The article describes the links connecting Polish historian Andrzej Chwalba, professionally connected with the Jagiellonian University, with Przemyśl and its academic milieu. The author shows to what extent personal relationships, the town’s history and the work as a lecturer at the East European State Higher School in Przemyśl had influenced Professor Chwalba’s activity in the local community. The articles is also an attempt to justify awarding Prof. Chwalba with the title of an Honorary Member of the TPN Society of the Friends of Learning and dedicating to him the current volume of the Rocznik Przemyski (History) periodical.

The paper, discussing the diaries of Karol Sienkiewicz and Piotr Kopczyński, presents their attitude to the material culture of Western Europe in the first three decades of the 19th century. Both men were graduates of the Volhynian Gimnazjum in Krzemieniec (Kremenets). They found themselves in the West for different reasons and in different times. Sienkiewicz, sent to England in 1821, was supposed to broaden his horizons and search for material connected with Poland. Kopczyński left for France in 1831 out of fear of repressive measures for the participation in the November Uprising. The article is supposed to show how the Kremenets-based education of both schoolmates influenced their perception of reality and attitude to material culture of France and England, changing because of the Industrial Revolution.

Polish-Czech relationships have long been a subject of thorough research. Rev. Václav Štulc, equally with the poet Zygmunt Krasiński, was Prince Jerzy Lubomirski’s friend until the latter’s death. They had known each other since university and used to visit each other for many years . With time their contact became very close and the Czech became almost a member of the princely family. This paper indicates the nature of their correspondence and its themes. The author emphasizes the important role Rev. Štulc played in the Lubomirski family. We learn about the personal problems of the Princes Lubomirski, their economic plans and political views. The article analyzes the correspondence between the Lubomirskis and Štulc and aims to partially reconstruct the social contacts in the salons of Kraków and Przeworsk. Besides, it allows us to look at Polish-Czech relations from the point of view of microhistory.

The article deals with the phenomenon of Polish emigration to Brazil based on “Diaries of Emigrants”. The author analyses the daily life of emigrants, their culture and formation of Polish settlements in Brazil. Moreover, the article discusses multiple attempts to migrate to Brazil, waves of refugees and the phenomenon of “Brazilian fever”. The article also describes material conditions, opportunities to earn money and work for Polish emigrants, who did not know the Portuguese language.

In 1867 in Lviv the Polish Gymnastic Society was established, adopting two years later the name “Sokół” (The Falcon). Since 1884, the “Falcon” societies started to be set up outside Lviv, then outside the Austrian partition and in Polish communities in Europe and both Americas. Between the wars there were over 800 of them in the Republic of Poland. Their activity in Poland was only stopped by the outbreak of the Second World War. Despite their name, those societies ran a very diverse activity. Thanks to their broad offer including gymnastics, sports, civil defense training, drama groups, choirs, orchestras, cinemas and libraries, patriotic, social and light entertainment events, as well as extensive infrastructure facilities like The Falcon buildings, playgrounds, shooting ranges, pools etc., the Falcon “nests” used to become local centers of social and cultural life. This article outlines the annual cycle of the Falcon activity, including the seasons of the year, particularly in the first half of the 20th c.

The period of the Galician autonomy 1867-1914 was favorable to the increase of social awareness in the society of Bochnia, as well as the increasing involvement of the inhabitants in the life of the town. One of the main factors which shaped the national character of the society was the introduction of the Polish language in 1867 in folk and high schools. Two years later, in 1869, the Polish language became the official language in administration and the judiciary. In the town celebrations took place, commemorating significant anniversaries in Polish history, but there were also some solemn moments proving loyalty to the Austrian emperor.

The paper cross-sectionally presents selected issues relating to the society of Bochnia in the period of autonomy. It mentions pre-autonomy events that influenced the development of social awareness in the town during the period in question. Social attitudes are illustrated by descriptions of ceremonial events that took place at that time. In the town, there were a lot of changes that improved the life of its inhabitants. Particular chapters deal with the topics of maintaining order in the town, the importance of Bochnia’s cemetery, which became an important place of remembrance for society, and the presence of Jews in Bochnia. They testify to the planned activities, which were to bring numerable benefits to Bochnia and its inhabitants in the discussed period. Useful for assessment of social mentality are the fragments showing the intertwining of urban and rural features of the town’s inhabitants, which can be noticed also in the chapter about the impact of Cracow on the society of Bochnia. The outbreak of the war in 1914 marked the end of long decades of a peaceful life for the town and its inhabitants.

The article discusses the publishing activity of the Society of the Friends of Learning in Przemyśl (TPN) from its establishment in 1909 until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Publishing academic works was one of the TPN statutory goals beside e.g. running a museum, a library, an archive, conducting archaeological work and activity promoting various fields of knowledge. Despite lack of a specialized publishing agenda, thanks to voluntary work of a few people, particularly the historian Jan Smołka, the TPN published valuable editions of sources, archival aids and monographs. Seven volumes of the “Rocznik TPN” periodical were also published with over a dozen articles, mainly in the field of history and related disciplines. The authors of the TPN publications were mainly local researchers as well as academics from Lviv and Kraków. Thanks to its management of the town’s archive material and the library with an extensive book collection, the Society created conditions for carrying out historical research.

Using the example of Poznań, the article takes up the question of the connection between the development of research on the history of particular cities and their institutional establishment. Here, beside universities, a major role was also played by archives, libraries, academic and urban societies, as well as editorial offices of the periodicals they published. In the case of Poznań, which in the 19th century did not have a university, research on the city was inspired mainly by the German historical society. Between the wars, although the university had already been established, the initiating role was still played by local non-academic circles, gathered around the “Kronika Miasta Poznania” chronicle published by the Poznań city hall. After 1945, an ever increasing role was played by the university academic milieu, whose representatives carried out in the 1980s/1990s various publishing projects, creating and strengthening the group of researchers dealing with urban themes. After 1990 they gathered again around the “Kronika Miasta Poznania”, which inspired readers to examine different aspects of the city history.

Even before the outbreak of the October Revolution in Russia, the most engaged in terms of outlook Bolsheviks expressed the need to reject bourgeoisie mentality and remove religion from social life. The attempt was made after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. It was decided to apply “scientific methods” to religion, based on the evolution theory by Charles Darwin. On 7 February 1925 in the USSR the League of Atheists was set up, which name was in 1929 changed to the League of Militant Atheists; antireligious periodicals and a series of various brochures were published in millions of copies. One of the ways to fight religion was to eliminate Christian names from social life. Therefore, new Communist names were created, of antireligious meaning or praising the new political system and its economic successes, like: Industrin, Tractorin, Combine, Oktyabrin, and even Stalic, Stal, Stalin as well as their female counterparts: Stalina, Oktyabrina, Tractorina. Baptism was replaced with a secular ceremony called Oktyabriny (October-making) or zvyezdiny (star-making). The experiment did not stand the test of time and though some of the names created at the time have been preserved in their vestigial form, they are the main object of research by historians and linguists.

Józef Wyrobek (1850-1924) is regarded to be the first historian of Dębica, a former Galician town, where he was a secondary school teacher for 20 years. So far no biography of his has been created. His two letters to Kazimierz Bartoszewicz (1852-1930), a well-known Galician author, bookseller and publisher, preserved in the State Archive, have become a pretext to having a look at that figure.

The aim of this article is to present little known memories of a Serbian officer Dragan Mihajlo Sotirovič of the 1943-1945 Lviv guerilla war. The presented account, written presumably at the order of the authorities of the Polish 2nd Corps in the West, does not bear a date. We may speculate, though, that it was created soon after the first one, dated 27 April 1946, already known in historiography. Some fragments here are identical with certain motifs of the first account. It seems that in terms of the subject matter it is rather factually reliable, as it finds confirmation also in other sources.

The author remembers the figure of Jozafat Kocyłowski – one of the most distinctive Przemyśl bishops of the Greek Catholic rite, and the leader of the Ukrainians from Przemyśl in the first half of the 20th century. His attitude was perceived as controversial both among the Poles (November 1918, the Second World War) and Ukrainians (the conflict about celibacy of 1925-1926); still, he is regarded to be one of the most outstanding figures of his time, owing to his organizational talent and moral and social stance. As a victim of Stalin repressions and a martyr of universal church, in 2001 he was announced Blessed by Pope John Paul II.

The author shares her reflections on reading books by Prof. Andrzej Chwalba and on her personal encounter with him. She starts from her own student memories and her own, different from Prof. Chwalba’s, fates, until the 2011 conference in Przemyśl dedicated to an eminent lawyer and Member of Parliament, Herman Lieberman. The author expresses her admiration for Prof. Chwalba’s hard work, ingenuity and diversity of interests.