Terminology of the political system of the Wolof people in Le navigazioni di Alvise da Ca’ da Mosto e Pietro di Sintra (c. 1465) by Alvise da Ca’ da Mosto

The paper deals with Le navigazioni di Alvise da Ca’ da Mosto e Pietro di Sintra, an account written circa 1465 by Alvise da Ca’ da Mosto, a young Venetian merchant in the service of Henry the Navigator, describing his two voyages to the region of Senegambia taken in 1454 and 1455. The aim of the paper is to analyse the terminology used by Ca’ da Mosto to describe the political system of the Wolof people as well as the factors that influenced his decisions in this regard. In this context, special attention will be paid to those fragments of the account which deal with the connection between the ruler and the state, the relationships of dependency between the Wolof countries as well as the socio-economic conditions in these countries.

Courses in Polish history for the British delegates at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919

In the spring of 1917 the Admiralty established a historical section whose main duty was to provide the British delegates to the Peace Conference with geographical, economic, historical, social, religious and political information regarding different parts of the world. The section prepared 174 handbooks which, due to a great interest from the British public, were issued for general and public use in 1920. One of the subjects discussed in the handbooks was the history of Poland from 1569 to the outbreak of the First World War. This subject was of great significance as the authors of the handbooks adopted historical reasoning, i.e. they believed that the origins of present-day problems and their solutions could be found through studying history. The aim of the article is to assess the knowledge of Poland’s history as presented in the handbooks and to learn to what extent this knowledge influenced British policy towards Poland during the Peace Conference.

In the darkening Garden. Utopia and social practice of Vasco de Quiroga in the New World

The article concerns the activities of Vasco de Quiroga (1470–1565), a social reformer who, in the reality of the Spanish colonial expansion in the New World, made a pioneering, successful attempt to establish autonomous republics of indigenous peoples. With regard to his initiatives, commentators expressed both recognition and disapproval. We are convinced that the divergence between these assessments was often due to insufficient account of the socio-historical context of the groundbreaking work of the Spanish reformer. In order to make a fair assessment of it, we present the social and political determinants of Quiroga’s actions, and on the basis of the findings we engage in a polemic with the critical appraisals of his accomplishments. In the final remarks, we emphasize the magnitude of Quiroga‘s achievements, including their influence on the change of Western attitudes towards slavery.

Antemurale Christianitatis? Anti-Turkish propaganda and Johannes Olbracht’s crusade in the sources

This paper refers to the problem of Johannes Olbracht’s crusade of the year 1497, and above all the anti-Turkish propaganda present in many sources concerning this issue. The aim of this paper is to consider the concept of “Antemurale Christianitatis” which became popular at the end of the 15th century and to analyze some of the sources in order to answer the question to what extent this anti-Turkish ideology voiced in these sources was indeed the true reason of Johannes Olbracht’s crusade, or whether it was but a propagandist pretext for executing his political goals.

Emperor Prus, Emperor Augustus’ brother, in Russian and anti-Russian propaganda in the second half of the 16th century

The rewriting of history in the 16th century Russia led to changes in the structure and frames of “our past.” The growth of state power needed new exemplifications based on historical exempla virtutis in common “Russian past.” The histories told in politically engaged chronicles included invented stories about Emperor Prus, the alleged forefather of the Rurikids, whose image was borrowed, adopted and reconstructed in Moscow from European chronicles. This image emerged as one among other similar ideological constructs as translatio insignium, e.g. Attila’s domination in prehistoric times, the Third Rome etc. Ivan IV crowned officially in 1547 maintained the idea of his imperial origins. In the Livonian War Ivan especially stressed the role of his legendary Roman forefather. Polish diplomats and intellectuals saw danger in Muscovite historical arguments and made efforts to undermine them. This deconstruction of the myths provoked all but no reaction in Moscow and had no effect on Russian historiography.

“An exhibition of artefacts from the time of King John III and His age:” A great event during the Cracow celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the Victory of Vienna

On September 12th, 1883, the 200th anniversary of the Siege of Vienna was celebrated. In the Polish territories, which at that time were under the Austrian partition, the celebrations related to the jubilee of the victorious battle gained a special setting. In Cracow, one of the main events of the anniversarywas the “The Exhibition of Relics from the Time of King John III and His Age.” Its opening night was connected with the opening of the National Museum to the public, initiated in October 1879. The Committee responsible for the exhibition was composed of distinguished representatives of the Polish (mainly Galician) scientific, political, cultural and artistic community. The article focuses on events related to the organization of the exhibition and presents its course and effects.

Trends in the vocational development of women in Galicia in the late 19th and early 20th century in the light of population censuses

Although the question of women’s vocational development in Galicia has been studied from many scholarly perspectives, it was rarely a subject of separate studies. In the presented article the author deals with main trends in women’s vocational development and with features that characterized the process of women’s gaining the labor market in the years 1880–1910. On the basis of the results of Austrian censuses published in both main all-Austrian and provincial periodicals, it was possible to state that women’s vocational development was of a traditional character. Little participation in that phenomenon belonged to the non-agricultural sector. In comparison to other Polish regions as well as to those of Austrian crown lands Galicia appears to have been very poor and unfavorable. (Trans.: Antoni Sarkady)

Galicia: A legacy of the partitions

Galicia, a province of the Habsburg Monarchy established in the late 18th century, ceased to exist after the collapse of Austria-Hungary. Although many years have passed since its dissolution, it continues to attract interest, not only among historians. For some time, both in Poland and elsewhere, there has been a veritable renaissance of interest in Galicia. Its image has also changed. In the past, it used to be criticised; now it could be said that Galicia is being vindicated. The article explains what Galicia actually was and how its perception changed in the eyes of Poles in the 19th and 20th centuries.

British press in the information and propaganda policies of Poland in the interwar period

In the interwar period, the British press, both elite and mass, expressed little interest in the foreign affairs of Great Britain. Poland as a state lying in Central and Eastern Europe could not expect any special concern from the British press. However rarely, information about Poland did appear in British newspapers. The author tried to show what it looked like from the technical point of view. The problem was discussed primarily from the point of view of the way British journalists were informed about Poland, the relations between the journalists and representatives of Polish diplomacy, as well as Polish attempts to affect the way Poland was showed in the dailies. The analysis was carried out from both a general as well as a more specific perspective.

Against the Bolsheviks, Freemasons and Jews... Aleksander Bocheński’s essayistic struggle in the Bunt Młodych and Polityka period

In the 1930s, Aleksander Bocheński was one of the co-authors of the editorial lines of the Bunt Młodych and Polityka magazines, their hallmark being a fierce fight with their journalistic opponents. Beside the core texts dedicated primarily to minorities and the economic policy, his essayistic struggles were one of the main fields of his journalistic activity in that period, and are the main topic of this article. Bocheński was particularly bellicose in his fight against the liberal periodical Wiadomości Literackie and left-wing journals, which he accused of such things as being pro-Bolshevik and pursuing changes in the political system which, in his view, would weaken the state. Throughout the decade, one can observe a gradual fading of Bocheński’s initial optimistic conviction that the young advocates of Poland as a great power would rule the day, as well as his growing concern with the continuing influence of left-liberal circles, which not only found expression in his criticism of the government policy in almost every area, but also prepared the ground for a profound ideological change which Bocheński experienced during the war

Enigma, the Polish codebreakers and the French secret service, 1932–1945

In the early 1930’s, the Polish codebreakers succeeded while all the others failed: they broke the Enigma. Three young and brilliant mathematicians, Marian Rejewski, Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Różycki managed to read the German cyphertexts from 1933 to as late as 1939. But this huge success remained a secret for a long time, unknown in France and England. After the fall of Poland in September 1939, the three mathematicians linked their fate with the French secret service and kept breaking the Enigma code. Again, following the French defeat of June 1940, they experienced exile and irremediably sank into oblivion. Today, the story of the Polish codebreakers and the French secret service remains very little known in France, although their work proved decisive in the Allied victory during the Second World War.

Służewiec Racetrack in Warsaw during World War II: History of the institution and the facility

The aim of the article is to reconstruct the social and institutional organization and the course of events during World War II at the Służewiec Racetrack: a gated urban estate of about one hundred and fifty hectares in Mokotów (now Ursynów) in Warsaw. The history of this institution was far from typical, due to its functions, the unique organization of space and high social position of its owners. The Służewiec Racetrack was paid for by renting lots to various forms of occupation troops, civil services and nearby farmers. The horse races were organized in Lublin. The company employed workers, including those who hid in Służewiec because of their Jewish origins. In 1944 the Służewiec Racetrack was an arena of dramatic insurgent fighting, a place of execution and the site of a transitional camp for the Mokotów population. The empirical basis of the article consists of the war protocols of the Society for the Encouragement of Horse Breeding (Towarzystwo Zachęty do Hodowli Koni), data collected in ethnographic own research and scattered publications, among others of insurgents’ memoirs and interviews gathered in the Oral History Archive of the Warsaw Uprising Museum.

Analysis of basic terms related to the history of immigration (the case of France)

The aim of this paper is to explain the terminology used in the field of history of immigration and for referring to foreigners, by means of defining the terms, studying the relationship between them and identifying essential factors that differentiate their meanings. The studied terms are: emigration, economic and political emigration, foreigner, émigré, immigrant, foreign worker, refugee, exile, stateless person, asylum seeker, displaced person, repatriation. The analysis refers to the case of France – which, from the historical perspective, was the first European country of immigration and not of emigration – in the interwar and immediate postwar period and to the case of the large Polish immigrant community settled in France since the interwar period. The practice of application of each of the above mentioned terms was inscribed into a logic of the politicization of the issue of the presence of foreigners. Nowadays, the situation at this point seems to be the same.

King Sigismund II Augustus’ Russian letters to Mikołaj “the Red” Radziwiłł from the period of 1568–1571 in the collections of Konstanty Świdziński Museum (Krasiński Library)

The correspondence between the king Sigismund II Augustus and the Radziwiłł family is one of the main sources of research on the political history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Polish-Lithuanian relationships in the second half of 16th century. Five Russian letters of the last member of the Jagiellonian Dynasty to Mikołaj “the Red” Radziwiłł from the period of 1568–1571 are the subject of this article. The original documents were destroyed in 1944 but the information about their content is available owing to the abridged versions printed in 1876 by W. Chomętowski. The abridgements didn’t come into scientific circulation. There is also Stanisław Bodniak’s translation of one of the letters (24th March 1571, Warsaw). The abridgements and the translation are published in the article, which also contains an attempt to explain in what way the letters from the Nesvizh Archive came to the collection of the Krasiński Library (Konstanty Świdziński Museum). The question of the bilingual correspondence between the king and the Radziwiłł family is also partially discussed.

Summary of Kazimierz Dłużewski’s war diary from 1683–1696

Kazimierz Dłużewski (died in 1725), was the deputy cup bearer of Chełm, until 1694 a Hussar officer under King John III’s winged Hussar banner, afterwards a lieutenant of a light cavalry banner, and a participant of the Polish-Turkish war of 1683–1699. He wrote a diary which survived only in the form of a summary. Dłużewski described in it military actions from the period of 1683–1696, i.e. from the relief of Vienna to Baranowski confederation. A current edition of this diary is based on the manuscript from the Zamojski Library (Biblioteka Ordynacji Zamoyskiej).