The Marriage of a Rus’ Duchess and a Cuman Khan – the Consequences and Influence on the Policy of the Rus’ Dynasty

The marriage between Vsevolod Davidovich’s daughter and Bashkord Khan of the Cumans, which took place around the middle of 12th century, was one of the most interesting of the mixed marriages between the Rus’ and Cuman aristocracy. It was a “precedent” event, because neither before nor after it did any of the Rus’ duchesses marry a Cuman khan. Although the marriage did play a certain political role, it must be underlined that its main reason was the conscious choice on the part of Vsevolod’s daughter, who moved out to live in the steppe with her husband. It was not an easy decision, because after the wedding the aristocrat had to coexist with people of a different ethnicity and in different cultural conditions. In the political sphere, Vsevolodovna’s wedding no doubt strengthened the position of Sviatoslav, her son from the first marriage, in Rus’. Sviatoslav got on well with his stepfather Bashkord (one of the more important Cuman khans at that time). He used the family connection with the Cumans in his efforts to regain Chernigov.
 

The region analyzed comprised two areas, namely North-Eastern Hungary and Southern Transdanubia, which are considered regions without towns in the medieval town network. Due to the lack of ‘real’ towns, other settlements had to fulfil the urban functions and these settlements might have been market towns. The paper discusses the connection between the parish churches and market towns, examining the number of altars and chapels, the existence of hospitals, the existence of two or more churches, and the differences in area as an important indicator of their centrality. It can be concluded that the churches belonging to Group 1. surpass the rest in all respects; particular settlements that belong to Group 2. might partly be classified in this category. The churches of Group 3. constitute a transitional category between the city and village churches, whilst those of Group 4. share the features of village churches.
 

The Anti-Turkish Correspondence between Matthias Corvinus and Sixtus IV. A Contribution to the History of Propaganda in the International Relations of the Late Middle Ages

The text analyzes the published correspondence of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary (1458–1490), and Pope Sixtus IV (1471–1484). The major part of the letters of both writers was devoted to the fight against the Turk who threatened Christian Europe. These documents are interesting not only because they describe the military action conducted in the Balkans, but also because they constitute a basis on which we can observe the duplicitous politics of the ruler, who had been titled by the pope as the greatest defender of Christianity. Using the argument of his involvement in the fight against the Turk, he pursued his other goals, directing his campaign towards the north-west and entering into conflict with such countries as Poland. At the same time, on the international arena, he was such a deft politician that Polish diplomacy couldn’t stand up to him in any way.
 

The Sephardic Presence in Poland. The Personages and Community of Zamość

Although the Sephardic Jews had not created any established community till the end of the 16th century, their presence deserves a special attention because it differed from the sociological and legal point of view from that of the Ashkenazi communities in Poland. In fact, the Sephardim were closely related to the royal court or the houses of high Polish nobility; they were doctors, scientists, diplomats and enjoyed special privileges. It was also based on a special privilege that the first and sole established Sephardic community developed in Zamosc. This city, founded in 1580 by Jan Zamoyski, had the right of passage for trade routes that attracted a population of wealthy merchants including the Sephardic Jews. Although the city’s lease document initially allowed intramural settlement only to Christians, Jan Zamoyski in 1588 and then Tomasz Zamoyski in 1623 established privileges allowing the Sephardim to settle in the city. A Sephardic community grew up, not subject to the obligations of the Council of Four Lands (Va’ad), a body of Jewish authority and representation in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between 1580 and 1764. The Sephardic community of Zamosc disappeared in the 1620s under the combined influence of “mixed” marriages with the Ashkenazi, their progressive installation in the city, wars and, finally, migration. Few in number, without a long-term rooting, poor of cultural exchanges with other communities, the Sephardic presence would finally disappear, leaving few traces behind...
 

Louis XIV, King of France (1643–1715), was variously perceived and assessed by the Polish nobility. The reception of his person and his concept of ruling the state by Polish noblemen was to change during the 17th and 18th centuries. In this period the nobles who visited France during their Grand Tours were generally fascinated by the glamour surrounding the monarch and the splendour of the palace of Versailles. They sought an opportunity to contact personally the Sun King and talk to him. Later Polish travellers sent to their homeland detailed relations from audiences by or meetings with Louis XIV. On the other hand, for a considerable part of the Polish nobility Louis XIV was the incarnation of absolutum dominium and a symbol of potential threat to the freedom beloved by the Polish “political nation”. These fears were fuelled by the activity of the king of France in the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, especially his political and financial support for the followers of the French candidatures to the Polish throne and for the concept of election vivente rege promoted by Ludwika Maria Gonzaga, the queen of Poland of French descent. The reception of the person of the Sun King and the vision of his rule in the eyes of the Polish nobility changed in the second half of the 18th century. Most significantly, the motif of his person began to be used in the pro-royal propaganda at the time of Stanisław August Poniatowski (1764–1796), when the fear of absolutum dominium gradually lost meaning in the face of the necessity to reform the state.
 

The Case of the Accusations of a Ritual Murder in Chojnice (1900) in the Light of the Polish Press

In 1900, the German Empire was extremely shaken by a violent crime. To the east of the country, in the province of West Prussia in the town of Chojnice (Ger. Konitz), a junior high school student, Ernst Winter, was murdered. The circumstances of the case and the manner of the crime led the local population to believe that the boy had been killed by the Jews in order to win his blood for ritual purposes. The accusation of the local Jewish population resulted in a rapid increase in the hostility of Christians (Germans and Poles) towards their Semitic neighbours. The lie about the guilt of the Jews quickly went through the entire province, and then reached the furthest corners of Germany. In Chojnice, riots and numerous attacks on Jews and their property took place. Anti-Jewish excesses have spread rapidly in West Prussia. The course of the investigation and its relationship with the anti-Jewish riots was described by the main representative of the Polish press in West Prussia – Gazeta Toruńska.
 

When in 1912 a group of friends from Przemyśl went to Istambul and came back telling others about their adventures it was almost possible to believe that the “white man’s burden” can be easily fulfilled not only by the British. They were not the only ones to believe that. It was the time when travelling was cheaper and much more democratic than ever before. What is more, being outside of their place of living could help the residents of Galicia to identify their Polishness, Ukrainianness etc. in the epoch of growing nationalism. All of the sudden, the year 1914 stopped this process. Lots of Galician inhabitants on a massive scale were forced to emigrate for fear of the Russian troops. They escaped to more central Austrian-Hungarian provinces. Not only the authorities but also common inhabitants of those provinces were unprepared to host so many refugees. Special concentration camps in Moravia were created, soon becoming notorious places all over the Monarchy. But even everyday travel experience was shocking for the Galicians – not less than living with complete strangers in a new environment. What is more, the months following the liberation of Galicia by German and Hungarian troops brought even more complex problems: resentment, irritation as well as hostility towards each other. This kind of treatment was shown inside and outside of the province. Galicia’s natives took revenge in 1918 – getting rid of the “strangers” from the newly created Poland, as not Galician enough.
 

The Beginnings of ohe Career of a Cracovian Communist on the Example of the Life of Menasche Grünspan (Roman Romkowski) in the Years 1907-1930

The article presents the beginnings of the political career of Roman Romkowski (born Menasche Grünspan), one of the most influential Communists in the public security services of the Polish People’s Republic and the deputy minister in the Ministry of Public Security. He was born in 1907 in Cracow to a poor Jewish working-class family. Most probably, he took his first steps in the direction of the Communist movement under the influence of his elder siblings. At first, he was active within the trade unions and the Poale Zion Left. In 1924 he became a member of the Communist Youth Association (ZMK) in Poland. In the Cracow Regional Committee of ZMK, he was in charge of the so-called technology, the secretary of one of the district units of ZMK, and (in 1927 and 1930) President of the Cracow Committee. He was repeatedly arrested and tried for his involvement. In 1930 he was sent to study in Moscow, which opened a new stage of his political career.
 

The Material Status of Women Veterans of the Polish Female Legion Soldiers’ Association in 1930s

From the first to the last day of the existence of the Association, one of its major challenges was to provide help for its impoverished members. Finding a job was a priority for the still active women. The Association also tried to help the veterans’ families, with varied success. What is not very comforting, similar problems were experienced by the other organizations belonging to the Federation of Polish Associations of Homeland Defenders (FPZOO). The unemployment and material worries also struck the veterans in other European countries as well as in the United States.
 

The Polish Guard Company Training Camp in Mannheim-Käfertal (1945-1947)

The Käfertal training centre, since April 1946 called the “Tadeusz Kościuszko Civilian Guard Training Center,” played an exceptional role in the history of the Polish Guards Companies of the US Army. Since January 1946, it trained companies to be used by the 7th American Army, and since the summer of 1946, after the dissolution of other such centres, it remained the only training centre catering for the whole American occupation zone. Throughout its existence, until the summer of 1947, more than 130 companies had been trained and partly also formed there. Regardless of its main function, Käfertal was also an important vocational education centre for the guards, as well as a place where the Polish cultural, literary, sport, educational and cooperative life developed. The centre was dissolved by the Americans in the summer of 1947, when the decision was made to dissolve the Polish guards companies and replace them with the international, and in fact German, industrial police. The Käfertal tradition, although limited to forming new units and complementing the existing ones, was continued for a few months by the Guard Company Replenishment Center in Fulda, Germany.
 

The List of the Courtiers of the Late Polish King Stefan Batory

The subject of this article is the list of payments for the courtiers of Stefan Batory, made after the death of the ruler. It can be assumed that most of the people mentioned in this document stayed with the king in Grodno, so it is possible to use it to explore the structure of the monarch’s court in the last moments of his life. Among the courtiers there were several people who began their career during the reign of Stefan Batory, and then played a significant role at the beginning of the rule of Sigismund III. By using this document and the regulations of the court of the first Vases, it can be analyzed who and under what circumstances moved from the Stefan Batory surroundings to the court of Sigismund III. The issue is all the more interesting as we do not exactly know how, in the reality of elective monarchy, the newly elected king treated the courtiers of his predecessor. What can also be traced is the amount of remuneration received by people from Stefan Batory’s surroundings.