On 4-5 October this year, a nationwide technological conference entitled “Emigration Press and Publishing Centres and Publishers 1939-1990” was held in Rzeszów.
The conference was organised by the IPN Branch in Rzeszów. The conference was part of the Podkarpackie legislature of National Memory held at the G2A Arena in Jasionka. The participants of the conference representing technological centres from all over the country gave a full of 25 lectures devoted to various aspects of post-war publishing activities of Polish emigration.
The first block was devoted to publishing centres. Dr. Margaret Koma-Jusińska (IPN Lublin) In a speech devoted to Polish publishers in the UK, about 200 publishing entities were operating in 1945-1970, almost half of which were social organizations. Among the most crucial were: Wydawnictwo Gryf, Polonia Book Fund, Polish Cultural Foundation and Veritas. More referees discussed the publishing activity of ZHP in Obziź (prof. dr hab. Marek Wierzbicki, IPN Radom) and oficyn “Editions-Meetings” (dr. Bogusław Wójcik, IPN Rzeszów). Another panel was devoted to the Parisian “Kultura”, including in the context of its influences on the form of the abroad policy of Polish emigration (references of Dr. Małgorzata Ptasińska from BBH IPN and Dr. Monika Sędlak).
The part devoted to journalists and publishers discussed the public activity of Stanisław Grocholski (Dr. Krzysztof A. Tochaman, IPN Rzeszów), Karol Zbyszewski (Kamil Świderski, KUL) and Wanda Pełczyńska (Dr. Marta Sikorska, UŁ). 3 papers focused on the views presented by national activists. Dr. Maciej Strutyński gave a paper entitled “Roman Catholic Church in Poland and the planet in the Optics of Horizons”. The author emphasized the engagement of periodical publicists, headed by ♪ I'm a giertych ♪, in mitigating disputes between the State authorities of the Polish People's Republic and the Church hierarchy. M. Strutyński besides pointed to J. Giertych's traditionalism, which critically referred to changes in the Church, including approval in the liturgy of national languages, introduced by the Second Vatican Council. Dr Anna Szwed-Walczak (UMCS) in a speech entitled "Poland from an emigration perspective. The image of the state in «Rocks» by Jędrzej Giertych (1969-1988) indicated affirmative and negative aspects of the assessment of the People's Poland by the national publicist.
The first included: the existence of the Polish People's Republic, a non-lifelike being, however, having a number of attributes of the state and improving the surviving position, compared to the period II of the Polish Republic, a large part of the population. Among the key flaws of the Giertych Polish People's Republic, he pointed to the atheistic model of the state system, which manifested itself primarily in the field of upbringing of the young generation. Dr. Maciej Motas (Public Library of Warsaw) in a paper entitled "Wiktor Troscianko (1911-1983) – writer «Polish Thought» presented the journalistic work coming from Vilnius editor. In his speech, the author pointed to the gap between the dialog presented by Troscianka in the periodicals, which has been conducted since the mid-1960s, with representatives of PRL intelligence services.
Dr. Maciej Motas
In the part devoted to Catholic press, they gave their elaborates Dr. Krzysztof Kaczmarski (IPN Rzeszow), which presented the writings “The Sword of the Spirit” and “The Case” published during planet War II, in which they published, among others: Stanasław Grabski, Władysław Folkierski, Wacław Komarnicki and Bohdan Winiarski. Next Rev. Dr. Robert Czarnowski (UW) he portrayed “The Catholic Voice”, the body of the Polish Catholic Mission in France, and Karolina Siewak (IDMN in Warsaw) presented the reactions of publicists of the magazine “Transchange” to the moral changes taking place in the 1960s. It is worth emphasizing that in the periodical published in Rome their articles were besides published by publicists of the national camp, including J. Giertych and Wojciech Wasiutyński.
In a panel entitled ‘Party press and political circles’ Dr. Robert Witalec (IPN Rzeszów) presented the letter "Tomorrow of Poland", while Dr Rafał Sierchula (IPN Poznań) press of the environment related to the Polish Organization. Among the press titles issued by the members of the OP, the investigator included: “In march and fight”, “On the Shaniec”, “The Cell”, “Universum”, “The Guard” and “The Tie”. The publishers and editors of these titles included: Antoni Goerne, Wojciech Zaleski and Tadeusz Starczewski. Doctor Wojciech Muszyński (IPN Warszawa) presented the periodical “Think Poland in the East” from 1943 to 1946. The editors of the letter published in Jerusalem were Tadeusz Borowicz and Adam Macielinski. literates cooperating with the letter can be mentioned, among others. Beata Obertyńska, Jerzy Pietrkiewicz and W. Troscianka. From the beginning of the publication, the magazine referred to both the graphic garment and the subject substance to the London “Polish Thought”. The periodical was sold free of charge at the locations of Polish Armed Forces units, including in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Italy. Due to the tiny number of written numbers preserved, as the author (who has a complete publication) emphasized in his speech, it is present the “Holy Grail” of national press researchers. The first day of the gathering ended with a formal dinner at the Ostoya Hotel restaurant in Jasionka.
On the second day of the meeting, in the part devoted to the military and Kombatan press Magdalena Szeląg (IPN's Lustrative Office) presented a letter of Polish exile in the USSR entitled "Orły Biały". The title was 1 of the co-workers. Jan Bielatovich, and the editor of the magazine from 1944 to 1957 was, besides connected before the war with the national camp, Ryszard Piestrzynski. In subsequent speeches the authors discussed the periodical of the 5th Vilnius Infantry Brigade (Dr. Bartosz Janczak, IPN Łódź), a letter published in Edinburgh “Military Doctor” (Dr. Krzysztof Speedki, Medical University of Poznań) and the paper "Combatant in America" (Dr. Piotr Kardela, IPN Gdańsk). Among the editors of the last of the titles can be mentioned, among others. Stanisław Gierat, Tadeusz Katelbach and Zdzisław Stahl.
The last panel of the conference was devoted to the press of the frontier environments and published in the fresh World. Doctor Sebastian Drabik presented by Stanisław Cata-Mackiewicz the weekly “Lwów and Vilnius”, in which he besides published his texts ed. Marian Emil Rojek, from 1941 to 1946 serving as editor-in-chief of “Polish Thought”. Dr. Patrick Pleskot (IPN Warsaw, University of Rzeszów) presented the postwar Polish emigration press in Australia. Among the leading titles, the investigator listed in Melbourne "Tygodnik Polski" and published in Sydney "Polish News". Doctor Diana Maximiuk (IPN Białystok) She dedicated her speech to the “Polish Voice” in Buenos Aires, 1 of the longest-running titles of the Polish press in South America. The letter, the first issue of which was published in 1922, after the end of planet War II was supplied by colleagues from among the fresh wave of Polish emigration coming to Argentina. During this period, he joined the editorial board. Marian Seyda.
In the closing report, originally provided for in the ‘Varia’ section, Dr hab. Michał Polak from Koszalin University of Technology presented the magazine “Economicist of Poland” published in the UK. It was a body of the Association of Polish Economists in the United Kingdom, in which they published, among others: Adam Ciołkosz, S. Grabski and Adam Pragier. From 1941 onwards, the periodical prepared and discussed plans for post-war economical reconstruction of Poland. Among its key elements was the economical connectivity of the Polish pre-war lands with Silesia and Pomerania, the request for Poland to gain broad access to the Baltic coast and the improvement of inland waterway transport, including the full Odra run. In addition, the economical thought of rapprochement with Czechoslovakia was proposed.
The session concluded with a discussion after which Dr hab. Krzysztof Kaczmarski officially closed the conference on behalf of the organizers. He besides announced that all of the lectures given at the convention would be published in the post-conference publishing house.
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Fig. Mikołaj Bujak (IPN)
Think Poland, No. 43-44 (22-29.10.2023)
