The Potocki family of the Pilawa coat of arms as the military leaders of Halych Land armed forces in the 17th century 

In the 17th century the local parliaments of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were tasked with various military duties ranging from defensive capability matters, including self-defence of their own land or voivodeship, to the defence of the country borders. It often enough required raising the levy in great numbers or forming regular armed forces and appointing commanders of these troops. The article presents the actions such as appointing members of the local noble families as the commanders in chief that were undertaken by the dietines (sejmiki) of Halych Land in the 17th century. As it turns out, this leadership was most often granted to the members of the Potocki family, which resulted from a number of factors, among others, their long term settlement in this region, the local offices they held, their military expertise and last but not least, their significant wealth. The nobles who gathered during the local government sessions expected that the Potocki family would be able to fulfil duties imposed on them, and if needed they would support soldiers at their expense until the dietines reimbursed expenses incurred by them.

Nobility of the Kievan palatinate and the problems of judicial organization in the second half of the 17th century

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’s nobility attached great importance to the proper functioning of the judicial system, and the administrative issues of the justice system were among the principal matters discussed in the dietines. They were of particular importance to the Kievan nobility during their exile in the second half of the 17th century. The article discusses the statutes aimed at providing them relief during that period. The one of major importance was the act of 1683 that established county courts in the Owrucz and Żytomierz counties. The latter was carried into execution only in 1701. The same statute also prescribed the duties of the castle officials responsible for holding courts in Żytomierz and Owrucz. The article also discusses the issues of judicial administration in the Kievan palatinate and the proposals for the judicial reform raised by the dietines (especially between 1661 and 1667), which were only carried out in 1684, when the Kievan and Owrucz sheriffs were sworn in.

“Thar be hounds, thar be homestead. These should be the focus of one’s labour”: Old Polish views on maintaining good health

Early modern medicine was based on the assumptions of humoral pathology that had its roots back in the ancient era. According to this view, maintaining good health was determined by keeping a balance between humors, which were the constituent elements of the body. The methods of treatment and prevention promoted by official medicine had a dominant influence on the perception of health by the intellectual and economic elites of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but to some extent they also shaped the behavior of other social groups (even peasants). The article is devoted to the analysis of propagated health behaviors as it compares them with the descriptions that are to be found in egodocuments from the era.

The career mechanisms at the women’s courts in Versailles in the second half of the 18th century

The purpose of the article is to examine the career mechanisms at the royal court in Versailles mainly in the 60s and 70s of the 18th century in reference to the households (maisons) of Queen Marie Leszczyńska (d. 1768) and Dauphine Marie Josephe of Saxony (d. 1767). The structures and sustainability of these households went beyond the usual patterns as a result of accidental circumstances and ad hoc decisions taken by King Louis XV. The accumulation of problems and surprising circumstances forced him to take non-stereotypical actions. Reforms – even the smallest ones – revealed additionally the signs of crisis, which was systematically increasing at the entire court in Versailles. As a result, in the second half of the 18th century, the modernization of the court was also a sign of its serious crisis, and the careers of maisons’ officials were directed by new mechanisms that had previously not existed.

* Badania nad tematyką artykułu były realizowane w ramach grantu 2014/13/B/HS3/04975 „Dwór królowej Marii Leszczyńskiej. Ludzie, pieniądze i wpływy” finansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki.

“Galicia will forever remain Galicia”: The Crown Land on the Outskirts of the Empire in Reflection of Journal “Vaterländische Blätter für den österreichischen Kaiserstaat”

The main aim of this article is to describe Galicia as it was reflected in Austrian journalism from the first decades of the 19th century. For this purpose, a journal entitled “Vaterländische Blätter für den österreichischen Kaiserstaat” was analyzed. This periodical was published in Vienna between 1808–1820 (since 1815 under the modified title: “Erneuerte vaterländische Blätter…”). This was a crucial period in the history of the Habsburg Empire (because of the Napoleonic Wars, in which Austria was engaged directly, the territorial changes, the decimation of the power previously held by the monarchy in the international politics), during which Galicia had only recently become an integral part of the monarchy. Through an examination of selected feuilletons, which referred to Galicia as a new province of the empire in such an unstable period, the author will investigate how Galicia was described by publicists and travellers in the press and what kind of depictions of this province were delivered for German-speaking public opinion.

Sources on crimes and their punishment do not really offer much support in the reconstruction of criminal realities in the medieval and pre-modern Moldova, as their frequency until the second half of the 18th century is quite low. However, due to the fact that the writing of procedural elements of the criminal investigation and the application of the sentence as well as the preservation of these records in archives were mandatory, even if on a limited scale, this reality becomes palpable for the historian. Apart from this type of sources, anaforale can also be distinguished. These judicial sources are reports issued by members of the Moldovan criminal court, which had operated under the name of the Criminal Department since the late 18th century and in the first three decades of the 19th century. In our study, the documents we are interested in, the reports called anaforale (judicial sources), illustrate significant progress in the judicial practice in Moldavia at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, as far as both the changing of the death penalty to other punishments, and the trial procedures were concerned. In the following article, we are focusing on the punishment of the acts of theft and robbery – in the case of theft, it being accompanied by the violence against victims, as it is provided in the anaforale issued by the Criminal Divan of Iasi between 1799 and 1804. The actors of the criminal investigation (the prosecution agents, the perpetrators, the witnesses), the judicial norms and the practices in cases of theft and robbery, represent an area of interest for our research in regards to the aforementioned period of time. We use these criminal historical sources as a documentation basis for an investigation into the legal system, the criminal organization and its operation in last decades of the Old Regime in Moldova as part of Eastern and Central Europe.

Extension to the health resort in Krynica in 1806–1830 in the light of the files of the Lviv Governorate

The Austrian authorities in Galicia sought to use the mineral springs existing in that land. Krynica was one of the few state-owned villages that had mineral springs. The health resort was founded in 1793. But it was only the investments from 1806-1810 that transformed the village into a real health resort. In 1811, further works were stopped, and after a few years they were resumed to a very limited extent. The main reason for the lack of new investments was the financial crisis of the state related to the Napoleonic wars. Hopes for a quick transformation of Krynica into the main health resort of Galicia, to which Poles would also come from abroad (Russia, Prussia, the Duchy of Warsaw – later the Kingdom of Poland), ended in failure. The high number of visitors recorded in the first years of the 19th century soon declined. Krynica lost the competition with other spas in Southern Poland (Krzeszowice, Swoszowice), as well as with resorts in the Kingdom of Bohemia and in Hungary. Only in the second half of the 19th century, Krynica became the largest spa in Galicia, and one of the most important in Austria. However, this took place under completely different socioeconomic circumstances.

The Polish campaign of 1939 in historiography and historical education of the 20th and 21st centuries, in selected aspects

The article is part of a publication series devoted to the terminological and historiographic aspects of the Polish campaign of 1939. A completely new approach to this important event is the focus on its presence in historical education of the 20th and 21st century. The Polish Campaign of 1939 has held a special place in the historiographic narrative and school curricula alike. Its depictions – both academic and popular-scientific – have been and still remain compatible with each other. At certain times however – especially during the ideological assault of the 1950s – historical education diverged from historiography, creating an anti-German and pro-Soviet image. After 1989, the narrative of the Polish campaign of 1939 changed significantly and the “forgotten threads” were also introduced. This event still occupies a leading place in the so-called historical policy. It has also been put on a pedestal in historical education of school students, although for a period of several years in the early 21st century it was largely absent due to the limited number of topics from the recent history included in the school curriculum.

Vocational schools in Częstochowa in the years from 1939 to 1945

The disorganisation of Polish national life which was brought about by the outbreak of the World War II, commenced by the invasion of Poland by Hitler’s Germany, afflicted the spheres of education and science just as severely as all the others. The occupying forces set out to destroy all that bore the hallmarks of being Polish, evicting teaching staff and students from the school buildings, confiscating school equipment and subjecting teachers as well as students to forced labour, death, starvation, and torture in the name of achieving occupier’s political goals. However, the Polish school community did not remain indifferent to the actions of the enemy. Quite the opposite, in fact: it took up the fight by means of organizing clandestine tuition and also engaging in conspiratorial activities, which cost the lives of numerous teachers and students of the vocational schools of Częstochowa.

Roman Romkowski’s amnesty: The role of an assistant to the minister of public security in the preparation, execution and evaluation of the 1947 amnesty

The article presents the significant influence of Colonel Roman Romkowski (an assistant to the minister in the Ministry of Public Security) on the organization and course of the amnesty, which was announced in Poland shortly after the elections in 1947. The hidden purpose of the amnesty was elimination of the independence underground, the greatest enemy of the communists in Poland. In order to accomplish this task, Romkowski had to implement special working methods in the public security services. They made it possible to obtain information on a large number of exposed underground soldiers and subject them to strict invigilation by the security service. Despite Romkowski’s critical assessment of the final results of the amnesty, it was considered a great success.

Documents of the French Secret Police (Sûreté Nationale) and the archives of Paul Desjardins in the Archives of the Institue of National Remembrance – review of the archives

The article focuses on presenting French archival documents from the collection of the Commander of the Security Police and Security Service in France (der Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des Sicherheitsdienstes in Frankreich) in the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). In 1982 the collection was transferred by the Central Archives of the Ministry of Interior to the Central Archives Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation, and then in 2000 it was transferred to the IPN Archives. Twenty-eight archival units from this collection concern the synarchist movement, its functioning in the 1930s and during the Vichy regime in France, as well as the famous intellectual meetings in Pontigny (Les Décades de Pontigny) organized by Professor Paul Desjardins.

* Niniejsza recenzja powstała w ramach projektu OPUS 13, finansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki w Krakowie, pt. „Pomiędzy dwoma zjazdami w Pradze. Związki między Słowianami w Europie Środkowej i Południowo-Wschodniej w latach 1848–1908” (2017/25/B/HS3/00240, kierownik projektu: prof. dr hab. Antoni Cetnarowicz).