Praca z archiwum rodzinnym w utworach autobiograficznych Ludwiki Włodek i Katarzyny Surmiak-Domańskiej

Author(s): Magdalena Krzyżanowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2022

The study focuses on the archival work undertaken by Ludwika Włodek (Pra. Iwaszkiewiczowie. Opowieść o rodzinie, 2021) and Katarzyna Surmiak-Domańska (Czystka, 2021), who, in their autobiographical stories, not only attempt to reconstruct the life of early XXth century families but also to re-tell the stories of their grandmothers: Maria Iwaszkiewicz and Franciszka Surmiak. The analysis reflects on how the contact with archival materials influences the writers and opens them up about their ties with family members. It also explores the topic of the autobiographers’ trauma discovered in the stories with the help of different writing strategies (e.g., using the third person narrator, auctorial narration). Studying the stories focused on archived documents and interviews with family members allowed the author to draw up a thesis that it is not the process of writing that releases the writers’ difficult emotions connected with their past, but the work in the archives, which confronts them with deficits and empty spaces within the family history. The article also aims to verify the hypothesis about the new possible tendency in women’s storytelling oriented on the topic of family. The methodological background of the study relies on the works devoted to women’s autobiographical writing, and archival theory.

Jakub Gałęziowski, Niedopowiedziane biografie. Polskie dzieci urodzone z powodu wojny

Author(s): Andrzej Juchniewicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2023

Review of: Jakub Gałęziowski, Niedopowiedziane biografie. Polskie dzieci urodzone z powodu wojny, Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, Warszawa 2022, ss. 512.

Prawosławna ludność Konina i okolic przed 1914 rokiem

Author(s): Violetta Wiernicka / Language(s): Polish Issue: X/2023

The article defines the main stages of development of the Orthodox community of Konin and its vivinities. It presents the characteristics of the basic social and professional groups shaping the mosaic of this community. It emphasizes the role of the Orthodox Church in the life of Russian-speaking inhabitants and allows us to have a brief look at the development of Orthodox communities in other counties and governorates of the Kingdom of Poland.

Obraz życia społecznego w Dąbiu nad Nerem w latach 1932-1939 w świetle doniesień „Gazety Kolskiej”

Author(s): Jacek Biskupski / Language(s): Polish Issue: X/2023

The lack of source materials enabling reconstruction of the history of individual cities, towns, associations and organizations means that nowadays the press is used, which is sometimes the only source of information. This is also the case of the town of Dąbia nad Nerem and the organizations and associations operating in it, which had a significant impact on the social life of the interwar period. From the information available in “Gazeta Kolska”, which was published in the years 1932-1939, we learn about several important organizations and associations that shaped the image of life in this settlement.

Dokształcanie terminatorów w II RP na przykładzie Zawodowej Szkoły Dokształcającej w Dąbiu

Author(s): Maria Radziszewska / Language(s): Polish Issue: X/2023

The subject of consideration in that article was a vocational training school as an institution providing training for working youth. The aim of the research was to present the circumstances of the establishment and development of a supplementary school in Dąbie by the river Ner in eastern Greater Poland in the years between 1927-1939. In the conducted analysis, a qualitative analysis of the source material and studies on the literature of the research subject were used. It is assumed that the supplementary school was one of the types of vocational schools that allowed apprentices access to knowledge of a general and practical nature. It provides knowledge for researching the history of vocational schools conducted in the form of evening courses.

Metryki chrztów, ślubów i zgonów szlachty w parafii Stawiszyn w latach 1697-1799. Materiały do genealogii szlachty powiatu kaliskiego - część I

Author(s): Piotr Maciej Dziembowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: X/2023

This article contains 236 extracts from the parish register of the Catolical Church in Stawiszyn in years 1697-1799. Records apply baptisms (139), marriages (29) and funeral (68) of persons of the szlachta (nobility) descent. The article based on source material serve genealogical information about the nobility of the Kalisz county

Dąbianin Lajwe Wołkowicz i jego relacja pt. „Dąbie” z Archiwum Getta Warszawy (tzw. Archiwum Ringelbluma)

Author(s): Przemysław Nowicki / Language(s): Polish Issue: X/2023

This is a successive publication regarding Lajwe Wołkowicz’s report entitled “Dąbie” translated from Yiddish into Polish, but the first in conjunction with information concerning the full personal details of its author – name, date and place of birth, and also names of parents and siblings, dates of birth, family status and social position of the witness’s immediate family as well as other people mentioned in this document, living and working during the pre-war period in a small town in Koło County. The testimony presented in this article originates from the Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, the so-called Ringelblum Archive (Oneg Shabbat). It is an extremely important source in regard to the extermination of the Jews in Koło County (1941 and 1942) as well as the operation of the first death camp established on Polish land incorporated into the Third Reich, organized at Chełmno nad Nerem. Lajwe Wołkowicz recounts the wartime fate of Dąbie’s Jewish community. He was sent to Koło by the local Judenrat on 11 December 1941. Passing through Chełmno he noticed baggage inside the church as the doors were open. He stopped and went inside. No one was inside and no one questio- ned his presence in the village. In Koło, there were no Jews on the streets but he did meet with two members of the Judenrat. They told him of the transports to Chełmno (Kulmhof) as did a local Pole who he met twice during the trip. Lajwe Wołkowicz fled Dąbie on the day the deportations began. He spent some five weeks in Grabów before eventually making his way to Warsaw and recording his testimony

Stefan Zakrzewski (1898-1934) - żołnierz Legionów Polskich i oficer zawodowy Wojska Polskiego

Author(s): Jarosław Durka / Language(s): Polish Issue: X/2023

The article presents the figure of Stefan Zakrzewski, born in Kalisz, an activist of the Polish Military Organisation and a volunteer of the Polish Legions, fighting in the ranks of the 6th Infantry Regiment. He joined the Polish Legions without completing middle school. After Poland regained independence, he continued his service as a professional officer in the Polish Army. Throughout his life, he displayed an extremely patriotic attitude. In January 1919, at his own request, he was assigned to the 29th Infantry Regiment (Kaniowski Rifle Regiment), and later also fought in the 28th Infantry Regiment and the 34th Infantry Regiment. He was wounded during the fighting. After the end of the Polish-Soviet War, he continued his education and was conscripted into the 29th Infantry Regiment and then into the 5th Sapper Regiment. While in the army, he was a physical education instructor. From 1930, he was commander of the 2nd Sapper Company in the 1st Battalion of Legion Sappers in Modlin.

Dezertarea în străinătate în timpul Primului Război Mondial. Studiu de caz

Author(s): Gabriela Dristaru / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 22/2023

The article examines the topic of desertion in the Romanian army during World War I. Given the scarcity of studies in the field, the scope of the subject, and the early stage of the research, I chose to address the cases of desertion to a foreign country. This was a crime with a lower frequency and, therefore, easier to document. By presenting several examples, I examine who were the deserters, and, above all, what were the reasons behind their decision. The main sources for the contribution are the documents of the law enforcement institutions and those of the Courts Martial. I therefore also explore how the Romanian authorities managed the problem of desertion. However, I do not provide definitive answers on the topic. I rather propose working hypotheses and scenarios, necessary for further research and analysis of the subject.

Şcolile normale agricole şi dezvoltare rurală în România interbelică

Author(s): Camelia Zavarache / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 22/2023

This article examines the activities of two normal schools with agricultural profile in Grădiştea, Vlaşca County and Caracal, Romanaţi County. The institutions were created by Constantin Angelescu, the Ministry of National Education, at the end of the summer of 1937. Their founding showed the sense of urgency displayed by the liberal government regarding the improved teaching of agricultural studies in normal schools as well as the level of agricultural practice among young teachers. The schools, both experimental endeavours, had, according to documents in the archive of the Ministry of National Education, contrasting fates: the one in Grădiştea was successful; the other, in Caracal, was a bitter disappointment. However, I argue that their activities were significantly marked by the establishment of King Carol II’s authoritarian regime in February 1938. In the summer of that year, Dimitrie Gusti’s close collaborators took over the leadership of Ministry of Education. Gusti’s ideas about rural development shaped the subsequent legislation regarding primary and normal schools; as a consequence, both institutions were disbanded.

Combaterea corupţiei prin presiune şi represiune – practici şi norme ale regimului comunist din România în anii ’70

Author(s): Cosmin Popa / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 22/2023

The beginning of the 1970s was a landmark moment in the evolution of the communist regime in Romania on several levels. A crucial one was the significant change of emphasis in the regime's anti-corruption policies. Nicolae Ceauşescu shifted the pressure from the party and bureaucratic apparatus to the entire society. The aim was not only to limit the economic effects of criminal activity but to also make political control more effective. As significant changes to the country’s economy loomed, the regime needed the full support of the party apparatus and the repressive system, both of whom would hold crucial roles in the implementation of these new economic policies. Ceauşescu carefully transformed party structures into oversight bodies directly subordinate to the Secretary-General. In parallel, he greatly enhanced the involvement of the secret police in the field. Nicolae Ceauşescu thus ensured both his total ability to manipulate the entire system and an important lever of control over the economy and society as a whole. For a while, these changes somewhat limited the economic effects of corruption. Yet, above all, they prevented any vernacular liberalization tendencies that could jeopardize the new direction of the regime.

The Influence of the Liturgical Calendar on the Seasonality of Conception in Early Modern Poland and Silesia

Author(s): Paweł Pietrowcew / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

In the article, I discuss the seasonality of marriages, conceptions and first conceptions in early modern communities from the territory of present-day Poland. I looked for the influence of the Catholic liturgical calendar there. The source basis was the data published so far in the literature. The analysis shows that church restrictions forced the faithful to marry in the months immediately before Lent and Advent. This resulted in an increase in post-marital sexual activity during the period when abstinence was recommended. This conclusion weakens the notion that the Catholic Church controlled the daily lives of early modern Polish inhabitants.

The Operation of Natural Selection through Differential Mortality. The Detva Population during the Great Epidemics, 1831–1920

Author(s): Ján Golian,Grażyna Liczbińska / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

This paper centers on the infectious disease epidemics which swept through the Detva region, located in Upper Hungary (currently the territory of central Slovakia) in 1831–1920. The goal of this study is twofold: firstly, to examine the extent to which deaths caused by epidemics of infectious disease influenced life expectancy, the proportion of the deceased and survivors, and the probability of death in the Detva population, and secondly, to measure selection pressures through differential mortality, with a focus on deaths caused by infectious disease epidemics. We used individual information on age at death and causes of death in the Detva region, derived from the Detva parish records (N = 29,338). Infectious disease epidemics were the main regulator of mortality in the Detva region, as confirmed by our findings. Excluding deaths caused by infectious diseases from the dataset raised the life expectancy of a new-born and of an adult by 1–5 years and 1–2 years, respectively. The fraction of those surviving to the age of 5, the onset of maturity (15 years) and the onset of senility (60 years) also increased, while there was a decline in the proportion of deceased and the probability of dying. When deaths caused by infectious disease epidemics were removed from the analyses, selection pressures also weakened, as evidenced by the values of measures for the operation of natural selection.

Sex and Mortality: Changes in the Age Distribution of the Deceased According to Polish Press Obituaries, 1845–1939

Author(s): Marek Jerzy Minakowski / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The paper traces the gradual transition from a society in which the age structure graph for female deaths has two distinct peaks punctuated by an area of low mortality at menopause (as if menopause reverses the trend, giving women a new life expectancy), to a model in which the age structure for men and women is similar, but women die later. The change observed was that the local minimum for female deaths (aged 41–45) remained the same, but one of the maxima (the group of women for whom life expectancy ended at the end of childbearing age) disappeared. Male deaths do not exhibit such a pattern, which can account for why men have benefited much less from the increase in life expectancy. The analysis is based on 470,000 Polish newspaper obituaries from 1845 to 1939 in which 205,000 people were listed, and from these 165,000 were selected for whom the age at death is known.

Famine in the Kingdom of Poland in the Mid-19th Century, Exemplified by the Augustów Governorate

Author(s): Szymon Antosik / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The article discusses the demographic consequences of crop failures in the northeastern districts of Augustów Governorate in late 1845 and early 1846. It also raises the question of assessing the reliability of the sources that recorded vital statistics in the Russian partition, which revealed many inconsistencies in the registration of deaths, and notes the need for a critical approach when using them. Also highlighted was a wave of famine-induced emigration of peasants and the need for further and in-depth research into demographic crises in mid-19th century Polish lands.

Reporting Infant Deaths at the Szczecin Civil Records Office in the Late 19th Century: General Conclusions

Author(s): Dawid Dziuba / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The purpose of this article is to analyze the structural characteristics of the information held in Civil Registry Office records on people reporting the death of an infant. Some fifteen thousand death records held at the CRO in Szczecin (Stettin) at the end of the 19th century were examined in order to answer the fundamental question of what research information is provided by people reporting the death of an infant. The research shows that despite the sparse information in the CRO files on people reporting infant deaths, interesting relationships can be observed. These include professional or family ties between the notifiers and the parents of the deceased infants.

Małżeństwa w parafii Łapy w latach 1919–1939

Author(s): Jakub Dobrzyński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

The article examines marriage in the Podlasie Catholic parish of Lapy from 1919–1939. It considers the occupations of the grooms, the age at which the couples married and the seasonality (monthly and weekly) of marriages. The source for the article was the Łapy parish registers kept at the Registry Office in Łapy. The registers of neighboring parishes were also used for analysis and then the results were compared with the immediate neighborhood. The article shows that when founding a new family, one of the main factors, together with the time of year and week, was the man’s occupation.

Zalety wszechstronności. Recenzja książki Violetty Hionidou, Abortion and Contraception in Modern Greece, 1830–1967. Medicine, Sexuality and Popular Culture, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, ss. 361

Author(s): Bartosz Ogórek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

Recenzja książki Witolda Śmigielskiego Trwanie życia Polaków i innych mieszkańców krajów słowiańskich. Od epoki prehistorycznej po współczesność, Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, 2022, ss. 171

Author(s): Radosław Poniat / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

ION POP RETEGANUL – ISTORIC LITERAR

Author(s): Alexandra COSTEA (PASCU) / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 14/2023

After 1848, the area inhabited by Romanians outside the Carpathian Arc underwent profound mental and social changes, which culminated in 1859 with the Little Union of Moldova and Wallachia. However, the consciousness of race and language were not realities that manifested themselves only in these Romanian provinces, Transylvania being united in national feeling with the other Romanians, despite the special historical conditions in which it is located. This consciousness of Romanianness would eventually lead to the Great Union in 1918 in Alba Iulia. One of the promoters of national consciousness was Ion Pop Reteganul, whose activity was also carried out in literary history, which he approached from a moderately critical perspective. His teacher training left its mark on his writing because he tried to bring out always in evidence the moralizing side of any text he brought to his reader. In its pages of historical-literary journalism, this moralizing side is doubled by the admiration for the personalities it presents, their activity, and their creation, which touched on topics necessary for the growth of a healthy Romanian community as a mentality and recognition of its value.