Serialised Novels in the Polish Emigré Press in the USA, 1881–1918

This article discusses serialised novels published before 1918 in the Polish émigré press in the United States of America. These works were a popular feature of dailies and weeklies, but the periodicals’ regular financial difficulties meant that it was books published several years or indeed several decades earlier in Europe which were most often serialised. Consequently, most of the works that appeared in the periodicals failed to reflect contemporary literary trends while also overlooking subjects relevant to the everyday lives of Poles abroad. Still, the prevailing patriotic and historical themes complemented the values that many editorial boards subscribed to.

Polish-Soviet War in Film and Cinema: A New Perspective Based on the Films For You, O Poland (1920) and Miracle on the Vistula (1921)

The Polish-Soviet War, particularly the Battle of Warsaw (13–25 August 1920), soon became a subject of legend and myth. Irrespective of its fundamental political significance, the defeat of the Red Army was glorified as salvation for both Poland and Europe in military, ideological and metaphysical terms. Conducted beyond academia, the narrative was forged mainly by veterans, the Catholic Church and various forms of literature and art. Due to government subsidies, documentary and feature films also conveyed a normative notion of these dramatic events and their participants. This article focuses on cinematic works like Dla Ciebie, Polsko [For You, o Poland, PL 1920], and Cud nad Wisłą [The Miracle on the Vistula, PL 1921] produced in order to commemorate the war between the Poles and the Bolsheviks. Taking the iconic turn, this article scrutinises the cinematic self-portrait of the Polish nation that had already been ‘imagined’ as a bulwark of European culture in the East by earlier literary works. Spotlighting protagonists who were given a place in the pantheon of national heroes, it also asks about those who were denigrated or marginalised like women and Jews. Finally, using quantitative methods and Geographical Information System (QGIS) as a tool, the article juxtaposes the maledominated, ethnically and confessional homogeneous ‘imagined nation’ with the film entrepreneurs and actual cinema audiences characterised by their diversity.

The Relationship between the State and Universities in the Czech Lands 1849–1939

This text summarises the results of extensive research into the relationship between the state and universities in 1849–1939, i.e. between the so-called ‘Thun reform’ and the closure of Czech universities by the Nazis. The focus is on the state’s respect for the privileged position of universities and the monitoring of tensions arising from the clash between legislation and the universities’ day-to-day operations, resulting mainly from satisfying the economic needs of universities on the one hand, and the interpretation of the responsibility and discipline of their academic staff towards the state and society on the other. The research shows the advancing erosion of the so-called Prussian (Humboldt’s) concept of an autonomous national-oriented university and the difficult search for a democratic alternative in interwar Central Europe’s unstable political and economic conditions.

Paris–Rome–London. Information and Propaganda Campaign for the Polish Question prior to the Great War (1907–14)

The article reconstructs Polish information and propaganda campaigns in Western Europe in the run-up to the Great War. Those initiatives allowed the issues related to the Polish question, especially the persecution of Poles under the Prussian and Russian partitions, to be brought to public attention in the West. The authors trace the process of disseminating information to the intellectual communities of Paris, Rome and London based on participant accounts, reports, propaganda pamphlets, the press from the period and secondary literature. They conclude that propaganda campaigns reached a relatively narrow group of intellectuals, writers, members of the artistic community, journalists, and to a lesser extent, parliamentarians. Although the information campaign could not immediately alter the previously established stereotypes, its specific effects could be observed during the Great War and at the Paris Peace Conference.

The Polish Army Ghetto: The Internship of Jewish Soldiers in Jabłonna in 1920

At the height of the Polish-Soviet War in August 1920, the Polish army interned thousands of its Jewish soldiers at Jabłonna near Warsaw. Although the internees were released after several weeks, the events gave rise to numerous domestic and foreign policy debates and shaped Polish-Jewish relations in the years to come. ‘Jabłonna’ stands pars pro toto for the problems of the Polish state and Polish society in dealing with a heterogeneous population at the beginning of the interwar period. In recent decades, the events surrounding the internment have been taken up and contextualised sporadically by historians and publicists, but usually without them having made recourse to the available archival sources.

Old Tales for a New Gens. Alberic of Trois-Fontaines’ Grafting of History

Throughout the Middle Ages, waves of people came to the lands once been a part of the Roman Empire. At the same time, lands yet unknown encountered the successors of the Empire. These gentes sometimes preserved a long history of their paths to their new homelands. The Longobards, the Saxons, and many others had an origo gentis, where gods played an important role. These narrations were incorporated into a historiography that was almost entirely Christian. This article is concerned with the methods used to find harmony between the past and present by Alberic of Trois-Fontaines when writing about the Semigallians. The narrative of their origins used established motifs and themes that made it possible to include the invented history of the gens into the then-established universal history. This was done through the etymology of names or the erudite use of the writings of other authors. These new gentes were grafted onto the trees of old tales.

Why During the Polish-Bolshevik War Did Soviet Propaganda Discourse Dominate European Public Opinion?

In 1919–20, a war took place between two states that had emerged at the end of the Great War: Soviet Russia and the reborn Republic of Poland. It was a clash of widely different legal, political, and ideological systems. The conflict took place not only on the military and diplomatic planes but also within propaganda. Upon taking power in Russia, the Bolsheviks, in their official speeches, presented themselves to the world as the defenders of peace and the sovereignty of all nations; the imperial aspirations of Soviet Russia were hidden under the slogans of a world revolution that would liberate oppressed peoples. The military and ideological conquest began with a concentrated focus on neighbouring countries, including Poland. At the same time, a suggestive propaganda message was sent to the West, setting out the course of events from Moscow’s point of view.

‘In a Mere Shirt and Capless’: The Uniform Crisis of the Polish Army During the Polish-Ukrainian-Bolshevik War 1918–21

This article presents issues relating to the uniforms of the Polish Army during the wars of 1918–21 in the context of the severe economic and epidemic crisis plaguing both the country and the region. Drawing on the accounts of participants and eyewitnesses of the war, and also by making recourse to the largely unpublished documents of the Sanitary Headquarters of the Polish Army Command-in-Chief, I look at the causes, scale and effects of the severe shortage of uniforms and equipment – shortages that would beset and plague Polish soldiers. The second part of the article presents institutional, top-down attempts to improve the situation involving substantial foreign procurements. Asking whether the crisis was ever truly resolved, the findings here offer ultimately a negative assessment of what ultimately transpired. The article’s final section indicates the relationship between the catastrophic situation regarding supplies and the threats posed by the Spanish flu and typhus.