The Battle of Khotyn (Chocim): defeat, victory, and regicide
The 402th anniversary of the battle

There have been few wars in the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth so short and so full of sensational twists and turns. by Michał Wasiucionek   The story of the short but bloody Khotyn War (1620–1621) was full of dramatic twists and turns: from the unexpected and overwhelming defeat of the Crown army at Țuțora...

The great victory of the winged hussars. The Battle of Kirchholm (1605)
The victorious charge of the Polish hussars

The Battle of Kircholm turned out to be one of the most impressive victories of the Polish-Lithuanian army from the Commonwealth. The hussars literally obliterated the three times more numerous enemy with very small losses on their side. by Piotr Abryszeński   The 17th century turned out to be a century of wars for the...

Blood on the pavement. Grodno 1939
83st anniversary of the Soviet aggression against Poland

On 17 September 1939, the Soviets attacked Poland and reached Grodno on September 20. Grodno, a city in pre-war, eastern Poland (now in Belarus) fought for three days in September 1939 with the Soviet army. Seeing no chance for further defense, on 22 September the Polish forces withdrew towards the Lithuanian border. Several hundred Polish...

Gen. Stanisław Sosabowski: Honour is of the essence
The fate of a legendary commander of the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade

He became the scapegoat for the greatest Allied defeat at the end of the Second World War. An outstanding commander who had to fight mainly in lost battles. The biography of General Stanisław Sosabowski reflects, like few others, the drama of the fate of Polish soldiers during the Second World War. by Grzegorz Wołk  ...

Maurycy Mochnacki: an entangled revolutionary

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...

The Battle of Vienna (1683): The Clash that Saved Europe
Venimus, vidimus, Deus vicit

In the early morning of 12 September 1683, in the ruins of the church of St Joseph on Kahlenberg Hill near Vienna burnt by the Turks, Mark of Aviano, an Italian Capuchin sometimes referred to as the ‘spiritual father of Europe’, celebrated Mass for the success of the battle against the Ottoman Empire. The King...

Ignacy Matuszewski was the type of politician that we sadly lack today
An interview with Professor Sławomir Cenckiewicz

Ignacy Matuszewski was the type of politician who is almost extinct in our country. He was the kind of man who wished to learn something new everyday, assessed each situation in shades of gray and looked for ways to make Poland stronger. His style distinguishes him from other journalists of the interwar and emigration period...

He did not return on a white horse. General Władysław Anders
Polish Army in the Battle of Monte Cassino

He was compared to Moses taking his people out of captivity. He commanded the Polish armed forces during the most renowned attack they mounted and after the war he was supposed to return to Poland on a white horse. He was wounded on seven occasions. Deprived of Polish citizenship by communists, he became one of...

Wiktoria and Józef Ulma. They died because of hiding Jews
The Ulmas’ martyrdom

From the spring of 1942, in the territory of the General Government (GG), German policy towards the Jewish population entered a phase of mass deportations to extermination centres. These actions, carried out under the code name ‘Operation Reinhardt’, aimed at the extermination of all Jews in the GG area. Among the few who escaped deportation...

The Vikings and the state of the first Piasts
Medieval contacts between Scandinavians and Poland

There is no doubt that the newcomers from Scandinavia did not found Poland. For the state ruled by the Piast dynasty was established before they reached the region of Wielkopolska (Greater Poland), Mazowsze (Mazovia) or Kujawy (Kuyavia), i.e. its cradle. Although the links between the Piasts and the Vikings are sometimes overestimated, this does not...

Rudolf Weigl. The man who defeated typhus
The phenomenon of Rudolf Weigl’s invention

He was not born Polish, but became a Pole by choice. Rudolf Weigl was a pioneer in using lice to breed typhus germs and the creator of the first effective vaccine against this terrible disease. by Piotr Abryszeński   Rudolf Weigl was born in Moravia to an Austrian family on 2 September 1883. After his...

1 September 1939: The beginning of hell
84th anniversary of the outbreak of the World War II

“This means war. From now on, all other matters and issues become of secondary importance”, stated the message broadcast by Polish Radio on the morning of 1 September 1939. “We set our public and private lives on a special track. We have entered war. The entire effort of the nation must go in one direction....

Max Factor and the art of makeup
A man who popularized the term "make-up"

Today, his name is associated with high-quality cosmetics and the art of makeup. His real name was Maksymilian Faktorowicz, and the name which is known today he received, by mistake, from an American immigration official. by Piotr Bejrowski   He was born on 8 February 1872 in Zduńska Wola, a Polish town then under Russian...

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was an alliance
an interveiw with prof. Mariusz Wołos

The essence of this agreement was not an open and public non-aggression pact, and thus similar to many other documents of this type signed in the interwar period, but a secret protocol on the division of Central and Eastern Europe says Prof. Mariusz Wołos, a historian from the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Pedagogical...

Thanks to the Battle of Warsaw, Central and Eastern Europe could develop as independent states
Interview with Professor Andrzej Nowak

The Battle of Warsaw, presented as a breakthrough in the history of the world, does justice to its significance, because it really determined the fact that for nineteen years the region of Central and Eastern Europe could develop a system of independent states, says historian Prof. Andrzej Nowak from the Jagiellonian University and the Polish...

August 1920: how Poland saved Europe from Bolshevism
The Battle of Warsaw 1920

The end of World War I was greeted with relief throughout Europe, but in most countries this was accompanied by profound disillusionment with the political and social establishment which had brought it about. Such feelings led to revolution in Russia, Germany and Austria, and violent unrest in France, Great Britain, Italy and elsewhere as many...

The Warsaw Robinsons

The most famous of [the Warsaw Robinson Crusoes] is Władysław Szpilman. But there were many more of them – Jews, Poles, and Russians. by Michał Studniarek   The uprising that had broken out on 1 August in Warsaw finally ended in defeat on 2 October 1944. According to the capitulation agreement, the insurgents were taken...

A Jesuit who struck like lightning
Father Piotr Skarga (2 February 1536 – 27 September 1612)

During his life and also after his death, Piotr Skarga divided the opinions of Poles. For some he was “the main troublemaker of the Republic of Poland,” and for others he was a prophet of “the misery after the partitions,” who by all means tried to save the sinking ship – Poland. by Jan Hlebowicz...

A multi-religious city landscape in the east of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the heart of the continent was one of the largest and most diverse European countries of the early modern age (16th-18th centuries), including the territories belonging nowadays to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine, as well as scraps of Russia and Estonia. The Commonwealth was created as a result of the...
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Zawisza the Black, the Most Famous Polish Knight

Undefeated in numerous tournaments and a symbol of knightly virtues

The life of Zawisza is shrouded in mystery. However, the few surviving sources allow us to conclude that he earned his legend honestly.   Modest beginnings Zawisza’s father, Mikołaj from Garbów, came from middle knighthood. He held the position of Master of the Horse in the Land of Sieradz. This type of official had the...
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A breakthrough discovery about the first Polish chronicler

An interview with Professor Tomasz Jasiński

For years, historians have researched and discussed the identity of Gallus Anonymous – the author of the “Polish Chronicon.” Now, a recent discovery by Professor Tomasz Jasiński, a medievalist from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, sheds new light on the mysterious chronicler and is a significant contribution to ongoing studies of the medieval history...
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A Jesuit who struck like lightning

Father Piotr Skarga (2 February 1536 – 27 September 1612)

During his life and also after his death, Piotr Skarga divided the opinions of Poles. For some he was “the main troublemaker of the Republic of Poland,” and for others he was a prophet of “the misery after the partitions,” who by all means tried to save the sinking ship – Poland. by Jan Hlebowicz...
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The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1733–1795: Light and Flame

Review of the book by Richard Butterwick

The 18th century was a time of enormous cultural, political and societal upheaval for the West. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it was a period of decline that was completed by the partitions. However, reducing the 18th-century history of the Polish-Lithuanian state to a mere falling into political non-existence would be a simplified and thus false...

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The Battle of Warsaw 1920-2020

17 August 2020
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The Battle of Warsaw 1920-2020
The Second World War and its Consequences from the Perspective of 75 Years since its End. Panel 2
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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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