Krakowskie Pismo Kresowe

Front Matter

2023-12-16

Kresy, które już nie istnieją… Rozważania wokół monografii Marceliny Jakimowicz Świat, który już nie istnieje. Polskie i ukraińskie opowieści biograficzne (1918-1956), Wydawnictwo Ośrodek „Pamięć i Przyszłość”, Wrocław 2022, 366 ss.

Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek — 2023-12-16

Spowiedź Sadyka

Janusz Pezda — 2023-12-16

CONFESSION OF SADYK: THE LAST LETTER OF MICHAŁ CZAYKOWSKI TO HIPOLIT BŁOTNICKI

Michał Czaykowski (Sadyk Pasha) is a figure whose assessment remains challenging to this day. His path to national and religious apostasy was complex and winding. At the beginning of his emigration, his dedication to the Polish cause earned him applause and recognition among fellow emigrants. He tirelessly worked in emigrant diplomacy, establishing the extensive Eastern Agency of the Hotel Lambert as a Polish agent in the East. After the Crimean War, he gradually distanced himself from Polish affairs. He deemed the January Uprising unnecessary and increasingly leaned towards Pan-Slavic ideals. Upon returning to Russia and his original name, he lost his old friends and failed to find new ones. It’s hard not to notice that he became a pawn in the hands of the Russians. The published letter from July 17, 1874, is addressed to Hipolit Błotnicki, whom he regarded as a friend, often signing letters to him as his cousin. This is the last preserved letter in their long-standing correspondence. In it, he attempts to justify his actions to his former friend, explaining his attitude towards Polish identity, the shift in his feelings towards the recently hated Muscovites, and the reigning autocrat. He tries to convince and argue why he chose Christianity again and joined the Orthodox Church. The letter seems to be an attempt to convince not only H. Błotnicki but also to justify himself to Władysław Czartoryski, to whom this letter was undoubtedly shown.

Walka o Lwów w Pamiętnikach z lat 1916-1918 Ludomiła Germana

Agnieszka Biedrzycka — 2023-12-16

THE STRUGGLE FOR LVIV IN THE “DIARIES FROM THE YEARS 1916-1918” BY LUDOMIŁ GERMAN

This edition covers the final section of the diary of Ludomił German (1851-1920), a Galician teacher and school inspector, playwright, translator, politician, and activist in the National-Democratic Party and the Polish Democratic Party. He served as a member of the Imperial Council in Vienna (1907-1918) and the Regional Sejm in Lviv (1912-1914), vice president of the Austrian Chamber of Deputies, and vice president of the Polish Circle. In his diary, kept from July 1914 to January 1919, German documented his activities in the Supreme National Committee, the Polish Circle, and the Imperial Council. He also chronicled the history of the Polish Legions, the struggle for their leadership, and the aspirations of politicians from Galicia and the Kingdom of Poland aiming to establish a more or less independent Polish state. The diary, now divided into two parts, is preserved in the Jagiellonian Library in the manuscript collection under the signature 8537 I (‘Notes from Great Times,’ the original written by Ludomił German) and in the Lviv National Scientific Library of Ukraine named after V. Stefanyk (fond 5, signature 6415, vol. 1-3, ‘Diaries from the Years 1916-1918,’ a copy made in 1935-1936 by Ludomił’s son, Juliusz German). The presented fragment covers almost three months (from November 1, 1918 to January 24, 1919), during which the author was in Lviv during the Polish-Ukrainian battles for the city, initially occupied and later besieged by Ukrainian forces. The author describes, based on his own experiences and information from other sources, the course of military actions, the difficulties of daily life associated with them, attempts by both sides to end the fighting, and the establishment of new municipal authorities and their initial political decisions. As much as possible, he tries to track events in other parts of the re-emerging Poland (critically evaluating the actions of the new state authorities) and throughout Europe, especially within the former Austro-Hungarian borders.

Back Matter

2023-12-16

Which Crimes Against Good Manners and Morality Were the Inhabitants of Chukva Tried for in the 18th Century?

Klaudia Rogowska — 2023-12-16

The aim of the article is to shed light on the phenomenon of sexual crime in rural areas of the former Ruthenian voivodeship in the 18th century. Many researchers in Poland and beyond have already delved into these issues, but the territories of the Ruthenian voivodeship have not been thoroughly examined in this regard. The core source base consists of materials found in 18th-century rural court books written in the village of Czukwi between 1715 and 1754. During the query, the author identified nine cases of accusations of sexual crimes, classified by contemporaries as offenses against good manners and religion. Descriptions most frequently pertain to adultery, carnal acts, and incest. Although according to the prevailing law in the examined areas, such crimes were punishable by death, rural courts did not impose such severe penalties; instead, punishments were milder, ranging from corporal punishment to various fines and penalties payable to secular and ecclesiastical authorities. Only in the case of the most serious offenses (involving individuals closely related or when adultery was linked to a more serious crime) were the accused referred to the urban justice system. Beyond punishing the offenders, the article also addresses the significant issue of children born from such relationships and their future protection by the court through orders for financial support and various contributions to the child’s mother. Such penalties were primarily imposed in cases of adultery or incest. When forbidden relationships occurred between free individuals, they were often compelled to enter into marital unions, thereby resolving the issue.

Sozon Wadyński OSBM (1749-1815)

William Lecyk — 2023-12-16

SOZON WADYŃSKI OSBM (1749-1815): A BIOGRAPHICAL CONTRIBUTION

This text is devoted to the life and activities of Sozon Wadyński OSBM (1749-1815), a Basilian from Podolia in the then Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Lecyk recreates Wadyński’s biography, verifying known information and subjecting previously unused source materials to historical analysis. The author has tried to present the subsequent stages of the monk’s life against the background of the functioning of the Basilian Order and the political changes that took place in the Church after 1772 in the Austrian partition, where Wadyński stayed from the early 1780s. Lecyk describes the subsequent stages of his education and also discusses the conditions under which the monk developed his career in the structures of the order’s authorities, the eparchy and the bishop of Przemyśl. He explains why it finally broke down and answers the question of why Wadyński became the parish priest of a rural parish in Sośnica, located near Przemyśl. Thanks to materials obtained in particular from the State Archives in Przemyśl and the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Lviv, it has been possible to present this previously unknown stage of the priest’s life and career. It has also allowed us to show the living and working conditions of the parish priest, to answer the question of his financial situation and what problems he had to struggle with in his pastoral work. The article also shows how a well-educated monk, whose life path destined him for a completely different role, coped with the role of a village parish priest. The text fills the gap in regional research and is also a contribution to the history of Greek Catholic parishes in Galicia in the first half of the 19th century.

Początki przemysłu naftowego w Galicji przed okresem autonomii w świetle wybranych polskich tytułów prasowych

Tomasz Kargol — 2023-12-16

BEGINNINGS OF THE OIL INDUSTRY IN GALICIA BEFORE THE PERIOD OF AUTONOMY IN THE LIGHT OF SELECTED POLISH PRESS TITLES

The publication of newspapers and the extraction and use of crude oil were undoubtedly among the socio-economic areas that significantly affected the lives of people in the 19th century. At the time, newspapers and journals played the role of the most important and popular sources of information about crude oil and its products, especially kerosene, and they shaped their readers’ worldviews on those products’ uses in the economy and everyday life.
This paper presents the beginning of the oil industry in Austrian Galicia in pre-autonomy Galicia in the Polish news press (Czas, Gazeta Narodowa, Gazeta Lwowska) and economic magazines (Gazeta Przemysłowa, Korespondent Handlowy, Przemysłowy i Rolniczy, Tygodnik Rolniczo-Przemysłowy).
The first mentions in the press on the subject appeared in the 1850s. In the 1860s, oil-related subjects were broadly represented in daily newspapers and in the economic press. In agricultural journals, especially in the Prussian and Russian partitions, oil-related subjects were not present in titles from the 1850s and 60s. The first group of texts consisted of articles about crude oil (chemical properties) and regions which were rich in petroleum. In areas where it was present, crude oil had been known and used for a long time, but to the readership of newspapers and journals it was a new resource. It is no wonder then that the press was explaining what it was and what its uses were. The press did not focus on Galicia’s deposits of crude oil, earthwax and natural gas, but did print detailed information on their sources around the world, especially in the United States (the names of oil fields, the volume and monetary value of extraction and export to Europe). The press saw the American mass production and sale of oil to Europe as the greatest threat to the Galician industry.
The press documented the economic situation of the Galician oil industry (petroleum mining, oil refinery, business people) and speculated on its future position in Galicia’s economic system. It speculated that the oil industry would become an important branch of the economy. When writing about the oil industry, the press reported on the first mines (Bóbrka, Borysław), entrepreneurs, the presence of oil products on agricultural and industrial expositions organised in Kraków, Rzeszów and Jasło.
Another subject discussed by the press was articles on the trade of paraffin oil. The development of the Galician oil industry had also become a pretext to debate on its role in everyday life. In the opinion of the press, oil lamps would be used as street lighting and at home illuminating the whole room. These newspaper advertisements showed new products connected with the oil industry such as different kinds of paraffin oil and oil lamps.

W którym pułku służył Piotr Niewiadomski – bohater Soli ziemi Józefa Wittlina?

Sławomir Kułacz — 2023-12-16

A COMMENT ON THE ATTEMPTS TO IDENTIFY PIOTR NIEWIADOMSKI’S REGIMENT

The 2022 Polish critical edition of Józef Wittlin’s World War One novel, Salt of the Earth, features a footnote where the editor unequivocally identifies the main protagonist’s military unit as the Austro-Hungarian 55th Infantry Regiment, based on the initial letter of the unit’s Colonel-in-chief ’s name mentioned by the author. This aligns with the 1991 edition, which previously identified him as Nicholas I of Montenegro. With publications on the Austro- -Hungarian army now more widely accessible, the new editor enumerates the regiment’s characteristics and briefly outlines its history. However, other pertinent details scattered throughout the novel, such as the unit’s recruiting district (Śniatyn in Eastern Galicia), its garrison town (Stanisławów), and facing colour (orange), are completely disregarded.
This article aims to demonstrate that, when considered collectively, these clues lead to the conclusion that Wittlin’s portrayal of the unit is entirely fictitious. The writer not only fails to mention the regiment’s number (replacing it with “X”) but also presents its mutually exclusive formal characteristics. It can be inferred that the author either could not present the unit consistently or, more likely, intentionally did so to prevent readers from associating it with any actual place and people. This conclusion is drawn from scrutiny of official printed sources in German, along with fundamental Austrian and Polish publications.

Działalność kulturotwórcza konserwatystów wschodniogalicyjskich na przykładzie fundacji Leona Pinińskiego i Dawida Abrahamowicza

Angelika Jamka — 2023-12-16

CULTURAL ACTIVITIES OF EASTERN GALICIAN CONSERVATIVES ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE FOUNDATIONS OF LEON PINIŃSKI AND DAWID ABRAHAMOWICZ

The activity of eastern Galician conservatives is generally assessed only negatively and on the political field. Their perception in historiography has been influenced by the work of Wilhelm Feldman entitled Parties and Political Programs in Galicia. Indeed, Podolacy sought to maintain the status quo in matters of large land ownership. However, some of them undertook numerous pro-social initiatives. Among the most spectacular were the foundations of Dawid Abrahamowicz and Leon Piniński, whose aim was to rebuild the Wawel Royal Castle during the interwar period. The first was founded by the Abrahamowicz couple who donated almost all of their wealth to charity (mainly benefitting children of landowners who can’t afford education) and to cultural purposes. The funds received by Wawel Castle were used to purchase paintings by the best masters from Poland and abroad. By 1937 they had gathered 91 objects for its reconstruction. The second foundation was established in 1927 by art historian and former governor of Galicia Leon Piniński, who donated over 300 objects by artists such as Juliusz Kossak, Jacek Malczewski, Artur Grottger and Józef Chełmoński. As an outstanding collector, Piniński took an active part in the foundation’s work until the end of his life. In the 1930s, as a result of economic crisis, he was forced to sell almost 50 paintings from the Wawel Castle. The article presents the cultural activity of Eastern Galician conservatives, which should not be limited only to political aspects, especially the Polish-Ukrainian conflict.

Zamek czernelicki na fotografiach z końca XIX-XX wieku

Vitaliy Nagirnyy — 2023-12-16

THE CHERNELYTSIA CASTLE IN PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE LATE 19TH–20TH CENTURY

For a long time, it was believed that the Chernelytsia Castle in Pokuttia did not attract much attention from artists due to its relatively small size and remoteness from the main roads. This should have resulted in a small amount of illustrative material, primarily photographs, depicting the castle. However, the actual situation is different. Over the last ten years, archival and library searches conducted by a team of Polish and Ukrainian researchers have made it possible to discover, identify, date, and publish numerous photographs of the Chernelytsia Castle. The discovered photographs are stored in the National Library in Warsaw, the Archive of the Department of Polish Architecture at Warsaw University of Technology, the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Karta Center in Warsaw, the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Lviv, the Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv, the Scientific and Technical Archive of the Institute ‘Ukrzakhidproektrestavratsiya’ in Lviv, and the private collections of Oleksandr Kahlian, Levko Kvyatkovskyy, and Vitaliy Nagirnyy. All currently known photographs of the Chernelytsia Castle were taken between the 1880s to 1990s using the traditional method and classic photographic equipment. The earliest ones date back to the 1880s and were made by Kolomyian photographer Juliusz Dutkiewicz in 1880 for the Ethnographic Exhibition of Pokuttya in Kolomyia. Over the next few years, photographs of the castle by an unknown author (1884) and Albin Fridrich (between 1892 and 1904) appeared. A large number of photographs of the Chernelytsia Castle were taken in the interwar period. In 1921, 7 photographs of the castle were taken by an unknown photographer on the request of the Conservative Club in Lviv. Another 23 photographs of the fortress were taken in 1935 by Bogdan Guerquin. In addition, during this period, a number of other single photographs of the castle were taken by unidentified authors, which are currently preserved in private collections. The photographs of the Chernelytsia Castle from the second half of the 20th century by Ostap Kudybin (second half of the 1960s) and Ihor Starosolskyy (1969-1971) are of great importance. The significance of these photographs cannot be overestimated. They are a unique source that allows us not only to show the state of the castle in different periods, from the late 19th century to the late 20th century, but also to illustrate the dynamics of changes and losses of fortifications, and even to try to reconstruct the original appearance of the historical monument. Some of the photographs described in the article have been published before, while others are published for the first time.

Decoding the Images of the Polish Countryside, by Louise Arner Boyd (1887-1972)

Larysa Buriak — 2023-12-16

This article looks at the photographic legacy of Louise Arner Boyd’s (1887-1972) expedition through the Second Polish Republic in the context of her discovery of the otherness and social diversity of the country she visited in 1934. The authors were particularly captivated by the portrayal of the Ruthenians/Ukrainians of what is now Western Ukraine, as depicted in the Boyd photography. The authors focus lies on the unprocessed photographic content from the library collections of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the book she published a few years after her journey with the cooperation of the American Geographical Society in New York. The authors told the story of Louise A. Boyd’s trip to Poland primarily to introduce the reader to the context of the creation of the photographic collection, in which authors try to discover content and meanings that have not been sought before. Their analysis of the making-off process and reception into academia for Boyd’s book entitled Polish Countryside is also crucial to understanding that it is only a part of the collection. It is a specific vision and a compromise between the photographer’s and the publisher’s expectations.
The Boyd photographic collection focused on rural landscapes and the architecture of villages and farms, capturing various farming methods, road and water transport scenes, village types and traditional clothing. With meticulous descriptions and detailed lists of the photographed locations and subjects, the collection serves as valuable documentation of building styles and techniques, traditional costumes, transportation, markets and agricultural and fishing practices. Thanks to Boyd’s skilled photographer’s eye, she was able to capture visually attractive photographs that also serve as scientifically intriguing documents of a bygone era. The significance of these photos extends beyond the confines of ethnography, as we have endeavoured to emphasise in this article. Through reinterpreting Ruthenians/ Ukrainians portraits in Boyd photographs after almost a century, we aim to grasp the preserved and concealed contexts, thereby reconstructing, if not the complete image, at least its distinct components.
However, the images of contemporary Western Ukraine and its inhabitants by Louise Arner Boyd that the authors analysed are currently in the photography collection mentioned above from the UWM as part of the digitalised archive of the American Geographical Society.
The authors had attempted to look at them both as an example of ethnographic photography typical of the interwar period and a unique image of a world that no longer exists. In the authors’ opinion, Louise A. Boyd’s photograms, placed as raw ethnographic material in the mentioned repository of the UWM library, today have the value that she wanted to give them from the beginning when she was considering the publication of Polish Countrysides, and they are a reminder of a world whose traces have almost disappeared today.

Kathryn Ciancia, On Civilization’s Edge: A Polish Borderland in the Interwar World, New York, NY: Oxford University Press 2021, 343 ss.

Piotr J. Wróbel — 2023-12-16

Patrice M. Dabrowski, The Carpathians: Discovering the Highlands of Poland and Ukraine, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press 2021, 270 ss.

Patrycja Trzeszczyńska — 2023-12-16