Jack Fairweather: It has been a privilege to follow in the foosteps of Pilecki
An inteview with Jack Fairweather

Jack Fairweather, author of a best-selling biography of Witold Pilecki – “The Volunteer” – tells about the Polish hero’s life. Describing Pilecki’s fate, he tells a story of remarkable, brave man living in hard times, whose message is still important and still inspires.   Witold Pilecki is currently widely known in Poland, although his story...

The birth of local democracy in Poland
the 34th anniversary of the first free elections of local government in the Third Polish Republic

The 1989 revolution created an opportunity for the resurgence of a democratic state in Poland. That is why the elections for local authorities that were held on 27 May 1990 were so important. It was a first step on the road to rebuilding democracy on a local level after nearly half a century of Communist...

"Back Home: Polish Chicago". A unique exhibition at the Chicago History Museum!

On May 19, the exhibition “Back Home: Polish Chicago” was opened at the Chicago History Museum. It was prepared in cooperation with the Polish History Museum. “Back Home: Polish Chicago” is the first exhibition to tell the fate of the Polish community in Chicago in such a comprehensive way, showing the fate of several generations...

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...

Herling-Grudziński showed in one drop the ocean of evil of the Soviet system
an interview with Prof. A. Nowak

Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, in one drop, which incorporated  his personal experience from the camp near Arkhangelsk, revealed the ocean of evil of the Soviet system, says Prof. Andrzej Nowak, a historian from the Jagiellonian University.   Polish Press Agency: How did Gustaw Herling-Grudziński and other writers from his generation contribute to understanding the nature of communism?...

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...

Bronisław Piłsudski: researcher of the Ainu
From conspiracy to ethnography

Bronisław Piłsudski was the older brother of Józef Piłsudski, one of the leaders responsible for bringing about Poland’s return to independence in 1918 after more than one hundred and twenty years of partitions. Józef’s decision to become involved in the independence movement was largely influenced by the fate of Bronisław, who participated in an anti-tsarist...

Marian Kukiel: a soldier, professor, and émigré
The 50th anniversary of Marian Kukiel’s death

Marian Kukiel’s oeuvre is one of the milestones of Polish military historiography. Together with Wacław Tokarz, Marian Kukiel was a co-founder of this discipline. His monumental work on the War of 1812 is an important contribution to European Napoleonic studies. The researcher’s qualities included versatility and diligence. He was a soldier, politician and promoter of...

Karolina Lanckorońska: aristocrat, scholar, and patron

Countess Karolina Lanckorońska is best known for her memoirs titled Those Who Trespass Against Us: One Woman’s War Against the Nazis (‘War Memoirs’ in Polish). In the memory of Polish historians, whom she often generously supported, she went down in history as a scholar and patron of science. She was the first woman in Poland...

“We will achieve victory at any cost”. The Third Silesian Uprising

On the night of 2-3 May 1921, the Third Silesian Uprising broke out. As a result of the two-month-long fighting, Poland was granted a much larger part of Upper Silesia and most of the area’s mines, steel mills and other industrial plants. In the summer of 1922, units of the Polish Army entered the territory...

The baptism of Mieszko I: the issue that generated an avalanche
An interview with Professor Andrzej Buko

The beginnings of the Polish state have received a lot of attention, and this period still raises many questions and doubts. How did people live in Poland a thousand years ago? How could Krakow become the cradle of the Piast state? What was the role of Mieszko I’s baptism? And what do we actually know...

Karol Szymanowski: the father of 20th-century Polish music
A man who invented a musical language

‘Let it be “national” but not “provincial”,’ – this is what Karol Szymanowski wrote in 1920 (‘Uwagi w sprawie współczesnej opinii muzycznej w Polsce’, trans. ‘Remarks on contemporary musical opinion in Poland’), referring to the desired shape of new Polish music and weaving it into the space of widely understood universal humanism. During the inter-war...

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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...