Pamięć uniwersytetu i jej praktykowanie – na przykładzie wspomnień o Wandzie i Bogumile Zwolskich
The Memory of the University and Its Practice: On the Example of Memories of Wanda and Bogumił Zwolski

Summary/Abstract: This article is a collaborative effort by representatives of two disciplines: history and psychology. It was prompted by the 80th anniversary of the University of Lodz in May 2025. To mark the occasion, many commemorative events were held, and the authors resolved to collect memoirs concerning a couple of historians associated with the university almost from its inception. Wanda and Bogumił Zwolski were noteworthy for several reasons. First, they arrived in Łódź in 1945 from Vilnius, where they had completed their studies under the mentorship of Stanisław Kościałkowski. During the communist era, neither was a member of any political party, yet Bogumił held important positions within the faculty, and both headed research departments and worked towards enhancing the quality of education. Their personal histories reflect the experiences of scholars who arrived from the Eastern Borderlands and were unable to continue their pre-war research in the new political reality. Nevertheless, they remained faithful to their values, representing an ‘old’, pre-war world that was receding into the past. The purpose of this article is not only to rescue these protagonists from oblivion and ensure their contribution is acknowledged. Drawing on the interviews, the authors reflect on the universal facets of university memory. They contextualise these recollections within new interpretative frameworks, such as collective memory, particularly its manifestations within an academic setting.

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