This is a paper presented at the meeting organized at Paris in 2012 to commemorate the 50 years of activity of the Center of Polish Culture at Sorbonne. The Center was organized by Bronislaw Geremek, an eminent Polish historian who played an important political role in the anti-communist movement many years later, and who became the Minister of Foreign Affairs after the communism. Both Universities established the Center to facilitate contacts of Polish and French social scientists, difficult at the time of communism. The Polish communist government encouraged this endeavour to smooth the contacts with France, which seemed more independent from the United States than other Western countries. Polish social scientists used this political conjuncture to built contacts with their French colleagues, especially from the “Annales” school. Fernand Braudel wanted to know the Marxist historians from the East and he appreciated the Polish historical school. The Poles seemed him more reasonable than Marxists from most other communist countries. Quai d’Orsay looked with relative optimism to changes in Poland after 1956, so they facilitated the implementation of Braudel’s ideas. Most probably, Warsaw University was the unique University in the Eastern bloc to have such a center in Paris already in 1962. After the fall of communism the Polish-French contacts are not as important for Polish social scientists as they were before—for the simple reason that the contacts with most other countries are easy today. Let’s hope nevertheless that the Polish-French common programs will continue.
The text is dedicated to the memory of Professor Gerard Labuda (1916–2010), the eminent historian – medievalist. During his career he held several senior organizational functions in science. He was the director of the Institute of Western Affairs (1958–1961), the Rector of Adam Mickiewicz University (1962–1965), the Vice President of Polish Academy of Sciences (1984–1989), the President of the PAU [Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences] (1990–1994), the President of Poznań Society of Friends of Sciences (1972–1975). Pro domo sua, one has to mention that incidentally, he was also the Chairman of the Research Committee on Polish Diaspora within Polish Academy of Sciences.
Asked about the functions of a higher place of learning, the majority of us would answer: to teach-which would, after all, be consistent with such a name. The objective behind writing this paper was to draw attention to the fact that the functions of universities, of higher places of learning, were historically and continue today to be significantly broader. Among them, the paper draws attention to higher studies being-repeatedly throughout history-a channel for social advancement. The role universities play in shaping the national community, and sometimes also in its liberation or emancipation, is also tackled. The third function confronted is that of students getting involved in political life. In some countries student movements have played a significant political role in their histories, and on more than one occasion have created a community from which graduating students have joined the broad political mainstream. The functions listed above may have occurred with the students having been consciously aware of their necessity, or could have developed spontaneously. It may also have been the case that students’ conscious awareness and spontaneous action coexisted.
This essay contains reflections on the problems of discourse that appear in analyzing written historical sources. The author refers to Krzysztof Gajewski’s book, Reprezentacje komunizmu. PRL z perspektywy badań literackich i kulturowych [The Representation of Communism: The PPR from the Perspective of Literary and Cultural Studies] (2018). The primary findings concern the necessity of taking into account the linguistic framework of the given era.
The author of the essay considers Jan Grabowski’s book Na posterunku. Udział polskiej policji granatowej i kryminalnej w zagładzie Żydów [At the Station: The Participation of the Blue Police and Criminal Police in the Extermination of Jews], which presents research into the behavior of Polish policemen toward Jews during the Nazi occupation. The findings reveal that the entire organization-apart from exceptions, of course-behaved terribly. The negative behavior of the policemen went beyond even the attitude imposed by the occupiers. In the essayist’s opinion, a very valuable element of the work is its presentation of the realities of those times on the lower levels of social organization: in villages and in ghettos established in small towns. Grabowski thus made use of material that historians rarely consider. For instance, the duty roster of a police post was as significant to him as the decrees of the authorities. The essayist considers Grabowski’s work to be especially important for having appeared during a time of intense debate over relations between Christians and Jews during the occupation of Poland. The essayist emphasizes the topicality of problems of the past and certain historical publications. The appearance of the book should call into question the traditions and conception of the past to which the police force itself refers.
In this article the author argues for the rapprochement between the methods and questions of the history of historiography and the questionnaire of the sociology of knowledge. The sociological perspective can inspire both the research on the communities of professional historians and the functioning of the historiographical knowledge in social and political structures. The author analyzes diff erent dimensions of the political functions of historiography and emphasizes the diff erence between the utilitarian and scientific aspects of historical knowledge.
Adam Leszczyński’s book Ludowa historia Polski. Historia wyzysku i oporu. Mitologia panowania (2020) [A People’s History of Poland: A Story of Exploitation and Resistance – the Mythology of Ruling] contains a historiosophical vision and covers the entire history of Poland in a manner that has not been seen in academic Polish historiography for years. Leszczyński focuses on analyzing the history of the popular classes. He describes this peasant nation and its work, status, and living conditions, along with the poor state of the countryside; he writes of the humiliating treatment of the peasants in the interwar period, and about popular behavior and revolts, first, for example, in the form of flight from the manor, then in the development of socialist, national, or peasant movements, and later as revolts in rural areas in the interwar period and opposition to collectivization in the People’s Republic of Poland. Leszczyński shows that in the past the peasants had no interest in working well. He presents the working conditions in factories in the early period of industrialization and the emerging conflicts. The author of the essay considers that the facts and phenomena in the history of the peasants presented by Leszczyński may be a good starting and reference point for analyses of very different matters in historiography and in contemporary research. He appreciates Leszczyński’s wide-ranging, anti-elite, and pro-people synthesis.
For the teaching of history in schools to be effective, it must be useful for something – either in an intellectual sense (for a better understanding of the world) or in a practical sense (for various professions related to the humanities). The only purpose of teaching an “encyclopedia of facts” is that it is good to have a minimum of knowledge in every field. Teaching history to mark group identity is acceptable, as is any education in the field of national culture, provided it is not exclusive with regard to the heritage and achievements of others. As a history teacher, the author does not accept the teaching of history for the purpose of inculcating a sense of national pride. He would like the study of history to increase the intellectual abilities of students, and in effect, their wisdom.
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