Polish Eastern Borderlands Research Articles

Research on the history of libraries and librarianship in Poland: A survey, 1945–2015

The author of the article discusses selected academic and popular publications on the history of libraries and librarianship in Poland which were issued between 1945 and 2015. In that period, information about the most important historical resources of various Polish libraries and early book collections was made available. In addition, the period was marked by progress in the study of materials originating before the end of the 18th century. Scholars published a range of methodological works and works about sources, contributing to the development of scholarship. At the same time, there were too few editions of source materials. After 1989, scholars intensified their efforts to find sources in foreign collections, especially in Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Germany. Polish collections kept abroad are yet to be fully researched and to have their inventories and catalogues published. The vast body of literature is uneven when it comes to its focus on individual historical periods, regions, subregions and local centres. It comprises publications on the history of libraries, their function and role in culture with regard to the history of publications focused on the types of libraries or individual libraries — of different traditions, sizes and the book, and stature. Scholars also explored the history of private book collections, reading rooms and libraries, as well as biographies of librarians and collectors. The quality of the publications varies. There are gaps in, for example, the history of libraries in the former Polish eastern borderlands and ‘blank pages’ in the historiography of Polish librarianship after the Second World War. There is a visible shortage of quantification of phenomena from the past of libraries, despite the fact that there are some possibilities in this respect. What is also needed is development in comparative studies, including from an international perspective, although this would require Polish historians to become more interested than before in the history of librarianship in other countries.

Kresy w programie politycznym księcia Adama Jerzego Czartoryskiego na emigracji. Przyczynek ikonograficzny

Polish Eastern Borderlands in prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski’s political program in exile: An iconographic contribution The article is a contribution to the reflection on the place of the Eastern Borderlands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the political program of Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski and his followers after 1831. This program was expressed and implemented in various ways, and its addressees were both the Poles and the public opinion of Western Europe. Without trying to present the whole issue, three iconographic representations that contained elements of this program were analyzed here. What they had in common was that all of them were to honor the closest British ally of Prince Adam – Lord Dudley Coutts Stuart (1803–1854). In 1846 he received a decorative tapestry from Polish emigrants, in 1847 a golden watch, and after his death a medal made by J.F.A. Bovy was minted in his honor. The heraldic and cartographic motifs adorning theses items indicate that Prince Adam and his associates saw the future of the Eastern Borderlands in connection with the rebirth of Poland. These representations were a persuasive message addressed to Polish and foreign audiences, the purpose of which was to convince them of the importance of this issue in Czartoryski’s plan for the restitution of the Polish state.

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.

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.

Untold Stories of Polish Heroes from World War II

Untold Stories of Polish Heroes from World War II

Resident bards. The court poet in light of memories from the Polish Eastern Borderlands in the first half of the 19th century

Resident bards. The court poet in light of memories from the Polish Eastern Borderlands in the first half of the 19th century

Kresy (Polish Eastern Borderlands) in Polish Literature of 1918–2018. Significant Interpretative Perspectives

The paper offers a comprehensive, synthetic account of the discourse on the subject of the Polish Eastern Borderland over the course of the last hundred years. It analyses the ways in which the understanding of the notion of Kresy and “borderland”, as well as the strategies for presenting the term, have changed, including attempts to replace this category with other terms. Furthermore, the paper characterises the dynamics concerning the transformations of situational contexts that emerged in the period of the Second Polish Republic, developed during World War II, after 1945 (in the country and abroad) and continuing from the 1980s and 1990s to the present. Significant interpretative perspectives include, among others, the trends in literary schools, the legends and myths of the Polish Eastern Borderland, the notion of the borderline of cultures, small homelands, and methodological phrases and breakthroughs (spatial turn, geopoetics, postcolonial criticism).

FORMS OF AND THE FIGHT AGAINST ORGANISED CRIME IN POLAND BEFORE 1990

The phenomenon of organised crime in Poland is not, contrary to frequently expressed views, characteristic only of the situation that arose after 1990. Considering historical sources, one can refer to well-organised groups of criminals who committed crimes in medieval Poland. Criminal associations characterised by a certain hierarchy and structure threatened the safety of travellers, carried out attacks on villages and were a threat to urban residents. During the partitions, organised criminal structures occurred mainly in the Russian and Austrian partition. In judicial chronicles, there were perpetrators creating bandit groups and strong structures of pickpockets as well as those dealing with various types of economic fraud and extortion. The problem of organised crime intensifi ed after regaining independence in 1918. The inconsistency of the legal system and weak institutions of public order protection created great opportunities for both criminal offences and economic crimes. From the 1920s, large expenditures on the development of modern economic areas (Gdynia, the Central Industrial District) became a temptation for well-organised groups to take advantage of the situation for their own benefi t. Within the structures of law protection institutions, no specialised unit for fi ghting criminal groups was created until 1939. Central and local cells of the investigative service mainly dealt with organised gangs. After the Second World War, the shaping of the criminal environment was fi rst infl uenced by huge groups of inhabitants displaced from the former Polish eastern borderlands, the general expansion caused by military operations, and ineffective law enforcement agencies. Thus, initially, the most powerful organised groups were those of criminal character. The separation of the Polish economy from open markets and economic imbalance caused the emergence of various organised crime gangs committing economic crimes ranging from smuggling and illegal trade in foreign exchange to large criminal groups at the interface between the socialised and private economy. Within the militia, which was responsible for combatting criminal offences until 1990, no units specialised in the fi ght against organised crime did not come into their own. As part of their competence, the criminal investigation department, in particular, the fraud squad and investigative service, dealt with organised crime.

Z Mościsk do Jugowa - relacje Józefy Wójcik i Marii Kocur repatriantek z Kresów Wschodnich

From Mościska to Jugów. Testimonies of Józefa Wójcik and Maria Kocur, repatriates from the Eastern Polish BorderlandsThe history of the inhabitants of the former Polish Eastern Borderlands is an interesting research topic, especially when connected to everyday life issues. Oral testimonies are important historical sources which help explore the subject better. This paper presents transcriptions of two conversations with sisters Józefa Wójcik (born in 1930) and Maria Kocór (born in 1928). Both of them were born and spent their prime years around Mościska near Lviv, and after World War II were re-settled to Jugów in Lower Silesia. The interviews were conducted in 2014 as part of a research project in the field of oral history entitled “Everyday life of inhabitants of the Owl Mountains in 1945-1970”.

Projekt edukacyjny „Kresy – polskie ziemie wschodnie w XX wieku” jako przykład działań na rzecz umacniania bezpieczeństwa kulturowego

The article describes the educational project “Borderlands – Polish Eastern Territories in the Twentieth Century” carried out by the Public Education Office of the Cracow Department of the Institute of National Remembrance since 2012. The target group of the project are students of lower and higher secondary schools of Małopolskie Voivodeship. It focuses on the Borderlands of the First and Second Polish Republic, including their history and cultural heritage, as well as the Poles, both those who left this territory after the Second World War and those who live there now. The highlight of the project is the contest of knowledge of the Borderlands, in which students prepare an essay or a multimedia presentation on a chosen topic, based on the available literature, gathered documents, memories and iconographic material. One of the rewards for the winners of the contest is a trip for the winner and a guardian to the territories that formerly constituted the Polish Eastern Borderlands.

Stanisław Swianiewicz wobec mniejszości narodowych i wielokulturowości Kresów Wschodnich Rzeczypospolitej

In his article, authors deals with Stanisław Swianiewicz heritage. They point-out that it cannot be reduced to the famous episode of the Katyń massacre while he avoided death being sent to the Gwiezdowo station in the neighbourhood of the mass graves – the only one such a case. While settled in Vilnius, after the Bolshevik’s revolution, he became a Professor of the Stefan Batory University, dealing with the Soviet studies, history of ideas and economic thought. In the article – very little known – journalistic essays are overviewed as published by Swianiewicz in pre-war Vilnius press and dealing with the issue of the national and religious minorities of the Polish Eastern Borderlands.

Leśnicy w Armii gen. Andersa. Komentarz do materiałów przechowywanych w Instytucie Hoovera

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Podobieństwa i różnice w zakresie słowotwórstwa między gwarową polszczyzną północno- i południowokresową

The article is an attempt to organize the existing data on the phenomena of derivation in Polish Eastern Borderland dialects – Northern and Southern – with a short description and exemplification. Among the phenomena that differentiate both varieties of Polish Eastern Borderland dialects, those that are the result of different language neighborhood are most numerous. Certain features are the result of the different source of the Polish language on the Polish Eastern Borderlands – Northern and Southern (as -ak from Mazovia and -e from the Lesser Poland in the names of young signifieds). In the lexical material from Polish Eastern Borderlands, the old formations, supported by foreign language influences or preserved as a result of isolation from contemporary Polish language, were recorded. A similar number of derivation phenomena, which are common to both varieties of Polish Eastern Borderland dialects (10) and specific phenomena (10 for the dialect of the Northern Polish Eastern Borderland and 8 for the Southern) are indicated in the dialect

Przegląd badań nad historią bibliotek i bibliotekarstwa w Polsce z lat 1945–2015

AN OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH INTO THE HISTORY OF LIBRARIES AND LIBRARIANSHIP IN POLAND IN 1945–2015The author of the article discusses selected academic and popular publications concerning the history of libraries and librarianship in Poland which appeared in 1945–2015. In that period information about the most important historical resources of various Polish libraries and early book collections was made available; in addition, the period was marked by progress in the study of materials originating before the end of the 18th century. Scholars published a range of methodological studies as well as studies dealing with sources, contributing to the development of scholarship. On the other hand, there were too few editions of source materials.After 1989 scholars intensified their efforts to find sources in foreign collections, especially in Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Germany. Polish collections kept abroad are yet to be fully researched and have their inventories and catalogues published.The vast body of literature is uneven when it comes to its focus on the various historical periods, regions, subregions and local centres. It comprises publications dealing with the history of libraries, their function and role in culture with regard to the history of the book, and publications focused on the types of libraries or individual libraries — of different traditions, sizes and stature. Scholars also explored the history of home book collections, reading rooms and libraries as well as biographies of librarians and collectors. The quality of the publications varies. There are gaps in, for example, the history of libraries in the former Polish Eastern Borderlands as well as “blank pages” in the historiography of Polish librarianship after the Second World War. There is a visible shortage of quantification of phenomena from the past of libraries, despite the fact that there are some possibilities in this respect. What is also needed is development in comparative studies, also in an international perspective, although this would require Polish historians to become more interested than before in the history of librarianship in other countries.

Rafał Marceli Blüth as a Conrad critic

The aim of the present article is to present the achievements of Rafal Marceli Bluth (1891-1939) in the field of Conrad scholarship. During the period between the First and Second World Wars, Bluth was a prominent Catholic intellectual and—along with Prof. Jozef Ujejski and the well-known writer Maria Dąbrowska—was one of Poland’s foremost Conrad critics. As well as interpreting Conrad’s novels, Bluth researched the writer’s biography, particularly with regard to the role played by family tradition in the Polish eastern borderlands. He also put forward a detailed interpretation of the factors which might have influenced Conrad’s decision to leave Poland while he was still in his teens. Bluth’s greatest achievements as a literary critic include interpretations of novels such as Victory, The Rover and Nostromo, an attempt to classify the main characters of Conrad’s novels and a study comparing Conrad’s writing and view of the world with those of Dostoevsky.

POLISH WAR MOVIES AS A CASE STUDY OF THE MYTH OF THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW STATEHOOD AS THE LEGITIMIST CATEGORY IN THE POLISH PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC

This article attempts to reconstruct the mythology surrounding the beginnings of state-hood of the Polish People’s Republic after the Second World War. As the means of conveying political propaganda, myths were primarily propagated in the Polish war movies of the period 1956 through 1989. The myth pertaining to the origin of statehood aimed to legitimize the roots of the communist system in Poland. As such, it is the part of a broader mythology which had developed over centuries in the national consciousness, the “myth of Polish statehood. It was used by the communists as propaganda after the Second World War. Its other mythological components include: permanence, reference to tradition and nationalism. Its main elements are: the portraying of the beginning of statehood as a drama, the myth of the army as an institution and the myth of the soldier as a charismatic figure, the myth of Western and Northern territories and the myth of Bieszczady mountains as the new Polish Eastern Borderlands, the myth of the lost patriot hero, the myth of the folk hero and the myth of widespread support for the new state authorities in years 1944-1947. It is important to note the attempts to connect the nationalistic (anti-German and anti-Ukrainian) threads with the elements of military ethos. It appears that after 1956 the current socialist realism was replaced by the myths of the beginning and the military ethics.