie benedyktynki ze Lwowa i ich duchowość”, Kraków, Muzeum Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 13 sierpnia – 12 listopada 2022 roku .

THE EXHIBITION “WOMEN UNDER THE SIGN OF THE CROSS: THE ARMENIAN BENEDICTINE NUNS FROM LWÓW AND THEIR SPIRITUALITY”, KRAKÓW, MUSEUM OF THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY, AUGUST 13– NOVEMBER 12, 2022
 The reviewer discusses an exhibition devoted to the convent of the Benedictine nuns of the Armenian rite in Lwów, existing from the end of the 17th century to the 20th century. It has been organised in 2022 by the Museum of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków gathering its own exhibits as well as artifacts from the Foundation of Culture and Heritage of the Polish Armenians, many convents, libraries and museums.

Armenia w latach 2004-2009 z perspektywy polskiego ambasadora

THE RESEARCH OF THE ARMENIAN KIPCHAK LANGUAGE IN THE SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF PROFESSOR EDWARD TRYJARSKI (1923-2021)
 The Armenian Kipchak language is the language of the Polish Armenians inhabiting the former Polish eastern borderlands (mainly cities: Lwów, Kamieniec Podolski, Zamość). The time of the highest activity of this peculiar linguistic phenomenon includes the 16th and 17th centuries. Edward Tryjarski was an outstanding Polish orientalist who conducted research on this language which is also treated as a dialect or ethnolect. The purpose of the article is to present the scientific work of Professor Tryjarski connected just with this issue.

Starodruki z kolekcji arcybiskupa Józefa Teodorowicza: przyczynek do badań bibliofilstwa w środowisku Ormian polskich

ANTIQUE BOOKS FROM THE COLLECTION OF ARCHBISHOP JÓZEF TEODOROWICZ: A MINOR CONTRIBUTION TO THE RESEARCH OF BIBLIOPHILISM IN THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE POLISH ARMENIANS
 Armenian Archbishop Józef Teodorowicz (1864-1938) had a collection of antique books, comprising at least 145 titles in a few languages: Latin, Polish, German, and French. Armenian antique books, published with great artistry in Venice and Constantinople, were especially interesting among these works. It was determined that over 80 percent of collection concerned different branches of theology. The rest, i.e. 20 percent, included works of philosophy, ethics, canon law, rhetoric, literature, and linguistics. During the Second World War, after the capture of Lwów by Soviet troops, the collection was partially destroyed and dispersed. In August 1940, preserved fragments were included into the collections belonging to the Library of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian Socialistic Soviet Republic (Lviv Branch). Today, the preserved fragments of the collection from the library of Archbishop Teodorowicz are kept in two institutions: the Division of Antique Books of the Wasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library in Lviv and the Unit of Antique Books of the Ossoliński National Institute in Wrocław.

Zarys gramatyczny dialektu Ormian polskich z Kut

A GRAMMATICAL OUTLINE OF THE DIALECT OF THE POLISH ARMENIANS FROM KUTY In the 1950s, the Armenian and Greek Catholic priest Kazimierz Roszko (1916- 1987), lector of the Armenian language at the Jagiellonian University, collected materials on a vanishing dialect of the Polish Armenians, which was spoken longest in the town of Kuty by the Czeremosz River. His doctoral thesis prepared on this subject is still a manuscript. The article includes its main fragments elaborated by Andrzej Pisowicz. As material for the doctoral dissertation of Roszko, texts collected by him and published in the journal “Folia Orientalia” were used, as well as materials published in the 19th century by Jan Hanusz and supplements of Bogdan Dawidowicz and Jerzy Kuryłowicz from the 1920s and 1930s. The native words of the Armenian dialect from Kuty constitute a continuation of the vocabulary of the Old Armenian language. Furthermore, the dialect of the Polish Armenians abounds with primarily Turkic borrowings (mainly from the Kipchak language), among which one can find words of the Arabic origin (Semitic words) and the Persian origin (Iranian, Indo-European words). The Armenians of Kuty also borrowed many words from the Romanian language, which they had spoken before arrival to the Czeremosz River. The newest borrowing layer of the dialect of the Armenians from Kuty includes Ruthenian and, of course, Polish words. The article discusses phonetics, morphologyand syntax against the comparative background. A few texts which illustrate the dialect have been presented in the appendix.

Rękopiśmienny śpiewnik benedyktynki ormiańskiej Antoniny Grzegorzowiczówny z 1757 roku jako przykład alografii ormiańsko-polskiej

THE HANDWRITTEN PRAYER BOOK OF THE BENEDICTINE NUN ANTONINA GRZEGORZOWICZÓWNA FROM 1757 The collections of the library of the Armenian patriarchate in Jerusalem (St. Toros Manuscript Library) include a valuable souvenir of the cultural heritage of the Polish Armenians – the handwritten prayer book of Antonina Grzegorzowiczów na, a Benedictine nun from Lwów (ref. number 3856). It is the oldest collection of songs from the monastery of the Armenian Benedictines nuns in Lwów, which has been preserved until our times. It dates back to 1757 and comprises the colophon written by Asvadzadur, a son of Ovanes. It provides information that the songbook was to be a gift for his sister, whose name had been written with the Polish letters under the copyist’s colophon. The consecration of Antonina, which took place a month later, on 13th November, in the Armenian cathedral of Lwów, was a reason of the gift. The article characterises the figure of the owner, analyses the content of the songbook – its usefulness for research on cultural (linguistic and religious) relations in Lwów in the 18th century – and determines the fate of the manuscript.

Nowe technologie w wybranych kontekstach wydawniczo-medialnych Ormian polskich na przykładzie działalności Fundacji Kultury i Dziedzictwa Ormian Polskich

The Armenian community has been present in Poland since the 14th century. Their activity has a constant impact on the development of Polish culture psychically and virtually speaking. The author refers to humanities and social scientific research methods. Based on her own research, she analyzes the publishing activities of the Foundation of Culture and Heritage of Polish Armenians. The Foundation focuses, among others on the digitization and other innovative methods of documents and artifacts.Contemporary flow of information allows to share various forms of publishing. New technologies play an increasingly important role in universal communication and social information.The Foundation of Culture and Heritage of Polish Armenians brings in new methods of documentation and preservation of material artifacts and non-material culture. The quantitative and qualitative state of the available materials clearly indicates the expanding area of documenting the Armenian heritage in Poland.

Refleksje o Ormianach polskich na marginesie pracy „Ormiańska Polska”

Reflections about Polish Armenians on the margin of the work “Ormiańska Polska”
 The author discusses the work Ormiańska Polska [ Armenian Poland] written by Krzysztof Stopka and Andrzej A. Zięba (Warszawa 2018), and on the margin of its review forms reflections connected with migrations of Armenians to Poland and their social and identity status between the 14th and 20th centuries.

Z materiałów źródłowych do dziejów Ormian w zasobie Archiwum Państwowego w Przemyślu: biskupa Franciszka Ksawerego Zachariasiewicza wypisy i szkice do „Wiadomości o Ormianach w Polszcze”

From source materials concerning the history of Armenians in the resource of the State Archive in Przemyśl. Entries and outlines of the bishop Franciszek Ksawery Zachariasiewicz for his work “Wiadomość o Ormianach w Polszcze” The State Archive in Przemyśl includes materials concerning the history of Polish Armenians. Among these sources, the unit with the signature 516 in the division „Kapituła greckokatolicka w Przemyślu” [„Greek and Catholic Chapter in Przemyśl”] contains important data. It presents source abstracts and a manuscript of the work of Franciszek Ksawery Zachariasiewicz – the Przemyśl bishop of the Latin rite – titled Wiadomość o Ormianach w Polszcze [News About Armenians in Poland], Lwów 1842. These data show the research workshop of the historian who as the first Polish Armenian managed to finish his research and present its results in print.

Przyczynek do ormiańsko-polskiego rodowodu Ajwazowskich. List arcybiskupa Gabriela Ajwazowskiego do ojca Sadoka Barącza z 1875 roku

Minor contribution to the Armenian-Polish lineage of Aivazovsky family. A letter of the Archbishop Gabriel Aivazovsky to the Father Sadok Barącz from 1875 In the correspondence of the Father Sadok Barącz OP, the historian of Polish Armenians, kept in the Library of the National Ossoliński Institute in Wrocław, there is a letter from the Armenian Archbishop Gabriel Aivazovsky, the brother of the painter Ivan. Robert Bogdanowicz, an Armenian landowner from Galicia, was the agent in contacts of these scholars. The letter relates to the family tradition of Aivazovskys concerning their origin from the community of Polish Armenians from the town of Stanisławów. Although the letter was already used in source literature, it has never been completely analysed. The article presents a letter edition in the original French language and translation into the Polish language, as well as an attempt of the letter data verification based on certificates of Armenian and Catholic parishes in Galicia against the biography of the author of the letter.

Armenians in Poland from the 14th century to the first years of the 21st century

The first groups of Armenians arrived in Red Ruthenia, Podolia, and Kyiv Ruthenia as early as in the 11th century as part of the first wave of exiles before the Seljuk invasion. At the same time the first Armenian settlements in these Polish lands were established. However, a significant development tendency of the Armenian settlement can only be mentioned concerning the reign of Casimir the Great, who also contributed to the raise of the Armenian church in Lviv to the rank of a cathedral. The greatest development of the Armenian settlement in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the 16th and 17th centuries. At the end of the 17th century, Armenian settlements stretched along the entire south-eastern border of the Republic of Poland. The Armenian colonies in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth played an important role in the organization of eastern trade. A trade route connecting the East with the West ran through the territory of the Republic of Poland. Apart from economic activity, Armenians played a significant role in the field of diplomacy. All Armenian colonies in the territory of the Republic of Poland enjoyed autonomy. The outbreak of the war in 1939 meant that Poles and Armenians shared the tragic fate. World War II dispersed the Polish Armenians. Some of them – mainly Armenians from the city of Kuty and its surroundings – were murdered in 1943–1944 by the Ukrainians, with the approval of the Germans. Others were taken to Soviet camps or sent to Central Asia. Few Armenians remained in Lviv. Polish Armenians who survived lived in postwar Poland. After the political transformation that took place in Poland and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, new emigrants from Armenia come to Poland. According to the 2002 national population and housing census, 262 citizens of the Republic of Poland declared themselves as Armenians.

Towarzystwo Polsko-Ormiańskie we Lwowie (1920-1922)

Polish-Armenian Society in Lwów (1920-1922)
 Using Armenian and Polish sources, the author analyses the activities ofthe Polish-Armenian Society (Towarzystwo Polsko-Ormiańskie) founded in Lwów(Poland) on June 15, 1920. This organization focused on building relations betweenPoland and Armenia. Its leaders, Jan Grzegorzewski, Garabed Keuprulian and AugustTeodorowicz established cooperation with the Armenian National Delegationin Paris, chaired by Boghos Nubar Pasha, and with its branch in Berlin. They alsoundertook the difficult mission of lobbying for the Armenian case in Warsaw. In thefirst phase of its activity, the Society planned to relocate Polish Armenians (officialsand intelligentsia) to the territories of Western Armenia; due to the deteriorating internationalsituation, the idea was abandoned. Subsequently, efforts were focused onhelping Armenian refugees from Turkey in the Caucasus; on this matter, the Societymade an appeal to the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Konstanty Skirmunt.The suspension of the Society’s activity was related to the deterioration of Armenia’ssituation on the international arena. With the abandonment of the Armenianquestion by France and Great Britain, the exchange of letters with activists in Parisalso stopped. The author compares the Society with its counterpart in London – theBritish Armenian Committee, emphasizing the organization of Polish Armenianswas truly exceptional because it was the first one of its kind, and also because itfocused not on the problems of the local diaspora, but on the issue of Armenia’s independence.

Ochrona dziedzictwa ormiańskiego w działaniach Fundacji Kultury i Dziedzictwa Ormian Polskich

Protection of the Armenian heritage in the activitiesof the Foundation for the Culture and Heritage of Polish Armenians
 One of the basic statutory tasks of the Foundation for the Culture andHeritage of Polish Armenians in Warsaw, established in 2006, is to save the materialheritage of Polish Armenians. Its collection, mainly originating from Armenianchurches in the former Eastern Borderlands, consists of a large archive of parishdocuments, record books, parchments, manuscripts, old prints, books, magazines, photographs, icons and liturgical paraments. This resource was moved to Polandwithin its new borders after the end of World War II, thanks to the efforts of priestsand parishioners. The Foundation, in 14 years of its activity, has ordered and inventoriedthese resources. They are made available at the Foundation’s seat, as well asin the Virtual Archive of Polish Armenians and through the public platform www.szukajwarchiwach.pl. From its beginnings, the Foundation has also undertaken thenecessary emergency work on the most endangered objects, and, depending onthe amount of obtained funds, also conducts conservation works.

Wartan Rubenowicz Grigorian (1929-2019)

Vartan Rubenovich Grigoryan: historian, armenologist, publicist,collector of ancient Armenian manuscripts (1929-2019)
 The author outlines the profile of Dr. Vartan Grigoryan, an outstandingArmenian historian, a longtime researcher at the Matenadaran Institute of AncientManuscripts in Yerevan. Against the background of a private biography, he analyzeshis scientific achievements, including those relating to the history of Polish Armenians,as well as his attitude to the national heritage of Armenia and the issue of itsindependence, and in this respect, also his commitment to Nagorno-Karabakh.

Idea powrotu Ormian z rozproszenia do narodowej ojczyzny w świetle memoriałów Roberta Bogdanowicza z 1877 i 1884 roku

The idea of the return of Armenians from dispersal to their historicalhomeland in the context of the Robert Bogdanowicz’s memorials from 1877 and 1884
 The article contains an analysis of the two memorials, of which the first,from 1877, remained in the manuscript, and the second, from 1885, was publishedunder the title The question of the Church of Armenian rite and its mission, as wellas the Armenian question in the East in their own country. Both were compiled byRobert Bogdanowicz, a landowner, a descendant of an Armenian family who hadlived in Poland for at least four centuries. The memorials were inspired by the author’scorrespondence with the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire,Mikhail Loris-Melikov, and Armenian archbishop Gabriel Ayvazovski. Bogdanowiczdiscussed the issue of Armenia’s independence, and in Russia he saw a patronof the struggle for national liberation. He called for the return of Polish Armeniansto their homeland in order to rebuild the state and its culture and spread ArmenianCatholicism there. Bogdanowicz can be considered one of those political thinkers ofmodern Armenia who were the co-founders of the ideology of Armenian nationalism,although the language barrier excluded its influence on other parts of the Armeniandiaspora. He did not receive any significant response among his peers atfirst, but then gained a few like-minded followers in the generations that followed.Therefore, he can be considered a protagonist of the Armenian national renaissanceof Polish Armenians that took place between the two world wars, and whose furtherdevelopment was blocked by the destruction of their homeland in former Galicia andtheir dispersion after 1944.