Series:Historia

Karol Szajnocha. Every day life – Women – Historiography

Karol Szajnocha. Codzienność – kobiety – historiografia

Author(s): Dorota Malczewska-Pawelec,Tomasz Pawelec / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: Szajnocha Karol; historiography; 19th century history; "everyday life"; "Jagiellonian idea"

In this dissertation, on the basis of a specific case of a 19th-century Lvovian historian – Karol Szajnocha (a great classic of Polish historiography) – the authors propose a particular model of a biographical study for the purpose of the history of historiography. In their opinion, it could constitute an alternative for the models which heretofore existed in this area. The latter are in their view excessively marked by an internal tension between the necessity to develop a strictly biographical theme and an imperative to study the historical concepts formulated by the protagonists of such dissertations in a systematic way. Frequently this results in an insufficient linking and imbalance of both of the layers of analysis, and in a lack of harmony between them.In the present study, in a conscious pursuit of integration, one took into account the influence of various elements of Karol Szajnocha’s biography upon the models in which he practiced history and – in a parallel manner – the influence which the historiographical activity exerted upon other areas of his activity and social roles. The authors inquire about how the fact of becoming a researcher of the past determined the forms and the areas of his activity in other fields (both in the public and in the private sphere). How did this fact manifest itself in the meanders of day-to-day existence and in the relations between family members, friends and professional acquaintances, how did it affect his internal life and dominant personality traits?Among the numerous dynamic dependencies (which are possible to be comprehended cognitively), the authors consider above all those which, in their opinion, heretofore were underexplored or which were simply omitted in the considerations devoted to the Lvovian historiographer which were heretofore expressed. Therefore the authors engage above all the question of the relations which obtain between his multi-aspectually conceived daily life in Lwów and beyond, and the creative motivation, as well as conditions and organisation of historiographical work. They reconstruct selected relations in the following layers: life experiences – historical thought – specific practice of writing the national history. They shed light on how certain particular interpersonal relations of Szajnocha (including also the deficiencies within their scope) translated themselves into the themes/motives of writing and into the ways in which he presented the past.The bulk of the considerations in the work is divided into three parts: Everyday life, Women and Historiosophy. As for the first part, it was the placement of the historian in the space that became the criterion of the division of the set of problems related to Szajnocha’s everyday life. Therefore the main chapter is devoted to his life in Lvov, and the supplementary one discusses the problem of excursions from the city on the Poltwa River. The question of women was presented on the surprisingly strongly interconnected and mutually complementing layers of Karol Szajnocha’s life: the practicing of history and the existence among (and next to) other people. As far as Szajnocha’s historiosophy is concerned, the authors focused on two problems which they considered to be the most crucial ones within the framework of the historical thinking of this author, and that both in the context of his specific-historical writings and in the relation to the formative life experiences. The first is the so-called Jagiellonian idea (a peculiar concept of the civilisational mission of Poles), whereas the second is the theme of an anti-German sentiment which manifests itself explicitly in numerous works of Karol Szajnocha.The panorama of Szajnocha’s daily life which was constructed in the dissertation took into consideration above all such themes as: (1) the experience of the city of Lvov as the closest social-spatial-cultural environment (the wanderings associated with the changing of places of residence, the furnishing of apartments, the routes used to navigate the city, observation/participation in political events which happened in the urban space, a generalised attitude toward the city of Lvov); (2) the conditions of existence (a reconstruction of their objective aspects and an attempt to answer the question about the manner in which Szajnocha experienced them and about their influence upon his personal history and historical output); (3) work and the attitude toward work (gainful employment versus work in the field of history, organisation of the time in which they were undertaken, along with their rhythms and the ways in which they were experienced; relation of the material exponents of existence to the possibility of engaging in a writer’s work); (4) “life among many” – a network of continually maintained social interactions/contacts (both with friends as well as with people who were encountered due to professional and paraprofessional activities); (5) forms of relaxation and the ways of spending one’s free time (in the city and beyond), along with linking of those aspects with writerly/research activities; (6) health/disease-sickness as an aspect of existence in Lvov and beyond; (7) the ordinariness of the daily existence “associated with the feeling of not being at home”, i.e. under the authority of the partitioning power (limitations which influenced both the private life and which affected creative work/engagement in creative work).The image of Szajnocha’s relations with the opposite sex embraces, on the one hand, relations with (above all but not exclusively) three women who were an important part of his life: his mother, his wife, and with the mother of the already deceased Juliusz Słowacki). On the other hand, it involves the intellectual and the emotional bonds with the female figures of his historical works. The work reconstructs in a systematic way the dynamics and the meanders of all of the relations which were mentioned, with reference to the time and the challenges presented by a particular stage of Karol Szajnocha’s life. There is also a presentation of Szajnocha’s contribution – a very substantial one, as it turned out – to the introduction of female figures to Polish historiography. The authors accorded a particularly comprehensive treatment to the mutual interactions of both of these areas of the historiographer’s relationships with women (inter alia the experience “drawn from life” as a starting point of the conceptualisation of the female aspect of history and of the construction of empathising psychological profiles of women, writing about women in the past as a space of working through various experiences, including those which were psychologically difficult, of one’s own existence). In reference to historiosophical questions, the authors focused on the reconstruction of the actual functioning of the concept of the Jagiellonian idea within the framework of the general image of Karol Szajnocha’s historical thinking, particularly of its influence (the directing function) within the framework of the practice (which was peculiar to him) of describing national history. The authors discerned its role in the scope of the selection of themes of work, in the fine-tuning of fields of research, in the selection and the ways of presentation of historical figures and other historical entities, and finally in the evaluation and appreciation of phenomena. In the context of Szajnocha’s attitude to “Germanhood”, the authors presented the problem of the rooting of fundamental elements of the historiographer’s historical thinking, not only in the intellectual reality that was typical of the historiographical tradition which he represented, but also in the formative experiences of his own life. These considerations also enabled the discernment of the Karol Szajnocha’s crucial founding role in reference to the genesis of the two mutually antagonistic interpretative directions which subsequently became immensely important in the development of the 20th-century Polish historiography – the eastern orientation (whose essence basically remains a positive evaluation of the expansion of Poland to the east) and the western orientation (with its peculiar ideas of civilisational struggle against Germanhood and the protection of western borderlands as Poland’s native lands).

The Cross and the Saber. Foreign Policy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Assessment of Papal Diplomacy during 1623–1635

Krzyż i karabela. Polityka zagraniczna Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów w ocenie dyplomacji papieskiej w latach 1623–1635

Author(s): Paweł Duda / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: Nemesian; Cynegetica; hunting; tradition; antiquity

This work presents issues relating to a dramatic fragment of European history and a tumultuous period in the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the light of the accounts and assessments of papal nuncios residing at European courts.The author’s primary aim was to answer the question: how did the Holy See during the first phase of the pontificate of Urban VIII assess the foreign policy of the Commonwealth and to what extent did it try to influence it? In his work, main directions of Polish policy during this period and the papacy’s attitude toward them were analyzed. The Roman Curia’s stance on the Commonwealth’s relations with neighbors, including Turkey, Moscow, and Sweden, was discussed. The papacy’s stand on the issues relating to Poland’s potential participation in the Thirty Years’ War and on Vasa-Habsburg military plans was examined. Moreover, Rome’s attitude toward issues which pertained to domestic policy, albeit they determined the position of the Polish-Lithuanian state in Europe of that time – the 1632 election and Władysław IV Vasa’s marital plans – was presented.The above-mentioned issues were the subject of mutual diplomatic relations, which usually took the form of correspondence of nuncios to Poland and other European courts with the Holy See’s Secretariat of State.This work is part of an important trend in Polish historical research in which foreign source materials have been used to explore the history of the Commonwealth. The main source material for this study is the correspondence of apostolic nuncios gathered in Archivio Segreto Vaticano and Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana. The correspondence of papal nuncios to Poland between 1623 and 1635 – Giovanni Battista Lancellotti, Antonio Santacroce, Honoratio Visconti, and partially Mario Filonardi, as well as letters from Secretary of State Francesco Barberini to these nuncios are of particular importance to the topic of research. Moreover, telegrams from papal diplomats residing at the most important courts of modern Europe: in Vienna, Paris, and Madrid, concerning the international situation of the Commonwealth, are valuable supplementary material.Offering an insight into analyses and actions undertaken by papal diplomacy toward the Commonwealth, the book simultaneously shows the Polish-Lithuanian state as a significant part of European political reality.

Friends from Birkenau. An essay about remembering

Koleżanki z Birkenau. Esej o pamiętaniu

Author(s): Halina Rusek / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: Nazi concentration camp; autobiography; memory; freedom

The friends from the title of this book are a group of female prisoners of KL Auschwitz-Birkenau (1943–1945), whose paths crossed several times during around two years of camp life in Birkenau. At different times they lived in one block of the women’s camp, slept in one bunk, together left Auschwitz to work in the Wolkenburg camp, and several of them escaped together from transport to Dachau, from a freight wagon, at the small German station of Weiden. Together they also survived one of the most beautiful, as they say, periods in their lives – a few months of miraculously regained freedom, spent in Weiden under the protection of the American army. Several of them also took a long, difficult journey home. Preserved memories of three of these friends – including the Mother of the book’s author, are the central axis of this essay. It presents the process of shaping the way of perceiving the world and the identity of individuals who came across actions aimed to annihilate human beings. They came into contact with the essence of a concentration camp, which was based on depriving people of all rights and even exterminating them. The approach chosen by the author is the biographical method which focuses on the study of what is individual, related to assessments, values, experiences. It is a book about trying to find an answer to the question of how it happened that some people expressed indescribable cruelty to other people and decided to dehumanize and annihilate them. The book is also about the forces you must find in yourself in order to survive such an experience and start living an ordinary life afterwards. The author’s intention is to bring the recorded memories of the Friends to a possibly wide audience, to the public sphere and also, or perhaps above all, to the consciousness of those whose way of thinking is far from scientific.

Court, nobles and festivals. Studies on the Early Modern visual culture

Court, nobles and festivals. Studies on the Early Modern visual culture

Author(s): / Language(s): English

Keywords: Early Modern visual culture

Public festivities, related strictly to the feudal political system, were a manifestation of power and wealth, of both the monarchs and the noblemen. To add splendor to ceremonial entrances of kings, weddings, or funerals of high-ranking persons, magnificent decorations had been prepared, often by eminent artists. Due to their ephemeral nature, only a few of them remained until the present time, yet thanks to detailed accounts and iconographic sources, such as designs and graphic renditions, their forms and complex ideological content may be the subject of scientific research.The book you have in your hands focuses on the issue of artistic setting of court ceremonies in the modern era, and are the result of cooperation between historians of art from the Jaume I University in Castellón de la Plana, the University of Valencia, Spain, and the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, which was established in 2016. The Spanish contributors belong to the group having the name ”Iconografía e Historia del Arte”, which have been conducting research on court culture and sponsoring of art for over twenty years. The initiative of publishing a joint monograph, undertaken by the Institute of Arts Studies of the University of Silesia, is a sign of ever increasing interest of Polish scientists in the issues referred to above. The book is devoted to selected aspects of the royal and noble visual culture, strongly related to the image of power. The first chapter, The festival books and the Habsburg empire: power and performance, by Víctor Mínguez, deals with the relevance of literary and visual sources as a testimony of the Habsburg court´s celebrations and explains their process of evolution in the 16th and 17th century. (part of the introduction)

The Touts. Language and memory in the process of building the Vistulan community in Banat

Toutowie. Język i pamięć w ustanawianiu wspólnoty Wiślan w Banacie

Author(s): Katarzyna Marcol / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: the Touts; Vistulan community;Banat;

The monograph is devoted to the issue of collective memory of an ethnic minority living in the Ostojićevo village in the Serbian Banat, whose roots trace back to the town of Wisła, located in the Cieszyn County. The members of this community are the descendants of 19th-century labor migrants who mined and brewed saltpeter for the purposes of the Austrian army, moving within the borders of one country from the Austrian Silesia to the southern reaches of the Habsburg dominion. With time, Evangelical saltpeter brewers started to settle in Banat, where the local Hungarian community named the newcomers the Touts, a moniker which comes from the word Tōth, used to denote settlers from Slovakia. It is estimated that currently, the size of this community oscillates between 120 and 150 people.The publication aligns itself with research on the relationship between language, culture and society, underscoring the determining role of language in one’s perception of the world, interpretation of social and cultural phenomena as well as its function in consolidating communities. Linguistics of memory, adopted as the research perspective, aims to showcase the interdependence between language as a medium of memory as well as a means of its preservation, and between the culture of a particular language community and its discourses (including the discourses of memory) that shape collective identification. The monograph shows — in the context of the transformations in the Tout collective memory — the way in which the language code influences the shape of that memory, as well as the way in which language, as a memory-shaping tool, can also serve as a tool of shedding inherited trauma, which, in turn, results in a transformation of the group’s identity. Due to the numerous factors that influence language as a tool in the process of shaping the collective memory of the community, which, as a result, influences the way the members of that community identify, the analysis has been conducted within a very precisely defined social context, taking into account historical determinants that constitute the foundation of the current social and political situation of the Tout community, as well as the inter-ethnic relationships in the local community.To provide a background for the analysis of the social memory of the Touts, the monograph describes the linguistic and cultural conditions of the multiethnic community of Ostojićevo. It discusses the linguistic competence of the minority group, taking into account their social arrangement, which includes different spheres of life: the Vistula dialect is characteristic of the sphere of family life; Slovak is the domain of the religious sphere; Hungarian is used in contact with neighbors and colleagues; Serbian is the official language of education and media, while Polish is used when interacting with the citizens of Poland as well as the officials at the Polish Embassy in Belgrade. The description of cultural practices (on the example of wedding customs) as well as inter-ethnic relationships in the rural society, on the other hand, unveils the dynamics of the transformation of objective markers of identity and the functioning of cultural patterns in specific instances of contact with others, which result in partial assimilation of the Tout community with the majority groups. The description of the communicative memory of the Touts, passed down in narratives of the past from generation to generation constitutes a major part of the monograph. It discusses stories of the ancestors, recorded during ethnographic field research, which — next to denomination and language — shape the Tout community. Intergenerational transfer, which solidifies the ethos of the Tout Evangelicals, allows them to participate in the collective knowledge and memory, which constitute the foundation of constructing the awareness of collective belonging. Moreover, the monograph describes the process of folklorization of remembrance stories, which has emerged as a result of conventionalization and objectivization of intergenerational transfer.The current transformations of communicative memory into cultural memory result in changes in the ethnic identity of the Ostojićevo Vistulans from local to national—Polish. The internalization of a new collective memory based on the Polish national symbolic universe is the result of actions on the part of various institutions of power, understood as various institutions of public life. As a result, new ways of affirming the Polish national identity appear, including linguistic tools (poems and songs in Polish) and creating new places of memory (Polish House) or introducing ways to differentiate between us and them (costumes for Polish folk music groups). The monograph is supplemented by an analysis of the rhetoric of memory in media messages, including Serbian television and documentaries, which, as multimedia texts of culture, emerge as carriers of memory, playing a large role in the shaping of collective identity.Memory, which reveals itself in narratives and discourses about the past as one of the ways to categorize the world (owing to the collectively sanctioned selection of what should be remembered and what should be forgotten), constitutes the basis of inculturation and identity creation among the members of a community. It should be noted, moreover, that the further we reach with our memory, the more difficult it becomes to verify the memories against reality, and the easier it become to notice the influence of language and culture on the picture it paints. The observation of the transitional stage between communicative memory and cultural memory, which can be currently witnessed in the Ostojićevo Vistulan community allows us to witness the role of language (understood in the broader communicative and cultural context) in transformation of memory and the following changes in identification.

The Polish Province of the Paulines from the 17th century to 1864. Economic history: the Pauline Monastery of Jasna Góra in Częstochowa

Polska prowincja paulinów od XVII wieku do 1864 roku. Dzieje gospodarcze: klasztor na Jasnej Górze w Częstochowie

Author(s): Jacek Szpak / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: Jasna Góra; Pauline Fathers; the Catholic Church;economy;

The Pauline Monastery in Jasna Góra was founded by Prince Władysław Opolczyk in 1382. Within a short time, Jasna Góra became a popular place of pilgrimage for the faithful who came to worship the Blessed Mother depicted in the painting in the monastery chapel. Because of the development of the pilgrimage phenomenon, the sanctuary and the monastery quickly rose to fame, which brought about numerous religious and economic privileges. In order to undertake economic activity, the monastery and sanctuary had to have economic foundations. The most significant role in maintaining the institution was performed by the agricultural estates received by the Paulines from the founders and donors. However, the monks themselves also bought land estates or were involved in settlement activities. The agricultural estates owned by the Jasna Góra monastery were divided into formations called klucz. The Paulines of Jasna Góra were also engaged in farming activities in the estates that were in their possession temporarily — given to them as a pledge, i.e. guarantee of financial loans. The Paulines of Jasna Góra also received two items of klucz formations from the endowment by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland. These were the Kłobuck and Brzeźnica starostship (district of starostwo), which constituted the financial base for the maintaining of the Jasna Góra fortress. In total, the monks were in possession of 4 cities and 83 villages and other settlement units. It must be remembered, however, that not all the properties were owned by the Pauline monks at the same time. The largest amount of properties was under the ownership of the Paulines in the 18th century. [part of the summary]

The Polish People’s Republic in historical education

Polska Ludowa w edukacji historycznej

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: The People’s Republic of Poland; historical education

The volume comprises theoretical considerations on historical education about The Polish People’s Republic (1944—1989) both in educational institutions and within the so-called public history, as well as proposals relating to practical solutions in this field. The content of the publication is the result of the collaboration between historians representing various scientific and didactic institutions and museums in the country.The first part of the book presents The Polish People’s Republic through various didactic means: anecdotes, jokes and gags, photography, Polish rock music and posters.The successive texts are so-called case study. With the example of “Tygodnik Powszechny”, the possibilities of using the press as a source of education about the Polish People’s Republic were described; through analysing the activity of the Oral History Archives of The Karta Centre and the History Meeting House in Warsaw, the utilising of oral history in education and research on The Polish People’s Republic was presented. Three of the authors referred to the resources of cinematography: they illustrated the role in the didactic process of a documentary (with the example of Polish Film Chronicle), a comedy (basing on the films by Stanisław Bareja) and a feature film (basing on the image of Death like a slice of bread by Kazimierz Kutz). The theoretical considerations were finished up with a text on the manner the theme of The Polish People’s Republic has been present in historical education in the school reformed after 2017.The last part of the book comprises studies that demonstrate the reader definite proposals for teaching / learning about the Polish People’s Republic. The authors, associated with the institutions they described, used in their sketches the attainments of the Institute of National Remembrance, the Center for the Documentation of the Deportation of Upper Silesians to the USSR in 1945 in Radzionków, the Silesian Centre of Freedom and Solidarity and the House of Polish-German Cooperation in Gliwice and Opole.

François Louis, prince of Conti – “the elected king of Poland”. The saga of the Condé family

Franciszek Ludwik, książę de Conti – „obrany król Polski”. Saga rodu Kondeuszów

Author(s): Aleksandra Skrzypietz / Language(s): Polish

François Louis de Bourbon, prince of Conti, Louis XIV’s cousin, was an important figure at the royal court. However, especially the behaviour that he exhibited in his youth was a source of numerous problems for him – he implicated himself in homosexual scandals/affairs which were not tolerated by the king; he decided to join, along with his brother, the army which fought against Turkey, and he abused the trust of the monarch; he maintained correspondence which abounded in unfavourable and even derisive remarks about the monarch. All of these things accounted for the fact that he was not in the favour of the Sun King. However, the latter – recognising the position of the relative – did not forbade his presence at the court. François Louis married a cousin, one that also represented the top-ranking court circles, and he did not stain his reputation by marrying an illegitimate daughter of the king – their union was characterized by purity of blood. The prince of Conti also enjoyed great popularity among the representatives of the court society, and he maintained closest relations with the successor to the throne, which must have been a source of concern for the king. Therefore, we do not know whether the decision to appoint the prince as the candidate to the Polish throne after Jan III Sobieski’s death was a token of distinction or punishment for a life of rebellion. The lost election and a number of other life-related failures weakened the position and the popularity of the prince in the court society.The book constitutes an attempt to explain François Louis’s attitude to his candidacy to for the Polish throne – heretofore, one claimed that he was firmly against his candidacy. However, the author does not confine herself to a presentation of a life of “the elected king of Poland”, for she attempts to demonstrate how the life of a pure-blood prince in the second half of the 17th century differed from the activities of a number of generations of his ancestors, who were also rebellious and who were eager to oppose the will of the rulers. Such an approach facilitates the presentation of the differences in the attitudes of royal cousins, the representatives of the de Bourbon family across 150 years – from the moment which preceded the reign of Henry IV until the early 18th century, and also to outline the motivation which directed his actions. François Louis owed his position at the court not only to his background but also to the representatives of the closest milieu of the king, whose makeup was formed personally by the Sun King himself. Therefore, the author intended also to present how the balance of power at the court was maintained by the decisions of the monarch, and also to demonstrate whether these decisions were arbitrary or mitigated (corrected, modulated, moderated) by the interests and influences of various peoples, reasons and political intentions.

Wojciech Jastrzębiec – in the service of the monarchy and Church

Wojciech Jastrzębiec – w służbie monarchii i Kościoła

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: Wojciech Jastrzębiec

In the year 2016 fell the 580th anniversary of Wojciech Jastrzębiec’s passing; he consecutively held the following offices: the bishop of Poznań, the bishop of Kraków, the archbishop of Gniezno, and Chancellor of the Kingdom of Poland during the reign of Władysław Jagiełło. The said jubilee turned out to be an occassion to organize a conference devoted to this outstanding figure. There was no coincidence whatsoever on the location of the event, since the city of Sandomierz hosted the renowned scholars already twice so far, in 2005 and 2010, when discussions concerning the bishop of Kraków Zbigniew Oleśnicki and the archbishop of Gniezno Mikołaj Trąba took place. The conference in question was, therefore, an appropriate closure of this Sandomierz proceedings in three installments. However, in case of Wojciech Jastrzębiec there is some added significance to the location, since he had been born in Łubice, which is a stone’s throw away from Sandomierz, and a nearby village of Beszowa boasts a marvellous monastery complex with an adjacent church (established for Pauline Fathers) founded by Jastrzębiec himself. It was in Sandomierz where he learned and studied and where his perserverance and ambition elevated him to the highest spiritual and state offices, to attain the status of King Władysław Jagiełło’s closest advisors. For that matter, it seemed only natural to us that the third Sandomierz conference should be devoted to Wojciech, the faithful son of this soil. The conference planning and organization was entrusted to the representatives of the Institute of History, University of Silesia in Katowice, dr hab. Bożena Czwojdrak and Professor dr. hab. Jerzego Sperki, and of the Institute of History and Archival Studies, Pedagogical University of Kraków – Professor Emeritus Feliks Kiryka and Professor dr. hab. Zdzisław Noga. In May of 2016, following our invitation to Sandomierz, there arrived the scholars of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, the Polish Academy and Sciences in Poznań and Kraków, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, University of Gdańsk, University of Warsaw, and the University of Silesia in Katowice. During the two days of conference sessions – May 23 and 24 – a dozen or so conference lectures were delivered which prompted lively debate. The figure of Wojciech Jastrzębiec was analyzed from many angles, including his church, political, and patron of art’s activity; his numerous foundations and the close circle of trustees was also tracked. During the conference sessions it was revealed that many dated opinions regarding the bishop could be verified and present in a new light; in addition, some new aspects of his life were presented. It is therefore a great pleasure for us to present you with the conference papers, obviously in their extended and enriched versions and we hope that they will prove to be of interest not only to historians and historians of art, but to the lovers of the Sandomierz land as well. (A fragment from the Introduction).

Aspects of Royal Power in Medieval Scandinavia

Aspects of Royal Power in Medieval Scandinavia

Author(s): / Language(s): English

Keywords: royal power;Middle Ages;Scandinavia;

References to the deeds and lives of the past monarchs and their commemorations are ubiquitous in the earliest extant Scandinavian literary sources. Their authors found relating to the narratives of royal power and the identification with the bygone kings and queens essential for the legendary and historical stories of national and personal origins, and for the ways of formulating and expressing the political and cultural significance of their own work. In the wealth of the material offered by Old Norse and Icelandic literature, we may find numerous examples of the texts either abounding in such connotations or drawing directly upon royal histories. Although the originals of the lists of kings (konungatal) did not survive beyond the early medieval era, they provided later medieval authors with fundamental inspiration especially for the kings’ sagas (konungasǫgur). Similarly, the vividness with which the past rulers were remembered is attested by the poems like Ynglingatal and Haleygjatal originating in the tenth century. Both of them legitimize the power and aspirations of subsequent monarchs by referring to the heritage and legacy left by the previous generations of kings. Their charisma and achievements contributed to their mythical and historical status as rulers, which, in turn, determined the development of what may be called the ideology of royal power. Understood as a set of features considered decisive for prosperous and memorable kingship, such ideology was advocated and praised by the skaldic poets and saga authors who emphasised the importance of royal bravery and generosity, the mercilessness that kings should display towards their enemies and the graciousness they should show to their followers. Likewise, the unfailing luck in war and the ability to surpass others in various skills were deemed important not only to impress one’s royal retinue and subjects, but, predominantly, also to legitimize royal claims. (fragment of the introduction)

The Armenian-Turkish conflict of 1915 in French and Russian-speaking (multi)media in the 21st century – selected issues

Ormiańsko-turecki konflikt 1915 roku we francuskojęzycznych i rosyjskojęzycznych (multi)mediach w XXI wieku – wybrane zagadnienia

Author(s): Grair Magakian / Language(s): Polish

The monograph aims to discuss the Armenian-Turkish relations in the media discourse of the 21st century, predominantly on the basis of French and Russian-speaking mass media on the Internet, with particular emphasis on cognitive analysis of media materials and their influence on exacerbating or alleviating the Armenian-Turkish conflict.The Armenian-Turkish conflict, triggered by the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire and lasting for more than 100 years, has been widely discussed in media coverage, including on the Internet. Most of the research material therefore comes mainly from the Internet and includes online editions of paper publications, including traditional periodicals, digitalized official publications, blogs, forums, and even Wikipedia. The choice of the research material is motivated by approaching the subject via the analysis of information transmitted in any direction, in any medium, and in any form to any recipient, because an undefined recipient (i.e. everyone) often seeks out and retains information without paying attention to its source.The above approach has also conditioned the research timeframe, which covers the first and partly the second decade of the 21st century (with the origins of the conflict in the beginning of the 20th century briefly sketched out for context). The choice of languages, on the other hand, was dictated both by the fact that the Russian and Frenchspeaking media practically “accompanied” this conflict from the first moment onward, as well as by the fact that the former reflects its Eastern and the latter its Western perception.The present study constitutes the first foray into the topic and is an essential part of understanding and improving the processes taking place in French and Russianspeaking media discourses, among other things: 1) critical analysis of the abovementioned discourses, 2) influence of the media on the processes occurring in the perception of discursive information at the level of consciousness and subconsciousness of the recipients, 3) attempts to distinguish discursive fact and falsehood from the perspective of cognitive analysis of discourse models, 4) the paradigm of truthfulness of discourse at the level of its compatibility with reality.The examples analyzed in the book in both languages are identical or at least relatively substantially similar, taking into account the perceptual characteristics of both French and Russian.The monograph presents the theoretical foundations of the research (in particular, the philosophical and socio-psychological framework), introduction to the theory of discourse (the social functions of language, the place of information in cultural and relation-forming discourse, the critical analysis of discourse, the directions of research and discourse analysis) and the channels of information flow, along with their cognitive analysis (issues related to, among other things, the specificity of the language of the media, the illocutionary structure of discourse, and the categorization of discourse are taken into account).A fundamental place in the study is occupied by the matter of the semantic structure of the so-called plexuses (as components of cognitive analysis), which, derived from K. Popper’s paradigm of worlds, create discursive space and space for empirical translation (or materialization) of discourse. In addition, the monograph covers issues related to the normative meaning of discourse in correlation with national ideology and the analysis of manipulative discourse tactics. It also presents the influence of socio-political and economic factors on the linguistic structure of discourse.Moreover, the research presented in the monograph includes the influence of the noun genocide (from Greek genos – genus, genealogy, origin, and Latin cide, from caedere – to kill, to massacre) on its subliminal reception by the participants of the discourse, as well as ethnocultural stereotypes and the specificity of the sociolinguistic analysis of the ideological propaganda war. It is worth noting that the social interaction of the understanding of genocide in Armenian-Turkish relations was also taken into account in the study.The conclusion is that the discourse includes a number of clearly separated semantic codes, which in this case can be divided into historical-patriotic, legal-judicial, religiousspiritual, visionary-analytical, economic, critical-oppositional, state and raison d’etat, civilizational-European vs. barbarian-Asian, and national superiority.

The knights of Opole before the second half of the 15th century

Rycerstwo opolskie do połowy XV wieku

Author(s): Maciej Woźny / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: knights; nobility; genealogy; prosopography; Duchy of Opole; Duchy of Niemodlin; Duchy of Strzelce; Duchy of Głogów; heraldry; seals; offices

Since the beginning of the 15th century, the Duchy of Opole went through subsequent stages of division into smaller duchies and repeated consolidation and division between the representatives of the Opole Piast dynasty. In turn, the local knights, who often held land in different regions of the land, needed to adapt to the changing districts. The first chapter discusses the division of the Duchy of Opole between the particular dukes. The borders of the administrative districts were in constant flux. It was also possible to notice the influence of knights possessing estates located along the borders on the subsequent shapes of the district border. Chapter two discusses the issues of terminology applied to the knights. It notices similar tendendcies in nomenclature with regard to the act of bestowing knighthood to other regions of Europe. The chapter also discusses the censure of knighthood. Chapter three is devoted to the composition and distribution of the knights of Opole. In the studied duchy, it was possible to identify more than three hundred families, of which in many cases there are only singular known representatives remaining. It is, therefore, difficult to assess the precise number of that social group in the studied area. Within the studied period of time, two families — the Bes family and the Strzała family — significantly surpassed other families when it comes to their wealth as well as, with time, their importance. The majority of the local families had medium or small (one village) estates, which could be extended through endowment from the local sovereign and subsequent purchase of land, coming to form a small complex of family holdings. This type of family development, which owed their prosperity to the duke, was a rarity according to the sources. For faithful service, local rulers rewarded knights with castles or towns. The knights owed predominantly allodial land and estates, even though some sources point to the existence of several estates which functioned as fiefdoms. Moreover, those families who arrived at the area from outside were in minority on the lands of the Opole Piast dynasty. Chapter four concerns the public activity of the knights of Opole. In a hundred and fifty years, he Duchy of Opole, similarly to the rest of Silesia, experienced significant changes in the structure of court and administrative offices. In the beginning of the 14th century, the most important official was the high bailiff, equivalent to the Silesian office of the palatine. The sources mention also the offices of the court justiciary, the master of the hunt, the deputy master of the hunt, and the procurator. In the second half of the 14th century, this hierarchy went through a gradual transformation, depending on the duchy. The most important office at court became the office of the marshal or chief steward. He was in charge of the treasurer, the master of the hunt, the deputy master of the hunt, the head chef and the chamberlain, whose function was reduced to managing the court servants. Apart from that, the chancellery also formed a part of the court office, though it was expanded only during the reign of Władysław II, who employed a chancellor. At other courts, those who worked at the chancellery were known as writers or notaries. The administrative offices underwent transformation as well. At the turn of the 14th century, the duchy was divided into castellanies, governed by a castellan. The local estates of the duke were managed by the steward. In time, the function of the castellan was diminished, while the official himself was more often known as a burgrave. Castellanies were substituted with districts. In this new administrative system, the most important office, apart from the duke himself, was that of a district head. He managed the stewards of local estates, justices of the peace as well as the burgraves who managed the castle and its crew.

Prussian power elite in the Upper Silesia (1871–1918)

Pruska elita władzy na Górnym Śląsku (1871–1918)

Author(s): Jakub Grudniewski / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: Upper Silesia; The German Empire; Opole regency; administrative system; landrat; circulation of elites

The aim of this work is to present the power elite in the Upper Silesia (Opole region) of Prussia during the times of the German Empire (1871–1918). The initial caesura of the work consists in the unification of Germany under the aegis of Prussia. Shortly afterwards, important changes were made to Prussian domestic policy by issuing the district ordinance (1872), which was the legal basis for the functioning of the administration until the end of the monarchy. The introduction to the subject presents an outline of the administrative changes in the period preceding the annexation of part of Upper Silesia by Prussia – that is, in the time when it belonged entirely to the Habsburg Monarchy, and then in the time when most of the region was occupied by Prussia, incorporated administratively into the new state – and their evolution in the following decades, until the Napoleonic Wars. As a result of the establishment of a new administrative unit within the Prussian state in 1815, the Opole Regency, by analogy with other Prussian regions, the permanent officials at the highest level of authority were the eponymous elite and as such, the main subjects of the study. These included the presidents of the Opole Regency, the landrats (district starosts) and the mayors of Upper Silesian cities. The presidents of the regency, as direct representatives of the royal authority, stood at the highest level of the administrative hierarchy. They were responsible for managing internal politics, i.e. internal security, supervising political movements, matters related to education, infrastructure and others. The starosts, also called the landrats in Prussia, were the most important representatives of the policy of the Prussian state in the districts, the people carrying out the ideas of the Prussian monarchy. Their competences included controlling police matters and supervising the collection of taxes, as well as approving the village leaders in the municipalities. The landrat also presided over the meetings of the district council (Kreistag) and headed the new district authorities (Kreisausschüsse). He was also responsible for the newly established office of the head of the police district (Amtsvorsteher). The mayors, who ruled the largest cities in the region, were among the most important people in local government administration, and this was an honorary function. On the basis of the research conducted on the group of the Prussian administrative elite in Upper Silesia after 1871, it has been possible to determine the model features of the representative of this group. The author, by making a quantitative and qualitative sociohistorical analysis, has focused on issues such as: social origin, regional origin, religion, education, membership in student societies, preparatory service, promotion paths, military service, additional qualifications and distinctions. This analysis was accompanied by examples of careers of the power elite in Upper Silesia. An interesting thread for the research on the history of Upper Silesia presented in this monograph is the activity of the examined groups in the context of social and economic events, political views, attitude towards processes and phenomena specific for Upper Silesia, such as the organized Polish movement or the Catholic Church, which has historically enjoyed a special position in the region. In this context, the monograph describes the participation of the elite of the administrative power in the policy of Kulturkampf in the 1870s, as well as the attitude to the Catholic Center Party and the fight against ultramontanism. At the end of the nineteenth century, members of the power elite in Upper Silesia had to face the emerging Polish movement, represented at that time by a faction of the Center Party, which at the beginning of the twentieth century took the form of a national movement led by Wojciech Korfanty. The year 1918, which is not only the date of the disintegration of the Prussian monarchy, but also that of the dismantling of the royal administration, constitutes the closing caesura. This work is the first ever comprehensive publication on the subject, the fruit of many years of research on a group of more than 100 people, based on many hitherto unknown sources (including those from the Secret State Archives in Berlin). As a result of this work, the author has created an extensive database of the highest-ranking officials of the Opole Regency. In addition, he has presented conflicts with the circles of high-ranking Upper Silesian industrialists and the contribution of the power elite to the creation of the image of Upper Silesia that we know to this day.