Polish Countryside Research Articles

Uniwersytety ludowe w II Rzeczypospolitej (zarys problemu)

The interest on the part of educational communities of the idea of folk universities – an extracurricular educational venue aimed at the young from rural areas and providing leaders in educational and cultural work with education so as to fulfill the needs of their region – increased along with Poland regaining independence. In fact, in the interwar Poland, an active movement of folk universities was created (consisting of 27 institutions of the kind). Father Antoni Ludwiczak, Ignacy Solarz, Jadwiga Dziubinska were the people who played an exceptional role in its development. The first Polish folk university in the inerwar Poland was opened with the initiative of the People’s Libraries Societies (Polish: Towarzystwo Czytelni Ludowych ) in Dalki near Gniezno, on 5 th October in 1921. The above-mentioned Father Antoni Ludwiczak, who was in charge of the society, became the director of the university. In the institution, similarly to other universities established later by the society (in Zagorze in Kaszuby in 1926, in Odolanow in the south of Wielkopolska aimed at the young from Silesia – in 1927) the education of Catholic Poles was emphasised. The curriculum realised in the university was characterised by its distinctly dominant historic and literary content. The educational profile in the university in Dalki did not satisfy some of the young people from rural areas, who were becoming more radical in social and ideal terms as well as the peasant activists from the older generation associated with them. In these circles, it was claimed that it was not “rural” enough. As a consequence, a new (rural) folk university was established – in 1924 in Szyce – fulfilling the idea of the co-called “folk school”, the main founder of which was Ignacy Solarz. The educational profile of the institution (later continued, most of all, in the folk university in Gac Przeworska) resulted from its associations with the young peasant movement and with the tendencies to educate the young from rural areas in close cooperation with peasant social class and their attempts to reconstruct the Polish countryside politically, socially and culturally, as well as the country itself. The folk university in Sokolowek was established (for female students) in 1927 and was directed by Jadwiga Dziubinska based on ideological foundations similar to the main assumptions of the concept of I. Solarz. However, it realised the model of university as an institution which, on the one hand, improved vocational preparation (especially in terms of agronomic practice) and, on the other hand – was a general expansion of general agricultural education on a lower level (the university enrolled graduates from folk agricultural schools).

Pacifists and Opponents of Military Service in Poland between 1918 and 1939

The aim of this article is to show differing attitudes (radical and moderate) among Polish pacifists and individuals opposing military service. It devotes special attention to the role of Polish writers who were supporters and critics of pacifism. Within the chapters of the article, their thoughts are repeatedly called in mind as this issue represents a gap in Polish academic research. The paper also describes the difficult conditions in which Polish pacifism functioned after Poland regained its independence in November 1918. Polish pacifists were subject to various political and social criticism. Those who denied the sense of, and refused to perform, military service suffered even greater ostracism. In this study, the most important thesis is that the Polish pacifist movement, despite representing varied political views, was weak and unable to play a serious role in Poland. Another key thesis is that the Polish tradition of armed struggle for independence in 1914-21 caused any objection to military service in pre-war Poland to be met with disapproval. The article is based on a variety of books, among them memories, diaries and belles-lettres from various times and origin, and archival sources. Newspapers and journals are a very important source as well because they represent different political views; for example, the socialist: Głos Kobiet (Women’s Voice), Robotnik (Worker), the nationalist: Wielka Polska (Grand Poland), Szczerbiec, the pro-government: Polska Zbrojna (Polish Armed), Ostatnie Wiadomości Krakowskie (Recent Krakow News). Information from newspapers are complemented by archival documents. Most of them come from the Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw (Centralne Archiwum Akt Nowych w Warszawie, AAN). Polish pacifists in the period 1918-39 were unable to bring their activities to success. Too many of them were individualists. Worse yet, they never presented a unified ideological front. Pacifists from Catholic organisations were not able to find a compromise with the communists. The weakness of Polish pacifism in 1918-39 did not stem exclusively from the major differences in ideological and political standpoints among its representatives. Only a part of the Polish intelligentsia consisted of active propagators of pacifist ideas. Very rarely did pacifist ideas reach and capture the interest of the predominantly poorly educated masses of workers and peasants. Additionally, the Roman Catholic Church, which enjoyed enormous influence in the Polish countryside, turned out to be, for the most part, unfavourably disposed towards the propagators of pacifism.

Landscape Rurality: New Challenge for The Sustainable Development of Rural Areas in Poland

The standard of country living was a matter of Polish elites’ concern from the eighteenth century. In different historical conditions different concepts of the rural renewal were formed. Today in rural areas of Poland some spatial processes that threaten the quality of life occur. The disadvantageous changes are the result of national or local governments spatial policy and they are an inhabitants’ response to it. The political transformation, launched in 1989, included the Polish countryside to The Rural Development Program, which involves the participation of local communities in the implementation of sustainable development policy. Participation has made the quality of life in the countryside a common problem of intellectual elite, institutions of government and other stakeholders. The bottom-up principle has given importance to the common rural landscapes. As a result, present degradation of rural landscapes informs about the need of a distinctive and collective vision of rurality to cooperate with the sustainable spatial policy as the test of individual spatial decisions. Selected cases of the countryside improvement will be presented to prove the presents of ideas level and grass-roots level in the physical landscape. It shows the ideological and social background of the renewal. Contemporary examples of rural settlements demonstrate that contrary judgments, as to what is rurality, are responsible for the unsustainable development.

Unconventional therapists and their patients in Polish traditional folk medicine

Folk medicine is a clearly distinct, comparatively homogeneous and closed system which has arisen from many centuries of isolation and self-sufficiency of the people of the Polish countryside. A feature of this special system involved tradition and relatively consistent illness behaviors, resistant to broader influences of the global society, despite the gradually growing role of modernization factors. An inherent feature of folk culture that impacted behaviors and attitudes of the rural population towards illness was the co-occurrence and overlapping of mystical-magical and religious elements. These applied both to the views on etiology, prevention, diagnosis and therapeutic treatment. Special functions in healing activities in the countryside were performed by the elderly. The matters related to health and illness were the province of the elderly as they were respected and revered for their life’s wisdom and life experience. The purpose of the article is to show the specificity of non-medical treatment in the context of social and cultural determinants, placing special emphasis on the role and importance of the elderly in exercising treatment roles.

Protection of old forges in Sułkowice – symbol of the local crafts-manship

Wooden structures linked to agriculture are disappearing from the image of the Polish countryside, villages and small towns at the beginning of the 21st century. It is worthy to start the discussion on the fate of desolate, deteriorating forges, sawmills, carpentries, or water mills which are relics of the traditional technology. Sułkowice, a small town in the Małopolskie voivodeship, has been known for ages as a prominent centre of blacksmiths and their craft. Even today one feels the specific character of the landscape; in the mid-19th century circa 1000 blacksmiths worked there. Tradition lived until the times after the Second World War – when artisans in Sułkowice forged, among others, artful fittings for the MS ‘Batory’ [famed Polish liner]. Inventories, surveys and measurements of old forges, elaborated by the authoress within the framework of the research grant “Image of villages and small towns in Poland of the last decade of the 20th century” (led by Prof. Wiktor Zin) led to gathering of the documentation of circa 20 structures hailing from the close of the 19th century. After 20 years that elapsed since the research there are only a few left, and their days are numbered. Local Programme of Revitalisation of the Town from the year 2007 which is a strategic plan for enterprises aiming at amelioration of the area, does not mention the protection of the last witnesses of the local crafts’s tradition. Whereby the activisation of the local community, deriving from the tradition of the place, should be the aim of such a programme. Thus maybe there should be reconstruction and later ‘cyclical rebuilding’ of the structures which have no chance to exist with their primary function? “Old-new” wooden structures shall be a reminder of the blacksmiths’ tradition.

‘Hollandse’ dorpen in Polen: Hoe anders waren ze eigenlijk?/ ‘Dutch’ Settlements in Poland: How Different Were They Actually?

Abstract The ‘Dutch’ colonisation in Poland, which took place between the 16th and the 19th century, left a clear architectural and spatial mark in the Polish countryside. The newcomers, originally from the Low Countries and later from Germany and other parts of Europe, created independent communities which did not establish strong ties with adjacent villages. Moreover, contrary to autochthonic peasants, the colonists enjoyed freedom and a relatively high social status and were often rather wealthy. Hence their villages and farmsteads differed from local ones being generally speaking more representative. It has often been assumed than the ‘Dutch’ settlements in Poland shared more similarities with the Dutch or Frisian countryside than with the neighbouring villages and that both the settlements as well as the farmhouses differed substantially from local building traditions. This paper explores how much the ‘Dutch’ villages and farms were in fact distinguishable from their local counterparts and to what extent they coincided with building traditions in the Low Countries and in Germany.

Stanisław Harla (1908–1977) działacz ludowy, literat

Stanisław Harla (1908–1977) Polish activist, a man of letters. Before World War II activist in Union of the Youth of Rural Areas “Wici” in Mielec County, the Republic of Poland, Małopolska Voivodeship of that time. In the mid-1930s, Stanisław Harla was an active member of the Polish People’s Party. In 1936 and 1937 Harla took part in strikes taking place in Mielec County. The Great Peasant Uprising was pacified by the government. Stanisław Harla was repeatedly persecuted and questioned by the police. In 1939 while subjected to cruel, inhuman interrogation procedure by the police, Harla sustained a spinal injury. After World War II in the late 1940s, Harla, disappointed by the Polish People’s Republic system, backed away from active political life. Harla is bracketed together with outstanding popular poets. In his work Harla expressed the misery, injustice, anguish and physical pain that peasants living in Polish villages felt. Through his poems readers may picture the magical, beautiful Polish countryside of the time. In the verses, the author considers the evanescence of human life and asks questions about the sense of active participation in the history. In spite of everything, throughout his life Harla was devoted to the idea of agrarianism and the people’s movement.

Zofiówka Sanatorium.

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article PerspectivesFull AccessZofiówka SanatoriumMary V. Seeman, M.D.Mary V. SeemanSearch for more papers by this author, M.D.Published Online:1 Jun 2014https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2013.13081114AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail The Zofiówka sanatorium in Otwock, Poland, was founded at the beginning of the 20th century by the Society for the Protection of Mentally Ill Jews under the directorship of Samuel Goldflam, an eminent Polish psychiatrist of the time (1). The facility was built on 30 hectares of land with funds donated by benefactress Zofia Endelman, for whom the facility was named. When completed, the sanatorium complex included four buildings and housed 370 patients, both children and adults; at its peak, it employed 994 staff. Innovative psychological treatment methods were used to excellent effect, but in September 1939, when Poland was invaded by Germany, all this changed.Bent on creating a “master race” of superior beings, the German government (with the collaboration of a large segment of its physicians) attempted to remove from the Reich all those judged to be defective: the physically and mentally disabled, vagrants, homosexuals, and Jews (2). The process of exterminating the mentally ill started not in Germany proper, but in German-occupied Poland.It started relatively late in the war in Zofiówka. The Jewish ghetto of Otwock, near Warsaw, was first established on Jan. 15, 1941, and was sealed on May 28. This meant that no patient could be discharged from Zofiówka—despite staff shortages (most of the original staff had fled toward the East at the outbreak of the war) and despite the increasing scarcity of food, coal, and medical supplies (3).As a result of crowding, cold, deprivation, and unsanitary conditions, 210 residents (more than half) died between June 1 and Nov. 16, 1941, while at the same time, German health authorities continued to send more and more mentally ill Jewish patients to Zofiówka from hospitals in other locations.On Aug. 19, 1942, the Otwock ghetto was liquidated (everyone was either shot on the spot or sent to Treblinka to be gassed). Warned a day ahead, some of the Zofiówka patients and many of the staff took potassium cyanide. Some escaped into the surrounding countryside to be betrayed later by the local population (4). Up to 140 children and adults were machine gunned on the hospital grounds. Patients not murdered that day were deported, with the other residents of the Otwock ghetto, to the Treblinka extermination camp, where 90% were killed within 2 hours of arrival (5).By the end of 1942, the only persons left in Zofiówka were two SS men and 20 Jewish policemen who were tasked with renovating the buildings, readying them for their new occupants: racially pure Aryan pregnant women carrying racially pure fetuses—Lebensborn Ostland. At birth, the children were adopted by racially pure German families, often the families of the very SS men who had put to death the children of Zofiówka (6).Zofiówka is now abandoned, and the buildings lie in ruins (7–9). Abandoned with them are the once-bright hope of scientific eugenics and the promise of nationalism as a political ideology. More specific to psychiatry, also abandoned are the ideals of psychiatric asylums as places of sanctuary and of physicians as people of honor.From the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto.Address correspondence to Dr. Seeman (mary.[email protected]ca).Photograph by nijanulu is used by permission and appears at the KNOBZ.NET web site (http://knobz.home.pl/en/abandoned1.html).References1 Webb C: Otwock & the Zofiówka sanatorium: a refuge from hell. http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/otwock.htmlGoogle Scholar2 Strous R: Extermination of the Jewish mentally-ill during the Nazi era—the “doubly cursed.” Isr J Psychiatry Relat Sci 2008; 45:247–256Medline, Google Scholar3 Nasierowski T: The extermination of the mentally ill in Poland during the Second World War. Int J Ment Health 2006; 35:50–61Crossref, Google Scholar4 Engelking B: Murdering and denouncing Jews in the Polish countryside, 1942–1945. East Eur Polit Soc 2011; 25:433–456Crossref, Google Scholar5 Donat A (ed): The Death Camp Treblinka. New York, Holocaust Library, 1979Google Scholar6 Thompson LV: Lebensborn and the eugenics policy of the Reichsführer-SS. Cent Eur Hist 1971; 4:54–77Crossref, Google Scholar7 MrBoblarz: Mental Hospital Zofiówka Otwock.http://mrboblarz.deviantart.com/art/Mental-Hospital-Zofiowka-Otwock-312631457Google Scholar8 nijanulu: Abandoned Psychiatric Hospital “Zofiówka”: Otwock, Poland.http://knobz.home.pl/en/abandoned1.htmlGoogle Scholar9 Urbex Polska: Abandoned Mental Asylum “Zofiówka.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41AVmzg_c-kGoogle Scholar FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByThe Jewish psychiatric hospital, Zofiówka, in Otwock, Poland19 February 2015 | History of Psychiatry, Vol. 26, No. 1 Volume 171Issue 6 June 2014Pages 625-626 Metrics PDF download History Accepted 1 October 2013 Published online 1 June 2014 Published in print 1 June 2014

EU Funds for the Polish Countryside and Agriculture

EU Funds for the Polish Countryside and Agriculture

Przemiany polskiej wsi w latach 1918–1989

In the prewar period problems of Polish countryside were fragmentation and overpopulation. In spite of the land reform the farms were mainly smaller than 5 hectares and the peasants practiced the extensive farming. Only the part of bigger farms, mainly in Western and Middle Poland, was modern. The Great Depression led to 66% agricultural goods prices drop and it lasted until 1945. The Polish countryside during the World War II suffered enormous material and demographic loss. After the end of the war the radical land reform was introduced, which deepened agricultural fragmentation. Some part of the land remained in government’s possession and were transformed into State Agricultural Farm (Panstwowe Gospodarstwo Rolne, PGR). The area of this farms were extended systematically, particularly in the western and northern Poland’s areas. In 1948 the government started to collectivize the countryside. The famers were forced with restrain and repression to join the cooperative farms. After 1956 the most of the cooperative farms fell apart and the policy has been lightened, e.g. reducing compulsory deliveries. The deepening depression of the 70’s led to the prices drop and the collapse in the agricultural industry, which caused the breakdown of food supply. The bad condition of agriculture lasted until the last days of People’s Republic of Poland.

Promising Harmonies: The Aural Politics of Polish-Jewish Relations in the Russian Empire

In the early 1820s, during a series of summer sojourns in the Polish countryside, Frederick Chopin imagined himself as a Jewish klezmer musician. Meanwhile, the Polish composer Stanislaw Moniuszko reportedly convinced the most famous nineteenth-century cantor, Yoel-David Strashunsky, to abandon Judaism for a career on the Polish stage. These strange, forgotten instances of Polish Jewish musical encounter defy conventional images of a strict separation between nineteenth-century Polish and Jewish cultures. In this article, I employ literary and archival sources to peel back the layers of myth that encrust these encounters. Pushing past the consistent focus on vertical cultural relationships in eastern Europe, I argue that we should focus instead on the horizontal plane of interethnic aural contacts in order to see the historical dynamics of culture and power at work in Polish-Jewish relations and recover the full imprint of empire on the modern eastern European cultural imagination.

The Polish Countryside in Statistics

The Polish Countryside in Statistics

‘Don't be Mute!’

ABSTRACTPolish immigrants arrived in the United States familiar with the culture of public letter-writing to the press, in which they participated through the periodicals for peasants circulating in the Polish countryside at the turn of the twentieth century. The article analyses public letters published in over thirty Polish-language newspapers printed in the United States between 1880s and 1960s, and demonstrates that the editors used them to support important functions of the ethnic press: creation of a national as well as diasporic immigrant community; formation of readers' networks loyal to particular newspapers; and adoption of personal service journalism, which guided the immigrants in their adaptation in the new country. The immigrants who arrived in subsequent decades continued the practice of letter-writing to the press, strengthening and expanding it to include the entire Polish Diaspora.

Zmienne losy polskiej socjologii na przykładzie jej czołowego przedstawiciela profesora Józefa Chałasińskiego

Józef Chałasiński was one of significant organizers of learning in the Polish People’s Republic. He was considered a continuator of sociological thought of Florian Znaniecki. He organized the Łódź Sociological Center and after the end of the Second World War was a co-organizer of Łódź University. However, it was not organizational achievements but critical knowledge about the system of the command of science was a long-lasting output of the outstanding sociologist. J. Chałasiński worked out new research methods. He introduced the diary and autobiographic methods to the sociological research. He was a promoter of competitions for peasant and workers’ diaries. Based on them he worked out 4-volume work „Young generation of peasants” (1938) in which one presented shaping of social movements in the Polish countryside. He was a creator of the term „social promotion”. He studied the issues of education in communism and socialism systems. He was also interested in the North American culture. In the mid-fi fties he openly criticized intervention of the state authorities in the Polish science for which he was then withdrawn from the main course of scientific activity. He became a symbol of fi ght for Polish sociological science development under lack of freedom in scientifi c activity conditions.

Air quality in non-industrialised area in the typical Polish countryside based on measurements of selected pollutants in immission and deposition phase

Abstract The immission and deposition levels of selected pollutants occurring in the area of a typical Polish village have been presented. In the course of a year-long research project (2009–2010), concentration levels of gaseous compounds in the air were determined (SO2, NO2, C6H6), as well as the level of solid particles deposition with the consideration of their chemical composition (Mn, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cd, Cu). Measurements were conducted in the area of rural settlements and at the site of plantation fields adjacent to the village. Classical analytical techniques (AAS, GC, IC) and biomonitoring with the use of mosses and lichens were used for the purposes of the study. Air quality in rural areas is determined mostly by the influence of the local sources (agricultural and uncontrolled emission) and that the quantity of toxicants enriching the environment depends on cyclical weather states periods characteristic for the temperate climate. The spatial location of the village and meteorological conditions conducive to the spread and dilution of pollutants. Average monthly and the average annual concentrations of the classic gaseous atmosphere quality indicators do not entail the atmosphere's serious degradation. The presence of heavy metals and size of their deposition in the dust have shown that air quality is not at a satisfactory level. The deposition of solid particles is determined by the partition in the formation of emissions between uncontrolled and agricultural sources. The major source of the gas pollutants is associated with uncontrolled emission from residential and farm buildings.

Murdering and Denouncing Jews in the Polish Countryside, 1942-1945

The Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Poland had several phases. First, Jews were marked with the Star of David badge, then isolated in ghettos, and—at the end—they were murdered in the extermination camps. But thousands of Jews had managed to escape both from ghettos and from camps. Often they were jumping from the trains going to Treblinka, or—after surviving a shooting—escaping from a mass grave. All of them wanted to survive the war. Some tried to stay in the cities; others were looking for help in the countryside. The article is about those Jews who wanted to live through the war among Polish peasants but were betrayed, denounced to the Germans, or murdered.

POSTSOCIALISM AS A DIAGNOSTIC TOOL Common-Sense Concepts of Power and State in Southern Poland

Are the common-sense concepts of power and state, used in the rural regions of Poland, manifestations of postcommunist or postsocialist mentality? Several fieldwork seasons spent in the Polish countryside let me to conclude that local concepts of power and authority used by my local informants should rather be called “postpeasant” or “posttraditional” than “postsocialist”. The opinions concerning different forms of authority, as well as the state itself, shaped within the local discourse and shared by the contemporary inhabitants of rural areas of Poland, proved difficult to follow without profound understanding of traditional peasant culture, mentality and value system. Therefore, I suggest the term “postpeasant” to be applied in reference to rural communities of contemporary Poland as more accurate than the widely used term “postsocialist”.

Polish countryside and agriculture on the background of global changes

Polish countryside and agriculture on the background of global changes

Small farms and their owners in the Polish countryside Sociological reflections

Small farms and their owners in the Polish countryside Sociological reflections

A Review of the Book “Global Cultural Flows and the Presence of New Settlers in the Polish Countryside” by Justyna Laskowska-Otwinowska

Justyna Laskowska-Otwinowska „Globalne przepływy kulturowe a obecność nowoosadników na polskiej wsi”. Biblioteka Muzeum Archeologicznego i Etnograficznego w Łodzi, Łódź, 2008.