Zadanie bojowe 2 Armii Wojska Polskiego w operacji łużyckiej w świetle źródeł rosyjskich i dotychczasowych ustaleń badaczy. Historia do poprawki

Author(s): Leszek Kania / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

The article presents the combat task of the Polish Army grouping, the core of which was the 2nd Polish Army under the command of Gen. Karol Świerczewski in the Lusatian operation (April 16–30, 1945). The findings of Polish and foreign researchers to date incorrectly assigned the Polish group to the role of securing the left wing of the 1st Ukrainian Front in the attack on Dresden. The article verifies these findings on the basis of original sources in the form of orders, which are currently available online in the database of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

U źródeł afery TUN. Generał Stanisław Tatar, rozpad Komitetu Trzech i przekazanie komunistycznemu wywiadowi wojskowemu funduszu „Drawa” 1947–1949

Author(s): Daniel Koreś / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

The article is a synthesis of the activities of the members of the self-proclaimed Committee of Three (Brig. Gen. Stanisław Tatar and his associates – Col. Stanisław Nowicki and Lt. Col. Marian Utnik) from 1947–1949 – until their arrest by the communist security service in November 1949. Based on archival sources, it presents not only the moral decay of three high-ranking and positioned officers of the Polish Army and the Polish Armed Forces, but also a much more painful study of their agent activities and mutual deliberation inspired by the II Department of the General Staff of the Polish People’s Army.

Oddział Henryka Kwaśniewskiego „Luxa” z II Inspektoratu Zamojskiego AK i jego ostatnia walka

Author(s): Bartłomiej P. Szyprowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

This article investigates the creation and operational activity of the platoon detachment commanded by Henryk „Lux” Kwaśniewski from the 2nd Zamość Inspectorate of the Home Army, until it was eliminated on December 15, 1951 ina firefight in the Alojzów district. The author presents documents and reports related to the Internal Security Corps raid, which led to the liquidation of the group,and attempts to explain the inaccuracies that appear in the preserved documents.Furthermore, the documented description of the fight and how Henryk „Lux”Kwaśniewski and Wacław „Mściwy” Kwaśniewski died, the details of which differfrom those supplied by the actual participants, is also subjected to scrutiny.

Problematyka wykorzystania 1 Batalionu Szturmowego w operacji „Dunaj”

Author(s): Przemysław Benken / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

The subject of this article is to present the activities of the 1st Assault Battalion during the operation „Danube” in 1968. Thanks to the archival queries in the Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw and in the Military Archive in Oleśnica, it was possible to prepare the most complete description of the activity of Polish special units in Czechoslovakia so far. The conducted research showed that the special forces were not used in accordance with their intended purpose, which had a negative impact on the effectiveness and morale of soldiers.

Ołeksandr Kozyr-Zirka – sylwetka niezdyscyplinowanego atamana z okresu rządów Dyrektoriatu Ukraińskiej Republiki Ludowej (1918–1919)

Author(s): Marek Bogdan Kozubel / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

The article is devoted to Oleksandr Kozyr-Zirka, one of the most famous atamans of the period of the Ukrainian national revolution 1917–1921. In November 1918, he joined the uprising against Hetman Paweł Skoropadski. After the overthrow of the Hetmanate, he became famous mainly for the robberies in the rear of Ukrainian Army and the pogroms in Owrucz at the turn of 1918 and 1919. His fate inspired Mikhail Bulgakov to create the character of the bloody ataman KozyrLashka, one of the side characters of the novel „The White Guard”.

When Typhus Rode a Red Horse: Weaponizing Disease During the Polish-Bolshevik War

Author(s): Christopher Blackburn / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

This work explores the role of the Red Army in the spread of typhus on Polishlands during the Polish-Bolshevik War, 1919–1920. As a result of the Bolshevikstyle of war, one of the results of the Soviet advance into Poland was the anti-typhus effort along the border and throughout the country. Polish efforts, supportedby American humanitarian groups, had made great strides in eradicating typhushowever, much of this was undone with the Bolshevik offensive of 1920. Throughboth active and passive means the Bolshevik advance drove typhus victims andrefugees across the Polish lines, while at the same time Bolshevik forces destroyedor removed sanitation equipment and supplies across the frontier.

„Dwójka” i miasto. Agendy polskiego wywiadu i kontrwywiadu wojskowego w międzywojennej Bydgoszczy (1920–1939)

Author(s): Wojciech Skóra / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2021

In Bydgoszcz, with a population of just over 100,000, at least seven Polish military intelligence and counterintelligence agencies operated in the interwar period. They are discussed sequentially in the text. In total, taking into account the staff changes, several dozen officers of these services worked in the city, supported by hundreds of non-commissioned officers and civilian employees. It was a noticeable and specific professional group. Some city authorities assessed their presence in Bydgoszcz negatively, complaining and sending inspections.

Geneza asystencji wojskowej w II Rzeczypospolitej

Author(s): Piotr Hac / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2021

The article presents the issue of the genesis of military assistance in the Second Polish Republic. In interwar Poland, this term was understood as providing aid by the armed forces for the benefit of civil authorities, primarily in connection with ensuring public safety, or in the event of natural disasters. The text analyzes Polish and foreign experiences with the use of the army for the indicated purposes, as well as characterizes the regulations of foreign countries established before 1918 in this field. In the period from January to April 1919, basic regulations concerning the discussed issues were issued.

Powstanie listopadowe w świetle wspomnień Erazma Rozwadowskiego

Author(s): Maciej Trąbski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2021

Like many of his contemporaries, Erazm Rozwadowski, who served as an officer in the 5th Mounted Riflemen Regiment of the Royal Polish Guard, left behindan account of his service career. Importantly, Rozwadowski only presented what hewitnessed himself, in the way he remembered the event. Rozwadowski’s accountincludes personal details, such as his view of the uprising as seen through the eyesof a student at the Riding Cadet School, his stay at the camp of Grand Duke Konstantin near Wierzbno, and the financial difficulties he faced in order to properlyequip himself upon becoming an officer.

Wkład Wojskowego Biura Historycznego w obchody stulecia powstania listopadowego

Author(s): Marta Cękalska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2021

This article presents the course and effects of the work that was produced by theIndependent Department of Old Wars of the Military Historical Bureau to commemorate the centenary of the November Uprising. This work included materialprovided by the 5th Congress of Polish Historians in Warsaw and a special issueof Przegląd Historyczno-Wojskowy and important publications such as The Guide tothe Battlefields of the Polish-Russian War 1830–1831 (edited by Otton Laskowski,Warsaw 1931) and Sources for the history of the Polish-Russian war 1830–1831, Vol.1–4 (ed. Bronisław Pawłowski, Warsaw 1931–1935).

Tajny Wywiad Zagraniczny Abwehry w latach 1919–1933

Author(s): Florian Altenhöner / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2021

The article analyzes the role of the Abwehr’s secret intelligence service duringthe Weimar Republic. General information concerning the structure of the Abwehrand its activitiesis is provided alongside the confrontation of the myths about the“Versal regulations” and nonexistence of the Abwehr. The author presents the structure of the Abwehr, and its most important sources of information are presented(agential and technical) and its cooperation with foreign intelligence services. Theanalysis carried out leads to the conclusion that the Abwehr were a small but appreciated organization which provided the Reichswehr with important information.

Jerzy Niezbrzycki (Ryszard Wraga) and the Polish Intelligence in the Soviet Union in the 1930s

Author(s): Hiroaki Kuromiya / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

Jerzy Niezbrzycki (born 1901/2 – died 1968) was a key figure in Polish intelligence during the Polish Second Republic. After WWII, he lived abroad where heengaged widely in the analysis of Soviet affairs and published under the pen nameof Ryszard Wraga. His unfinished memoirs written in English not only illuminatethe battle between Polish and Soviet intelligence before WWII but also suggest thateven the most experienced foreign intelligence operatives like Niezbrzycki weremisled by elaborate Soviet disinformation.

„Na posterunku bojowym”. Wojska radzieckie w radzieckiej strefie okupacyjnej Niemiec/ Niemieckiej Republice Demokratycznej 1945–1954. Wybrane aspekty

Author(s): Grzegorz Hryciuk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2020

The Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany was formed in June 1945. It consisted mainly of the troops of the 1st Belarusian Front with marshal Georgy Zhukov as the first commander-in-chief of the Group. The main task of these troops was to supervise the process of demilitarization and democratization of the Soviet occupation zone in Germany. Occasionally, the Group also secured the process of dismantling a large part of the German industrial infrastructure. The cost of living of the Soviet troops was a major burden on the budget of this zone, which was transformed into the German Democratic Republic in 1949. The significant demobilization of the Red Army (the Soviet Army since 1946) also affected the units stationed in eastern Germany. Their numbers fell in 1947, but some of them were not disbanded or withdrawn to the USSR; they remained as so-called cadre units, with limited numbers, fully armed and equipped. It was their development in 1949 and 1950, in the face of the tightening international situation, that allowed to significantly increase the numbers of the Group’s troops, estimated in the mid-1950s at around 500 000. The Group consisted of the best equipped and trained units of the Soviet Army. These troops guaranteed the stability of local communist regimes (e.g. during the suppression of the East German uprising of 1953), as well as a potential instrument of aggression or defense in the event of war in Europe. In 1954, the Soviet Armed Forces stopped functioning as occupying forces in the GDR. Since then, they were only an element of the system of the mutual balance of forces between blocks competing in Europe. This was also the beginning of doctrinal changes in the Soviet Army. It had to adapt not only to the changed international situation, but above all to the completely different conditions of war on the atomic battlefield.

Pułkownik Józef Olszyna-Wilczyński i jego sprawy honorowe w 1923 r.

Author(s): Grzegorz Kulka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2020

At the turn of 1922 and 1923 there were two incidents of honour that involvedColonel Józef Olszyna-Wilczyński. First, he committed an insult against policeofficers in Cracow, and later – while already on duty in the capital – he got intoa dispute over a council flat with another officer of the Polish Army. This article,based on unpublished archival materials, presents both these cases, which becamethe subject of proceedings before the officers’ court of honour.

Podpułkownik Marian Chodacki „Maracz” i jego dziedzictwo

Author(s): Mariusz Krzysztofiński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2020

Hluboký vhled do smutného konce úspěšného muže

Author(s): Jana Wohlmuth Markupová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2023

In her book "Soukromá válka Huga Vavrečky: Mikrohistorie z rozhraní soudobých dějin (1945–1952)" [Hugo Vavrečka’s Private War: A Microhistory from the Edge of Contemporary History, 1945–1952)], the historian Jana Wohlmuth Markupová presents the fate of journalist, economist, manager, diplomat and for a short time also politician Hugo Vavrečka (1880–1952). The first Czechoslovak ambassador to Hungary and then to Austria, in the interwar period Vavrečka was also commercial director of the Baťa Works and, in autumn 1938, at a critical time for Czechoslovakia, a government minister. He was also the grandfather of the playwright and president Václav Havel (1936–2011). According to the reviewer, Wohlmuth Markupová’s book occupies a unique place among Czech biographical publications in that it contains a thorough reflection on the genre of historical biography and examines the relationship between the biography of a particular person and the microhistorical approach to the problem of contemporary history. It is this methodological emphasis which makes it extremely inspiring and valuable. The author focuses on the last eight post-war years of Hugo Vavrečka’s life, when from a former member of the social elite he became an outsider, and attempts to capture his psychological traits and life strategies. The result is a deep, nuanced and gloomy insight into the confrontation of an exceptional personality (but by that time also an old and sick man) with the pressure of changing social conditions, especially the communist regime after 1948.

Příběh posledního lidického faráře

Author(s): Marek Šmíd / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2023

In his biography "Nejvyšší oběť: Poslední lidický farář Josef Štemberka (1869–1942)" [The Ultimate Sacrifice: The Last Parish Priest of Lidice, Josef Štemberka (1869–1942)], the church historian František Kolouch tells the life story of a Roman Catholic priest who was executed by the German occupiers on 10 June 1942, along with other male inhabitants of the destroyed Central Bohemian village of Lidice. The biography of the extraordinary personality of Josef Štemberka, who had served as a parish priest in the village since 1909, is intertwined with the political, economic and social history of the village of Lidice, the local region and the entire country from the last years of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy through the whole period of interwar Czechoslovakia, until to the fourth year of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The author stays mainly at the level of regional history. The reviewer points out that Kolouch has managed to collect an impressive amount of mostly unpublished sources, which enabled him to reconstruct Štemberka’s fate from his youth to its tragic climax in a detailed and engaging way, while at the same time, correcting many traditional clichés. The reviewer’s objections are directed at the absence of a broader context of Church and religious history, the narrow range of the literature used, and the nonnegligible number of factual and interpretive errors.

S humorem na rtech napříč soudobými dějinami

Author(s): Pavel Mücke / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2023

The subject of the review is the book "„Stretnú sa v lietadle…“ Politický vtip v druhej polovici 20. storočia a v súčasnosti" [“Three Blokes Meet On a Plane...” Political Jokes in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century and Today] by Slovak ethnologist Eva Šipöczová. The reviewer first reminds us that folk humour has long been a privileged object of interest of folklore studies and ethnology and that historiography only recognized its research potential in connection with methodological innovations in the second half of the twentieth century. He points to the basic works on this topic produced in Czech history in recent decades, and then introduces in detail the content of Šipöczová’s book and her main findings. Šipöczová’s research is based on an ethnological or historical-anthropological perspective. She first situates folk comicality within broader narrative cultural frameworks, then summarizes the genesis of anecdotes as a genre from the remote past to the present, discussing their motivation, targeting, and formal construction. She then studies the “casuistry” and typology of political jokes in Czechoslovak (and, Czech and Slovak) society through the changing times and political conditions up to the present day. In so doing, she proves that folk creativity in this respect by no means disappeared with the end of the communist regime but finds “fertile ground” also in the conditions of democracy. The reviewer considers the last chapter, in which Šipöczová presents an analysis of Internet memes and humour disseminated through the online environment, to be pioneering and particularly inspiring. The added value of the book is the reciting of many contemporary anecdotes.

Černobyľská havária: environmentálna komunikácia v socialistickej tlači.

Author(s): Patrícia Molnárová / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 1/2023

The study deals with the reflection of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion (1986) in the ideologically determined environment of the socialist daily press. The issue is interpreted in relation to environmental communication about a historical event with a direct impact on the environment. The interdisciplinary theoretical background links environmental communication, environmental history, political-ideological and media discourse of the socialist era in the time of emerging glasnost and perestroika. The aim of the research is to present the media portrayal of an environmental event in its historical, political, and ideological context and to outline the primary communication techniques used to convey it. The research interpretations are based on a content and critical analysis of 35 texts published in the Slovak national (Pravda) and regional periodicals (Smer) within one month after the Chernobyl accident. The research sample includes reports, interviews, articles, commentaries, and statements by the highest officials of the Soviet Union. In the contemporary context, environmental issues are subordinated to the political-ideological media discourse in terms of both the formal positioning in the analysed medium and the content focus of the text. The research results reflect the characteristic manifestations of the language of the socialist period (manipulative communicative techniques, emotionally determined argumentation, information selection, schematization, stereotyping, argument from authority, etc.) applied to the conditions of environmental communication.

MOLDOVA ȘI VOIEVODUL EI ÎN DISCUȚIILE REGELUI MATIA CORVIN CU LEGATUL PAPAL ANGELO PECCHINOLI

Author(s): Alexandru Simon / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 59/2022

In autumn 1488, Pope Innocent VIII sent Angelo Pecchinoli, bishop of Orte and Civita Castellana, as legatus de latere ad nonnulla Germanie, Ungarie, Polonie et Bohemie ac alias illis adiacentes partes atque regna. Pecchinoli’s primary pontifical interests resided with Matthias Corvinus, the conqueror of Vienna (1485). The relations between the Papacy and the king ofHungary and Bohemia (part of) were at an all-time low. Consequently, the legate spent most of his time at Matthias’ courts, either in Vienna or in Buda. His reports cover the turbulent last year of the king’s life (from January 30, 1489 to April, 6, 1490), as well as the subsequent – heavily fought – Hungarian royal elections (June 24 – July 24, 1490).The reports, preserved predominantly in Venice, were known to historians since the end of the 19th century. Vilmos Fraknói, Franz Babinger or Kenneth M. Setton made good use of them. The reports were quite relevant chiefly in Hungarian-Ottoman matters and in relation to Matthias’ disputed (and eventually failed) succession through his only, illegitimate moreover, son, John. The succession was much opposed by Queen Beatrice of Aragon, the daughter of Ferdinand, king of Naples, and Matthias’ influential consort.Until very recently however, there was no critical complete edition of the reports. The remarkable work of Antonin Kalous (2021) has filled that void, based on the extant copies of Angelo Pecchinoli’s reports preserved in Rome, Venice and also in Milan. This very much eased work on the present paper, which focuses on the Moldavian and on the Wallachian occurrences in the lengthily reports of the otherwise inexperienced diplomat.There were four such occurrences: (1) on January 30, 1489 (the first report of Pecchinoli on his meeting with Matthias), (2) on May 15, 1489, (3) on November 30, 1489, and (4) on April 6, 1490 (on precisely the day of Matthias’ death). Exceptionally, the first report was sent also to the Venetian cardinal Marco Barbo, a former legate himself in those Eastern parts (1472-1474), while the last report was summarized in the letter sent on the same day by Pecchinoli to the Papal vice-chancellor Rodrigo Borgia, future Pope Alexander VI. The latter’s secretary, the Venetian Ludovico Podocatoro, copied most of Pecchinoli’s reports.1) On their first meeting, Ancona took centre-stage. Since April 1488, Matthias’ troops garrisoned the Adriatic port, viewed by the Papacy as its fief. Pecchinoli reminded the king that he too could suffer – Roman – injury and pain. The legate gave Matthias two examples (which he, otherwise very careful to quote his and the king’s words, did not record, i.e. cite, verbatim in his report). The first one was the royal crown granted to the king of Bosnia by Pius II. The second was the Venetian supported enjoyed in Rome by the voivode of Moldavia. Both instances were most harmful to the interests of King Matthias.2) Moldavia occupied a special place in Matthias’ thoughts. During their encounter of May 1489, the king voluntarily confused his battle of Baia against Stephen III of Moldavia (1467), still voivode in 1489, with a confrontation between the Hunyadi monarch and the Turks. Partially, the king was correct. The said Baia was an “off-spin” of the Hungarian-Ottoman wars (and truces). That battle also served as “prelude” to the king’s subsequent Bohemia crusade. The relations had however completely changed over the next decades.3) By 1489, the rival sons of Sultan Mehmed II, Bayezid II and Djem, were fighting over Matthias’ goodwill. This came much to Rome’s dislike, as Innocent VIII’s desired crusader congress was constantly postponed (it eventually began in 1490 just a couple of days before the king’s death). In November 1489, Matthias even admitted to Pecchinoli that he had received a most tempting offer from Bayezid, whose representatives had come to Buda, together with the Hungarian envoy at the Ottoman court. The sultan was willing to return to Matthias at least one of the two major harbours (Chilia and Cetatea Albă) that he had taken in 1484 from the king’s vassal, Stephen III of Moldavia (his name was however not mentioned by both Matthias and Pecchinoli; the name of the harbour to be returned was additionally left out of the report, either by Pecchinoli or by the Venetian scribes who copied the report). Nevertheless, Christian duty commanded Matthias to reject the offer.4) In spite of the mounting – ever since 1486 and especially 1489 – rumours on his bad health, Matthias died unexpectedly in Vienna, in the early hours of April 6, 1490. He had just summoned the Hungarian Diet. According to Pecchinoli’s letters immediately sent first to Pope Innocent VIII and then to Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, Matthias’ final concern had been a potentially imminent Ottoman attack on the royal Hungarian province of Transylvania, supported by the hosts of Moldavia and Wallachia. It soon turned out that the rumour was meant to send the opponents of John’s succession to defend the frontiers.The first report was preserved both in Rome and in Venice. The second and the third one were conserved only in Venice. The fourth (ones) survived only in Milanese and in Venetian copies. Venice was Stephen’s protector (of old) and was at odds with Matthias (in March 1489, the Serenissima started however making overtures to the Hunyadi king). Milan was tied to Matthias due to the marriage by proxy between John Corvinus and Bianca Maria Sforza (1487). These circumstances highlight some “details” in the reports.The king never mentioned Moldavia or her voivode in the speeches recorded by the legate. The latter similarly never mentioned Moldavia and or Wallachia after the threats he made during his first meeting with Matthias. Moldavia and Wallachia resurfaced in Pecchinoli’s reports only on the day of Matthias’ death. This “disappearance” and these “omissions” draw attention to the other – rather numerous – sources from those years.They tell a very different story (e.g. Stephen was loyal to Matthias, who granted him lands in Transylvania; the voivode of Moldavia favoured a partition of royal Hungarian power between the Habsburgs and John, who should have at least become the king of Bosnia; Stephen also enjoyed the favour of Venice, who, according to her own men, yet in 1492, had never actually stopped funding him). It therefore seems that, in addition to his own voluntary omissions, Pecchinoli’s reports are indicative of the fact that the legate was frequently kept in the dark by the otherwise most verbacious King Matthias Corvinus.