Abstracts 74, 1996 PL ISSN 0001 - 0829 (2024)

A d a Poloniae Historica Abstracts 74, 1996 PL ISSN 0001 - 0829

GENERAL WORKS1

Stanisław Achremczyk, Alojzy Szorc, Braniewo, Olsztyn 1995, Wydawnictwo Ośrodka Badań Naukowych im. Wojciecha Kętrzyńskiego w Olsztynie, 340 pp., bibliogr., index of persons, sum. in German, illustr. Monografie miast i wsi Warmii i Mazur N° 2. This is a monograph of Braniewo, one of the most important historical towns in Warmia; it consists o f three parts. In the first, the authors discuss the years from 1284 to the first partition of Poland (1772); the second part is devoted to the period of partitions, the inter-war period and the Second World War, the third deals with recent times, from 1945 on. A considerable part of the book concerns the period of the town’s greatest prosperity, i.e. the pre-partition period. Braniewo, which at that time had several thousand inhabitants, belonged to the Hansa, was an important centre of linen trade and was the fourth largest Prussian town after Gdańsk, Toruń and Elbląg. The town made up for a partial loss of its commercial importance (a result of deteriorating conditions in the port) by becoming a centre of the artistic and cultural life of the region in the 16th and 17th centuries. In writing of Braniewo when it belonged to Prussia and Germany (1772-1945) the authors present its political history, socio-political system, economic development, education system and cultural life; in the last part of the book they discuss the reconstruction of the town after the war and Braniewo’s place in present-day Poland. Achremczyk and Szorc emphasize that the present inhabitants of Braniewo are particu­ larly interested in education and culture in the broad sense of the word, i.e. timeless values. The authors have made use of handwritten sources from the Archives of the Warmian Diocese in Olsztyn, the Stale Archives in Olsztyn, Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin-Dahlem (the former Königsberg Archives) and the Kiksarkivet in Stock­ holm . (AK)

“Kwartalnik Historyczny” (Warszawa), vol. C, 1993, N°4, “Numer jubileuszowy” (Centen­ ary N °mber), 296 pp. The editorial board of “Kwartalnik Historyczny”, the oldest historical periodical in Poland, has commemorated the centenary of the periodical with a Centenary N °mber. It opens with an article by Jerzy Strzelczyk (pp. 5-25) on changes in the Europeans’ geographic horizons in the early Middle Ages in the light of Cosmography by A ethicus o f Istria . G erard Labuda (pp. 26-48) points out that the present-day nations and regions of Europe have a medieval genesis. Lech Leciejewicz (pp. 49-62) discusses the presence of Normans in Polish territories in the 9th-11th centuries. Jerzy W y ro z u ni s k i (pp. 63-72)says that it is possible to examine cultural influences and social consciousness in the Middle Ages by analyzing patrocinia. Stanisław Bylina (pp. 73-88) reconstructs pagan Slav ideas about the world of the dead. Four articles deal with Poland’s place in Europe; Henryk Sa m s on o - wicz (pp. 89-100) describes what thisquestion looked like in the 13th and 14th centuries; Antoni M ącza k (pp. 121-139) presents the development of Poland and West European countries in the 16th and 17th centuries; Maria Bogucka (pp. 113-119) discusses the image of Poland as an anti-Christ’s ally in I6th century Protestant German leaflets; and Janusz

1 Authors of the abstracts: Jacek Adamczyk (JA), Dariusz Jarosz (DJ), Andrzej Karpiński (AK), Włodzimierz Mędrzecki (WM), Edward Opaliński (EO), Andrzej Szwarc (AS).

http://rcin.org.pl 206 ABSTRACTS

Tazbir (pp. 151-264) writes about the dispute over Poland as the bulwark of Christianity in Polish political thought and political writings in 1939-1992. Marian B iskup’s article (pp. 101-112) deals with the beginnings of the Reformation in Royal Prussia. Ryszard K i e rs - nowski (pp. 137-150) has collected material concerning bears and bear-hunting in various cultures. His article is a supplement to his book which has been mentioned in a note in “Acta Poloniae Historica”, vol. 72, p. 167. Jacek Staszewski’s article (pp. 151-163) deals with the recently published diary of Prince Frederic Kristian, Saxon heir to the Polish throne; the diary covers the years 1751-1757. Two articles concern 19th century history; Lech T rze­ ci akowski (pp. 165-179) writes about Otto von Bismarck’s ideas about Polish society, and A. G a I os (pp. 181-193) about the German Language Act of 1908 which repressed the minorities. Three articles deal with the Second Republic; Roman Wapiński (pp. 195-210) presents the Poles’ ideas about Poland’s eastern borderland, Zygmunt Zieliński (pp. 211-223) describes the political aspects of the work conducted by German Catholic priests, and Zbigniew Landau (pp. 225-235)analyses the state banking sector. Henryk Ba to ­ w s ki (pp. 237-250) discusses the reasons for the disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1991, pointing out that they go back to the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20ilth. A ndrzej Wyczański’s brief text (pp. 265-268) deals with the re-establishment of Polish- French scientific contacts in 1956. A separate group consists of articles by Jerzy Kł oczo- wski (pp. 269-281) on the development of socioreligious historiography in Poland in comparison with other countries, and Jerzy Topolski (pp. 283-296), who places historio­ graphy on the border line of science and literature. (JA )

MIDDLE AGES

Grzegorz B i a ł u ń s k i , Wyprawa Bolesława Kędzierzawego na Prusy w 1166 roku (Boles- laus the Curly’s Expedition to Prussia in 1166), “Zapiski Historyczne” (Toruń), vol. LX, 1995, N°2-3, pp. 7-19, sum. in German. The Polish expedition against Prussia in the 1160s is presented in sources in an ambiguous and contradictory way as regards its date, route, commander and progress. This is why it is a moot point in historiography how it progressed and even whether it occurred at all. On the basis of Polish chronicles and yearbooks from the 12 th and 13th centuries, the author says that the expedition did in fact take place. In his opinion the expedition was directed against the territories of the Sasins and Galinds, an area of Polish expansion since the time of Boleslaus the Wry-Mouthed. Boleslaus the Curly was in command of the expedition because he was the senior prince and also because his district, Mazovia, neighboured on Prussia. Duke Henry of Sandomierz, who took part in the expedition, was killed in a Prussian ambush when he was commanding the vanguard of the Polish forces. The date of Henry’s death, the same as the day of the death of Mateusz, bishop of Cracow (October 18th, 1166) makes it possible to date the expedition accurately. (JA).

Roman Czaja, Udział wielkich miast pruskich w handlu hanzeatyckim do połowy XIV wieku (The Participation of Great Prussian Towns in Ilajiseatic Trade up to the Middle o f the 14th Century), part I, “Zapiski Historyczne” (Toruń), vol. LX, 1995, Np. 2-3, pp. 21-38; part 11, ibidem, N° 4, pp. 43—55, sum. in German. The article discusses the scope, commodity structure, organizational links and the interlacing of capital in the long-distance trade of Elbląg, Toruń, Chełmno and Braniewo from about 1224-1227 (the appearance of merchants from Lübeck in the region of the lower Vistula) up to 1347 (the adoption of the statute of the Hansa office in Bruges), and from 1308 also of Gdańsk. Czaja distinguishes two phases of this trade: the first in the second half of the 13th century was dominated by Lübeck, which sought to become an intermediary in Prussia’s trade with Western Europe. This was helpful at the beginning of Prussia’s trade, but it facilitated http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 207 commerce only with the south-western Baltic and, to a lesser extent, with Flanders and Norway. The decline of Lübeck’s importance at the end of the 14th century and the develop­ ment of Prussia’s trade links with Rhenish trade made it possible for Prussia to expand trade with England, Holland and Scandinavia; the formerly numerous Prussian-Lübeck companies were replaced by Prussian-Rhenish ones. During the entire period under review Prussian merchants exported grain, furs and (from the beginning of the 14th century) forest products from Prussia, Poland and Ruthenia as well as copper from Upper Hungary; they imported cloth, salt and herring. Elbląg was the main trading centre; it was only at the end of the period under review that Elbląg had to compete with quickly developing Gdansk. (JA) Imagines Potestatis. Rytuały, symbole i konteksty fabularne władzy zwierzchniej. Polska X-XV w., z przykładem czeskim i ruskim (Imagines Potestatis. The Rituals, Symbols and Legendary Contexts of Supreme Power, with Czech and Ruthenian examples), cd. Jacck Banaszkiewicz, Warszawa 1994, Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 256 pp., index of persons and figures, series: Colloquia Mediaevalis Varsoviensia, vol. I. The book comprises papers read at a conference held in Warsaw on October 20th and 21st, 1992. Zbigniew Dal ewski (pp. 9-30) reconstructs the main elements of the enthro­ nement of Polish dukes in the 12th and 13th centuries. Many of these elements were typical of the coronation of kings, which, in the author’s opinion, reflected the Piasts' royal traditions and ambitions. Marek Derwich (pp. 31-58) discusses the role of abbots in coronation ceremonies in Poland and says that since 1320 abbots of Benedictine monasteries at Tyniec and Mogilno had taken part in the coronation of rulers. He points out that the rulers’ pilgrimages to the tomb of St. Stanislaus on the eve of coronation, a custom mentioned in the 15th century Ordo coronando, were put into practice only in the second half of the 16th century. Przemysław Mrozowski (pp. 59-74) analyses the ruleis’ gestures during ent­ hronement. The paper is based on iconographie sources. Urszula Borkowska OSV (pp. 75-92) presents the religious and political aspects of the ceremonies of betrothal, marriage and baptism in royal families in Poland. František Š m a h e l (pp. 93-104) writes about the desecration of the mortal remains of Vaclav IV, kingof Bohemia and Germany, by the Hussites in 1420. According to the author, desecration of adversaries’ bodies was not contrary to late medieval mentality. He cites similar examples from Biblical times and up to the 20th century. Ryszard Kiersnowski (pp. 105-116) discusses the significance of the bird as a symbol of authority and rulers in medieval Europe. Zenon Piech’s paper (pp. 117-150) deals with the symbols of the state and rulers during the reign of the last two Piasts (1320-1370). In the author’s opinion, the number of symbols was restricted during that period and their meaning became more precise asaresultofthestabilizationofthe Polish state. Stefan K. Kuczyński (pp. 151-160) discusses the genesis of the symbol of White Eagle as the coat of arms of the Polish Kingdom and the significance it had in the 14th and 15th centuries. Borys Paszkie­ wicz (pp. 161-167) analyses the images of crowned rulers with horns, known in regional Polish heraldry (Dobrzyń region), sphragistic art and Casimir the Great’s coins from about 1367. In the author’s opinion, the horns, known from late medieval images of Biblical figures, symbolized a ruler convey ing God’s Law to his people. Nadieżda Soboleva (pp. 170-184) discusses the emergence of Ruthenian state symbols in the Middle Ages. Roman M icha­ łowski (pp. 185-205) compares the presentations of the Piasts’ monarchic ideology in the chronicles of Gallus Anonimus and Kadłubek. I le says that the divine factor was of small importance in Kadłubek’s chronicle and attributes this to the changes occurring in European chronicle writing in the 12th century. Mieczysław Rokosz (pp. 206-227) discusses legends about Polish rulers’ insignia in 12th and 13th century chronicles. He analyses the connection between the evolution of legends and current political events. Jacck Ba n a sz k i c w i c z ’s article (pp. 228-248) deals with Gallus Anonimus’ and Kadłubek’saccounlsofhow Boleslaus the Wry-Mouthed presented a golden arm to comes Zelisław to replace the one Zelisław had http://rcin.org.pl 208 ABSTRACTS lost in battle. In addition to the papers, the volume also includes Andrzej N a d o l s k i ’s comments which supplement the views of some authors. (JA) Andrzej J aneczek, Miastu Rusi Czerwonej w nurcie modernizacji. Kontekst reform XIV—XVI (The Towns of Red Ruthenia in the Current of Modernization. The Context of 14th-16th Century Reforms), “Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej” (Warszawa), vol. XLIII, 1995, N°1, pp. 55-66. The urban changes which took place in Red Ruthenia belonged to the current of innovations begun in the 14th century; in the author’s opinion, they can be defined as modernization with the use of tried-out measures. Janeczek points out three main factors which gave a specific character to Red Ruthenian towns, namely, the fact that urbanization processes depended on local conditions, which assigned a special value to urbanization, the specific needs of this region, and the complex structure of towns, a result of the heterogeneous ethnic, religious and cultural structure of the urban population. In Janeczek’s opinion the social and spatial shape of Ruthenian towns resulted in great deal form local features. (AK) Tomasz Jurek, Najdawniejsze wywody szlachectwa naSląsku (The Oldest Tests of Nobility in Silesia), “Sobótka” (Wrocław), vol. XLXI, 1994, N° 3-4, pp. 191—203, sum. in German. The author polemises with A. Seyler’s theory concerning tests of nobility. According to Sey 1er, the Silesian custom demanding that a man whose noble birth was challenged should prove his nobility by statements made by witnesses from the families of his father, mother, paternal grandmother and maternal grandmother, was an old German custom which vanished in Germany proper but was retained in the colonial border province. Jurek shows that the two oldest documents (from the 14th century) are forgeries and that the institution could not have existed in Silesia because the estate barriers were very flexible there in the 14th century. He points out that an identical way of proving one’s noble descent existed in the early 14th century in the relatively weakly Germanized Opole region (which was not regarded as part of Silesia at that time) and in the Kingdom of Poland, and that the oldest unquestionable tests of nobility in Lower Silesia took place in 1485. Jurek draws the conclusion that the Lower Silesian tests of nobility were derived from Polish law, to be more exact, from its version applied in the Opole region. Theadoption of the Opole custom i n Lower Silesia at the end of the 15tli century was caused by the noble esta te there becoming a closed institution. The adoption was promoted by the Opole nobility’s contacts with the Lower Silesian nobility, for some parts of the Opole region were linked by a personal union with Lower Silesian duchies. (JA) Tomasz Jurek, Kto i kiedy fundował kolegiatę głogowską (Who Founded the Głogów Collegiate Church and When Was This Done), “Sobótka” (Wrocław), vol. XLIX, 1994, N“ 1-2, pp. 21-35, sum. in German, annex. Discussion on the genesis of the collegiate church at Głogów has been going on since the 19th century. Jurek draws attention to three questions: the 15 th century tradition according to which the church was founded jointly by Heimon, bishop of Wroclaw, and Duke Wojsław in 1120; the traditional joint patronage of Wrocław bishops and local lords over collegiate prebends, a patronage confirmed in 1360; and also the structure of the collegiate church’s revenues, a part of which came from endowments made before the foundation of the town. These endowments could have been made only by a duke and not by Wojsław, who was castellan of Glogów. According to Jurek, the Głogów collegiate church must have been founded in 1120 by Heimon and the duke of those days, that is, Boleslaus III the Wry-Mouthed. The author‘s conclusions contradict Lambert Schulte’s theory that the collegiate church of Głogów dales from the beginning of the 13th century. However, in view of the paucity of sources, J urek's conclusions are only a hypothesis. (JA)

http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 209 Kobieta w kulturze średniowiecznej Europy. Prace ofiarowane Profesor Alicji Karłowskiej— Kamzowej (Woman in the Culture of Medieval Europe. Studies in Honour of Alicja Karłow- ska-Kamzowa), ed. Antoni Gąsiorowski, Poznań 1995, Wydawnictwo Poznańskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk, 258 pp., series: Poznańskie Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk, Prace Komisji Historii Sztuki, vol. XXI. The book comprises papers readat the 15th Medievalistic Seminary which was held in Poznan from October 13th to 15th, 1994. The volume opens with two syntheses; one, by Father Marek Starowi ej ski, discusses the position of women in ancient Christianity (pp. 23-39); the other, by Jacek W iesiołowski, concerns the evolution of women’s social position in medieval Poland (pp. 41-46). Ryszard Grzesik’s paper (pp. 47-53) is devoted to Adelaide, who is said to have been a Polish princess married to a Hungarian ruler, Wojciech I w aií- czak’s text concerns Elżbieta Ryksa, daughter of the Polish king, Przemyśl II (pp. 55-59). Tomasz Jurek writes about the marriages of foreign knights in Silesia in the 13th and 14th centuries (pp. 61-70); Małgorzata Mokosa (pp. 71-77) about women mentioned in Szczecin’s oldest municipal records from 1305-1352. Izabela Skierska (pp. 79-88) has devoted her text to the holy days of the patronesses of women in medieval Polish synodal legislation. Katarzyna Szafer (pp. 89-94) analyses the images of a good and a bad woman-ruler in Jan Długosz' s Chronicle. Katarzyna Czarna (pp. 95-100) discusses the birth of the literary legend of Joan of Arc in Poland (18th—19th centuries). Many articles concern female questions in medieval French literature. Ewa D. Żółkiewska (pp. 101-110) writes about the types of women in French literature, Antoni Bartosz (pp. 111-114) about women readers of knightly romances; Anna Loba (pp. 115-20), Iwona Chojnowska (pp. 121-127), Katarzyna Dybeł (pp. 129-132) and Jacek Kowalski (pp. 133-140) analyze individual heroes in French literature. Negative heroes are dealt with by Barbara Srebro-Fila (pp. 141-146). Various aspects of the social status of literary heroinesare examined by Dariusz Rych lewi cz (pp. 147-150)and Sylvia Nagel (pp. 151-157). Irmgard Siede (pp. 159-169) described how the Holy Virgin was presented in 12th century art, Ewa Krawiecka’s article (pp. 171-180) concerns the presentation of Mary Magdalene in the art and literature of the same century. Zsombor Jćkely (pp. 181-187) describes the presentation of women martyrs in late medieval Transylvanian painting. Adelina Angusheva-Ti honova (pp. 189-194) discusses the cult of St. Tekla; Maja Petrova (pp. 195-200) writes about late Byzantine anthologies of women saints. Stanko A n d r i ć (pp. 201-204) presents women’s prayers to St. John of Capistrano in “Miracula”. Katarzyna Kalińska (pp. 205-208) recalls the compositions of St. llilde- garde of Bingen. The next two texts concern the cultural activities of women rulers, Isabella of Burgundy (Michael Sch a u d er, pp. 209-217) and Anne of Brittany (Barbara Kornac- ka, pp. 219-222). Joanna Bul l ewska (pp. 225-234)analyses Sandro Boticelli's painting “Madonna del Magnificat”. Margaret Dragonova (pp. 235-242) presents the place of the Life of St. Mary of Egypt in medieval and early modern Bulgarian literature. Barbara Marczuk (pp. 243-250) discusses the influence of Margaret, queen of Navarre, on the renewal of cult of the Holy Virgin in the 16th century. Constantin Ittu (pp. 251-255) describes the stay of Voica, daughter-in-law of the legendary Dracula, in Sibiu in 1508-1509. Danuta Rościszewska discusses the types of women in graphic art and drawings at the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modern times (pp. 257-258). The volume also includes Ryszard Piechow ski’s bibliography of A. Karłowska- Kamzowa’s works published in 1957-1994 (pp. 9-22). (JA) Peregrinationes. Pielgrzymki w kulturze dawnej Europy (Peregrinationes. Pilgrimages in the Culture of Old Europe), ed. Halina Manikowska and Hanna Zaremska, Warszawa 1995, Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 349 pp., index of geographic names, scries: Colloquia Mediaevalia Varsoviensa, vol. II.

http://rcin.org.pl 210 ABSTRACTS The book comprises materials from a session held at Spala in October 1993. Aleksandra Witkowska OSU discasses various types of medieval pilgrimages (pp. 9-16). Ewa Wipszycka (pp. 17-28) writes about ancient Christian pilgrimages. Juliusz Domański (pp. 29-38) presents the opinions of authors from the late Antiquity up to the Renaissance on the significance of saints’ relics. Jerzy Strzelczyk (pp. 39-50) analyses the social aspect of Irish and Scottish pilgrimages. Leszek P. Słupecki (pp. 51-54) points out that pilgrimages were held also in pagan territories in the Elbe region. Stanisław Bylina (pp. 55-63) discusses pilgrimages to “false prophets” in Central Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries; Krzysztof Bracha deals with some aspects of the cult of saints’ images in 15th century Germany (pp. 64-71). Teresa Michałowska (pp. 72-85) discusses pilgrimages as a topic in medieval Polish literature. Five papers concern pilgrimages to the Holy Land: Marek Starowieyski (pp. 89-97) describes Egeria’s pilgrimage (in 381-384); Piotr Iw aszkiew icz (pp. 98-101) discusses pilgrimages before the crusades; Wojciech Mruk (pp. 102-109) and Grażyna Klimecka (pp. 110-113) present Ruthenian accounts of pilgrimages, and Dariusz R o t t (pp. 114-117) writes about Anzelm the Pole’s account from first half of the 16th century. Wojciech I wa ńcza k (pp. 118-125) writes about the participation of Czechs in crusades to the Holy Land, and Danuta Q u irin i-Popławska (pp. 126-143) about the importance of Venice as a stage in journeys to Palestine. Manna Zarem ska’s article (pp. 147-156) deals with pilgrimages as a penalty for murder in 13th—15th century Central Europe, and Elżbieta Kowalczyk’s article (pp. 157-159) with the punitive pilgrimages of Bolesław the Wry-Mouthed and Piotr Włostowic. Jacek W ie­ siołowski (pp. 160-164)describes Poles’ pilgrimages to Rome in 1478-1526; Małgorzata Wi 1 ska (pp. 165-169) discusses pilgrimages from Mazovia to Compostella in the 13th— 15th centuries. Roman Michałowski (pp. 173-184) reconstructs hypothetical circum­ stances of the transfer of relics of five martyred Polish Brethren to Gniezno (between 1008 and 1039). Urszula Borkowska OSU (pp. 185-203)describes the Jagiellons‘ pilgrimages to centres in Poland. Aleksandra Witkowska OSU (pp. 204-209) discusses pilgrimage centres devoted to the cult of the Virgin Mary in the 17th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Andrzej Zakrzewski (pp. 210-220) deals with the cultural significance of pilgrimages in early modern Poland, and Teresa Chynczewska-Hennel (pp. 221-224) with the pilgrimages of pa pal nuncios to Częstochowa in the 16th and 17 th centuries. Other articles concern medieval pilgrimages in Silesia (Halina Manikowska, pp. 225- 241), in the Chełmno, Lubawa and Michałów regions (Krystyna Zielińska-M elkow- ska, pp. 242-251), in Bohemia (Jan Hrdina, pp. 252-260), in Sweden (Mąja Gąsso - wska, pp. 261-270), as well as pilgrimages in Maghreb and Western Sudan from the 12th to the 19th century (Barbara Stępniew ska-H olzer, pp. 271-274). Other authors deal with the functioning of monastic sanctuaries as centres of pilgrimages; they discuss Łysiec (Marek De rw i ch, pp. 277-287), the Holy Cross sanctuary in Lublin (Leszek Wojcie- chowski, pp. 288-296), the Bernardine monastery at Skępe (Małgorzata M aciszew­ ska, pp. 297-306), the monastery at Trzemeszno (Marcin Wiewióra, pp. 307-312), and the churches of crusaders’ orders in medieval Silesia (Maria Starnawska, pp. 313-318). The book ends with three communiques dealing with relics of medieval pilgrimages. They have been written by Stefan K. Kuczyński (pp. 321-327), Teresa Dunin-W ąso- wicz (pp. 328-331)and Adam Żurek (pp. 323-338).(JA) Krzysztof Pietkiewicz, Wielkie Księstwo Litewskie pod rządami Aleksandra Jagiel­ lończyka. Studia nad dziejami państwa i społeczeństwa na przełomie XV i XVI wieku (The Grand Duchy of Lithuania under the Rule of Alexander Jagiellon. Studies in the History of the State and Society at the Turn of the 15 th Century), Poznań 1995, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 256 pp., bibliogr., index of persons, index of geographical and ethnic names, annex, sum. in English.

http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 211 19th century historiography took a very critical view of Alexander’s rule in Lithuania and Poland. Historians stressed the military defeats suffered by Lithuania in its confrontations with the Grand Duchy of Muscovy, emphasized Lithuania’s debts and the alleged extravagance of the Lithuanian ruler. Alexander was regarded as a thoughtless primitive sovereign ruling by force, as a man who had no qualifications to be a king. It was only after World War II that historians revised their opinion of Alexander and his rule. Pietkiewicz refutes the opinions of old historiography. The book, which concerns Lithuania’s central offices. The author analyses legal and administrative questions; he is also interested in the Lithuanian power elite. He presents the endowments made by the ruler and his religious policy as well as matters concerning towns and finances. In his opinion Lithuania’s crisis at the turn of the 15th century was caused by the growth of Lithuanian magnates’ influence, and he attributes Lithuania’s military defeats to the magnates’ reluctance to defend frontier territories, where they had no landed estates. Alexander tried to oppose the magnates’ power, but he was successful only in Poland, where he met with understanding and support on the part of the nobility. The author also emphasizes the contribution made by the king (Alexander became king of Poland in 1501) to Lithuania’s economic development, which was a result of towns being granted the privileges of the Magdeburg law. (EO) Krzysztof Polek, Paiístwo wielkomorawskie i jego sąsiedzi (The Great Moravian Empire and Its Neighbours), Kraków 1994, Wydawnictwo Naukowe WSP, 150 pp., 7 maps, series: Prace Monograficzne Wyższej Szkoły Pedagogicznej w Krakowie; idem, Podstawy gos­ podarcze państwa wielkomorawskie go (The Economic Foundations of the Great Moravian Empire), Kraków 1994, Wydawnictwo “Secesja”, 132 pp., 2 maps, index of ethnic and geographic names. The two books go to make the latest Polish outline of the history of the Great Moravian Empire. The first focuses on political and cultural questions, especially ecclesiastical ones. The author contributes to the discussion now being held and says that the empire had one capital at Stare Mesto; it was transferred to Mikulcice in the middle of the 9th century. The castle-town of Sady (now Uherske Hradiste) was the bishop’s seat. In accordance with the prevalent opinion, the author restricts the extent of the Great Moravian Empire to the territories of Moravia proper, Slovakia, Bohemia and a part of Pannonia; the remaining territories, i.e. Polabia, Silesia and the regions inhabited by the Vistulanians, could, in his opinion, at most have been loosely dependent on Moravia. Unlike some old historians, Polek emphasizes the importance of the German factor in Moravia’s cultural development, especially the importance of Bavarian clergymen’s activity in the oldest phase of the Christianization of the country. The second book concerns the settlement and economy of Moravia from the appearance of Slavs (2nd half of the 6th century) until the fall of the Great Moravian Empire. The author points out that there was an interaction between the development of settlement and economy and the establishment and consolidation of state structures. Unlike some older historians, Polek comes to the conclusion that in the 9th century Moravia lay off the beaten long-distance trade tract. He emphasizes the importance of mining for the development of settlement in Moravia. (JA) Przywileje miasta Poznania XIII-XVIII wieku (The Privileges of the City of Poznań in the 13th-18th Centuries), ed. Witold Maisel, Poznań 1994, Wydawnictwo Poznańskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk, 343 pp.. index of persons and places. This is a source publication comprising 263 documents from 1244 up to 1772; the majority of the documents come from the State Archives in Poznań and concern Poznań and the juridical areas which formed one urban body with it. Each document is furnished with information in Polish about its content and, if necessary, with data about the original, its copies, registration, and all its editions until the present day. The editor died when the volume was being prepared; http://rcin.org.pl 212 ABSTRACTS the final edition is the work of Renata L i n e t t e, Danuta Pędzińska, Grażyna Rut- kowska, Izabela Skierska, Tomasz Jurek and Antoni Gąsiorowski . The vol u- meis prefaced by Gąsiorow ski. (JA) Andrzej Radzimiński, Duchowieństwo kapituł katedralnych w Polsce XIV i XV wieku na tle porównawczym. Studium nad rekrutacją i drogami awansu (The Clergy of Cathedral Chapters in 14th and 15th Century Poland against a Comparative Background. A Study in Recruitment and Ways of Promotion), Toruń 1995, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, 312 pp., sum. in German. The author describes the establishment of cathedral chapters in Poland (11th-13th centuries). In dealing with the late Middle Ages he describes the recruitment of their members. He says that as regards their social origin, the chapters were made up of burghers and noblemen, burghers predominating in the 14th century and noblemen in the 15th. Blood relationship and work in a bishop’s or the monarch’s chancellery made it easier to be admitted to a chapter. University education was also an important factor and was required of candidates of burgher descent from the beginning of the 15th century. The author then discusses the influence (also informal) exerted by popes, bishops, and monarchs on the appointment of prelates and canons. He describes the careers made by members of chapters and says that the majority of Polish bishops had been linked with local chapters. He also writes of the well known cases of prelates and canons returning to secular life and making a career as officials. Radzimiński compares the chapters in Poland with those in Western Europe and says that Polish chapters did not imitate Western models and were most similar to German chapters. (JA) Edward Rymar, Primogenitura-zasada regulująca następstwo w pryncypat w ustawie sukcesyjnej Bolesława Krzywoustego (Primogeniture, a Principle Regulating Succession to the Principale inBoleslaus the Wry-Mouthed's Succession Act), pa rt I, “Sobótka” (Wroclaw), vol. XLVIII, 1993, N° 1, pp. 1-16; part II, ibidem, vol. XLIX, 1994, N° 1-2, pp. 1-19, sum. in German; idem , Interwencja niemiecka na Śląsku w 1172 a walka potomstwa Władysława II Wygnańca o polski pryncypat w lalach 1163-1180 (The German Intervention in Silesia in 1172 and the Struggle of Ladislaus the Exile’s Offspring for the Polish Principale in 1163-1180), ibidem, vol. XLIX, 1994, Ns3—4, pp. 175-189, sum. in German. The author revises the history of Poland’s government system from 1138 to about 1180. Contrary to the predominant opinion, hesays that the testament of Boleslaus the Wry-Mouthed established the rule that the position ofprinceps should remain in the family of Ladislaus the Exile on the basis of primogeniture. This is testified to by the pope’s bull of 1210, the author’s interpretation of respective fragments from Kadłubek ’s Chronicle and the endeavours made by the Silesian dukes up to the 14th century to regain the principate; they always based their claim on law and the seniority of the Silesian line of the Piasts. The author says that the statement in historical sources that Ladislaus II’s children regained “a part of their heritage” in 1163 means that the princeps offered them that part without giving them the rest of the senioral region and the supremacy over Poland. Silesia may have been returned to Ladislaus’ children under the pressure of Frederic Barbarossa, for since 1054 (and genetically since the Carolingian times) Silesia had been the emperor’s fief and the emperor had the right to decide who should rule it. However, in accordance with the agreement of 1054 the Silesian tribute was to be paid by the rulers of Poland. This is why the emperor, having placed Ladislaus’ descendants in Silesia, recognized every duke who wasready to pay him the tribute as princeps. In 1157 this was Boleslaus the Curly, in 1173 Mieszko the Old and in 1177 Casimir the Just. (JA) Jan R y ś, Szkolnictwo parafialne w miastach Małopolski w XV wieku (Parish Schools in the Towns of Little Poland in the 15th Century), Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo I UN PAN, 150

http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 213 pp., 2 annexes, table, 3 maps, sum. in English, series: Monografie z dziejów oświaty, vol. XXXVII. The study is based on archival, mainly ecclesiastical, sources. The author starts by presenting the growth of Polish parish schools in the Middle Ages, stressing that their development was furthered by the character of towns, which required many of their citizens to be able to read, write and count. Chapters II and III concern the teachers and pupils, the terminology used, their social and territorial origin, the requirements set them by the authorities (mainly the Church), their duties and cultural role, including subculture which was created mainly by teachers and older pupils. The author points out that the situation of the schools differed, depending mainly on the size and cultural rank of the town in which they existed. In Chapter IV the author presents the aims, substance and methods of education. He points out that the system of teaching evolved from religious instruction to an ever greater emphasis on know­ ledge necessary in townsmen’sdaily life. The last chapter deals with the financial bases of the schools. The tables and maps, a separate part of the book (pp. 111-148), show the distribution of schools, the chronology of their establishment against the background of the development of towns in Little Poland, and also the number of graduates from individual towns of the region who started studying at the Cracow Academy. (JA) Społeczeństwo Polski średniowuecznej. Zbiór studiów (Society in Medieval Poland. Collected Studies), vol. VI, ed. Stefan K. Kuczyński, Warszawa 1994, Wydawnictwo DiG, 249 pp. This volume comprisesarticles written in honour ofStanisławTrawkowski inconnection with the 40th anniversary ofhis scholarly work. The volume opens with Gerard Labuda ’streatise on the division of Poland among the members of the Piast dynasty before 1138 (pp. 9-21). Józef Spors(pp. 23-37) discusses the political structure of Pomerania in the early Middle Ages and says that the Pomeranian region was not a uniform tribal and political structure. Stanisław Suchodolski (pp. 39-52) presents the influence of the coinage of money on political events in Poland in the 12th century, in particular the connection between Mieszko the Old’s fiscal stringency and his downfall in 1077. Kazimierz Jasiński (pp. 53-61) examines the relationship between the Piast and Hohenstauffen dynasties. The cult of St. Nicholas is discussed by Roman Michałowski (pp. 63-74) and the cult of St. Gothard by Marta M łynarska-Kaletynowa (pp. 75-90). Marek Barański drawsattention to the fact that some petty knights in Poland were descendants of free peasants who were obliged to defend castle towns. Sławomir G aw las’s article concerns the history of the New Town in Cracow’s Okół (early 14th century, pp. 101-110). Jan Tyszkiewicz (pp. 111-120) describes the structure and customs of Polish families from the 10th to the 13th centuries; Maria Dembińska (pp. 121-129) discusses the social position of women in Polish peasant families in the Middle Ages. Ambroży Bogucki (pp. 131-139) analyses the meaning of the term Rittermeszigman in the Elbląg Book and says that it denoted knights and not armour-bearers, as some historians assert. Błażej Śliwiński (pp. 141-148) discusses Ladislaus the Elbow-high’s expedition to Gdańsk Pomerania in the winter of 1307/1308. Jacek Laberschek writes about Ladislaus Jagiełło’s 1391 expedition to the Cracow and Wieluń territories which belonged to Ladislaus of Opole (pp. 149-160). Aleksan­ der Swieżawski’s article (pp. 169-179) deals with Louis the Great’s plans for the future of Central Europe. Józef Szymański has devoted his article to the genesis of the coats of arms of Polish towns (pp. 169-179). Franciszek Sikora (pp. 181-195) describes the establishment of the starost’s office in Nowe Miasto Korczyn. Feliks K i r y k discusses the situation of the nobility in Sandomierz in the 15th century, emphasizing the importance of this town as an educational centre. Henryk Samsonowicz (pp. 207-215) writes about the religiousness of townsmen in the Baltic zone in the 15th century. Jerzy B. Korol ec (pp. 217-224) analyses the views held by professors of the Cracow Academy on the virtues of magnanimity and prowess. Krystyna Górska-G ołaska (pp. 225-241) reconstructs the http://rcin.org.pl 214 ABSTRACTS topography of Kościan in the late Middle Ages. The volume ends with an article by Grażyna K l i m e c k a , who discusses the personal notes and correspondence of Maciej of Jasio, vicar of Łopanów, in the early 16th century (pp. 243-249). (JA) Krzysztof Stopka, Szkoły katedralne metropolii gnieźnieńskiej w średniowieczu. Studia nad kształceniem kleru polskiego w wiekach średnich (Cathedral Schools of the Gniezno Metropolis in the Middle Ages. Studies on the Training of Polish Clergy in the Middle Ages), Kraków 1994, Polska Akademia Umiejętności, 274 pp., indexes of persons, geographical names and subjects, series: Polska Akademia Umiejętności, Rozprawy Wydziału Histo- ryczno-Filozoficznego, vol. 76. The authors has researched the whole area of the Gniezno archdiocese, including the Samo- gitian and Wilno dioceses.-Because of the inadequacy of sources, Stopka frequently refers to comparable material from Western Europe and the archdiocese of Lwów. Cathedral schools are the oldest schools in Poland; the author traces their beginnings to the 11th century when the Church organization became stabilized in Poland. Stopka discusses the forms of help extended to these schools by bishops and cathedral chapters, and the evolution of the schools from exclusive schools training the staff of cathedrals to schools for the lower clergy, which did not enjoy a good reputation. He also discusses the evolution of the posts of cathedral scholastics (who from teachers became sinecurists without teachingduties),of the rector (who from an auxiliary teacher became head of school), of ancillary teachers (the so-called socii), lecturers of theology and canon law. Stopka analyses the programmes and methods of teaching in cathedral schools and says that their level was low compared with the leading centres in Western Europe. The book ends with a description of the pupils’ community, their age, number, time of study, social structure, means of subsistence, liturgical duties and the careers of graduates. (JA) Józef Szymański, Kanonikat świecki w Małopolsce od końca XI do polony XIII wieku (Secular Canons in Little Poland from the End of the 11th to the Middle of the 13th Centuries) Lublin 1995, Agencja Wydawniczo-Handlowa Antoni Dudek, 144 pp., indexes of persons and geographical names, sum. in French. The book presents the structure, functions and financial state of canons in Little Poland and their place in local society and the Church. The author points out that the social situation of the canons changed gradually during the period under review. In the 11th century the ruler was their main patron; 12th century sources mention the first canonries founded by magnates, who in the next century prevailed over the canons, frequently entrusting canonries to members of their family. This led to great changes in the canons’ life in the 13th century; life in common, joint ownership and jointly performed liturgical functions disappeared. They were replaced by individual canons’ prebends (sometimes accumulated) conferred on state and Church dignitaries in order to guarantee them the proper social status and financial resources. As a result of these changes, canons became less active in successive Church reforms, which were intended to raise the clergy’s discipline and moral level. Nevertheless, the canons’ milieus retained their significance as centres of political thought (unification ideology in 13th century Cracow), education and knowledge. (JA) Janusz Tandecki, Pozazawodowe funkcje i powinności korporacji rzemieślniczych w miastach Prus Krzyżackich i Królewskich w XIV-XVIII wieku (The Extravocationca 1 Func­ tions and Duties of Craftsmen’s Corporations in the Towns of Teutonic Order’s Prussia and Royal Prussia from the 14th to the 18th Century), “Zapiski Historyczne” (Toruń), vol. LX, 1995, N° 1, pp. 7-23, sum. in German. The author discusses the extravocational functions of craft guilds in Prussian towns from the 14th to the 18th century (their participation in religious and society life, social welfare, their

http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 215 duty to protect the inhabitants from fire, epidemics and enemies); he points out that on the one hand, the guilds built and furthered social ties in craftsmen’s milieus and helped municipal authorities to maintain law, order and security, while on the other hand, they exerted a direct influence on the behaviour as well as the forms and way of life of all craftsmen and their families. By performing these functions they shaped the craftsmen’s sense of coresponsibility for the town, provided them with patterns for behaviour towards their neighbours, and influenced their daily life, customs and culture. (AK) Przemysław Urbańczyk, Czy istnieją archeologiczne ślady masowych chrztów ludności wczesnopolskiej? (Are There Any Archeological Traces of Mass Baptisms of the Early Polish Population),“Kwartalnik Historyczny” (Warszawa), vol. CII, N° 1, pp. 3-18,13 illustr., sum. in English. The author re-interprets the origin of the remnants of cylindrical basins with a trace of a pillar inside and traces of smaller pillars in the shape of a cross. Six such basins dating from the 9-12th centuries are known in Poland (four from Poznań and one each from Kalisz and Wiślica). According to the predominant opinion, these basins are remnants of baptisteries used for mass baptisms during the Christianization of Poland (after 966). Urbańczyk undermines this theory and points out that there is no analogy between these basins and the known West European baptisteries and the churches close by (after the construction of a church in the vicinity, the baptistery was destroyed). He also draws attention to the fact that the basins are non-functional and that it would have been purposeless to prop up the roof over a small basin by a massive pillar. The author cites similar finds and their interpretations from England, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. On the basis of Western analogies he says that the alleged baptisteries were in fact pits in which mortar was prepared for the construction of stone edifices and that the alleged holes left by the pillar which supported the roof are traces of mechanical devices used in the early Middle Ages in Europe to stir the mortar. (JA) Zakon Krzyżacki a społeczeństwo państwa w Prusach (The Teutonic Order and the Society of the Prussian State), ed. Zcnon Hubert Nowak, Toruń 1995. Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu, 197 pp., indexes of persons and geographic names, map, sum. in German, the title page and contents also in German, series: Roczniki Towarzystwa Naukowego w Toruniu, B. 86, N° 3. The volume comprises materials from a session held in Toruń on December 7, 1992. In the first article, which analyses sources from the years 1400-1404, Roman Czaja, in defiance of some opinions, says that the trade conducted by the Teutonic Knight’s state was no competition for the Prussian burghers (pp. 9-33). Janusz T a n d e c k i (pp. 35-50) examines the careers made by Prussian burghers in the Teutonic Order. He comes to the conclusion that Prussian burghers were usually admitted as servant-brethren and were entrusted with minor administrative and economic duties; burghers’ descendants with a university education stood a good chance of making a career; they could enter the group of priests; it was exceptional, however, for them to be included into the category of knights-brethren. On the basisof selected examples Tomasz Jasiński (pp. 51-66) analyses the conflicts between Prussian towns and the Teutonic Order’s administration, pointing out that they were usually caused by economic questions. Jürgen Sarnowski (pp. 67-81) presents the Teutonic Order’s endeavours to increase its tax revenues and the growing resistance of the Prussian Estates against this policy in the first half of the 15th century. On the basis of early 15th century sources Zenon Hubert Nowak (pp. 83-101 describes how the Teutonic Order ensured the livelihood of its elderly members as well as some civilian persons of merit, in particular after 1411. Antoni Cza- charowski (pp. 103-110) discusses the political activity of knights in the Chełmno region. He distinguishes three phases: the formation of the knights’ legal status under the Order’s rule (13th century), active military co-operation with the Teutonic Knights (14th century), and, http://rcin.org.pl 216 ABSTRACTS from the end of the 14th century, the beginning of the consolidation of an anti-Teutonic opposition. Ireneusz Czarciński (pp. 111-122) presents the Teutonic Order’s policy towards religious and secular corporations. He stresses the Order’s tolerance of newly arising corporations and its endeavours to keep them under control. Andrzej Radzimiński (pp. 123-135) discusses the incorporation of three Prussian cathedral chapters, those of Chełmno, Pomerania and Sambia, into the Teutonic Order. Stefan Kwiatkowski (pp. 137-148) presents the Order’s charismatic ideology which claimed that the Teutonic Knights’ power was based on the Order’s nobleness and its services in the fight against infidels. This ideology was referred to in relations with foreign countries; in relations with its subjects the Order usually asserted that it was looking after them in return fortheirservices. Martin Dygo (pp. 149-163) discusses the political programme of the Golden Gate in Malbork. The gate symbolized the Teutonic Order as an ideal ruler of Prussia and indicated that Malbork was the political and religious centre of the Teutonic Knights’ state. The volume ends with an article by Marian Arszyński (pp. 165—184), whodiscusses the influence exerted by the Teutonic Order’s administration on the architectural style of churches in Prussia. Contrary to the predominant opinion, the author holds the view that this influence was sporadic and resulted from what was known as castle-town monopoly and not from patronal rights. (JA) Paweł Żmudzki, Książę Leszek Czarny w legendach rycerskich. Analiza przyczyn popu­ larności księcia Leszka w tradycjach herbowych (Prince Leszek the Black in Knightly Legends. The Reasons for Prince Leszek’s Popularity in Heraldic Tradition), ”Przegląd Historyczny” (Warszawa), vol. LXXXVI, 1995, N° 2, pp. 131-146. The author analyses the heraldic legends which explain the ancestry of individual knightly families. These legends, which were originally spread by word of mouth, were written down by Bartosz Paprocki in the 16th century. The show a tendency to trace the origin of individual families and their coats of arms back to their ennoblement by some of Poland’s most famous rulers. The only exception was Leszek the Black, who did not enjoy a good reputation in old historiography, but to whom Paprocki attributes the conferment of 18 heraldic devices. In trying to explain this, Żmudzki draws attention to the fact that Leszek the Black raised many small knightly families to the rank of potentates, especially after he crushed the rebellion of Cracow and Sandomierz knights in 1285. This is testified to be Leszek’s documents, especially the lists of witnesses. In summing up his reflections the author emphasizes that Polish heraldic legends, though misleading in details and frequently distorted so as to stress the dignity of a family’s ancestors, reflect, be it even in part, real historical events. (JA)

EARLY MODERN TIMES (16th— 18th CENTURIES) Sławomir Augusiewicz, Najazdy tatarskie na Prusy Książęce (1656-1657). Legendy i fakty (Tartar Incursions into the Duchy of Prussia (1656-1657). Facts and Legends), “Komunikaty Mazursko-Warmińskie” (Olsztyn), 1995, N° 3, pp. 233-247, tables, sum. in German. The author compares the results of his own research with German 19th century historians’ picture of Tartar incursions into the Duchy of Prussia during the Second Northern War. According to German historical literature the incursions carried out by Tartar detachments numbering over 10,000 men each lasted from October 1656 until the end of February 1657; the Tartars destroyed 13 towns and 249 villages, killed 11,000 persons and took 34,000 men prisoner. Augusiewicz decided to research this subject again. On the basis of Polish sources he established that the Tartar detachment helping the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the war with Sweden numbered 2,000 men, of whom only 1,500 invaded the Duchy of Prussia. http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 217

They operated in three regions, those of Ełk, Pisz and Ryn for only five days (from October 9 to October 14,1656). The destruction they caused, though painful, was much smaller than has been maintained so far. The Tartars did destroy 260 villages, but they sacked only one town, killed some 500 persons and took about 5,300 men prisoner. In the author’s opinion it was the activity of Polish and Lithuanian light cavalry detachments which operated in the Duchy of Prussia at that time imitating the Tartar language and behaviour for psychological effect that gave rise to the legend about prolonged Tartar incursions lasting until the, end of February 1657. (EO)

Danuta Czerska, Dymitr Samozwaniec (False Demetrius), Wrocław 1995, Ossolineum. 255 pp., selective bibliogr., index of persons, illustr. The work under discussion presents the story of Demetrius called “The False”, Tsar of Muscovy in the years 1605-1606, an alleged son of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible. The author puts forward the hypothesis concerning the origin of the alleged tsarevichand analyses who could inspire the intrigue about the “miraculously” saved Demetrius. She is inclined to believe Demetrius was in reality called George and came from the Otrepyev family of petty boyars. She also favours the theory that he was wittingly instrumental in the boyars’ plot against the rule of Tsar Boris Godunov, and underlines the relations of the young Otrepyev with the Romanov family, the later Tsar dynasty. In 1602 Demetrius escaped from a Moscow monastery and came to the eastern territory of the Polish Commonwealth. The author shows how he gained the favours of some magnate Polish families: the Wiśniowieckis and the Mniszechs, for instance, and concludes that nobody believed inhis royal origin, and they only supported him because they counted on reaping the profits ensuing from his coronation. Czerska underlines great abilities exhibited by the alleged tsarevich. He had a gift of winning people over, an inborn intelligence, receptivity and great Thespian ski Ils. His success was determined not so much by the numerically weak Polish army, organized by Jerzy Mniszech, Sandomierz Voivode, as by the general dissatisfaction with the rule of Tsar Boris Godunov in the Muscovite state. Of some help was also the death of Tsar Boris during Demetrius’ struggle for the crown. The new Tsar’s triumph was, however, short-lived; the Muscovite aristocracy which used him to depose the hated Godunov, immediately organized a plot against Demetrius. He was murdered in 1606, a few days after his marriage to M niszech’s daughter M arina. (EO)

Janusz Dąbrowski, Inwektywa i kalumnia na sejmach za panowania Jana Kazimierza Wazy, 1649-1668 (Invective and Calumny at Sejm Sessions during the Reign of John Casimir Vasa, 1649-1668), “Kwartalnik Historyczny” (Warszawa), vol. CII, 1995, Nº 1, pp. 39-51, sum. in English. Theauthorhas based his analysis on reports of Sejm proceedings in 1649-1668. In accorda nee with the usage of the wordsin 16th century Polish, by invective the author means an insulting attack in words and by calumny a completely false remark made to injure someone’s reputation. According to Dąbrowski, invective was used during quarrels in both the upper and lower chambers in order to discredit adversaries, in procedural matters (election of the Speaker) and to defend oneself against attacks. It seems, however, that Dąbrowski frequently stretches the meaning of the word “invective” and regards ordinary rebukes as an invective or even cites merely annoying remarks which were not meant to be a rebuke. Dąbrowski says that the use of invectives and calumnies increased steadily at Sejm sessions during the reign of John Casimir. Users of particularly insulting invectives or even calumnies went unpunished as a rule, for if attempts were made to bring them to court, they threatened to break the debates of the Sejm. The author points out that the use of invectives and calumnies as an element of political struggle was a destructive method. It undermined the authority of parliament, lowered

http://rcin.org.pl 218 ABSTRACTS the level of debates and replaced argumentation, which was used in the Polish Sejm in earlier times. (EO) Dariusz Główka, Księgozbiory duchowieństwa płockiego w XVIII w. (The Book Collec­ tions of Płock Clergy in the 18th Century) “Kwartalnik Historyczny” (Warszawa), vol. CII, 1995, N9 2, pp. 15-26, tables, sum. in English. The article is based on Płock parish clergymen’s 34 posthumous inventories from the last quarter of the 18th century. Twenty of these inventories, that is, 58 per cent, contain information on book collections. According to the author, the proportion of priests owning books must have been much higher, for books were not listed in posthumous inventories if they were bequeathed to somebody in a last will. An average library of a Pluck clergyman numbered 20 books. Główka compares this figure with clergymen’s libraries in Besançon, Namur, Piacenza and Prague. It turns out that the libraries in Besançon were twice as large as those in Płock, those in Prague four times as large and those in Namur and Piacenza nine times as large. More than 90 per cent of the books of Płock clergymen concerned theology; the situation in Namur was the same; in Prague theological books accounted for 73 per cent of the total, in Besançon for 65 percent and in Piacenza for only 33 per cent. (EO) Anna Grześkowiak — Krwawicz, Dyskusje o wolności słowa w czasach stanisła- wowskich (Discussions on Freedom of Speech during the Reign of Stanislaus Augustus), “Kwartalnik Historyczny” (Warszawa), vol. CII, 1995, N° 1, pp. 53-65, sum. in English. The author stresses that in the second half of the 18th century, as in the previous century, there was no preventive civilian censorship in Poland and church censorship played an insignificant role. As the Polish noblemen had regarded freedom of speech as their civil right since the 16th century, the question of freedom of speech in Poland differed from what it was in West European countries. There was no struggle for freedom of speech in Poland as there was in Western Europe. The author points out that as early as 1609 an act adopted by the Sejm guaranteed freedom of speech in parliament and atdietines. In the 18th century this guarantee was in practice extended to include the written word, even though legal guarantees in this respect were not adopted by parliament until 1791. Freedom of speech was linked with political freedom and became its mainstay. In the second half of the 17th century an individual deputy’s freedom of speech was extended to include his right to object to the attitude of the entire parliament (liberum veto). In the second half of the 18th century the deputies began to depart from this interpretation of free speech and restored its original meaning, that is, the right to speak freely on public issues. As in the previous centuries, importance was also attached to the right to claim one’s rights. As the author points out, no proposals were put forward in the course of these discussions to restrict the burghers’ right to freedom of speech. What was disputable was how to react if an individual’s statements were against the interests of the state. The author emphasizes in conclusion that the Enlightenment ideas about freedom of speech were accepted with under­ standing in Poland as a modest supplement to the Polish tradition. (EO) Witold Krassowski, Dzieje budownictwa i architektury na ziemiach polskich. Tom 4, Budownictwo i architektura *v warunkach rozkwitu folwarku pańszczyźnianego (XVI w — pierwsza połowa XVII w.) (The History of Architecture in the Polish Lands. Vol. 4, Architec­ ture under the Conditions of the Flourishing of Manorial Farms Employing Serf Labour, 16th c., —the first half of the 17th c.), Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo Arkady, 434 pp., index of places and architectural monuments, illustr. The first parts of this book, embracing the years 1501-1648, describe the character of the reign of successive Polish rulers, economic and social problems, and finally the denominational structure of the Polish state that changed radically over 150 years. The next parts, constituting http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 219 the actual exposition of the history of architecture, present the general characteristics of Renaissance and manneristic architecture in Polish lands. The author ascribes the principal importance in the spread of new architectural styles to the constructional initiative of particular monarchs. Krassowski devoted special attention to sacred architecture, analyzed on the basis of concrete examples, and applies thesame method also in further partsof his work. Successive chapters present military architecture, urban architecture (the author’s interests embrace both burghers’ houses and magnates’ palaces), manor-houses, castles and palaces built in private residential cities and in country residences, finally peasant dwellings. It is worth underlining that Krassowski, while analyzing particular examples of architectural relics draws attention both to the external architecture, methods and techniques of construction, and the interior architecture, decoration of walls and even furniture. (EO) Wojciech Kriegseisen, Sejm Rzeczypospolitej szlacheckiej (do 1763 roku), Geneza i kryzys władzy ustawodawczej (Sejm of the Gentry Commonwealth (up to 1763), Genesis and Crisis of Legislative Power), Warszawa 1985, Wydawnictwo Sejmowe, 22 pp., Bibliogr., appendix, index of names. The work under discussion is devoted to the history of the Polish Seym from 1652, that is from the moment of the first rupture of debates by one of the members (liberum veto), up to 1763, i.e. the death of King Augustus III. The first chapters show the genesis of the Polish parliamentary system, the flourishing of the Seym in the 16th c. and the beginnings of crisis in the first half of the 17th c. A separate chapter is devoted to the reign of John Casimir (1648-1668), in which the Polish parliamentary system collapsed. The rupture of the Seym in 1652 by one deputy — Władysław Siciński initiated the practice of breaking up the Seym debates more and more often. The author attaches fundamental importance to the distribution of political power which determined the rupture or a successful conclusion of the Seym debates. The next chapter, devoted to the reign of Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki (1669-1673), presents the successive stages in the decline of the parliamentary system initiated by the rupture, a few days before its conclusion, of the Coronation Seym in 1669. From that time on it became possible to break up the Seym at any moment, yet before the election of the Speaker, i.e. before the formal commencement of the debates. In successive chapters the author presents the functioning of the Seym during the reign of John III Sobieski (1674-1596), Augustus II (1697-1732), Augustus III (1733-1763); special chapters have been devoted to the procedure of debates in the second half of the 17th c. and in the 18th c. Kriegseisen has also shown the ineffective attempts to reform debates and also the institution of Confederacy; at the Seym which held debates under the so-called bond of confederacy a majority of votes decided the motions, which made the rupture of debates impossible. (EO) Mariusz Markiewicz, W cieniu Kompanii Mórz Południowych. Rząd angielski wobec problemów gospodarczych w 1720 roku (In the Shadow of the South Sea Company. Ilte Attitude of the British Government to Economic Problems in 1720), “Studia Historyczne” (Kraków), vol. XXXVIII, 1995, Ne 1, pp. 23-37, sum. in English. The article shows the mechanism of power ill Great Britain and the British government’s reaction to economic and social problems. The author presents the crash of the South Sea Company in 1720 and shows how the system of wielding power changed then from what it was under the last Stuarts. The dichotomy between the king and parliament disappeared; this was nota result of a victory of one of these institutions but a consequenceof the fact that power was taken over by a uniform political group which used the powers of the king as well as those of the Privy Council and parliament to achieve its aims. Royal power was not a mere fiction, and the royal court was able to goon playing an important political role. Markiewicz has also shown that the state, which had neither regular police forces nora government-paid admini-

http://rcin.org.pl 220 ABSTRACTS strati ve apparatus, had to take social moods into account. The result was that mercantilist principles were applied in 1720 with regard to the import of cotton. (AK)

Zdzisław Mameła, Studia m edyczne i praktyka lekarska Mikołaja Kopernika (The Medical Studies and Practice of Nicolaus Copernicus), “Archiwum Historii i Filozofii Medycyny” (Warszawa), vol. LVIII, 1995, Nº 3, pp. 245-264, sum. in English and German. The article reveals a certain duality in Copernicus’ personality. On the one hand, he had a talent for independent creative thinking, on the other, in medicine, he retained the attitudes of medieval men, including faith in unshakable authorities (e.g. Galen, Hippocrates, Avicenna). The author presents Copernicus as a recognized talented physician who treated his medical mission in a responsible, professional way. He administered traditional medicines but avoided coprotherapy (treatment using human and animal excrement), which was widely applied up to the 17th century but w as of doubtful value in Copernicus’ opinion. Copernicus’ contribution to medical thought is a controversial question. In the opinion of some researchers (W. Szumowski, R. Gansiniec) hedid not distinguish himself by innovatory thought; other scholars (e.g. L. A. Birkenmajerand H. Barycz) regard him as the founder of the great physiological school of iatrochemistry. (AK)

Marian Skrzypek, Filozofia Diderota w Polskim Oświeceniu. Z dziejów podziemia filozoficznego w Polsce (Diderot’s Philosophy during the Polish Enlightenment. From the History of Philosophical Underground in Poland), “Przegląd Humanistyczny” (Warszawa), vol. XXXIX, 1995, N° 3, pp. 31-43. Ambivalence is in the author’s opinion the characteristic feature of the reception of Diderot’s philosophy during the Polish Enlightenment; he attributes this to the fact that the intellectual climate in Poland during that period differed from that in France. The name of the French philosopher was mentioned in the Polish Commonwealth mainly in aesthetic reflections, in particular those concerning the theory of drama and theatrical production. It is characteristic that Diderot’s works were presented in Poland anonymously, in a fragmentary way and with a far-reaching reserve, which was understandable, for their radicalism was disapproved of by the political and ecclesiastical authorities in the Commonwealth. Skrzypekalso points out that none of the great Polish thinkers of that time (such as H. Kołłątaj and S. Staszic) paid much attention to Diderot; it was mostly second-rate thinkers (e.g. J. Przybylski) who concerned themselves with him, but they confined themselves to analyzing foreign translations of some of the great philosopher’s works. However, the moderate criticism of some of Diderot’s radical theories helped to popularize his philosophy in Poland and furthered its creative development. (AK)

Janusz Tazbir, Znajomość osoby i dzieł Rabelais’go w dawnej Polsce (The Knowledge of Rabelais and His Works in Old Poland), “Przegląd Humanistyczny” (Warszawa), vol. XXXIX, 1995, N° 2, pp. 1-10. The author supplements the results of Wiktor Weintraub’s research and says that Rabelais’s works had very weak repercussions in 18th century Poland. The opinions expressed in 18th century Polish literatureon the author of Gargantua et Pantagruel were mostly negative. This was due to the fact that the contemporary French literature published in Poland was prejudiced against Rabelais. On the other hand, Rabelais’s works were read in private, as is proved by references to them in the correspondence of, for instance, Daniel Naborowski and Ignacy Krasicki. Polish historians of literature began to compare Rabelais to Mikołaj Rej at an early date. Both writers lived in the same epoch, both were influenced by the Reformation and both have been called fathers of their native literature. (AK)

http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 221

Henryk W i s n e r , Władysław IV Waza (Ladislas IV Vasa), Wrocław 1995, Ossolineum, 206 pp., selective bibliogr., index of abbreviations, index of persons, illustr. The book presents the story of Ladislas Vasa. Born in 1595, he was the son of king of Poland and Sweden Sigismund III Vasa and Austrian archduch*ess Anne Habsburg. The first six chapters tell the story of the Royal Prince, and from 1632 King Ladislas of Poland in chronological order. His childhood and youth were marked by great and unfulfilled expecta­ tions. In 1610 he was elected Tsar of Muscovy, in 1617 he set out with the Polish army to take the Tsar’s crown, and in 1619 the Czech estates wanted to give him the crown of the Czech Kingdom. Although these great prospects and possibilities were scattered, they left, in the author’s opinion, an indelible stam p on the young Prince’s psyche. They fostered an inclination in him to fantasize about high politics. In 1621 the Prince was in Chocim, besieged by the Sultan of Turkey. When the Polish Army forced the Sultan to withdrawal, Ladislas Vasa gained the fame as a defender of Christianity. However, Wisner, whose whole work presents a very critical picture of Ladislas IV, points out that the Prince, being ill, took little partin the battles against the Turks. The next six chapters show the reign of King Ladislas IV in the order of problems it presented. They show his foreign policy, seen by Wisner exclusively as the function of the King’s endeavours to obtain the rule of the hereditary state of the Vasas; the position of the monarch in his state; the King’s attitude to dissenters; the royal court and family; finally the assessment of his rule. The author brings into relief all the political errors of the monarch and is very laconic when discussing his successes. For instance the great victory of Ladislas IV in 1633 over the Muscovite army near Smolensk is presented as if the King took no partin it. (EO)

19th CENTURY AND THE BEGINNING OF THE 20th CENTURY

Michał Bączkowski, Austriackie koncepcje powołania polskich sił zbrojnych w 1809 roku i ich realizacja (The Austrian Concepts to Set Up Polish Armed Forces in 1809 and Their Implementation), “Studia Historyczne” (Kraków), vol. XXXVIII, 1995, N° 1 (148), pp. 39-53, sum. in English. In 1809, on the eve of war with Napoleonic France, the Austrian supreme command made an attempt to set up voluntary detachments for which they wanted to recruit Poles living in the territories which had been incorporated into the Habsburg monarchy in 1772 and 1795. On the basis of materials from the Vienna Kriegsarchiv, the author draws attention to previously unknown memoranda of an Austrian politician and officer who suggested that Francis I should adopt the title of King of Galicia. However, the proposal was not considered, and since no political concessions were promised, the majority of the Polish nobility showed no interest in the Austrian initiative and cherished affection for Napoleon. The voluntary detachments formed during the hostilities in the spring of 1809 were a failure; they consisted of forcibly recruited casual persons and prisoners-of-war. The result was that Polish soldiers were passing over to the side of the armed forces of the Duchy of Warsaw, the rate of desertion amounting to about 26 per cent. In the author’s opinion, the fiasco of the plan discouraged Austrian ruling circles from launching similar initiatives in the following decades. (AS)

Robert Bielecki, Wielka Armia (La grande armée), Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo Bellona, 563 pp., annexes, bibliogr., index of persons, illustr. This is a popularized history of the French army under Napoleon I. The author discusses the organization of the various land force services, the work of staffs and the supreme command, the everyday life of officers and men as well as the place and role of foreign units (in particular Polish ones). The book is based on documents kept by the Service Historique de l’Arrmée de

http://rcin.org.pl 222 ABSTRACTS Terre (Vincennes) and Archives Nationales (Paris) as well as several hundred published diaries, memoirs, volumes of official correspondence, etc. In the annexes the reader will fond a detailed calendar as well as historical notes on all the regiments forming part of the grande armée. In the author’s opinion, the main reason for the defeat of the Napoleonic war machine in 1812-1814 was its disproportional expansion, especially the inadequate development of staff services, which made commanding inefficient. (AS) Andrzej Chwalba , Imperium korupcji w Rosji i w Królestwie Polskim 1861-1917 (A Cor- rupt Empire—Russia and the Polish Kingdom in 1861-1917), Kraków 1995, Towarzystwo Autorów i Wydawców Prac Naukowych Universitas, 359 pp., bibliogr., tables, diagrams, index of persons, sum. in French and Russian. In the author’s opinion corruption was an integral part of Russia’s socio-political system. It made life easier in that despotic state and was an important element in the redistribution of individual and group incomes. On the whole, only a part of the judiciary and some members of university staffs were immune to it. The author discusses the “services and commodities on the graft market”, such as the granting of economic licences, government orders and passports, appointment to official posts, exemption from conscription and the like. I le says that corruption was more widespread in territories conquered by Russia (e.g. in the territories inhabited by Poles), where the administration and police had greater powers and were not subjected to a strict control. He wonders whether the state apparatus’ corruption led to processes which accelerated its downfall, and points out that although public opinion acquie­ sced in bribery, criticism of corruption was a convenient propaganda tool for the radical revolutionary opposition which sought to abolish tsarist rule. The book, which is fully based on published sources, ends with Józef Smaga’s brief afterward entitled Corruption in the First State of Workers and Peasants (1817-1995). (AS) Leszek Jaśkiewicz, Carat i kwestia polska na początku XX wieku (The Tsardom and the Polish Question at the Beginning of the 20th Century), “Przegląd Historyczny” (Warszawa), vol. LXXXVI (1995), N° 1, pp. 29-46. The author analyses the concepts and activities of Russian ruling circles on the basis of some recently opened collections of Gosudarstvenny Arkhiv Rossryskoy Federatsii in Moscow (in particular the Tsarskoselskyi Dvorets set and acts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs) and handwritten documents of Russian politicians from the turn of the 19th century. I le singles out Russian inconsistencies and the ruling circles’ attempts to partially modify the policy of repression and Russification in the territories inhabited by Poles. He attributes these liberali­ zing trends to the Governor General of the Polish Kingdom, Alexander Imeretynsky (1897- 1900) and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Peter Sviatopolk-Mirsky (1904-1905). However, the plans to ease the rigorous policy line by making use of the conciliatory moods of a part of the Polish social elite were wrecked by opposition on the part of dignitaries in Tsar Nicholas II’s entourage; they were also disapproved of by Russian officials, who derived profit from wielding weakly controlled power in the Polish Kingdom and the territories of present-day Lithuania, Bielarus and Ukraine. (/IS) Magdalena M i c i ń s k a , Między Królem duch*em a mieszczaninem. Obraz bohatera naro­ dowego w piśmiennictwie polskim przełomu XIX i XX w., 1890-1914 (Between King-Spirit and the Townsman. The Image of National Hero in Polish Writings at the Turn of the 19th Century, 1890-1914), Wrocław 1995, Wydawnictwo Leopoldinum, 496 pp., i ndex of persons and “commemoration places”, sum. in English. Monografie Fundacji na Rzecz Nauki Polskiej.

http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 223 The author examines model figures propagated in Polish literature and publicistic writings and occasionally makes use of iconographie sources. She analyses disputes over historical figures (such as Tadeusz Kościuszko and Prince Józef Poniatowski) and discusses the forms of their cult, in particular anniversary celebrations. She points out that the national heroes combined the traits of various systems of values propagated by adherents of differing ideologies and political movements, by conservatives and positivists, by nationalists as well as socialists. Depending on their views, the authors gave prominence to heroes of struggles against foreign invasions or to social workers, creators of culture and statesmen. As a result of the democratization of Polish society, some peasants were added to the traditional Pantheon of national heroes; adherents of rightist parties presented them as co-authors of national solidarity, radicals described them as fighters for people’s lights. There was also a conflict between the Romantic model of heroes martyred for the common cause and the less popular model of people remembers for their contribution to the development of economy, science and educa­ tion, a model characteristic of the systems of values of townsmen and the intelligentsia. In the last chapter of her book the author compares the Polish heroes of collective imagination at the turn of the 19th century with Czech, Hungarian and south Slavic models. (AS) Czesław Partacz, Od Badeniego do Potockiego. Stosunki polsko-ukraińskie w Galicji w latach 1888—1908 (From Badeni to Potocki. Polish-Ukrainian Relations in Galicia in 1888-1908), Toruń 1996, Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, 282 pp., bibliogr., index of persons, sum. in German and Ukrainian. The Polish-Ukrainian conflict in Galicia developed on political, cultural, religious, social and economic planes. Theauthor focuses attention on political and cultural questions and describes the activities of Polish and Ukrainian parties and their disputes in the Galician Home Diet and the Reichsrat in Vienna. The disputes abated fora few years following an agreement concluded in 1890 by Kazimierz Badeni, Governor of Galicia, with Ukrainian activists. But the Polish side, which was stronger economically and privileged politically, was not inclined to extend the compromise (e.g. it did not agree to the establishment of a Ukrainian university in Lwów). The terms of the agreement were disregarded from the very beginning. The conflict increased in the following years because of the growth of radical national istic movements, the crowning manifestation of which was which the assassination of the next governor, Andrzej Potocki, by a Ukrainian extremist, Mirosław Siczyński (1908). The book is based on archival material from Cracow (e.g. handwritten notes of Polish politicians) and Lviv (little known documents of the governor’s office), publicistic writings and memoirs. (AS) Powstaniec polski w Prusach Wschodnich i na emigracji. Z dziejów wychodźstwa polskiego i myśli politycznej po 1831 roku (Polish Insurgents in East Prussia and Abroad From the History of Polish Emigration and Political Thought after 1831), ed. Sławomir Kalembka, Olsztyn 1995, Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Pedagogicznej w Olsztynie, 222 pp. Studia i Materiały WSP w Olsztynie N° 69. The volume comprises six treatises and essays reflecting the interest taken by Toruń and Olsztyn historians in the question of political emigration in the years 1831-1863. Norbert Kasparek reconstructs in detail the fate of the insurgents’ detachments which after being routed in Lithuania in June and July 1831, were interned in East Prussia. Stanisław Szósta- kowski discusses the views of Zenon Swiętosławski, a Utopian socialist, leader of the Polish People’s Communes which were active in the 1840s and 1850s. Leszek Kuk’s article deals with The Slav Question in France from the Establishment of the July Monarchy to the Outbreak of the Crimean War. Urszula Lech’s treatise concerns The View of Emigre Political Writers on Russian Rule in Polish Territories between 1846 and 1861. Andrzej http://rcin.org.pl 224 ABSTRACTS Szmyt has chosen a subject not elaborated before, namely, the history of the Polish Circle in Paris, which in 1853-1855 grouped moderately democratic emigrés who during the Crimean war tries to secure France’s support for the formation of Polish detachments which were to Fight against Russia. Sławomir Kalembka writes about the preliminary results of his research on Poles who became victims of political repression in France under the Second Republic and the Second Empire (mainly representatives of the extreme Left who criticized the French political system and authorities and collaborated with the radical French opposi­ tion). (AS) Stefan Przewalski, Józef Grzegorz Chłopicki 1771-1854, Warszawa 1995, Wydawnict­ wo Neriton, 223 pp., bibliogr., index of persons. This posthumous edition of a book by a historian who lived in 1901-1987 and was a disciple of Wacław Tokarz and Marian Kukiel, is a version abridged by Andrzej Wroński. It took Przewalski dozens of years to write this monograph (which also takes into account handwritten sources destroyed during World War II). Przewalski presents Chłopicki, a general of Napo­ leonic forcesand of thearmy of the Polish Kingdom, paying most attention (about 60 percent of the text) to his activity as dictator and commander-in-chief of the November Insurrection in December 1830 and January 1831 (the disproportion is partly a result of interference on the part of the publisher). He reconstructs in detail the operational plans and operations comman­ ded by Chłopicki; the general’s political opinions and activities and his personal life have been treated briefly. (AS) Sejm Królestwa Polskiego o działalności rządu i statue kraju 1816-1830 (The Opinions of the Sejm of the Polish Kingdom on the Work of the Government and the State of the Country 1816-1830), ed. Janina Leskiewiczowa and Franciszka Ramotowska, Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo Sejmowe, 454 pp., index of persons, geographical index. This is a full critical edition of the comments and remarks made by Sejm commissions on the reports of theCouncil of Stateof the Polish Kingdom; the reports have been published earlier, cf. Obraz Królestwa Polskiego okresie konstytucyjnym (The Polish Kingdom during the Constitutional Period), vol. I, ed. J. Leskiewiczowa and F. Ramotowska , Warsza­ wa 1984. The book is based on reports of Sejm proceedings, published in those years, but mainly on handwritten originals and copies kept in the Central Archives of Historical Records (sets concerning the Council of State and the Secretariat of State of the Polish Kingdom). The deputies’ opinions concern mostly political, administrative, economic and educa­ tional matters. Though permeated with phraseology servile to the tsar, they are not conformi- stic. Both parliamentary chambers endeavoured to make use of their right to control the executive and judicial authorities and defend the constitution. Some remarks are critical interpellations showing the mechanism ofgovernmentin the country; they also depict disputes over educational policy and the pressure exerted on the government to persuade it to conduct a thrifty financial policy. In addition to the deputies’ concern for their personal or group interests,, they reflect aspirations for independenceand a growing dissatisfaction which finally led to the outbreak of the November Insurrection. (AS) Maciej Serwański, Tomasz Schramm, Cry gospodarność Wielkopolski to wynik wpływów pruskich? Od Rzeczyposapolitej szlacheckiej do pracy organicznej (Was the Thrif- tiness of Great Poland a Result of Prussian Influence ? From the Noblemen 's Commonwealth to Work Aimed at Raising the Economic and Cultural Level of the Province). “Przegląd Zachodni” (Poznań), vol. LI, 1995, N° 3, pp. 1-12. The question in the title is a controversial question for Polish historians; some (e.g. Jerzy Topolski) have pointed out that even before its incorporation into the Prussian state Great Poland was one of the most developed Polish provinces and was on a relatively high level of http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 225 civilization. The authors of the essay under review examine the consequences of Great Poland’s political, economic and cultural integration into Prussia after 1793. They point out that integration into Prussia halted the development of early capitalist forms of production (especially in cloth production), but Prussian agrarian reforms carried out in the first decades of the 19th century promoted the modernization of agriculture. These processes were accom­ panied by a gradual intensification of Germanization to which the local Pol ish elites responded by an effective programme for social, economic and cultural self-organization which was carried out in competition with the Germans. The authors come to the conclusion that “both theories, the one about local development, which was disturbed, and the other about the stimulating Prussian role contain elements of truth and, far from being contradictory, complement each other”, (pp. 11-12). (AS) Krzysztof Ślusarek, Drobna szlachta w Galicji 1772—1848 (The Pelty Nobility in Galicia 1772-1848), Kraków 1995, Wydawnictwo Księgami Akademickiej, 294 pp., annex, bib- liogr., index of persons, maps, tables. The book is based mainly on official documents (censuses, taxation records, law court records, inventories and descriptions of noblemen’s property); most of them are kept in the Central State Historical Archives in Lviv (in particular in the sets concerning Gubernrya and the Governor’s Office, which for many years were inaccessible to Polish historians). Ślusarek has ascertained the numerical strength and territorial distribution of the petty nobility and its financial structure; he has discussed separately the rather numerous group of landless noble­ men who tried to find a living in private and state service. He shows how the petty noblemen were gradually losing their privileged legal status and melting into other social groups. An integral part of the book is an extensive annex (pp. 144-248) with an historical glossary of places where petty noblemen’s settlements were situated. The author ignores the question of the petty nobility ’scultural peculiarities, even though he notices its specific characteristics manifested in its dress, way of life and cultivation of old Polish traditions. (AS) Kazimierz Śmigiel, Florian Stablewski arcybiskup gnieźnieński, 1841-1906 (Florian Stablewski, Archbishop of Gniezno and Poznań, 1841-1906), Gniezno 1994, Wydawnictwo Gaudentium, 223 pp., bibliogr. index of persons, sum. in German. This is a biographic study based on sources of church provenance (from archdiocesal archives in Poznań and Gniezno) and official sources (documents of the German ministries of internal affairs and education, and the Chancellery of the Reich, kept in Berlin, Potsdam and Bonn). Archbishop Stablewski, a prominent church dignitary in Prussian Poland, was also a social and political activist; he opposed the curbs put on Roman Catholicism and Polish culture. He also tried to reach a compromise with the German authorities, especially in 1890—1894, making use of his personal contacts with the Emperor William II. At that time he was a leading figure of the Polish conciliatory party. The author meticulously analyses Stablewski’s speeches in parliament, his pastoral letters and publications. He also describes his purely ecclesiastic activity (establishment of new parishes, support extended to ecclesiastic seminars, editorial initiatives, initiation of Catholic social associations, etc.). (AS) Roman W a p i ń s k i, O miejscu Pomorza w wyobrażeniach społecznych u· dobie po rozbio­ rowej (The Place of Pomerania in Social Imagination after the Partitions), “Zapiski 11 isto- ryczne” (Toruń), vol. LX, 1995, N“ 2-3, pp. 49-71, sum. in German. The author analyses 19th century Polish political writings and belles lettres and comes to the conclusion that Gdańsk Pomerania was a subject rarely and only marginally raised by authors. In writing about Gdańsk Pomerania Polish authors sometimes draw attention to the German http://rcin.org.pl 226 ABSTRACTS character of the social elites there, but they emphasized the historical traditions of the old Polish Commonwealth, which included Royal Prussia. Interest in Gdańsk Pomerania increased at the turn of the 19th century; this was due to ethnographic observations and research on the Polish-speaking population, to social democratization and also to information on the Poles’ resistance to Germanization and the consolidation of their national identity. This i merest grew in the last few years before and during World War I, when the publications which discussed the shape of the future Polish state stressed that Poland should gain access to the sea. (AS) Jan Ziółek, Studia nad myślą polityczną Wielkiej Emigracji — Napoleon 1 i Napoleon III (Studies in the Political Thought of the Great Emigration — Napoleon I and Napoleon III), Lublin 1995, Towarzystwo Naukowe Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego, 202 pp. Prace Wydziału Uistoryczno-Filozoficznego 60. The author develops some of the themes he has discussed in his earlier book (cf. J. Ziółek, Stosunek Wielkiej Emigracji do dynastii Bonapartych (The Attitude of the Great Emigration to the Bonaparte Dynasty), Lublin 1990). In addition to Polish emigre political writings from 1831-1864, Ziółek has also made use of literary works, editions of the correspondence of writers and political activists as well as diaries (also handwritten ones, in particular those kept in the Polish Library in Paris). The author examines the influence of Napoleon‘s legend on the leaders and rank-and-file members of the Polish emigration after the November 1830 insurrection and their contacts with Napoleon III and his entourage. In the Í85l)s and 1860s, both democratic and conservative-liberal circles hopes that Napoleon III would support the Polish cause; only the radical Left was ill-disposed towards Napoleon III. Contrary to these expectations, France adopted an ambiguous, wavering attitude during the 1863-1864 insur­ rection, which greatly weakened the Poles’ pro-Napoleonic stance. (AS) Andrzej Zbikowski, Rozwój ideologii antysemickiej w Galicji w II połowie XIX n·. (The Development of an Anti-Semitic Ideology in Galicia in the Second Half of the 19th Century), “Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Naukowo-Badawczego w Polsce” (Warszawa), 1994, printed in 1995, N° 1-3(169-171), pp. 21-39. The article deals mainly with the views and activity of Teofil Merunowicz (1846-1919), a civil servant, publicist, deputy to the Galician Home Diet (1881-1914) and the Austrian Reichsrat (1896-1906). Merunowicz was a co-author and leading adherent of the theory of a “Jewish plot” which, allegedly backed by Vienna liberals, was supposedly seeking to wreck the traditional forms of farming and social relations in order to control Galicia and destroy its Polish traditions. Merunowicz drew attention to the prospects of an alliance of the Jewish and Ukrainian electorates, which jointly accounted for more than 50 percent of the total population of Galicia and could endanger Polish dominance if democratic general elections were introduced. His views did not arouse great interest when they were formulated at the end of the 1870s and the beginning of the 1880s, but many of them were later adopted by the ideologists and politicians of modern Polish nationalism. (AS)

MODERN TIMES (1918-1939) Alina F i t o w a , Stanisław Mierzwa “Słomka” na tle swoich czasów (Stanisław Mierzwa “Słomka” Against the Background of His Times), Wierzchosławice 1994, Wydawnictwo Muzeum Wincentego Witosa w Wierzchosławicach, 308 pp., bibliogr., index of names, 38 illustr., appendix. A biography of a famous peasant activist Stanisław Mierzwa (1905-1985), activist of the Union of Rural Youth in the 1930s, member of the Peasant Party from 1932, member of the Central Management of Peasant Movement during the German occupation. In March 1945 he http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 227 was arrested and as the result of a trial in Moscow sentenced to 4 months in prison. After his return to Poland, he was active in the Polish Peasant Party (PSL). In September 1946 in a political trial he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Released in 1953. Later in his life he ceased taking an active part in politics. The author documents the several stages of Mierzwa’s political life. The source of her deliberations consists above all of materials preserved in the Archives of Modem Records in Warsaw, State Archives in Cracow, the Archives of the Warsaw Military Region Court of Justice, the ex Archives of the Citizens’ Militia Voivodeship Command and Archives of the Polish Peasant Party Voivodeship Board in Cracow. Fitowa also made useof documents from private collections (where in of Mierzwa’s family), the press, source publications and works concerning the subject (DJ) Jan Kęsik, Zaufajry Komendanta. Biografia polityczna Jana Henryka Józewskiego 1892- 1981 (The Commander’s Confident. Political Biography of Jan Henryk Józewski 1892-1981), Wrocław 1995, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 216 pp., illustr., sum. in English, Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis N° 1725, Historia CXXI. Henryk Józewski was born and brought up in Kiev, where he also studied and started his political activity, First in student socialist organizations and then in the Polish Military Organization (a conspiratorial military organization set up and directed by Józef Piłsudski, the aim of which was Poland’s independence). After the conclusion of the Polish-Ukrainian alliance in 1920, he was a member of the government of the Ukrainian People‘s Republic. At the beginning of the 1920s he withdrew from politics only to return to it after the 1926 coup d’état. He held important posts in the central administration (chief of prime minister’s cabinet, minister of internal affairs) and in local administration. As voivode of Volhynia (in 1928- 1938) he worked out and started implementing a concept of Polish-Ukrainian understanding. It was to be based on Ukrainian recognition of the integrity of the territory of the Second Republic, coupled with a guarantee of basic national rights to the Ukrainian population in the Polish state. In Józewski’s concept the ultimate aim of the two nations’ co-operation was the establishment of an independent Ukrainian state with its capital in Kiev. During World War II Józewski performed important functions in the Polish underground state. After the war he took part in anti-communist conspiracy. He was wanted by the communist authorities and lived in hiding until 1953, when he was arrested and kept in prison until 1956. The book is based on Józewski's personal materials kept in military archives and the archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, documents from the investigation and from Józewski’s trial, memoirs and accounts. (WM) Jadwiga K i w e r s k a , Między izolacjonizmem a zaangażowaniem. Europa w polityce Stanów Zjednoczonych od Wilsona do Roosevelta (Between Isolationism and Involvement. Europe in the Policy of the United States from Wilson to Roosevelt), Poznań 1995, Instytut Zachodni, 460 pp., summary in English Prace Instytutu Zachodniego nr 62. In the author’s opinion America’s involvement in the 1st World War, although it did not enjoy at any moment an unqualified support of the American public opinion, made it impossible for the USA to return to its complete isolation from European affairs after the war was over. The refusal to ratify the Versailles Treaty and a wish to ignore European problems demonstrated by a large group of American politicians, could not change the fact that the economic and political relations between the Old and the New Continent were getting tightened. The USA took an active part in settling the basic problems of European economy (the matter of war reparations,struggle against the economic crisis), disarmament, international politics (entering into a co-operation with the League of Nations in the 1930s). From mid-1930s onwards the White House conducted an open campaign for a change of the isolationist attitude of the American public opinion. Its effects did not lead to a general http://rcin.org.pl 228 ABSTRACTS reorientation of the American attitude until the Japanese attack of December 1941 introduced USA to the group of participants in World War II. The work is a result of research carried out i.a. into the collections of the Departments of State, Commerce and Treasury and into the posthumous works of outstanding figures of American politics, preserved mainly in the Washington Library of Congress, as well as analysis of the literature. (WM) Eugeniusz Koko, W nadziei na zgodę. Polski ruch socjalistyczny wobec kwestii narodowo­ ściowej w Polsce, 1918—1939 (Hoping for Concord. The Altitude of the Polish Socialist Movement to the Nationality Problem in Poland, 1918-1939), Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, Gdańsk 1995, 247 pp., sum. in English. As far as the nationality problem in Poland is concerned, the Polish socialist movement always tried to reconcile contradictory attitudes. It endeavoured to give an air of rationality to nationality questions and proposed to solve nationality problems by a rational compromise that would respect the interests of all sides. It adopted this attitude despite obvious evidence that individuals and national groups were motivated by irrational factors, especially in extreme situations, and was therefore accused of lacking realism and being naive, if not simply politically stupid. While remaining a current of Polish political life and regarding the struggle for inde­ pendence, and later for Polish national and state interests, as its basic duty, the movement strove invariably to give other nationalities the possibility of implementing their national program­ mes, even if this might in future endanger Poland’s integrity. In pursuing this policy the socialist movement ran the risk of being accused, not only by extreme nationalists, of national treason, cosmopolitanism, of serving alien interests. On the other hand, not only the commu­ nists but also the majority of minority groupings regarded the socialists’ attitude as a disguise, as a political trick intended to win over Byelorussians and Ukrainians to the Polish side. However, the opinions of the Polish socialist movement and its attitude to nationality questions are cited in all serious historical and political discussions as not only interesting but perspicacious and, in historical perspective, marked by surprising realism, they are regarded as opinions which do credit to the Poles as a nation claiming to belong to the family of mature and tolerant nations. Other nations, Jews, Byelorussians, Ukrainians and Germans, usually refer to the programmes and activities of the Polish socialist movement if they want to lay stress on the positive aspects of their relations with Poles. Eugeniusz Koko’s book which analyses Polish socialism’s attitude to the nationality problems in the Second Republic explains the paradoxes mentioned here. The author presents in detail the socialist parties’ programmatic declarations and publicistic texts concerning the national minorities, the state’s nationality policy and ethnic conflicts as well as the parties’ activity in this sphere, stressing that the socialist parties laid stress on Poland’s right to independence. (WM) Marian Kozaczka, Ordynacja nieświeska w latach 1914-1924 (Nieśwież Entail in the years 1914-1924), “Kwartalnik Historyczny” (Warszawa), Year CII, 1995, fasc. 2,pp. 27-42, summary in English. Nieśwież Entail, was a complex of Radziwiłł family estates, which on the strength of a statute from 1586 (confirmed by the Seym of the Commonwealth) could not undergo family divisions or sales that would diminish the overall value of family property. At the outbreak of the war the Nieśwież Entail together with the inherited property of the heir in tail embraced about 120,000 hectares. It was run by Antoni Albrecht Radziwiłł as the 16th Nieśwież heir in tail. Until the beginning of 1918 the influence of war on the state of the entail was reflected merely in a considerable fall in cattle-breeding and in the number of horses (as the result of a fall in crops). Nor did the encroachment by the Germans in February 1918 cause any http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 229 perturbations; on the contrary, initially it calmed down the feelings among the employees of the entail, who from 1917 had been influenced by the revolution. At the turn of 1918 the estates of the entail were looted by Bolshevik detachments and the local population. After the Polish army marched in (August 1919), work was undertaken to make up for the losses and destruction. Equipment lacking, only about 25% of the arable area was sown. This effort was annihilated by the Boleshevik troops which in the period from July till the beginning of October 1920 occupied the area of the entail. The crops and farms, as wel1 as industrial works, foresters ’ lodges, and the palace of Nieśwież itself, were plundered, and only 76,000 hectares remained within the borders of the Second Republic of Poland. Reconstruction after the destruction of 1918-1920 was extremely difficult, in some regions impossible. Part of the land was conveyed to the state and destined to be settled either by the military or civilians. The Radziwills were short of financial means and there w’as no possibility of finding profitable credits for reconstruction. It was financed above all by the income from felling (sometimes excessive) the forests. Only in the 1930s did the entail recuperate its economic status comparable with the period before 1914. The article is based on the analysis of archival materials of the Nieśwież Entail. (WM) Henryk Mieczysław Kula, Polska Straż Graniczna w latach 1928—1919 (Polish Frontier Guard in the Years 1928-1939). Warszawa 1994, Wydawnictwo Bellona, 271 pp., maps, illustrations. The first formation to defend Polish frontiers was the Military Frontier Guard called into being in 1918. After a few months, it was replaced by formations of Frontier Marksmen, which in 1920 handed over part of their competences to the State Police and Custom-Houses. At the turn of 1920 Guard Battalions were called into being (then transformed into Customs Battalions), subordinated to the Ministry of Finance. In 1922 additionally for the needs of the eastern frontier, Frontier Police was organized, subordinated to the starostas of frontier districts. As it also turned out to be too weak for ensuring effective control of the frontier, in 1924 a Corps of Frontier Defence was called into being, subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior. The evolution of frontier services that defended the western, southern and northern frontiers took a differentcourse. Its final result was calling up in March 1928 of Frontier Guard subordinated to the Ministry of Finance in respect of custom protection, and to the organs of general administration in respect of frontier defence. It numbered over 5,000 functionaries who serviced frontier passages and custom-houses, patrolled the frontier and counter-acted the smuggling of goods and people. Secret service techniques were used and a largely developed network of informers were maintained on both sides of the frontier. 3,128 km of frontier-line were under the Guard’s control. In theauthor’s opinion FrontierGuard acquitted themselves of their duty very well. A special mention in the history of the Guard is due to the period directly before the outbreak of Polish-German war and the first days of conflict, when the units of the Guard contributed seriously to the protection and defence of frontier lined, suffering great losses. The work is based on research into archival materials of Polish frontier services from inter-war period (The Archives of the Frontier Protection Army in Kętrzyn), the Ministries of the Interior, of Finance and of Defence. (WM) Janusz Pajewski, Budowa Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej 1918—1926 (The Construction of the Second Republic 1918-1926), Kraków 1995, Polska Akademia Umiejętności, 266 pp. Roz­ prawy Wydziału Historyczno-Filozoficznego, volume 79. The book is a collection of essays on key questions concerning reborn Poland‘s government system and political issues as well as the international situation and foreign policy of the Polish state. On the basis of his own research, works dealing with this subject and, as he emphasizes, his own reminiscences and impressions, the author presentsa balance sheet of the period when http://rcin.org.pl 230 ABSTRACTS the foundations of the reborn Polish state were being laid. He devotes much space to the historical conditions which influenced the reconstruction of the state, that is, to the direct consequences of the war as well as to the legacy of national tradition (e.g. the Poles’ altitude to the question of frontiers, political culture, etc.). Pajewski points out that the internal situation and foreign policy of reborn Poland were greatly influenced by unfavourable eventsand trends in the international arena, over which Poland had no control. In the author’s opinion, the results of the formation of the state after a long period of foreign rule were favourable, but to achieve the level of political culture, economy and state organization demanded by the general public would have required a much longer time than the twenty years between the two wars. (WM) Jakub Polit, Totalitaryzm japoński (Japanese Totalitarianism), “Studia Historyczne” (Kraków), vol. XXXVIII, 1995, 1, pp. 89—100, sum. in English. The author polemises with the frequently expressed opinion that Japanese totalitarianism was akin to the European fascist regimes. I le draws attention to the internal reasons for the crisis in Japanes politics and consciousness after World War I. The growing wave of political plots in the army and the series of political assassinations by the military were rooted in the traditional models of Japan’s political life. The totalitarian system formed in the Thirties did not resemble the classic fascist systems. It did not promote a cult of personality (the cult of the emperor was of a completely different character) and it had no uniform cohesive ideology. Ideology was replaced by military ethos, anti-Chinese attitude, extreme anti-Americanism and state Shintoism. Totalitarian Japan did not havea classic totalitarian party. The Association Supporting the Emperor’s Power was an organization directed by persons who did not hold important state posts. In spite of this, the Japanese totalitarian system was extremely effective. It nipped in the bud even the mildest forms of social resistance. It was based on militarism which enjoyed surprising social support in Japan. The article is based on English and Russian studies. (WM) Regina Renz, Zycie codzienne w miasteczkach województwa kieleckiego 1918—1939 (Everyday Life in Towns of the Kielce Voivodship), Kielce 1994, Kieleckie Towarzystwo Naukowe, 212 pp., illustr., sum in English and German. The numerous small towns with a population of less than 20,000 in the Kielce voivodship (33 in 1921) played an important role as local centres of commodity production and exchanged as well as centres of society life and culture. They were binational. Poles accounted for more than a half of their population (about 58 per cent), but many of them were only formally townsmen, for they lived outside the area of compact building and earned their living by agricultural work. Jews predominated in non-agricultural occupations. Trade and handicrafts were fragmented in the small towns; they worked for small commodity peasant agriculture and secured only the minimum of existence to the people employed in them. The Polish and Jewish populations formed two different worlds which lived side by side but apart, intermin- glingonly in the economic sphere. The intelligentsia, represented by physicians, civil servants, teachers and clergymen, was also divided according to the national-religious criterion and formed two separate groups. The individual categories of the population had different living standards, different models of family life and different holiday and everyday customs, which are all meticulously presented in the book. The book is based on archival material of state and religious institutions, municipal authorities and organizations, memoirs, accounts, the press, many inter-war studies and literature. (WM) Rola i miejsce Górnego Śląska w Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej (The Role and Position of Upper Silesia in the Second Republic of Poland). Materials of the scientific session organized on http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 231 June 15—16, 1992 on the 70th anniversary of the annexation of a part of regained Upper Silesia to its mother country. Collective work edited by Maria Wanda Wanatow icz . Bytom-Katowice 1995, Wydawnictwo Muzeum Górnośląskie i Muzeum Śląskie, 340 pp., illustrations. The publication consists of papers presented during the session organized on the 70th anniversary of the annexation to Poland of a part of Upper Silesia in 1922: Wacław Dł u go - b o r s k i (Upper Silesia against the background of other Polish lands at the beginning of the 20th c., economy, society, culture), Grażyna Szewczyk (Specificity of Upper Silesia as presented in German literature), Józef C i ą g w a (Political conditionings of Upper Silesian autonomy within the Second Republic of Poland), Marian Marek Drozdowski (Upper Silesia during the Second Republic of Poland. Reality, myths, stereotypes), Maria Wanda W anatowicz (The role of Upper Silesia in the process of economic integration of Poland), Kazimierz P i n d e l (Upper Silesia within the system of defence), Henryk Olszar (The Catholic Church in Upper Silesia), Henryk Przybylski (Political life as a factor integra­ ting Upper Silesia with the Second Republic of Poland), Tomasz F a l ę c k i (Polish patrio­ tism in Upper Silesia), Franciszek Serafin (The influence of the Second Republic on the demographic and social changes in the Silesian voivodeship). Apart from that the book includes the texts of 19 statements and utterances voiced in the discussion during the session as well as its short summing-up by Maria Wanda Wanatowicz. (WM) Aleksander Srebrakowski, Sejm Wileński 1922 roku. Idea i jej realizacja (The Wilno Sejm of 1922. The Idea and Its Iimplementation), Wrocław 1995, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 146 pp., illustr. Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis N° 1363, Historia XCIX. When the international order was being established after World War I, Wilno and the adjacent territory were the object of serious conflicts between Poland and Lithuania. The Entente states as well as the Soviet Union were in favour of according the Wilno region to Lithuania. When the Russians occupied Wilno in July 1920, they transferred it to Lithuania. In the autumn of 1920, Polish forces commanded by General Żeligowski recaptured the Wilno region, but as international attitude was unfavourable, Poland set up a separate state, Middle Lithuania. At first the Poles assumed that without settling the status of Wilno for good, they would be able to convince Lithuania to accept their concept of a Polish-Lithuanian federation, but Lithuania categorically rejected this idea. In this situation the Polish side took steps to incorporate Middle Lithuania into Poland. The main role in this operation was played by the parliament of Middle Lithuania (Wilno Sejm). On the basis of sources from the archivesof Middle Lithuania and the Wilno Sejm (kept in the Lithuanian State Archives), documents of Polish military institutions and civilian organizations acting in the Wilno region, the author reconstructs the events which led to the convocation of parliament, the election campaign, the results of the election and the circum­ stances in which the Wilno Sejm adopted the law incorporating the Wilno region into Poland (February 20,1992). He also discusses the process of Middle Lithuania’s integration into Poland. (WM) Marek Stażewski, Sprawa przeprowadzenia spisu ludności niemieckiej w województ­ wach pomorskim i poznańskim w 1926 roku (The Census of the German Population in the Pomeranian and Poznań Voivodships in 1926), “Zapiski Historyczne” (Toruń), vol. LX, 1995, N° 1, pp. 63-79, sum in German. Statistics may distort the numerical strength of individual nationalities for political reasons. Using this argument, the Germans called into question the results of the Polish census of 1921 as far as the numerical strength of the German population in Poland was concerned. This is why in 1926 they held their own census of the German population in areas inhabited by Germans. The census was conducted under the auspices of the German Ministry of Foreign http://rcin.org.pl 232 ABSTRACTS Affairs, which in 1925 decided that such a census should be held (this must have been connected with the Locarno treaties). The Ministry guaranteed expert help and financial assistance (the costs of elaborating the results were borne jointly by Prussia and the Ministry1 of Finance of the Reich). The participants filled the forms in two copies; the original ones were sent to Germany. The material was collected with the help of the Deutsche Vereinigung in the Sejm and Senate and the Lutheran Church. The census was carried out in two stages: in an experimental area covering two districts in May 1926, and in the other areas (55 districts) in the summer of 1926. The Polish authorities harassed the persons who carried out the census but they did not stop it. According to the author, the census supplied honest objective date which, to a large extent, corresponded to the data of the state censuses of 1921 and 1931. The book is based on the author’s research in the archives of the Auswärtiges Amt in Bonn, where he studied materials showing the principles and organization of the census and the elaboration of data. (WM) Lech Wyszczelski, Warszawa 1920 (Warsaw 1920), Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo Bellona, 293 pp., plans, illustrations. The work is the first monograph of the battle that decided the fate of the Polish-Bolshevik war 1919-1921. It contains a detailed reconstruction of the front-line actions by the Polish and Bolshevik armies in July and August 1920, as well as an analysis of the process of decision-making by the Polish commanders and staff. It states that the plan of the Warsaw battle “was worked out by many staff officers who realized the design of the Commander-in- Chief responsible for its conception”. The author underlines the important role played during the preparation and execution of the defence of Warsaw by Gen. Rozwadowski, who in the book emerges as one of the chief authors of the battle’s success. All the more so as after having assumed command of the offensive group on the Wieprz river, Piłsudski “practically withdrew from the function of Commander-in-Chief, and had no influence either on the directing the course of the war or the battle of Warsaw. Thus the General Staff took over his task”. The deliberations have been based on the records of the Commander-in-Chief and the Commands of the Armies that took partin the war, on memoiristic and professional literature. (WM) Zwycięzcy za drutami. Jeńcy polscy w niewoli 1919—1922. Dokumenty i materiały (Victors behind the Barbed Wire. Polish Prisoners of War in Captivity 1919-921. Documents and Materials), ed. Stanisław Aleksandrowicz, Zbigniew Karpus, Waldemar Rez - mer, Toruń 1995, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, 288 pp.. phot., maps, texts in Polish, French and Russian. The Volume comprises 97 documents: diplomatic correspondence, military reports, lists of prisoners of war, accounts and statements of former Polish prisoners of war as well as fragments of unknown publications describing the conditions in PoW camps and the circum­ stances in which Polish soldiers, who had fought in the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1920, gained freedom. This is the first time that these archival documents from the Central Military Archives and the Archives of Modern Records have been published. (WM) Stanisław Z e r k o , Wymarzone przymierze II illera. Wielka Brytania w narodowo-socjalis- tycznych koncepcjach i w polityce III Rzeszy do 1939 roku (The Alliance of Hitler 's Dreams. Great Britain in National Socialist Concepts and in the Policy of the Third Reich up to 1939), Poznań 1995, Instytut Zachodni, 442 pp., sum. in German, Studium Niemcoznawcze N° 68. The author reconstructs the attitude of the national socialist movement and Nazi Germany to Great Britain on the basis of documents issued by German state institutions and the Nazi party http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 233

(those published in collections of source documents as well as unpublished documents kept in the archives of Bonn and Koblenz), publicistic writings, diaries and memoirs of German party activists and politicians. As early as the beginning of the 1920s Hitler believed that Germany and Great Britain should come to an understanding which would define each country’s sphere of influence. Germany wanted to have dominance in continental Europe, in particular to expand eastward while primacy at sea and in overseas territories was to fal 1 to Great Britain’s share. But attempts to establish closer German-British collaboration after the NSDAP seized power were unsuc­ cessful. In the middle of the 1930s Hitler changed his attitude to Britain. While not rejecting the idea of an understanding and hoping that he would force Britain to accept German expansion to the East, he started a policy of political confrontation. As late as 1940 Hi tier still believed that Britain joined Germany, Italy and Japan, this would be a “blessing for the world”. (WM)

Przemysław Piotr Żurawski vel Grajewski, Sprawa ukraińska na konferencji pokojowej w Paryżu w roku 1919 (The Ukrainian Question at the Peace Conference in Paris in 1919), Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Semper, 126 pp., maps. A Ukrainian delegation comprising 20 persons and representing both the Dnieper Ukraine (Ukrainian People’s Republic) and the West Ukrainian People’s Republic arrived in Paris in January 1919 to secure international recognition for the Ukrainian state. According to the author, the Entente states’ main aim in the East of Europe was to consolidate all possible political and military forces in the fight against the Bolsheviks. It was in this context that the Entente states evaluated, usually disfavourably, the Ukrainians’ struggle for independence. Another factor which weakened the prospects of Ukrainian endeavours was the Ukrainian national movement’s previous collaboration with the Central Power (especially Germany). All general decisions concerning Ukraine were taken in accordance with the wishes of the political representatives of White Russia (in particular Denikin’s Russia). The principal detailed Ukrainian questions discussed in Paris were: — the Polish-Ukrainian conflict in Eastern Galicia, as regards the political status of that region it was finally decided to give Poland a 25-year mandate over Eastern Galicia. Final decisions were to be taken after that period; — the status of Carpathian Ruthenia. In this case the conference recognized the Czechoslovak claim that Carpathian Ruthenia should be incorporated into Czechoslovakia; — the question of Bukovina and Bessarabia. Until Denikin’s military breakdown the Allies refused to agree to Romania’s territorial ambitions. It was only at the end of 1919 that they recognized de facto the incorporation of Bessarabia and Bukovina into the Romanian state. The book is based on published sources concerning the Paris peace conference and studies dealing with this question. (WM)

SECOND WORLD WAR

Bolesław Dereń, Józef Kuraś “Ogień ”. Partyzant Podhala (Józef Kuraś “Fire ”. Partisan of the Podhale Region), Kraków 1995, Wydawnictwo i Drukarnia “Secesja”, 238 pp., 9 illustr., bibliogr., index of persons and pseudonyms, index of geographical names. The hero of the book was born in a Podhale village, Waksmund, in 1915. He gained fame as a partisan during the German occupation. From June 1941 to July 1943 he was a member of theTatra Mountains Confederation, a conspiratorial organization of the Podhale Peasant Parly. The organization carried out attacks not only on Germans but also on Poles who co-operated with them by claiming to belong to the Goralenvolk invented by the Nazis. From July 10 to. December 27,1943 he collaborated with Home Army units, but preserved his autonomy. The http://rcin.org.pl 234 ABSTRACTS attempt to subordinate Kuraś and his men to the Home Army command ended in a fiasco. After a three months’ break (January-March 1944) he returned to the mountains; politically, he was then subordinated to the District Peasant Movement Command in Nowy Targ and his unit formed part of the Peasant Security Guard. He fought his most important battles against the Germans near Kilkuszowa in January 1945 at the side of a People’s Army unit; feeling at home in the mountains, he led incoming Soviet troops along mountainous paths, as a result of which the Germans, for fear of being surrounded, left Nowy Targ without firing a shot. For a short time (March-April 1945) he was a functionary of the District Public Security Office in Nowy Targ. He then decided to leave the office and started fighting against the communists, killing soldiers, employees of the Security Office, the Citizens’ Militia and the Internal Security corps, co-operating with Western intelligence, publishing leaflets, sabotaging state institutions and industrial works. Surrounded by troops and Security Office detachments in the village of Ostrowsko on February 21, 1947, he was shot and died the following day. The security authorities did not allow the burial to take place in his native region. His body was handed over to the Medical Department of the Jagiellonian University as remains of an unknown person. The biography is based on various sources (documents from the Archives of the Cracow branch of the Office for the Protection of the State, state archives in Cracow, archives of the centre for the History of the Peasant Movement, archives of the voivodship board of the Polish Peasant Party in Cracow), many private collections and unpublished memoirs and accounts.

Tadeusz D u b i c k i, Polscy uchodźcy w Rumunii 1939-1945. Studia i materiały (Polish Refugees in Romania 1939—1945. Studies and Materials), Warszawa 1995, Warszawska Oficyna Wydawnicza “Gryf’, 332 pp., bibliogr., index of persons, documents, 59 illuslr. The book is based on a wealth of records, including Polish and Romanian documents from the Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw, the Archives of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow, the Archives of the Centre for the History of the Peasant Movement in Warsaw, the Polish Institute, the Sikorski Museum and the Study Centre for Underground Poland in London, the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest and the archives in Craiova. The author discusses general questions concerning Polish refugees in Romania, including their reception by the Romanian authorities and Romanian society, the activity of some welfare organizations (the American Commission for Assistance to Poles and the Citizen’s Committee), contacts and links between refugee centres in Romania and Hungary, the problem of Polish Jews who sought refuge in Romania, A large part of the book analyses in detail the schools set up for Polish refugees in Romania, the work of individual schools and the situation of Polish students in Romania. (DJ) Waldemar Grabowski, Delegatura Rządu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na Kraj 1940-1945 (Polish Govermnent in Exile’s Home Delegation), Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo PAX, 294 pp., bibliogr., index of names and pseudonyms, 228 illustr., appendix. This is the first full monograph in Polish historiography of the Polish Government in Exile’s Home Delegation encompassing its whole history. The basis of the author’s deliberations consists of materials collected in the ex-Central Archive of the Central Committee of Polish United Workers’ Party in Warsaw and the Study of Underground Poland in London. Moreover he made use of unpublished accounts and memoirs, preserved in the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow and Ossolineum Library in Wrocław, as well as accounts, information and conversa­ tions collected and taken down by himself. The ensuing chapters of the work are devoted to the formation of the civil management of conspiracy i n the ini tial period of German occupation, the character of the Office of the Government’s Home Delegate, analysis of the function of the Delegation during the Warsaw Uprising and after its defeat. The last part of the monograph http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 235 presents the author’s findings concerning the activity of Government Regional and District Delegations. At the end of the book the author gives biographies of Government delegates, the Delegation’s curriers, employees of the Government Delegate’s Bureau and other persons involved in the work of the abovementioned institutions, which area valuable complement to his expositions. (DJ) Mieczysław I n g 1 o t, Polska kultura literacka Lwowa lat 1939—1941. Ze Lwowa i o Lwowie. Lata sowieckiej okupacji w poezji polskiej. Antologia utworów poetyckich w wyborze (Polish Literary Culture of Lwów between 1939-1941. From Lwów and about Lwów. The Years of Soviet Occupation in Polish Poetry. Selected Anthology of Poetic Works), Wrocław 1995, Wydawnictwo Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Polonistyki Wrocławskiej, 415 pp., bibliogr., index of persons, 41 illustrations, summary in English and in Ukrainian. The book is a collection of essays concerning various aspects of Polish cultural life in Lwów under the Soviet occupation. In successive chapters the author — a professor at the Institute of Polish Philology of the Wrocław University, discusses the conditions of development of literary life in Lwów, the Mickiewiczian celebrations, the theatre life in the town between 1939-1941, Polish as the subject of education in the Lwów ten-year school and the history of Polish studies at the Stefan Batory University (then Ivan Franko University). The source basis of the author’s deliberations — apart from published dissertations and discussions, memoirs and literary works — consists of manuscript collections of the Lwów Regional Archives, W. Stefanyk’s Library in Lwów and Ossolineum Library in Wrocław. A valuable supplement to the work is an anthology of poetic works, extracted mainly from Polish-language press appearing in USSR in the years 1939-1941, complemented by poems touching on the problem of the Soviet occupation of eastern Polish lands, written in later period (Poetic Commentary Years Later). (DJ) Katyń, Dokumenty zbrodni. T. 1. Jeńcy nie wypowiedzianej wojny sierpień 1939 — marzec 1940 (Katyń. Documents of the Crime. Vol. 1. The Captives of Un-Declared War August 1939 — March 1940), Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo TRIO, 547 pp., 36 illustr., index of names, index of abbreviations. This is the first volume of the joint publication by the Polish Head Office of Slate Archives, the State Archival Service of Russia, Institute of Slavic and Balkan Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Mililary History of the Russian Federation and the Central Archive of the Federal Secret Service of the Russian Federation. The head of the Polish editorial committee is Aleksander Gieysztor, of the Russian editorial Committee Rudolf G. Pikhoya. The volumecomprises 217 documents depicting the history of the captives, prisoners and internees from the territory of the Polish Republic in the period from September 1939 till the decision for their execution taken by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of All-Union Communist (Bolshevik) Party on March 5, 1940. The majority of documents come from the collections of the following Russian archives: Rossijskij Gosudarstvennyj Vojennyj Arkhiv, Arkhiv Prezidenta Rosijskoy Federatsji, Gosudarstvennyj Arkhiv Rossijskoy Fede- ratsji, Tsentr Khranenija Istoriko-Dokumentnykh Kollektsyi. (DJ) Andrzej Pepłoński, Wywiad Polskich Sił Zbrojnych na Zachodzie 1939-1945 (The Polish Armed Forces’ Intelligence Service in the West 1939-1945), Warszawa 1995, Wy­ dawnictwo AWM, 407 pp., bibliogr., 58 illustr., index of surnames and pseudonyms, index of abbrev., 18 annexes. This is the first attempt in Polish historiography at a comprehensive presentation of the work conducted by the Intelligence Service of the Polish Armed Forces in the West. The author has made use of documents kept in Warsaw’s Archives of Modern Records, Central Mililary Archives (documents of the Second Department of the Polish Army General Staff), Archives http://rcin.org.pl 236 ABSTRACTS of the Military Historical Institute (Second Department of the Commander-in-Chief s Staff), and Archives of the History of the Peasant Movement (Stanisław Kof s archives) as well as collections of the Polish Institute and the General Sikorski Museum in London (documents of the Second Department of the General Staff and collections of Lieut. Col. Wincenty tíąkie- wicz, Lieut. Col. Franciszek Brestling and Capt. Wacław Gilewicz, reports of military attaches) and the London Branch of the Józef Piłsudski Institute (collection of Col. Stefan Mayer). Pepłoński discusses the genesis of the Intelligence Service of the Polish Armed Forces, the work of the Second Information-Intelligence Department of the Commander-in- Chief s Staff in England, the functioning of the agencies and regional missions of the Second Department, the so-called continental activity in Europe and North and South America, co-operation with foreign intelligence services and mutual relations between the Fourth Special Department and the Second Department of the Supreme Command of the Union of Armed Struggle-the Home Army. The author says in conclusion that the Second Department made a significant contribution to the final victory over the Third Reich. It was the British intelligence service that benefited most from the Second Department’s co-operation with the Allied general staffs. Intelligence activity against the USSR increased after the severing of Polish-Soviet relations in April 1943. (DJ) Powstanie warszawskie z perspektywy półwiecza (The Warsaw Uprising from the Perspective of Half a Century), Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo Instytutu Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 506 pp. The publication comprises 43 essays and papers prepared for a scientific session which took place at the Royal Castle in Warsaw on June 14th and 15th, 1994. They have been grouped in four thematic sections dealing with the genesis of the uprising, its political, military, interna­ tional and social aspects, and the vision of the uprising in social consciousness. On the initiative of the Society of the Lovers of History, the Public Opinion Research Centre conducted a quantitative poll on “The Warsaw Uprising in Social Consciousness” and a qualitative one on “The Warsaw Uprising in the Consciousness of Various Social Groups”. Their results were presented by Lena Kolarska-Bobińska. The authors of other papers discussed, among other things, the attitude of individual states and nations to the uprising (Maciej Józef Kwiatkowski dealt with the Germans, Andrzej Korzon and Wojciech Roszko­ wski with the USSR, Jan Ciechanowski with Great Britain, Marek Marian Droz­ dowski with USA, Tadeusz W y rwa with theFrench, and Arkadiusz Żu ko wsk i with South Africa). The military aspects of the uprising were raised by Marek Ney -K rwa- wicz, Andrzej C h m i e l a r z, Krzysztof Komorowski, Jacek Zygmunt Siedlecki, Andrzej Rzepniewski, Tadeusz Sawicki and Ewa Pankiewicz. The situation of Warsaw’s civilian populations was discussed by, among others, Joanna K. H a n s o n , Maria Wiśniewska and Hanna Szwa n kows ka . There was controversy over Janusz Mar- szalec’s paper on the threat which the uprising posed to social life. Interesting new conclusions were presented by Tomasz Szarota, who portrayed Warsaw as the capital of the Polish Underground State. The picture of the uprising in the mass media and arts was presented by Władysław Bartoszewski and Jacek Zygmunt Sawicki (television), Adam Suchoński (handbooks), Zbigniew Jarosiński (belles lettres), Janina Ja ­ worska (art), Iza Klemińska (songs) and Maciej Józef K w i a t k o ws k i (radio). (DJ) Tomasz Szarota, Życie codzienne h· stolicach okupowanej Europy. Szkice historyczne. Kronika wydarzeií (Everyday Life in the Capitals of Occupied Europe. Historical Essays. Chronicle of Events), Warszawa 1995, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 286 pp., bibliogr., 66 il lustr.

http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 237

The book is the fruit of researches conducted at the Institut für Zeitheschichte in Munich, Centre de Recherches et d ’Études historiques de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale in Brussels and Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie in Amsterdam. It provides information on 18 Euro­ pean capitals which were under German occupation during World W ar II (unfortunately not much information has been gathered on the occupied capitals of the Baltic countries or Rome, Budapest and Tirana, the last capitals to be occupied). In addition to the collections of the above mentioned institutes and Polish archives (e.g. the Archives of Modern Records), Archives of Mechanical Documentation, State Archives of the City of Warsaw, National Library), ihe author has made use of an impressive wealth of studies in various languages, collections of documents, chronicles, diaries and memoirs. Szarota has focused attention on living conditions and mentality. Consequently, the monograph includes such chapters as rationing, supplementary provisions, the occupational daily bread, municipal catering businesses, family budgets, clothing, footwear and fashions, racial segregation, discrimination of Jews, collaboration, attitude to the occupier as well as attitude to Great Britain and the British, to the Russians and communism. The book is supplemented by a valuable pioneer chronicle of events in the occupied capitals; it starts on March 15,1939 (the entry of German troops into Prague and end son May 9, 1945 (the liberation of Oslo and Prague). (DJ)

RECENT TIMES

Bogusław Bernaszewski, Polityka PPR wobec zalegalizowanych partii i stronnictw (Polish Workers’ Party’s Policy Towards the Legalized Parties), Warszawa 1996, Wydaw­ nictwo Naukowe Semper, 263 pp., bibliogr., index of names. Another monograph devoted to the policy of the Polish Workers’ Party towards the political groups admitted to legal political activity in the period between 1944-1948, i.e. Labour Party, Peasant Party, Polish Peasant Party and Polish Socialist Party. The source basis of the author’s deliberations consists of materials collected in the Archives of Modem Records in Warsaw (mainly those concerning Polish Workers’ Party, but also posthumous works of political activists), the Archives of Peasant Movement History, Central Military Archives and the Archives of the State Protection Department. In his conclusion he states that the Polish society from 1944 on did not identify with the imposed power. The main method of the communists’ struggle against Polish Peasant Party, which was the most dangerous political competitor of Polish Workers’ Party, was to escalate repression and to rig the 1947 election. The Stalinist party system reached its climax by imposing vassalage on the Polish Socialist Party and having it absorbed by Polish Workers’ Party in December 1948. (DJ)

Bibliografia podziemnych druków zwartych z lat 1976-1989 (Bibliography of Books Publish­ ed Underground in 1976-1989), ed. Grażyna F e d e r o w icz, Krystyna Gromadzińs- ka and Maria Kaczyńska, Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo Biblioteki Narodowej, 498 pp., index of persons and collective bodies, index of titles, index of publishers, index of publishing series, index of subjects. The bibliography comprises 6,506 items. It is based mainly on the National Library’s collections assembled by its Supplementation Centre. The editors have also made use of lists and copies of the catalogue cards of underground books and printed partial bibliographies sent in by other libraries. This is the first attempt to present the achievements of the illegal publishing market. The bibliography lists printed matter irrespective of its content and form. It does not include posters, labels, one-page calendars and postcards. (DJ)

Biuletyny Informacyjne Ministerstwa Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego, 1948 (Information Bul­ letins o f the Ministry of Public Safety, 1948), vol. 2, introduction by Andrzej Paczkowski http://rcin.org.pl 238 ABSTRACTS and Grzegorz Jakubowski, Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo “Książka i Wiedza”, 211 pp., index of names, calendar 1948, index of abbreviations. The publication comprises 19 Information Bulletins of the Ministry of Public Safety embracing the period from January to October 1948. Due to the lack of originals it is based on duplicated copies preservedin the Central Archives of the Ministry of the Interior. The documents include information concerning the so-called whispered propaganda, the activity of political parties, the clergy and the “bands”, public expressions of anti-semi tism, “hostile activity” in industrial works, etc. Especially profuse information is provided here about the incapacitation of the Polish Socialist Party and its absorption by the Polish Workers’ Party. The bulletins hardly at all reflect the political struggle within the Polish Workers’ Party connected with theso-called “rightist-nationalist deviation” or to the debarring of Władysław Gomułka from the posts of authority. (DJ) Lidia Ciołkoszowa, Spojrzenie wstecz (Looking Back), Paris 1995, Editions du dia­ logue, Société d’ Editions Internationales, 398 pp. Lidia Ciołkoszowa joined the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) in 1920; in 1934 she became a member of the PPS Supreme Council. After the war she took part in the activity of Polish political emigres in London. At the First Congress of the free PPS in Warsaw in 1990 she was elected chairman of the PF5 Supreme Council for life. The book is based on a tape-recorded interview given to Andrzej Friszke in 1990. Ciołkoszowa colourfully depicts the history of her life, including her and her husband Adam’s activity in the socialist movement. She presents her story against a wide background of Poland’s history since the beginning of the 20th century. The book contains many interesting facts concerning the everyday life of Polish emigres in London, their political strifes, social life etc. (DJ) Antoni Dudek, Państwo i Kościół w Polsce 1945—1970 (The State and the Church in Poland 1945-1970), Kraków 1995, Wydawnictwo PiT, 279 pp., bibliogr., index of persons, annex. This is the most comprehensive and best documented monograph on Church-state relations to have appeared so far. The main part of the work concerns the period from 1956 to 1970. They yeans 1944-1956 have been dealt with summarily, for they are better known and have been better elaborated in scholarly literature. As far as archival material is concerned, the author has made use of documents kept in the New Record Office (documents of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party), archives of the Chełmno and Opole dioceses, Archives of the Chief Command of the Police, the PAX Association, the Office for Religious Denominations, State Archives in Cracow and archives of St. John the Baptist‘s parish at Mszczonów, St. Joseph’s parish at Kraśnik Fabryczny and St. Joseph parish at Przemyśl. In conclusion the author says: “the religious policy conducted by the leadership of the Polish United Workers’ Party in 1956-1970 did not lead to a full achievement of any of the aims planned. The Church was indeed deprived of some of its institutions, its possessions were diminished and the development of its infrastructure was curtailed through suspension of sacral building, but this did not curb its dynamic development, a manifestation of which was the steady increase in the number of priests”. It turned out that the young priests brought up in the Polish People’s Republic were decidedly more anti-communistic in their views than the older ones. Accordi ng to Dudek, the main reasons for these setbacks of the state’s religious policy were the support given the Church by a large part of society, the stance of Primate Stefan Wyszyński, who succeeded in preserving the unity of the episcopate and the majority of junior clergy, and the inefficiency of the mainly administrative methods used in the fight against Church influence. (DJ)

http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 239 Barbara Fijałkowska, Borejsza i Różański. Przyczynek do dziejów stalinizmu w Polsce (Borejsza and Różański. Contribution to the History of Stalinism in Poland), Olsztyn 1995, Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Pedagogicznej w Olsztynie, 256 pp., bibliogr., index of persons, 29 illustr. These are parallel biographies of two brothers, Jerzy Borejsza (1905-1952) and Jacek Józef Różański (1907-1981) who were actively engaged in work for the communist party and state during the Stalinist period. The former was a prominent cultural worker, founder of the powerful publishing house “Czytelnik”; the latter was from 1945 director of the investigation department of the Ministry of Public Security. The author presents their life stories starting from their roots, the Goldberg family; she then describes the two brothers’activity in the Polish communist movement, the apogee of their influence in the 1940s and 1950s and the final years up to their death. In conclusion she says: “We owe the idealized myth of Borejsza asa unique personality and, above all, a great patriot to Kazimierz Koźniewski, who simply left out everything that did not fit this ideal picture of his hero. The stereotype of Różański as an executioner who with his own hands murdered hundreds of Polish patriots, and tore out their hair and nails, was created mainly by his party comrades who turned him into a typical scapegoat, useful in settling accounts with the infamous past at successive turns of history. The truth is, however, much more complex”. (DJ) Hanna Konopka, Religia w szkołach Polski Ludowej. Sprawa nauczania religii w polityce państwa, 1944-1961 (Religion in the Schools of People’s Poland. The Problem of Religious Instruction in State Policy, 1944-1961), Białystok 1995, Wydawnictwo Filii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego w Białymstoku, 300 pp., bibliogr., index of names, 22 tables. The first attempt in Polish historiography to analyze problems connected with the struggle of the government in People’s Poland against the teaching of religion in schools. The author has made use of records preserved in the Archives of Modern Records (collections: Ministry of Education, Polish Workers’ Party, Polish United Workers’ Party, Ministry of Public Admini­ stration, Seym of the Polish People’s Republic), Archives of the Polish Episcopate, Archives of the Białystok Metropolitan Curia and Archives of Bureau for Denominational Matters at the Cabinet Office (the records of the Office for Denominational Matters). Konopka presented the conflicts between the state and Church, connected with the successive anti-religious actions taken by communist authorities (the removal of religious emblems from classroom walls, waysof organizing school youth retreats, gradual liquidation of various types of schools, etc.) An important element of the deliberations undertaken is the description of social behaviour in the face of the denominational policy of the state. The author gives many examples of parents’ resistance to the atheization of education, a resistance which took the form of petitions in defence of religious education sent to various state institutions, and more seldom —school strikes. (DJ) Marcin Kula, Niespodziewani przyjaciele czyli rzecz o zwykłej, ludzkiej solidarności (Unexpected Friends or About Simple Human Solidarity), preface by Jacques, Le Goff, afterward by Karol Sachs, Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo TRIO, 280 pp., appendix. The work documents the help for Polish families (mainly families of persecuted persons) brought by French families at the initiative of the Association Solidarité France-Pologne after the introduction of martial lawin Poland on December 13,1981. The action embraced several hundred families in Poland. On this occasion the Association received many letters from Frenchmen describing how the action was put into force, the feelings of people who offered help and the obstacles emerging. Apart from that, to the Association was also conveyed information coming in correspondence from Poland, and sometimes originals or copies of letters received by Frenchmen from their Polish “charges”. Marcin Kula has collected a set of

http://rcin.org.pl 240 ABSTRACTS about 450 letters from the years 1982-1985, which include about 200 Polish ard about 250 French. Their analysis became the source of this book. The particular parts of the text have been devoted to the subjects of the leters (family matters, the home town, everyday life, politics, the Pope’s visit) and French “proectors”, the difficulties connected with the function of censorship, language barriers and emolons expres­ sed in correspondence both by writers and their receivers. The book not only documents an important event in the history of the relati»ns between the two nations but is an attempt to apply an interesting method of investigation in social science. The appendix comprises 87 letters by Frenchmen and Poles taking part n the action of relief. (DJ) Andrzej Paczkowski, Pół wieku dziejów Polski 1939-1989 (Half a Centur of Poland’s History 1939-1989), Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 600 ip., index of persons, list of abbrev. This is the most extensive synthesis of Poland’s recent history to be published ater 1989. In the preface the author proclaims himself as an adversary of the system which w;s in force in Poland in 1944-1989. Not wanting his work to be a reference book overloadel with data, Paczkowski has restrained from including “an excessive number of dates and names”,and has concentrated “on describing events, social attitudes and the structures and mechanisms of decison-making”. From the documentary point of view the most interesting are those parts of the text which deal with the years 1944-1956 and 1981-1989. In examining various issues characteristic of these periods, the author comes to conclusions which have nevenppeared in any monograph. This is partly the result of the fact that having undertaken to write the history of the public security apparatus in Poland, he was given access toarchival material previously inaccessible to historians. Another virtue of the book, besides the facts it preents, is the author’s style and the interesting construction of the work. Paczkowski has diviced his work into eight chapters, each ofwhich consists of several brief sections, which makes reading much easier. The type of narration is typical of historical essays and this is why his book is much easier to read than the traditional works of this type. Paczkowski has portrayed Poland’s history against a wide international background, in particular the history of East European countries, and makes many ironical remarks about the attitude and behaviour of Polish society in the Polish People’s Republic. (DJ) Polacy wobec przemocy 1944-1956. Zbiór studiów pod redakcją Barbary (Iwinow- skiej i Jana Żaryna (Poles in the Face of Coercion 1944-1956. Collection of Studies edited by Barbara Otwinowska and Jan Żaryna) , Warszawa 19%, Wydawnictwo Editions-Spotkania, 384 pp., 17 illustr. The bookcomprises studies concerning the symptoms of social resistance to communist power in the Stalinist period. Zdzisław Szpakowski has analyzed the dilemmas of various currents of the armed anti-communist underground until the moment of its liquidation at the beginning of the 1950s. Jan Żaryn wrote three large outlines: the first (The last ’legal’ political opposition in Poland 1944-1947) analyses the attempts at legal activitjundertaken in the 1940s by the National Party, Polish Socialist Party—Freedom, Equality, Independence, Labour Party, and Peasant Party — Roch; the second concerns relations between he Catholic Church and the state in the years 1945-1953; the third contains a chara cterization of educational policy adopted by communists in the years 1944-1948. The problems of Polish culture in the years 1944-1956 became the subject of an outline by the recently decased Marta Fik. The authors of further studies are Piotr H ü b n e r (Social sciences and humanitics — the mechanisms of subjugation) and Anna Radziwiłł (The model of ideological education in the years 1944-1948. An attempt at reconstruction and analysis). The collection is closed

http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 241 by a text by Anna Pawełczyńska (Threats to man and society), which is an attempt at an analysis of the Polish version of totalitarianism. (DJ) Polska 1944/45—1989. Studia i materiały (Poland 1944/45—1989. Studies and Materials), vol. I, Warszawa 1995, Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 306 pp. This is the first volume of a new periodical publication edited by Krystyna Kersten . According to the editorial board, “there is an obvious need for such a publication; research into recent history is experiencing an intensive development and the community’s interest in this history is increasing too. This is a living history encapsulated in the lives of millions of people, co-architects of Poland’s present reality, a history with a great emotional load. The need for knowledge is combined with an instrumental use of the past in the current political struggle”. The volume opens with remarks by Krystyna Kersten and Jerzy Eisler whoopen a discussion on what the Polish People’s Republic was in the history of the Polish state and nation. The core of the publication consists of research into sources, conducted by the authors. This group comprises the followi ng texts: The Attitude of the French Government to the Polish Committee of National Liberation and the Provisional Government of the Polish Republic (July 1944-August 1945) by Zofia Za k s ; The Altitude of the Polish Government in Exile to the German Question and Poland’s Western Frontier (July 1945-1949) by Tadeusz Wol - sza, The Ex-Home Army Armed Underground in the Kielce Region (1945-1948) by Ryszard Śm ietanko-K ruszelnicki; “Priests-Patriots ” — the Genesis of this Formation of Catholic Clergyman by Jan Żaryn; The Peasants’ Conflicts with the Authority during the “Planned Purchase of Grain” in the Years 1950-1951 by Dariusz Jarosz; and The Short-Lived Normalization in Church-State Relations (1956-1957) by Antoni Dudek. The remaining two articles are of a slightly different character. Tomasz Szarota ’s text (Every­ day Life in the Polish People’s Republic—Proposals for Research) is one of the first attempts to indicate the possibility of a new line of research into Poland’s post-war history, a line well developed in Western, especially French, historiography. The article by Stanisław Ciesiel - ski and Wojciech W rzesiński, Remarks on the State of Research into the History of Post-War Poland evaluates the achievements in this field. The section Source Materials features: Note concerning the activity of the military administration of justice of March 16, 1951 and Report of the Voivodship Public Security Office in Kielce of March 1954 on Operational Work in the Kielce Countryside. The volume closes with reviews of latest works on the history of Poland and East-Central Europe. (DJ) Protokoły posiedzeń Krajowej Rady Narodowej 1944-1947 (Minutes of Proceedings of the Praesidium of the national Home Council 1944-1947), selected, prefaced and edited by Aleksander Kochański, Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo Sejmowe, 348 pp., index of persons. The publication opens a new series (Archives of the Sejm of the Polish People’s Republic) to be coordinated and edited by Andrzej Paczkowski and Wiesław Władyka. The volume comprises 87 documents (from 30.8.1944 to 3.2.1947) and many supplementary ones in the annex. Stress has been laid on the functioning of Polish parliament in 1944-1947. According to the author of the preface, the minutes of the meetings of the Praesidium of the National Home Council, when compared with the previously published minutes of the proceedings of the Political Bureau of the Central committee of the Polish Workers’ Party (PPR) and the debates of the PPR Central Committee, are a valuable source for analyzing the way in which decisions were taken at that time. The volume has been well edited (index of persons with basic biographic information on persons mentioned in the documents, and notes). The editors of the series have announced that they intend to publish another volume of sources

http://rcin.org.pl 242 ABSTRACTS to be entitled Parliamentary Opposition in the National Home Council and Legislative Sejm 1944-1947. It will be edited by Romuald Turkowski. (DJ) Tajne dokumenty Państwo-Kościół 1980-1980 (SecretDocuments concerning State-Church Relations 1980-1989), Londyn-Warszawa 1994, Wydawnictwa Aneks i Polityka, 593 pp., index of persons, list of abbrev.; Tajne dokumenty Państwo-Kościół 1960-1980 (Secret Documents concerning State—Church Relations 1960-1980), Londyn 1996, Wydawnictwo Aneks, 460 pp., index of persons. Both volumes contain extremely interesting documents which depict the main problems in relations between the authorities of the communist state and the Catholic Church in Poland. The volume with earlier documents comprises 89 source materials from the Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw. These were issued by the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) and they include documents of the Group for Clergymen’s Issues of the Administrative Department, the Commission for Clergymen’s Matters directed by Zenon Kliszko, records of the Party and Government Commission for questions concerning the Millennium, the Group for Policy towards Religious Denominations as well as information and analyses made by the Ministry for Internal Affairs and the Administrative Department of the PZPR Central Committee and concerning the Catholic Church and Catholic secular organizations. However, documents from the year 1968, from the period after the June 1976 events, and from 1978, after Karol Wojtyła was elected pope, are missing, because they were not found in archives. The volume covering the years 1980-1989 includes reports on the meetings of the Joint Commission of the Government and the Episcopate. The documents in the Volume have been selected from among authorized copies of documents kept in Warsaw’s Archives of the Office of the Council of Ministers, the Archives of Modern Records and the Archives of Poland’s Episcopate. These are supplemented by party documents (mainly of the Administrative Department of the PZPR Central Committee) which show the preparations of the PZPR and government side for negotiations. Among them are the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ evalu­ ations of the pope’s visit to Poland in 1987, and analyses of the attitudes of party members to religion, made in 1985 by the Academy of Social Sciences attached to the PZPR Central Committee. (DJ) Ryszard Tomkiewicz, Olsztyńska Delegatura Komisji Specjalnej do Walki z Naduży­ ciami i Szkodnictwem Gospodarczym 1945-1954 (The Olsztyn Delegation of the Special Committee for the Suppression of Economic Abuses and Sabotage 1945-1954), Olsztyn 1995, Ośrodek Badań Naukowych im. Wojciecha Kętrzyńskiego, 210 pp., bibliogr., 6 tables. Rozprawy i Materiały Nº 146. The Special Committee dealt with the prosecution (1945-1950) and penalizing (1945-1954) of all kinds of economic abuses and offences. In practice it gradually became more and more an instrument of political repression applied to successive “enemies of the system”. On the basis of its verdicts over 80,000 people were sentenced to labour camps. In his historico-legal analysis the author presents the genesis and activity of the Special Committee and the functioning of its Olsztyn Delegation. The author acknowledges that to a certain extent its role was positive (in its effective restriction of the widespread looting of post-German property and of the officials’ offences, especially bribery). The monograph is based on large source material. The author makes use of the collections of the Archive of Modern Records in Warsaw (the collection of the Special Committee for the Suppression of Economic Abuses and Sabotage), State Archives in Olsztyn (records of the Olsztyn Delegation of the Committee) as well as a few other discussions and memoirs concerning the subject of is dissertation. (DJ)

http://rcin.org.pl ABSTRACTS 243 U kresu samodzielnego ruchu ludowego. Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe 1947-1949 (The End of an Independent Peasant Movement. The Polish Peasant Party 1947-1949), collected, edited and prefaced by Józef Ryszard Szaflik and Romuald Turkowski, Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo Naczelnej Dyrekcji Archiwów Państwowych, 284 pp., biographies of persons mentioned in documents, list of abbrev. The book contains the basic documcnts issued by the central authorities of the Polish Peasant Party (PSL) in 1947-1949, from the emergence of an opposition (PSL-Left) to the estab­ lishment of the United Peasant Party in November 1949. Of the 129 documents, eight are records of the central leadership of the PSL—Left, two are records of the Provisional Chief Executive (TNKW) of the PSL, four documents are records of the Praesidium of the TNKW, 82 of the Praesidium of the Chief Executive Committee, 11 are minutes of meetings of the Chief Executive Committee, 22 are letters and notes. Most of the documents (107) have been handed over to the editors by Kazimierz Banach, a PSL activist. They are an interesting source showing how the ruling communist party subordinated the peasant movement to itself. (DJ) Janusz Wrona, System partyjny w Polsce 1944-1950 (The Party System in Poland 1944-1950), Lublin 1995, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej, 345 pp., bibliogr., index of persons. This is an extremely interesting analysis of the role of political parties during the seizure and consolidation of power by the communists. The book is based on a wealth of sources; the author has made use of documents from the Archives of Modern Records (among them the sets: Polish Workers’ Party, Polish Socialist Party, Union of Polish Patriots, National Home Council, Ministry of Information and Propaganda, Ministry of Public Administration, Praesi­ dium of the Council of Ministers, legacies of Jakub Berman, Bolesław Bierut and Alfred Lampe), from the Archives of the Centre for the History of the Peasant Movement (documents of the Polish Peasant Party, the Peasant Party and the United Peasant Party), the Historical Archives of the Democratic Party (documents of the Democratic Party) and from the Central Archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (sets: Political Department of the Ministry of Public Administration and material from the briefings and meetings of the chiefs of Voivods- hip Security Offices). Wrona also gained access to the private collection of Jan Żołna-Manu- giewicz’s family which depict the attempts made in 1945-946 to include some national democratic circles in legal political life. The author demonstrates that the post-war political life in Poland can be divided into three periods: I. the period of the Polish Workers’ Party hegemony (July 1944—July 1945); II. the period of the party’s predominance (July 1945-October 1947); III. the emergence of a three-party system and the return to the communist party’s hegemony (November 1947 — July 1950). Thanks to a meticulous analysis of sources, Wrona shows what the communists’ dominance in the party system meant and describes the activity of the “plants” they placed in other political parties; he analyses all manifestations of independence of the Polish Workers’ Party and the Polish United Workers’ Party on the part of non-communist parties and the measures applied by the communists against such manifestations. (DJ) Zaciskanie pętli. Tajne dokumenty dotyczące Czechosłowacji 196S (The Tightening of the Noose. Secret Documents concerning Czechoslovakia, 1968), prefaced and edited by Andrzej Paczkowski and Andrzej Garlicki, Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo Sejmowe. 271 pp., index of persons, calendar. The book comprises eight documents from the Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw concerning the situation in Czechoslovakia from February to September 1968. These are mainly records and minutes of the meetings which party leaders of the Eastern bloc held in Dresden, Warsaw and Moscow. The publication also includes a record of the talk held by Władysław Gomułka, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ http://rcin.org.pl 244 ABSTRACTS Party, with Aleksander Dubček, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Dresden on March 23,1968. A calendar of events connected with the Czechoslovak crisis, covering the period from January 1 toOctober 18,1968 complements the documents. (DJ) Paweł Ziętara, Misja ostatniej szansy. Próba zjednoczenia polskiej emigracji politycznej przez gen. Kazimierza Sosnkowskiego w latach 1952-1956 (The Last Chance Mission. General Kazimierz Sosnkowski’s Endeavours to Unite the Polish Political Emigration in 1952-1956), Warszawa 1995, Wydawnictwo TRIO, 219 pp., bibliogr., index of persons, calendar. The book is the third volume of the series “Treatises of the Historical Institute of Warsaw University”. It deals with the mediation undertaken by General Kazimierz Sosnkowski at the end of 1952 with a view to rallying Polish independence-inspired groupings round the legal authorities of the Polish Republic. The individual chapters discuss political events on the emigres’ scene from the time when the Western Powers withdrew their recognition of the legal Polish government to the moment when Sosnkowski started his mission; the negotiations, which ended with the political parties signing the Unification Act; the cause, development and consequences of the presidential crisis in June 1954; the emergence of a dyarchy and the general’s withdrawal from active participation in unification work. In addition to source material and studies, the author has made use of documents from the Archives of the Władysław Sikorski Institute and Museum, Archives of the Józef Piłsudski Institute and the Public Record Office in London as well as some oral accounts. In the author’s opinion, Sosnkowski’s mission produced the opposite effect to the one intended; it accelerated the decline of the emigration’s political significance. (DJ)

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