Sigismund I the Old: A good, thrifty king

Military victories will always hold a prominent place in the collective memory. This in part is due to their nature. When an enemy invades our country, the efforts the political community is forced to take is an existential challenge. The alternative, a defeat, would mean the deaths of many people and the country’s loss of...

Old Polish New Year's Eve and Carnival

In the old times in Poland, the period from New Year’s Eve until the end of the Carnival season was filled with carefree and imaginative fun based on folk beliefs, customs, and rituals. People played, sang, danced, and ate with abandon in the manors, houses, and taverns. A sense of rejoicing was everywhere. In addition,...

Wojciech Kilar: not just film music
(17 July 1932 – 29 December 2013)

If one were to search for the distinguishing feature in Wojciech Kilar’s music among the achievements of other eminent 20th-century Polish musicians, one could point to its diversity. For Kilar was not only the author of numerous, well-known and appreciated musical film illustrations – through the prism of which he is mostly remembered today –...

Poland cracked the secrets of the Reich
An interview with Professor Jacek Tebinka

During the Second World War, Poland and Britain cooperated closely and shared some joint victories in the air battle for England, Narvik and Monte Cassino. But that’s not all. The contacts among the secret services of both countries were also of significant importance. Lesser known pages from the history of Polish-British cooperation in this period...

Who Was the Famous Stańczyk from Jan Matejko’s Painting?
A masterpiece by a 24-year-old painter

At the court of Queen Bona Sforza, the party is in full swing. The royal jester is the only one to see the approaching disaster… by Michał Haake   Jesters bring pleasure, jokes, fun and laughter to others, ‘as if this is what the grace of God sent them here for, to cheer up the...

"God is Born": the beloved Polish Christmas carol
On God's Nativity by Franciszek Karpiński

This beautiful carol was composed in the 18th century, a few years before the partition of Poland, and its lyrics are based on an unusual combination of oxymorons. It is set to the melody of the coronation polonaise of Polish kings. Can you imagine a more potent combination? by Piotr Bejrowski   Polish carols stand...

Maurycy Mochnacki: an entangled revolutionary
(13 September 1803 – 20 December 1834)

Passionate, volatile, demagogic and captivating: Maurycy Mochnacki both co-creates and embodies the model Polish Romantic hero. It seems as if he descended from the pages of the poems and novels that he praised and promoted. And yet he lived, burned and suffered a defeat in the most real of stories. by Wojciech Stanisławski   He...

Sigismund II Augustus: a Renaissance portrait of a melancholic man
(1 August 1520 – 7 July 1572)

It seems he basked in the full glory of the Polish “golden age” from the moment of his birth. The firstborn, long-awaited royal son, and heir to the largest state in Central and Eastern Europe, almost a million kilometers long and stretching (it strokes Poles’ ego, this phrase, and we will hear more of it)...

Christmas in Old Polish Times
Christmas customs in old Poland

Christmas ended the period of fasting, silence, and reflection, and began the time of joy that followed the birth of Christ. The atmosphere of Christmas, its traditions and customs, family meetings, and common carol-singing filled almost every old Polish manor house. Many Christian homes also celebrated All Souls’ Day and observed New Year’s ceremonies, which...

Rubinstein: a poet of the grand piano
(28 January 1887 – 20 December 1982)

Artur Rubinstein is counted among the most outstanding pianists of the 20th century. Apart from the sheer scale of his talent, there were many reasons behind this artist’s exceptional position in past century world culture. First and foremost is his exceptionally long – almost eight-decade – intensive career as a pianist, measured by thousands of...

Elżbieta Sieniawska – A woman not even afraid of the devil
The uncrowned Queen of Poland

Frederick Augustus, the Duke of Saxony, calculated that Warsaw was well worth the price of a mass and converted to Catholicism in 1697. His wife, an ardent Lutheran, felt no temptation to put the Jagiellonian crown on her head and refused. The lonely nights of Duke Frederick Augustus on the Vistula River were made pleasant...

Wanda Błeńska: a friend of lepers
(30 October 1911 – 27 November 2014)

Known and respected in Poland and abroad, she was called the Polish Mother Teresa. For more than 42 years she treated leprosy patients in Uganda, becoming one of the most eminent specialists in this field. She converted a rural leprosarium without any electricity into a modern medical centre. by Jan Hlebowicz   Even as a...
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Order to dissolve the Home Army given by Home Army Commander-in-Chief General Leopold Okulicki

78th anniversary of the dissolution of the Home Army

The first underground groups in German-occupied Poland began to be established as early as in the autumn of 1939. The Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK), an underground army subordinate to the Polish government in exile and the Commander-in-Chief, took its final shape in February 1942. Its Commanders-in-Chief in chronological order were: Stefan Rowecki ‘Grot’ (arrested...
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The January Uprising: the main goal was gaining independence

An interview with Professor Piotr Szlanta

“Poland’s struggle to regain its independence seemed part of a wider European struggle between the liberation movement and the Holy Covenant. The Poles hoped for support from France, and the centre of Polish political emigration was in Paris”, states professor Piotr Szlanta from the Warsaw University. polishhistory: As a result of the three partitions perpetrated...
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Elżbieta Sieniawska – A woman not even afraid of the devil

The uncrowned Queen of Poland

Frederick Augustus, the Duke of Saxony, calculated that Warsaw was well worth the price of a mass and converted to Catholicism in 1697. His wife, an ardent Lutheran, felt no temptation to put the Jagiellonian crown on her head and refused. The lonely nights of Duke Frederick Augustus on the Vistula River were made pleasant...
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Józef Beck. Biografia [Józef Beck. Biography]

review of the book by Marek Kornat and Mariusz Wołos

In historiography, he is usually shown as a politician and diplomat. He himself felt most of all a soldier who on Piłsudski’s orders assumed responsibility for Poland’s foreign policy. Unlike Piłsudski, Józef Beck lost the most important battle – for the historical memory of his countrymen. Will this book by Marek Kornat and Mariusz Wołos...

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The Battle of Warsaw 1920-2020

17 August 2020
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The Battle of Warsaw 1920-2020
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Polishhistory is an online project of the Polish History Museum in Warsaw. It is primarily addressed to all those interested in Polish and Central European history. Our aim is to build a community consisting of those professionally involved in research and of those interested in the outcomes of research, essentially, all lovers of history. The...
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