Funded by the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities

“A handwritten topographic map of Western Galicia drawn in 1801–1804 (the so-called Heldensfeld map) from the collections of the War Archives in Vienna: Polish cultural and historical heritage of a regional character in foreign collections” (no. 11H 18 0363 86; funded: 1 226 903 PLN), 2018–2023, project manager: Dr Waldemar Bukowski. The aim of this project is to begin editorial work on Heldensfeld’s map of Galicia and provide it with topographic descriptions. The map includes the Polish lands occupied by Austria in the Third Partition of Poland in 1795. These were parts of the following voivodeships: Kraków, Sandomierz, Lublin, Mazowieckie (without Warsaw, which was on the Prussian side), Podlaskie, Brzeskie, Lithuanian and Chełm land. The map was made in 1801–1804 by a team of officers of the Engineers’ Corps under the direction of Colonel Anton Mayer von Heldensfeld (1765–1842) from the General Staff of the Austrian army. The first works had started by 1796–1799. The map consists of 275 colour sheets arranged in 20 columns according to individual meridians. Each sheet measures 63.2×42.1 cm. Military descriptions include seven volumes of 48×37 cm in size with 1,225 cards or 2,451 pages. Apart from topographical descriptions, they provide data on the estate and religious structure, as well as other statistical data. 

“Patriots of tomorrow. Independence activities, civic attitudes and educational work of Polish women in Lviv (1863–1939) in the light of materials collected by the Museum of Meritorious Polish Women in Lviv and the Ossolineum. Edition and commentary” (no. 11H 18 0367 86; funded: 757 588 PLN), 2018–2023, project manager: Dr Iwona Dadej. The aim of the project is to offer a selective edition of materials depicting the patriotic, civic and educational activity of Lviv’s women at the turn of the 20th century. These sources are collected in the Lviv Historical Archive (CDIAL) and the V. Stefanyk Lviv National Scientific Library of Ukraine (formerly: the Ossoliński National Department). These unpublished materials are closely related to the independence activities of Lviv’s women and are an important example of shaping civic attitudes both among themselves, in the local community of Lviv and in Polish society at large. Aware of the role of the past in shaping everyday life and the future, they wanted to create centres and institutions commemorating the past of women so as to make the efforts of their predecessors a legitimate part of the patriotic-educational canon by means of their own work and commitment. These activities deserve special recognition and the memory of them should be revived by introducing the achievements of Lviv’s women to the wider horizon of national tradition.

“Cartography at the service of political reforms in the times of Stanisław August Poniatowski – a critical elaboration of ‘Geographical-statistical description of the parishes in the Kingdom of Poland’ and the maps of the palatinates by Karol Perthées” (no. 11H 18 0122 87; funded: 1 744 770 PLN), 2020–2025, project manager: Professor Bogumił Szady. Its main goal is the elaboration of a database and a web map application for the settlement network and religious and administrative divisions in the Crown od Poland in the second half of the 18th century. The team will also prepare a monography on the census and cartographical activities and their connection to the reforms in the times of the Polish Republic and its dawn.

Project website: https://perthees.ihpan.edu.pl/

“Parliamentarians of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania 1566–1794” (no. 11H 18 0130 87; funded: 1 037 800 PLN), 2020–2025, project manager: Professor Andrzej Rachuba. The aim of the project is to compose a biographical listing of the senators and deputies (Polish: poseł) from the territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania elected and taking part both in the Seimas of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and in so called Lithuanian Convocations. We are also planning to include in this catalogue the deputies elected during sejmiki rozdwojone (split) or zerwane (broken-off). Therefore, we will also take into account those who did not have the possibility of formally taking part in the parliamentary proceedings or those eliminated by rugi sejmowe. In addition to the Lithuanian members of parliament, our listing will also incorporate Livonian parliamentarians of so called “Lithuanian nation” (however, not those of the “German” and “Polish nations”). The listing will be composed in the order in which the Seimas took place. The information about the parliamentarians will also include important biographical facts, that is their education, the offices they held or information on the property owned.

„New Perspectives – The Historical-Geographical Dictionary on the Polish Lands in the Middle Ages ” (no. 11H 20 0244 88; funded: 1 550 000 PLN), 2022–2027, project manager: Professor Tomasz Jurek. The Historical-Geographical Dictionary of the Polish Lands in the Middle Ages has been carried out in IH PAN since 1958. It constitutes one of the most important undertakings in Polish historical research. At present, there are three teams preparing Dictionaries the former Wielkopolska (Greater Poland in Poznań), Małopolska (Little Poland in Kraków), and Masovia and Podlasie (both in Warsaw). In effect, we have more than 50 volumes document different geographic regions of former Poland. The entire undertaking has been also published on the Internet (http://www.slownik.ihpan.edu.pl/). For a few years, work on the Dictionary has been granted by NPRH (the two last projects realised in 2012–2017 and 2015–2020). The effect of this new  project will result in another 5 volumes of the Dictionary including completely new series documenting Red Ruthenia. The internet edition will also be complemented by another two volumes  (in accordance with copyright regulations maintaining the last two volumes in print version for a period of two years). There will also be efforts undertaken, with respect to one Volume, at the moment, to reconstruct the Internet version of Dictionary into databases (in XML language), to increase visibility and use cases. Files and collections of any reproductions of historical sources will also be created according to needs of our research teams (Greater Poland, Little Poland, Masovia, Podlasie and Ruthenia).

„Polish Post-January Exiles in Siberia – an interactive biographical dictionary” (no. 11H 20 0289 88; funded: 1 188 340 PLN), 2022–2027, project manager: Dr hab. Mariusz Kulik. The aim of the project is to collect new materials concerning Poles exiled to Siberia for their participation in the January Uprising in 1863, develop and make a biographical dictionary available in a digital form. The collected source material will be the basis for the research on this community, activities and contribution of Polish exiles to the civilizational, cultural and economic development of Siberia. The research project also serves to broaden the knowledge of staying Poles in Siberia, make it available and deepen the historical awareness of Polish society. The research team of the project has at its disposal the source materials collected during the implementation of the previous grants concerning the participants of the January Uprising, especially those sent to Siberia and deeper into Russia. The information collected so far has concerned about 40,000 exiles [collected on about 200,000 cards] and has been the largest collection in Poland documenting the fate and activities of Polish exiles in Siberia. Most of these materials are manuscript extracts in Russian, often not very readable, with varying degrees of documentary value – they require critical development, unification and permanent preservation in a digital version, which an interactive biographical dictionary will provide. An interactive dictionary, which will contain basic biographical and bibliographic information, would at the same time create the possibility of searching and collecting data according to various criteria (e.g. the place of the exiles’ origin, social status, type of punishment, place the sentence serving, etc.), which is impossible or very difficult in traditional files. Making the dictionary available in a digital version would also replace the traditional one – in this case a multi-volume – biographical dictionary, which would consist of tens of thousands of personal entries. As a result, the dictionary would become the tool and the inspiration for deepened historical, social, demographic, prosopographic research, etc. and genealogical research.

„Historical Atlas of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Red Ruthenia in the second half of the sixteenth century — detailed maps in digital form and source editions” (no. 11H 20 0390 88; funded: 1 759 104 PLN), 2022–2027, project manager: Professor Andrzej Janeczek. The aim of the proposal is to prepare a historical atlas of Red Ruthenia with accompanying source editions. The project is a natural, even expected development of atlas initiatives carried out so far. The series “Historical Atlas of Poland. Detailed maps of the sixteenth century” was completed in 2021, fulfilling the entire territorial scope set out for it in the 1960s. Other lands of the Crown of Poland, including Red Ruthenia incorporated into the Polish state in the mid-fourteenth century, were not covered by this programme. Expanding the HAP to include Red Ruthenia, the oldest annex of the Crown, a separate province with its own fate, will enrich the picture of Poland at that time as a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural state, made up of various components, not only those belonging to the old Piast heritage. The integration processes which Red Ruthenia underwent from the mid-fourteenth century onwards are usually seen in cultural or political terms. This time the results of settlement transformations, colonisation, urbanisation, migration, the development of land ownership, as well as the construction of church structures, will be visible. In addition to the immediate goal of providing concrete findings on a large scale, and thus reconstructing a comprehensive picture of a large part of the Crown of these times, the project will provide effective tools for various disciplines, not only the historical sciences, and will give impetus to the study of the eastern half of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, slowly recovering from the post-war depression. 

„Anti-Polish discourses in the Weimar Republic 1918–1933” (no. 31H 20 0240 88; funded: 934 400 PLN), 2021–2026, project manager: Professor Grzegorz Kucharczyk. The aim of the project is to prepare edition of sources concerning anti –Polish propaganda during the Weimar Republic period 1918 – 1933. The mentioned in the project‘s title anti-Polish discourses comprise a set of anti-Polish stereotypes disseminated and shared by all leading political forces in Germany after 1918 – socialdemocrats and communists on the Left, Catholic Centre Party, national-conservative milieu and national – socialist movement on the Right. These stereotypes in most part derived from earlier anti-Polish prejudices (e.g. „polnische Wirtschaft“) which had been articulated during the partition time. Their existence after 1918 was not only due to political parties‘ activities, but also found ist expression in the German literature after 1918. They made up an essential part of „the 1919 ideas“ in the German Reich after the Great War. Both German political and intellectual elites viewed the Versailles treaty not only as vehicle leading not only to harming Germany’s vital political interests but also contributing to denigration of Germany and of German nation. The anti-Versailles propaganda claimed that „German honour“ was in jeopardy because of blaming the German Reich for the outbreak of the First World War (article 231 of the peace treaty). A real threat to „German dignity“ posed also existence of an independent Polish state.

The project examines the period beginning in 1918 because even before publication of peace terms by the Allies (the 7th of May 1919), at the turn of 1918 and 1919 main political forces in republican Germany expressed their opposition to existence of independent Poland. At that time the Poles were accused of substantial cultural deficites (including definicies in political culture) which meant – as many German commentators claimed – that the Polish Republic struggling for its independence, was posed to be infected from its very beginning by „virus of self-destruction“.

The aim of the project is to present the whole range of anti-Polish discourses, reflected in the sources to be edited. Apart from this edition there will be analytical part in this project. Each part of the edition will be preceded by the introduction depicting historical and political background of the respective aspects of the anti-Polish narratives. The edition which is to be published will comprise publications from main political dailies and periodicals affiliated with different political parties, parties‘, but also social organisations‘ and the Churches‘ documents. The collection will also include German diplomatical documents concerning opinions on the Polish culture expressed by these institutions of the German state. The edition will also comprise the German intellectual elites‘ and German literature‘s stance towards Polish culture between 1918 and 1933 (e.g. Ostforshung very much popular among German historians after 1918). It is to be pointed out that the edition will include not only texts abut also iconography (e. g. carricatures).

“Przewodnik po zachowanych w rozproszeniu materiałach pozostałych po Zarządzie Cywilnym Ziem Wschodnich (1919–1920)” (no. NPRH/F/SP/496367/2021/10; funded: 874 326 PLN), 2022–2027, project manager: Professor Joanna Gierowska-Kałłaur.

“Cultural and intellectual geography of the former Polish lands under the partitions 1865–1918 – digital vademecum” (no. NPRH/F/SP/0070/2024/13, funded: 2 054 656,80 PLN), 2024–2029, project manager: Professor Maciej Górny. The goal of the project is colleting and sharing a variety of data concerning selected aspects of the broadly defined cultural heritage from the multi-ethnic area of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth within the borders before the first partition, in the years 1865–1918.

The data that have already been collected and that are planned to be obtained will be synchronized and arranged in a georeferenced database and subsequently presented in an interactive, multifunctional application. Its centrepiece will be a map showing Polish lands under the partitions. Information obtained from record and dictionary sources as well as volumes of the Bibliography of Polish History of the 19th and 20th centuries will be assigned to particular settlement points. The application will make it available to search and collate data. This innovative tool will enable researchers of this historical period to analyse large sets of data. An integral part of the project will be a monograph in which the functionalities of the created application will be discussed for the first time.

„Realm and National Community in Vincentius Kadłubek’s „Chronicle of the Poles”. Vision and Reception” (no. NPRH/F/SP/0017/2024/13, funded: 1 009 628,45 zł, 2024–2029), project manager: Professor Zbigniew Dalewski. The project concerns the role of the Chronica Polonorum of Master Vincentius Kadłubek in the formation of the Polish national identity and vision of the state. Written at the beginning of the 13th century, the Chronica presents the history of Poland from the earliest times to 1202. It is considered the first monument of Polish historical and political-legal thought. Master Kadłubek not only included the story of the mythical origins of the Polish nation (the history of the Poles-Lechites Empire), but also introduced the concepts fundamental to political-legal thought (e.g. res publica, rzeczpospolita – the commonwealth), which shape the ideas about Poles and Poland to this day. The aim of the project is to examine the tools Master Vincentius used in the Chronica Polonorum to shape the image of the state and its territory, as well as the notion of a community of citizens – the nation and the common good. The second, equally important, aim is to try to answer the questions: how was Kadlubek’s image of the state and the nation taken up and processed by later readers, successive generations of Polish scholars, politicians and humanists, and how was Kadlubek’s interpretation used by contemporary Polish culture (including popular culture)?

Translation projects:

1. Bogusław Dybaś, Na obrzeżach Rzeczypospolitej. Sejmik piltyński w latach 1617–1717 (z dziejów instytucji stanowej) (2020–2023; translation into German; funded: 126 020 PLN).
2. Hubert Wilk, Między pragmatyzmem a oczekiwaniami. Społeczeństwo, władza i samochody w Polsce 1945–1970, no. NPRH/U21/SP/496332/2021/10; 2021–2024; translation into English; funded: 68 455 PLN.
3. Łukasz Jasiński, Sprawiedliwość i polityka Działalność Głównej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich/ Hitlerowskich w Polsce 1945–1989, no. NPRH/U21/SP/496335/2021/10; 2021–2024; translation into German; funded: 141 395 PLN.
4. Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov, Mówić we własnym imieniu. Prasa jidyszowa a tworzenie żydowskiej tożsamości narodowej (do 1918 roku), no. NPRH/U21/SP/507441/2021/11, 2022–2025; translation into English; funded: 112 000 zł.