Polska roku 1989 na łamach tygodnika „Russkaja Mysl”

Author(s): Bartosz Gołąbek / Language(s): Russian,Polish Issue: 2/2019

The aim of this paper is to present the perspective of Polish reforms of the year 1989 adoptedin the Russian émigré weekly Russkaya Mysl. The editors of the periodical were persuaded topresent the situation of communist Poland thanks to their collaborator – poet and Polish-Russiantranslator Natalya Gorbanevskaya. Her Polish expertise and direct contacts establishedwith Polish dissidents and opposition leaders played a great role in the Polish publications ofRusskaya Mysl: articles, commentaries as well as the coverage of Round Table negotiationsand the elections of 4 June 1989, and finally the first government with non-communist PrimeMinister. All that information was published, without any doubt, due to the favourable attitudeand ideological influence of Natalya Gorbanevskaya herself.

Русь и её святые в славянском учении Иоанна Павла II. Между историей и настоящим

Author(s): Grzegorz Przebinda / Language(s): English,Russian Issue: 3/2020

The article attempts a synthetic description of the attitude of John Paul II – “the Pope from Poland” – to the religious tradition of Kievan Rus, a territory of shared spiritual and historical heritage for Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Identifying himself with the heritage of the Jagiellonian Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, John Paul II preached the “ecumenism of a greater Europe” in his official documents and statements, during his pilgrimages, and through the example of his own life. His teaching encompassed both, the Catholic West and Central Europe, with their spiritual patron in the figure of St. Benedict, as well as the Orthodox and Greek Catholic Eastern Europe, patroned by the brother saints Cyril and Methodius. Speaking of European spirituality the Polish Pope often referred to the metaphor of “the two lungs of Christianity” coined by the Russian symbolist poet and thinker, Vyacheslav Ivanov, in 1930. This broad ecumenical concept, which stands at the basis of the Pope’s vision of “Europe from the Atlantic to the Ural Mountains,” brings together the Roman Catholics, the Greek Catholics of the Byzantine Rite, and the members of all the Orthodox churches functioning among the nations of southern and eastern Europe. The article underlines the importance of the ecumenical stance of the Polish Pope and shows how his openness towards the Russian Orthodox Church prepared ground for the first historical meeting of a pope and a patriarch of Moscow – this epochal event happened in Cuba on 12 February 2016 between Pope Francis I and the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus’ Cyril I.

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.

Początki żandarmerii wojskowej na ziemiach polskich

Author(s): Dariusz Andrzej Nawrot / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

Ustrój i działalność sądownictwa rosyjskiej floty wojennej w latach 1867–1914, część 2

Author(s): Leszek Madej / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

Aresztowanie Jadwigi Kuberskiej „Mei” i Ireny Kalinowskiej „Ludki” oraz likwidacja konfidenta Mieczysława Darmaszka

Author(s): Bartłomiej P. Szyprowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

The article presents the case of the elimination of the German informer Mieczysław Darmaszek, carried out by female soldiers of the Women Mining Patrols of the Directorate of Diversion in the Home Army District of Warsaw. The author presents the character of Mieczysław Darmaszek and the circumstances of his informer activity and his elimination. Moreover, the article attempts to explain the inaccuracies concerning the arrest of the Kuberski family and the people staying at their house, as well as to analyze from the legal point of view, whether it was a preventive elimination or a verdict of the underground court had been issued.

Cóż będzie dalej? Nieznany list gen. broni Kazimierza Sosnkowskiego z roku 1945 o sytuacji międzynarodowej i perspektywach sprawy polskiej

Author(s): Jerzy Kirszak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

After his dismissal from the post of Commander-in-Chief, General Kazimierz Sosnkowski was given a leave of absence and via New York he went to Canada to visit his juvenile sons, who were evacuated there. Unintentionally, Canada became a place of his half-internment. From across the ocean he followed the development of the international situation, the assessment of which he presented, among others, in a letter to a former trusted subordinate, Colonel Franciszek Demel. Sosnkowski aptly predicted a number of events and socio-political processes of the near and far future. For example, he forecast the imminent disbanding of the Polish Armed Forces in the West, the end of Stanisław Mikołajczyk’s activity in Stalin-controlled Poland, or the constant expansion of Russian imperialism. He also showed the backstage and effects of his removal from the post of Commander-in-Chief, which made the process of dismantling the army in exile much quicker, and due to which the opportunities for securing a better existence of soldiers in exile and funds for organized independence activity in the free world were lost. The General’s statement presents a clear-headed assessment of the political activity of the highest Polish state and military authorities in the last months of the World War II, and carefully analyzes the behind-the-scenes personal games which led, for example, to the dismissal of General Władysław Anders from the post of Acting Commander-in-Chief in favor of General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski. This document is an interesting material for researchers of the beginnings of post-war emigration, the process of dismantling the Polish Armed Forces, and finally makes a valuable contribution to the biographers of Kazimierz Sosnkowski.

Regionálna výchova a tradičná ľudová kultúra vo výučbe na základných školách

Author(s): Margita Jágerová / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 7/2019

Since 2008 the elementary schools in Slovakia have been given the opportunity to educate children in the field of “Regional education and traditional folk culture“ focusing on local history, geography, natural environment and basic ethnographic knowledge, related to the place in which each school is functioning. Therefore, these schools can be considered as one of the most important mediators in the process of imparting this knowledge amongst the youngest generation in today’s society. The paper is based on a research conducted at 5 elementary schools that declared the implementation of “Regional education” and some components of traditional culture and folklore in their teaching process. At the beginning of 1990s, these schools were leaders in this process and became an inspirational role model for other ones. The author describes the current situation in these schools, the possibilities, tools and mechanisms applied by individual schools (teachers) in the process of education in the above-mentioned field. Furthermore, the paper describes the forms, educational content and factors determining this area.

Antyputinowska Rosja Dmitrija Bykowa. Z Polską nie tylko w tle

Author(s): Grzegorz Przebinda / Language(s): English,Polish Issue: 6/2023

The article is an attempt to describe the anti-Putin stance of contemporary Russian writerand thinker Dmitry Lvovich Bykov (b. 1967), from his first novel Justification (2020) to his most recent pro-freedom and anti-imperialist statements from July 2023, when he was already in exile in the USA. The author’s key text here is the 2019 article 20 Years of Putin – 20 Years in Reverse Gear, in which the author reaffirms his negative attitude toward Putinism as “archaic imperialism”, the cause of Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and now Russia’s February 24, 2022 attack on Ukraine. The article also discusses Bykov’s negative attitude toward historical and contemporary Russian fascism, of which the writer also considers Fyodor Dostoevsky to be largely representative. An important part of the article is also a general description of Bykov’s very positive attitude to contemporary Polish culture and literature – mainly to the works of Leszek Kolakowski, Stanislaw Lem, Wislawa Szymborska, Agnieszka Osiecka, Czeslaw Milosz. The text ends by recalling Dmitry Bykov’s dramatic and compassionate statement of July 6, 2023, on the death of the 37-year-old Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who died of wounds sustained under Russian bombs in Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. At the same time, the article is a kind of extensive introduction to the reading of Grzegorz Przebinda’s interview with Dmitry Bykov, published immediately below in “Studia Pigoniana”, recorded in Krakow in October 2019 on the occasion of the Russian writer’s stay at the Conrad Festival.

MAKING INDIGENOUS RELIGION AT THE SAN FRANCISCO PEAKS: Navajo Discourses and Strategies of Familiarization

Author(s): Seth Schermerhorn / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Navajo claims pertaining to the sacredness of the San Francisco Peaks (as well as those of other Native American tribes), while no doubt profoundly sincere, are necessarily and strategically positioned in relation to the contemporary legal struggles within which they have arisen. However, I cannot stress too heavily that this should not suggest that their claims are spurious, invented, or in other words “inauthentic.” Greg Johnson asserts that “frequently, the specter against which authenticity is measured is what critics might call ‘postured tradition,’ a shorthand means of suggesting that tradition expressed in political contexts is ‘merely political’” (2007: 3). To be sure, the discourses that posit the sacredness of the Peaks are fundamentally and simultaneously both religious and political; yet this does not necessarily mean that traditional religious claims made in contemporary political contexts are motivated by purely political considerations. Although these claims are necessarily formulated to persuade others of the incontestable ‘authenticity’ of their claims, I suggest that the degree to which this incontestability is achieved is directly related to an accumulation and accretion of discourse resulting from nearly four decades of continuing conflict at the Peaks.For the purposes of this article, I have primarily limited my inquiry to the claims of only one of five tribes engaged in the litigation concerning the San Francisco Peaks between 2005 and 2009: the Navajos. Moreover, they are only one of at least thirteen Native American tribes to describe the Peaks as sacred. My limited focus is not intended to suggest that the claims of these other tribes are less important, or especially less ‘authentic.’ Rather, the only compelling reason that I do not provide a full analysis of every tribe’s claims regarding the sacredness of the Peaks is the limitation of space in this project.

Страстите на душата: в старата и новата българска литература: опит за сравнение

Author(s): Hristo Saldzhiev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 5/2023

The article explores a big number of lexical and figurative similarities concerning the passions of the soul conveyed in the works of two authors who take significant place in the history of the medieval and modern Bulgarian literature – the first one is the XIV century author of religious anthems – Efrem and the second is Yavorov – one of the most famous Bulgarian poets from the very beginning of the XX century. Efrem’s views about the fall, passions and contrition of the soul, as well as the connections of these views with the Christian penitential literature and st. Paul’s letter to the Romans are regarded in details. Special attention is paid to Efrem’s soteriological notion of inferno which is rooted in psalms and the Christian idea of Jesus’ victory over death. This soteriological notion essentially differs from the mythological notion of inferno taking place in other literary traditions from the same period. In respect to the passions of the soul the analysis of the poetry of Yavorov reveals a big number of figurative and lexical similarities with Efrem’s anthems. I conclude that the similarities in question are not result of cultural continuum between Yavorov and Efrem but originate from common dramatic experiences exceeding epochs and the peculiarities of literary genres. These common experiences give rise to similar metaphysic language used by both authors.

„Има ли Срба у Серезу“? Сръбското консулство в Сяр и Македонският въпрос на прага на ХХ век

Author(s): Simeon Simeonov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 5/2023

This article examines the brief history of the Serbian consulate in Serres in 1897–1899 as a failed attempt at state-building. Drawing on evidence from recently published materials by the Serbian State Archives, the article argues that the Serbian consuls in Serres, Branislav Nušić and Sima Avramović, played an important role in the efforts to promote Serbian national identity and defend Serbian political interests in Ottoman Macedonia. The consulate in Serres was part of an expanding Serbian diplomatic network in Macedonia, which proved instrumental to other Serbian initiatives, such as the creation of new schools and the appointment of Serbian priests in the region. The Serbian consular activities in Serres formed an aspect of a wide-ranging transnational strategy of deploying consulates across Macedonia in the wake of the Serbian-Bulgarian War of 1885. Such institutions served to advance national interests and protect national subjects outside the borders of the fledgling Balkan states. Reviewing recent scholarship on Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece, the article concludes by comparing the Serbian example to those of other Balkan nations and suggesting further venues for comparative and entangled historical research.

Заслугата на Стефан Чапрашиков за учредяване факелното бягане от Олимпия до Берлин 1936 гoдина

Author(s): Emilia Vitanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 5/2023

The purpose of the present research is aimed at presenting new information related to the activities of Stefan Chaprashikov and his role in conducting the first Olympic torch relay for the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936.Several areas for gathering information are covered: research of foreign literature, review of all publications of Bulgarian researchers in the field of the Olympic movement in Bulgaria, which present information on the subject. In terms of methodology, all information found in scientific and popular sources is systematized and processed on the basis of the biographical method, content analysis, comparative and critical analysis. This publication presents newly discovered information, in three articles from periodicals and in two official BOK documents, which present information that the idea of holding the first torch relay was Stefan Chaprashikov’s. These findings will shed light on the history of the Olympic movement in Bulgaria and will form a new perspective in discussions on the topic discussed by other contemporary researchers of the Olympic movement.

LA FRANCOPHONIE DANS LES PRINCIPAUTÉS ROUMAINES À L’ÂGE DES RÈGNES DES PHANARIOTES

Author(s): Ileana Mihaila / Language(s): French Issue: 4/2023

In order to better envisage the penetration of French language and culture in Wallachia and Moldavia, a phenomenon that marked Romanian society’s entry into modernity from the early 18th century until the first decades of the 19th century, one should refer to the cultural impact of the Phanariotes’ reigns in the Romanian Principalities. The Francophonie of these Greek noblemen from Constantinople, who acted as dragomans and councilors of the sultan (allowing them, in turn, to be named reigning princes in Bucharest and Jassy), quickly became a model to the entirety of the Moldo-Wallachian high society. During their reigns, the educational institutions from the two capitals already taught French in their programs. Readings and translations from French authors increased in number, as French became not only the language of culture, but also the language of diplomacy. In the early 19th century, the Francophonie of the upper classes acted as a linguistic passport in the long process of their Europeanisation and, consequently, it facilitated the modernization of the Romanian society in its entirety.

L’AVENTURE ÉDITORIALE DES ÉCRITS INEDITS

Author(s): Alain Vuillemin / Language(s): French Issue: 4/2023

The editorial adventure of “Écrits Inédits” (“Unpublished Writings”) ended with the publication, in Bulgaria, by Potaynitche editions, of a last essay on poetry, Есе върху поезията, by Lubomir Guentchev. Ten titles had been published previously, in France, by Rafael de Surtis editions, between 2003 and 2020, in the collection of “Écrits Inédits” (“Unpublished Writings”) by this Bulgarian poet condemned to silence and oblivion during the time of totalitarianism in Bulgaria. This author was however a very active translator, from Bulgarian into French and from French, as well as from German, into Bulgarian. He was also a great poet, in Bulgarian and in French, in the secret of his revolt. He left several lyrical dramas and essays on theater and poetry. Poetic creation was his profound vocation. The adventure of publishing his “Écrits Inédits” is a tribute to his creative sensibility.

ROMAIN GARY ET LA BULGARIE

Author(s): Maya Timénova-Koen / Language(s): French Issue: 4/2023

This paper is meant to trace the Romain Gary’s experience like diplomat in Sofia, 1946 – 1948. The writer is testifying to methods of communist Dictatorship during the Stalinist period of Bulgarian History and to country’s transformation on satellite of U.R.S.S. My Research is based on Gary’s novels “La nuit sera calme” and “Le sens de ma vie”, and on movie “Le Libraire” (“The Bookseller”) of Catherine Bernstein and Assen Vladimirov.

Stosunek społeczeństwa polskiego i mniejszości narodowych do obowiązku służby wojskowej w czasie wojny z Rosją bolszewicką (luty 1919 – listopad 1920)

Author(s): Leszek Kania / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2020

The article is devoted to the protection of the combat capability of the Polish Army front troops from negative phenomena lowering their morale and discipline during the war with Bolshevik Russia in 1919–1921, and the attitudes of the Polish society and national minorities towards fulfilling their military service. After regaining independence, the war for independence and eastern borders had to be fought with a traditionally aggressive neighbor, Bolshevik Russia, which wanted to take advantage of the limited capabilities of a country ruined by wars, the enormous internal difficulties of a state united from three partitioned districts, the apparent attractiveness of the Bolshevik ideology and the multi-ethnicity of the society, which to some extent became susceptible to the populist slogans of the invader. During this war, the Polish Army was troubled by desertion of soldiers from the battle line and by mass evasion of military duty by men with a national minority background. Units fighting at the front were agitated by the propaganda apparatus of the Red Army, whose intention was a moral decay of the Polish Army.

3 Żelazna Dywizja Strzelecka Armii Ukraińskiej Republiki Ludowej w 1920 r. Zarys szlaku bojowego w wojnie polsko bolszewickiej

Author(s): Marek Bogdan Kozubel / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2020

The subject of the article is the battle route of the 3rd Iron Rifle Division of the Ukrainian People’s Republic Army in the last year of the Polish-Soviet war. This formation was the strongest and most numerous in the Ukrainian armed forces in 1920. It was commanded by Oleksandr Udovychenko, a famous and very talented officer. It should be noted that the 3rd Iron Rifle Division was initially formed at the Polish Army as the 2nd Rifle Division, but due to the presence of many veterans of the 3rd Iron Division of 1919 in its ranks, which was also commanded by Udovychenko, it was decided to rename the formation. The 3rd Iron Rifle Division took an active part in the Kiev expedition in the spring of 1920. It fought on the southern section of the front in the Mohyliv-Podilskyi area. Later, in the summer of 1920, it took part in the defense of Eastern Galicia against the Red Army. It succeeded in several fights against the Bolsheviks there, among others at Sydoriv and Horodenka. Then it participated in further combat activities in Podolia. After 18 October 1920, the Ukrainian People’s Republic Army had to continue fighting on its own due to the signing of a ceasefire between Poland and Soviet Russia. The warfare conducted until the second half of November 1920 ended in defeat for the Ukrainians, whose armed forces withdrew to the Polish territory, where they were interned. In this group there were also soldiers of the 3rd Iron Rifle Division.

Causes and Military Implications of the Emigration of the Muslim Population from Romania to the Ottoman Empire / Republic of Türkiye (1878-1939)

Author(s): Metin Omer / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2023

This paper aims to analyse to what extent the emigration of Turks and Tatars from Romania to the Ottoman Empire / Republic of Türkiye had military causes. The chronological limits of the study are the year 1878, when Dobrogea entered the borders of the Romanian state, and the year 1939, when the Second World War started. The analysis is divided into two parts. The first part explains to what extent military service in a Christian army was a cause of emigration and discusses whether the authorities in Bucharest succeeded in integrating Muslims into the Romanian army. In the second part, the interwar period is examined. The study shows that performing military service in a Christian army was no longer the main cause of emigration, but there were local abuses by some representatives of military institutions. These were investigated and action from the central authorities was called for, but the phenomenon, which had complex causes, could not be stopped. This part also explains the attraction that the transformations in the Republic of Türkiye and the military and political skills of its founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, had on the Turks and Tatars of Dobruja. A final aspect analysed is the involvement of the Ministry of National Defence in the regulation of the emigration process. The main sources used in the study are unpublished archival documents from Romania and Türkiye, newspapers and magazines of the Turkish-Tatar community, and the national press.

What Actually NATO Means for Them? Turkish and Romanian Historical Perceptions on NATO

Author(s): Yiğit Anil Güzelipek / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2023

Since the end of the Cold War, remarkable changes have occurred in international systemic dynamics. Although these changes are mostly imagined on the axis of polarity in terms of international relations, the changes in the missions and visions of international organizations are also noteworthy. In this context, NATO, a Cold War organization, is among the first examples that come to mind. To put it more clearly, NATO has gone beyond being a mere security organization and has gained different missions from nation building to humanitarian aid. On the other hand, the organization, which increased the number of allies, accepted a significant part of its ‘old enemies’ as its ‘new friends’. In this context, it is considered extremely important to compare the perceptions of an old ‘friend’ of the organization like Türkiye and a relatively new ‘friend’ of the organization like Romania towards NATO. This comparison provides an insight into NATO’s perceptions of its allies; on the other hand, it provides a test of the perceptions of two nation-states in two different blocs towards NATO during the Cold War period. This study aims to investigate both Türkiye’s and Romanian’s perceptions on NATO by considering the modernization and westernization concepts in the sense of security.