Wojciech Mądry

In the following article, we present the character of Andrzej Wędzki (1927–2017) — a Poznań-based professor, historian, and researcher of the history of Slavic settlements in the area of Central Europe, the editor of the Dictionary of Slavonic Antiquities (Słownik starożytności słowiańskich). Andrzej Wędzki is presented with regard to his very rich and interesting heritage which he himself had meant to will to scientific research institutes, such as the Library of Kórnik or the Archive of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The piece of his heritage that we presented above shows his great passion for collecting as well as preserving — by means of descriptions or photography — all those “elusive moments” such as family relations; memories; notes from the war, exile, or his travels; genealogical charts of his own ancestors or those of his wife. They are an essential, and at the same time very interesting, source for everyone willing to conduct research into the life of Andrzej Wędzki and the history of the Polish society in the last 150 years.

Słownik starożytności słowiańskich (The Dictionary of Slavic Antiquities) is without any doubt one of the most notable achievements of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The editorial works began in the late 1940s and were concluded in 1996 with the publication of the last volume. It still remains a unique and comprehensive compendium on the origins of Slavdom. Polish slavists were well aware of the need for such dictionary — in 1927 they established the editorial board of the Dictionary of Slavic Antiquities. The chairperson of the board was professor Franciszek Bujak from the Lviv University, and doctor Henryk Batowski was in charge of editorial works. From the very beginning, he had to overcome serious obstacles regarding cooperation with foreign colleagues and financing the whole project. In 1934, the first trial volume of the dictionary was published. Later, the editorial works were discontinued when doctor Batowski resigned from his post as editorial board assistant. Owing to the initiative of professor Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński and professor Zygmunt Wojciechowski, the editorial works were resumed, though with a completely different approach: the new editorial board was established to include Slavic scholars from Poznań working with the Institute for Western Affairs (Instytut Zachodni). The foundation of the Department of Slavic Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences (now: the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences) resulted in the incorporation of the editorial board into the departmental structure, which granted the board both financial and scientific support in their day-to-day editorial works on the dictionary.

The articles presents the character and the life of Władysław Kowalenko, a researcher in Slavic studies connected to Poznań, who died 50 years ago and is now almost entirely forgotten. The article presents primarily the archive materials which had not been used so far, and includes the scarce pieces of literature concerning Kowalenko. The subsequent part of the article presents his early interest in the town settlements in Greater Poland and his activity during the occupation in an underground University of the Western Lands. The times in which he lived after the Second Wold War and the political situation of socialist Poland significantly influenced the direction of his academic work later on. It can be noticed that in the final years of his life, despite the circumstances and despite his advanced age, a significant development of his research interests related to the marine history of the western and southern parts of the Slavic area can be observed, which was expressed in numerous publications. Kowalenko also supervised the editorial work on the only multi-volume encyclopedia concerning the early Slavic history – the “Dictionary of Ancient Slavic History”. At present, the academic legacy of Kowalenko is still used by researchers and quoted in their works.