Polska Akademia Umiejêtno¶ci - Class II of History and Philospohy

Director: Janusz K. Koz³owski
Vice Director: Jan M. Ma³ecki
Secretary: Krzysztof Baczkowski

This Class comprises historians, archaeologists, philosophers, lawyers, theologians, sociologists, and psychologists.
The Class has monthly learned meetings, some of which are organized jointly with PAU Class I.
Class II is involved in studies and publications on the following topics:

1) Sources for the history of the Polish Government-in-Exile: minutes of the meetings of the Council of Ministers. Eight volumes are planned; Volumes I-IV have already been published.
2) The history of Poland in the two decades between the world wars. A book by Janusz Pajewski on this subject has already appeared, and two more volumes are anticipated.
3) The history and organization of Polish learning. This subject is treated in a broad program of publications and expositions.
4) Continuation of the re-edition of Jan D³ugosz's History of Poland (personal grant to Marian Plezia, now held by Jerzy Wyrozumski) - completed in 2007.
5) The publication of the acts of the Apostolic Nunciature in Poland, a project which is recommended by the Academy of Arts and Sciences (four large volumes were produced between 1915 and 1952), was being continued by the Polish Historical Institute in Rome, under the direction of Karolina Lanckoroñska (20 volumes appeared). The PAU joined the project and now it is its only manager and executor, but the enterprise is still financed by the Lanckoroñski Fundation (three volumes have appeared).
6) In keeping with tradition, the Class also publishes several series of source materials for Polish history: two volumes of Monumenta Poloniae Vaticana. A new series has been added: Monumenta Sacra Polonorum (two volumes have already appeared).

The Class has organized three scholarly symposia: one devoted to the Senate of the Republic of Poland, its historical role and its present status; the second, to the anniversary of the Soviet attack on Poland on September 17, 1939; and the third, to research on the settlement of the first agricultural peoples on both sides of the Western Carpathians in the fifth millennium BC.

The Class's most significant publications include a book by Gerard Labuda, Mieszko I król Polski 1025-1034 [Mieszko I, King of Poland, 1025-1034]; a book by Piotr Hübner, Si³a przeciw rozumowi. Losy Polskiej Akademii Umiejêtno¶ci 1939-1989 [Force against Reason: the Fate of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1939-1989]; Protoko³y posiedzeñ W³adz RP na Uchod¼stwie 1939-1945 [Minutes of the Meetings of the Authorities of the Republic of Poland in Exile, 1939-1945], Volumes I-IV; and Chrze¶cijañstwo Rusi Kijowskiej, Bia³orusi, Ukrainy i Rosji (X-XVII wiek) [Christianization of Kievan Ruthenia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia (10th-17th century)], edited by Jerzy K³oczowski; Józef Gierowski The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the XVIIIth century. The Class cooperates with the Jagiellonian University in publishing the periodical Kwartalnik Filozoficzny [Philosophical Quarterly].

The Class is also actively engaged in realizing the agreement with the Slovak Academy of Sciences, through such joint projects as coordinating archaeological research performed by the Cracow center on both sides of the western Carpathians; studies on Polish-Slovak relations during the Second World War; and the preparation of a dictionary of the Oravian local dialect. Contracts are in preparation with the Slovenian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the National Academy of Ukraine in Lvov, and the Czech Academy of Sciences.

PAU Commission on Central Europe

Chairman: Jan Machnik
Vice Chairman: Jerzy Rusek, Irena Stawowy-Kawka
Secretaries: Andrzej Essen

Commission Members

   This Commission was founded in 1991 on the initiative of Henryk Batowski, to assemble scholars interested in the archaeology, history, philology, and culture of the nations inhabiting Central and Eastern Europe.
in 1993, the Commission on Eastern Europe was split off. Since that time, the Commission on Central Europe has covered the area between the Baltic and the Adriatic, and between the Elbe, Niemen, and Bug rivers, as well as the lands on either side of the central Danube.

   At present, the primary focus on the Commission's research work is on national renascence; the history of state formations (including, among other things, the former Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, as well as Hungary); and the political history of regions inhabited by populations of mixed ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds, along with their mutual relations.

   The Commission's publication record is imposing. The effects of its work are reflected in the series Prace Komisji ¦rodkowoeuropejskiej [Works of the Commission on Central Europe]." To date twelve volumes have been published.

PAU Commission on Eastern Europe

Chairman: Antoni Podraza
Vice Chairman: Józef Smaga
Secretary: Andrzej A. Ziêba, Helena Duæ-Fajfer

Commission Members

   This Commission was created in 1993, when the PAU Commission on Central Europe, founded two years earlier, was divided.

   The area of interest of this Commission extends to all the countries of Eastern Europe, though at the present moment, due to the research specializations of its associate members, this means primarily Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.
The Commission attempts to include in its research activity the broadest possible spectrum of issues involving the culture of this region, both its past and the present day: from archaeology, through history, literature, religion, art, and languages, to political and sociological problems.

   Learned symposia and conferences have been organized, including a conference on The Lemkos and Lemko Studies in Poland (June 1995), and five panel discussions.
The Commission's publications include the Works of the Commission on Eastern Europe, of which four volumes have already appeared. Individual monographs have also been published, e.g. Metropolita Andrzej Szeptycki. Studia i materia³y [Metropolitan Andrzej Szeptycki: Studies and Materials], edited by Andrzej A. Ziêba (Cracow 1994); Ryszard £u¿ny, S³owo o Bogu i cz³owieku. My¶l religijna S³owian Wschodnich doby staroruskiej [A Word about God and Man: The Religious Thought of the Eastern Slavs in the Old Ruthenian Period] (Cracow 1995); and £emkowie i ³emkoznawstwo w Polsce [The Lemkos and Lemko Studies in Poland], edited by Andrzej A. Ziêba (Cracow 1997).

PAU Commission on Law

Chairman: Janusz Barta
Deputy Chairman: Wac³aw Uruszczak
Secretary: Krzysztof Krajewski

Commission Members

   This Commission, reactivated in 1995, is the successor to a Commission that was an active part of the Academy prior to the year 1952. It is involved with current-day legal problems concerning the justice system (broadly understood), political reforms, the adaptation of Polish law to European norms, and the history of legal sciences in Poland. International cooperation is also being developed.

   The Commission is responsible for publishing the Kwartalnik Prawa Prywatnego [Quarterly of Private Law], edited by Stefan Grzybowski, with assistance from Andrzej M±czyñski. The quarterly has appeared regularly for six years, and has won recognition among specialists involved in private law. The Commission has also created a periodical publication entitled Journal of Criminal Law and Penal Sciences, which has appeared since 1997.

   The Commission has regular scholarly meetings that include ample time for discussion.

PAU Commission on the History and Culture of the Jews

Chairman: Maria K³añska
Vice Chairman: Leszek Hoñdo
Secretary: Micha³ Galas

Commission Members

This Commission's activities are focused on Jewish history and culture in Poland and Europe. It brings together scholars from various specialties who share an interest in Jewish studies. In addition to regular meetings featuring lectures and discussion, the Commission also organizes scholarly symposia. The symposium entitled Jews and Judaism in Contemporary Polish Research was an occasion of particular significance, crowned by an impessive publication of symposium materials. The series entitled Works of the Commission on the History and Culture of the Jews publishes both collection of studies and monographs, as well as the materials from symposia. At present the Commission is concentrating its interests on Jewish associations, Jewish necropolises, and Jewish art. Plans call for the Commission's Bulletin to appear once every two years.

PAU Commission on the Prehistory of the Carpathians

Chairman: Jan Machnik
Vice Chairmen: Janusz K. Koz³owski, Micha³ Parczewski
Secretary: Pawe³ Valde-Nowak
Delegate for Publications: Zenon Wo¼niak

Commission Members

   This Commission was founded in 1996. It brings together scientists interested in the history of the oldest settlements in the Carpathians: primarily archaeologists, and the palaeobotanists and palaeogeographers who cooperate with them.

   The primary research projects now in progress are:
1) the first farmers and herders in the Carpathians: problems of the Neolithization of the Carpathians;
2) adaptation of settlement from the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age to the environmental conditions of the Carpathians: the development of pastoral societies;
3) settlement processes in late prehistory and protohistory, with particular emphasis on the early Middle Ages.

   The Commission's works appear in the Works of the Commission on the Prehistory of the Carpathians, the first volume of which contains the results of joint Polish-Slovak research on the earliest Linear Pottery Culture in eastern Slovakia.
The second volume deals with the archeology and natural environment of the Low Beskid Mountains in the Carpathians.

PAU Commission for War and Military History

Chairman: Marian Zgórniak
Deputy Chairman: Wojciech Rojek
Secretary: Piotr Mikietyñski

Commission Members

Commission was formed in 2005 as the Commission for the 2nd World War History. In the beginning of 2006 changed its name to a current one: PAU Commission for War and Military History. Besides its monthly scientific sessions (every second Tuesday at 11:00 a.m.), the Commission support publication initiatives. So far the post-conference materials concerning the Polish Intelligence service activity during the 2nd World War has been published. Memoirs of general Antoni Szylling are to be issued soon; the colonel Mazaraki's relations about the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 and a volume of the Commission's Works are being prepared.

PAU Commission for Economic Sciences

Chairman: Roman Niestrój
Deputy Chairman: Andrzej Malawski
Secretary: Jacek Osiewalski

Commission Members

The Commission was formed on May 12, 2004. The Commission's first aim is to create a forum for scientific discussion for the whole academic economic community, which is nowadays dispersed and divided into separate narrow specialisations. One of the means for achieving this aim is the analysis of main research trends in economic sciences (both in theory and in practice), as well as the presentation of the scholarly achievements of their representatives.

Another goal of the Commission, connected with the previous project, is a discussion on the current issues of the economy of the world, of the EU and of our country, showed against the background of scientific achievements.