We would like to present readers with a new publication of the Poznań community of archivists — the “Archival and Historical Review” journal, which is a direct successor of the “Poznań Archival and Historical Yearbook” published until 2014. That journal came into life more than ten years ago upon the initiative of the Poznań section of the Board of the Association of Polish Archivists and the local State Archive. It successfully served as a platform for archivists (not just from the Greater Poland region) where they could exchange ideas and experiences. However, the circumstances have changed, not just in the field of humanities, but in the whole Polish scientific community, requiring us to adopt a new perspective on the role of scientific journals in shaping and developing scientific circles. This also includes places of fundamental and incalculable value for historians, where they can pursuit their scientific investigations — namely, archives. The journal is now published under the title: “Archival and Historical Review”. The editor’s office is located at the State Archive in Poznań and a large part of the editorial team is made up of professionals involved in our previous publication. We now intend to take the journal to the next level, e.g. by opening up to broader historical circles. This step seems only natural since the journal is co-published by the Institute of History of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. The title of the journal is not only a clear reference to its direct predecessor, but also to the historic plans for the first Polish archival journal — “The Archival Review” was a contender for its title, though ultimately, this first journal in the field came to be titled “Archeion”. The location of the editor’s office — the State Archive — is even more telling: before the war, the State Archive in Poznań (back then housed on the Mount Przemysł) was home to the editorial office of “Historical Yearbooks” — a journal published by the Association of History Enthusiasts in Poznań, with Kazimierz Kaczmarczyk, a long-term director of the Archive and a professor at Poznań University, as one of its editors. We hope that thanks to its new formula, the journal will attract many new readers and authors, and that it will become an excellent platform for exchanging scientific experiences among scientists investigating the past with proper consideration for historical sources and places of its preservation. Apart from the Greater Poland and Poland in general, the journal is particularly devoted to researching Central and Eastern Europe. We will nonetheless ensure that other issues, equally important from the point of view of archivists and historians, also receive due attention. We have the right people to make that happen: accomplished (and numerous) Poznań historians, primarily working at the Institute of History at Adam Mickiewicz University, local branches of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Poznań Archives, but also history experts gathered around the Poznań Society of Friends of Learning. We hope for valuable contributions from the employees of other archival office branches in Greater Poland. We are also open to submissions from abroad, as well as to authors specializing in areas other than archival studies and history. We are convinced there is room for various publications (essays, articles, smaller source publications, reviews, scientific chronicles etc.) from many disciplines from broadly understood humanities. If your scientific interests include those issues — join us. Ultimately, it will be up to the authors to determine the future shape of our journal.

 

— Krzysztof Stryjkowski, Józef Dobos