‘We are living in truly historic days’. The renascent independent Polish state as portrayed in Franciszek Duda’s ‘Diary from the time of the 1914–1921 war’

Franciszek Duda, a representative of the Cracow intelligentsia, an employee of the National Archives of Municipal and Land Records (today the National Archives in Krakow) and from 1924  its director, has left behind a five-volume Diary from the Time of the 1914–1921 War. He undertook to put down his recollections with future scholars in mind. The present edition comprises a part of volume 4, concerning the period between 8 October and 19 November 1918, in which he gives a picture of Cracow and its inhabitants on the threshold of the revival of independent Poland; this picture is enriched with his own, very interesting comments and reflections on the events of the day.

Franciszek Duda, a representative of the Cracow intelligentsia, an employee of the National Archives of Municipal and Land Records (today the National Archives in Krakow) and from 1924  its director, has left behind a five-volume Diary from the Time of the 1914–1921 War. He undertook to put down his recollections with future scholars in mind. The present edition comprises a part of volume 4, concerning the period between 8 October and 19 November 1918, in which he gives a picture of Cracow and its inhabitants on the threshold of the revival of independent Poland; this picture is enriched with his own, very interesting comments and reflections on the events of the day.