This paper deals with the issue of the identity of Polish Armenians in Galicia. One of the characters in the text is a Polish- and Ruthenian-speaking Austrian baron, Polish patriot and Armenian-style landholder – Grzegorz Romaszkan. The Author attempts to prove that, in addition to traditional ethnic characteristics such as the language or religious practices, one can observe a number of more hidden relations and bonds among the Armenians of Galicia. Genealogy and the memory of their ancestors, as well as important family celebrations - such as weddings, baptisms, and burials – were the building blocks of the identity of this small minority. By virtue of their religious – and thus metaphysical – nature, they left a permanent mark on the memory and sense of identity – more so than other, more fleeting life experiences, especially as they gathered significant portions of small local Armenian communities in one place (a church or cemetery): the central figures of the celebrations (the newlyweds, newborn babies, the deceased) and the witnesses, as well as relatives near and far. Celebrations at home and church helped forge the bonds within the Armenian family and ethnic group. Other aspects that defined the identity of the community included the physical space – also in the sentimental sense of the word. The memory of the family home, the estate, the manor house, the cemetery holding the remains of loved ones – were at the roots of emotional attachment to places and people that was stronger than any professed ideologies and cultural socialization. The source material for this paper was derived from memoirs and Church documents (certificates of baptism, marriage, death, etc., censuses of the faithful).
This article is devoted to Jan, or Piotr, Romaszkiewicz, the Armenian, who worked at the royal office of the Vasa dynasty. To this day, there are lot of controversies about him, because of his dyplomatic and spy activities, on the orders of hetmans of Polish Crown. Romaszkiewicz was a dispatch rider assigned to many diplomatic missions; because of his excellent knowledge of Oriental languages he could accomplish them perfectly. He collaborated with Stanisław Koniecpolski and Mikołaj Potocki, passing them intelligence about Tatar and Turkish army. In an unknown way, he also helped to set free Polish captives from Turkish prison, eventually being imprisoned himself. Without doubt Romaszkiewicz contributed a lot to the relationship between Poland and The Crimean Khanate. Surely, this historical figure deserves more attention and research.
The author discusses the issue of the presence of the Holocaust in Edgar Hilsenrath’s novel “The Story of the Last Thought”. Hilsenrath is a Holocaust survivor, and that experience allows him to write about the Armenian genocide, but also affects the substance of his book. It turns out that one can notice similarities not only in the causes and process of each of the genocides, but also in the reaction of the world, which was one of silence. The author states that the silence about Armenian genocide has not been broken. This condition is one of the reasons for the absence of books about the Armenian genocide in the consciousness of readers and entire societies.
The text is an attempt to investiage the impact of Zbigniew Herbert’s Armenian grandmother on his ethical outlook on the world. While in his poetry and memoirs there are only few references to Maria of Bałabans and only one poem is entirely about her, contextual references to his grandmother can be traced in most of Herbert’s works and these further emphasise his moral outlook on the world. Furthermore, family memories also confirm the significance of the Armenian grandmother in Herbert’s private and literary life. A very important element of the relationship which brings together the poet and his grandmother is points he role of multiethnic Lviv with which his family had connections for centuries.
The Armenian community has been present in Poland since the 14th century. Their activity has aconstant impact on the development of Polish culture psychically and virtually speaking. The author refers to humanities and social scientific research methods. Based on her own research, she analyzes the publishing activities of the Foundation of Culture and Heritage of Polish Armenians. The Foundation focuses, among others on the digitization and other innovative methods of documents and artifacts. Contemporary flow of information allows to share various forms of publishing. New technologies play an increasingly important role in universal communication and social information.The Foundation of Culture and Heritage of Polish Armenians brings in new methods ofdocumentation and preservation of material artifacts and non-material culture. The quantitative and qualitative state of the available materials clearly indicates the expanding area of documenting the Armenian heritage in Poland.
The article presents an in‑depth register and short review of manuscripts related in any way to the Armenian community, chiefly written in the 18th century, which are preserved in the Ossoliński National Institute in Wrocław. The number of manuscripts, either directly concerning or recorded by Armenians, is 76. The significant majority of them regards the Lwów community, a dozen or so the community in Stanisławów, and only a few manuscripts concern other cities. The largest number of manuscripts in the Ossolineum Library is related to the Lwów Armenians, which seems natural considering the size of the Armenian community in that city and the central position of the Armenian Church in Lwów. The major part of the written material consists of liturgical and theological manuscripts, religious fraternities, registers of items and church expenses. Except for religious texts in this collection there are records of the Armenian community, codices describing the order of court cases of the Armenian community law, royal decrees concerning court cases translated into Armenian, as well as texts related to the Armenian law. The second Armenian community, as represented in the Ossolineum’s collection, were the Armenians of Stanisławów. There are 16 manuscripts either written within that community or directly relating to it. The most valuable of them would be the five volumes of the Armenian privilege law released in Stanisławów, or the vogt and town council books. The Ossoliński National Institute is most likely in possession of numerous other documents, not researched yet, which once belonged to private persons of Armenian descent.
This paper analyses the attitudes toward the Armenian Diaspora in early modern Polish society through a close examination of the issues viewed as burning by the contemporaries. The paper is focused on three such burning topics – a) the ‘price revolution’ and, in connection therewith, mercantilism; b) the growing level of consumption (“redundant luxury” – zbytek nierozmyślny) and the fears of social disorder aroused by it; and c) the Ottoman threat (real and imagined). The paper argues that there were a variety of discourses on the Armenians because the discourses were influenced by the different answers to the challenging issues presented by the representatives of various social estates – noblemen (szlachta), clergymen (duchowieństwo) and burghers (mieszczaństwo). Therefore, the attitudes to the Monophysite Armenians in Polish society were mostly shaped not as part of the Counter-Reformation agenda (as was the case with respect to Protestants and the GreekOrthodox), but rather within the framework of economic (mercantilism), social (consumption), and psychological/political (fears of the Ottoman threat) issues.
Jerusalem is one of the most important sites associated with monotheistic religions in the world; for the Armenian Apostolic Church it is a holy city, surb kaghak, whose significance for the Armenian community is indisputable even today. Here is situated the hajoc tagh - as the Armenian Quarter with its center at the Monastery of St. James is called - and it is also the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Seat of St. James; the head of the Patriarchate. For centuries, Jerusalem and its pilgrimage sites were the destinations of ukht, Armenian holy pilgrimage. Pilgrims (mahtes) attempted to complete a precisely planned itinerary of holy sites (tnorinakank). The text by Shimon of Lvov, an Armenian pilgrim from the beginning of the 17th century (who was also a contemporary of Kryštof Harant of Polžice and Bezdružice) and the one by the Italian traveler Pietro della Valle provide a view insight the Armenian quarter in Jerusalem right during the period of its great transformation. Within the canon of period Armenian literature and the history of the Armenian community in Jerusalem, Šimon Polský’s travel memoir remains the key reference work.
Diocesan schema constitute a valuable source of knowledge on various ecclesial, diocesan or monastic communities. These important publications were also drafted for Eastern Rite Catholic Churches. One of the most interesting documents, albeit largely unknown, is the Armenian Rite Archdiocese of Lviv schema prepared in 1939, currently stored within the Archdiocese Archive in Gniezno. The information contained within this document reference the period directly preceding the start of the Second World War, which for the Armenian Rite Archdiocese of Lviv was a time of sede vacante after the death of Archbishop Józef Teodorowicz. Thanks to data contained within the schema, it is possible to recreate an image of the Armenian Rite Archdiocese of Lviv, which in 1939 was divided into 3 deanaries (Lviv, Stanisławów and Kuck), 8 territorial parishes and 1 personal parish (for the military in Łowicz). It consisted of ca. 5300 followers and 25 clergymen, of which 17 worked directly as priests. The schema additionally supplies a lot of information related to rich Armenian history and culture, their input with regards to propagating education in the Eastern borderlands and to aiding those in need.
The article contains a catalogue of plots and motifs related to the genocide of the Armenians (committed by the Turks in the years 1915-1923) in Polish literature. The earliest work referring to this crime is Stefan Żeromski’s novel Przedwiośnie (1924), the latest one is Julia Hartwig’s poem Słodka Armenia w trzech przestrzeniach (2007). In Polish literature, the extermination of the Armenians is presented most often in the context of other tragic historical events, including wars and revolutions (Zofia Nałkowska’s Choucas), theextermination of the Jews during World War II (Bohdan Gębarski’s List do starego tureckiego znajomego, Włodzimierz Paźniewski’s Neurosa teutonica) and other acts of genocide (Wiktor Woroszylski’s Zagłada gatunków, Alina Margolis’s Moralność czasu Holokaustu). In communist Poland this tragedy was invoked mainly to enhance the “splendour” of contemporary Soviet Armenia (Igor Sikirycki’s poem Powitanie Armenii, the factual works: Andrzej Mandalian’s Notatki armeńskie, Ryszard Kapuścinski’s Wanik czyli druga Armenia, Monika Warneńska’s Ścieżką na Ararat). Among these works, a special one is Bohdan Gębarski’s Morituri. Opowieść o 1915 r., which is first and foremost a literary (fictionalized) attempt to boost awareness of theArmenian Genocide.
Analiza dyskursu publicznego na temat mniejszości religijnych w Turcji po nieudanej próbie zamachu stanu z 15 lipca 2016 roku Celem publikacji jest prześledzenie dyskursu publicznego dotyczącego mniejszości religijnych w Turcji po nieudanej próbie zamachu stanu z 15 lipca 2016 roku. Jakkolwiek polityka tego państwa, jak również społeczne postawy wobec tych grup zawsze budziły kontrowersje, a ich rzeczywiste położenie odbiegało od formalnego statusu, autorka tekstu zdecydowała się na postawienie hipotezy, że to właśnie nieudana próba zamachu stanu wpłynęła szczególnie znacząco na postrzeganie i traktowanie tych grup przez mass media i, co za tym idzie, turecką opinię publiczną. Celem analizy jest więc prześledzenie wybranych treści medialnych i odpowiedź na pytanie o to, jak po-zamachowa rzeczywistość wypływa na sytuację osób należących do tych grup. Osiągnięciu tego celu służy zastosowanie szeregu metod badawczych specyficznych dla nauk społecznych, w tym nauki o polityce, jak również odwołania do źródeł polsko-, angielsko- i tureckojęzycznych, będące warunkiem rzetelnej analizy zjawisk, których tekst dotyczy.
The main objective of this paper is to present the national and religious heritage of the Eastern Borderlands in contemporary Poland. The paper deals with the genesis and selected aspects of the spatial development of the ethnic and religious minorities (mainly Tartars-Muslims, Karaites and Armenians) that date back to the eastern areas of the former Republic (including the territories of Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine) but, due to the post-war border changes and migrations, formed clusters in contemporary Poland and organized various forms of group life.
The article concerns poetry of Sándor Kányádi, one of the most famous and influential Hungarian writers from Transylvania. The main purpose of the article is to analyse the political persecution of the communist dictatorship in Romania against Hungarian writers and to estimate the meaning of the period of political changes 1989/90. The author interprets the poem Armenian gravestones from the collection Mane and skull, in which Kányádi gave up his earlier idyllic poetics and chose a poetry of bitter consciousness of the world’s constant change. In the interpretation of the poems, the author focuses on explaning a few crucial terms as for example: „Transylvanian landscape”, decline of memory about national minorities and homeland in the poetry of Kányádi.
PL
Artykuł został poświęcony potransformacyjnej poezji jednego znajważniejszych twórców węgierskich w Siedmiogrodzie, Sándorowi Kányádiemu. Autorka analizuje sytuację polityczną dyktatury komunistycznej w Rumunii wobec pisarzy węgierskich i odwilż kulturalną w latach 1989/90. Tekst został oparty na analizie wiersza Ormiańskie nagrobki z tomu Grzywai czaszka, w którym dotychczasowa poetyka idylliczna została zastąpiona poetyką gorzkiej świadomości zmieniającego się świata. W interpretacji wiersza skupiono się na wykazaniu znaczenia takich pojęć jak „krajobraz siedmiogrodzki”, zanikanie pamięci o mniejszościach narodowych, „ojcowizna” w poezji S. Kányádiego.
Stanisław Vincenz (1888–1971) is famous Polish writer. His bigges twork is novel Na wysokiej połoninie. It is about different cultures onsouth-east old Poland. There were different ethnic groups on this land.Article says about Armenians in Vincenz’s work.
There have been numerous publications on genocide, which provides evidence that this topic is up-to-date, important and still insufficiently researched. The author of the legal concept of "genocide " is Rafał Lemkin, a Polish scholar of Jewish nationality: "Father of Genocide Convention". In 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a convention on the prevention and punishment of genocide crime. During the hundred years (1894-1995), genocide repeatedly occurred in Central and Eastern Europe. The greatest genocide in human history is the extermination of the Jews (the Holocaust). The author also recalls the genocide of the Armenians (1894-1915) in the Ottoman Empire (although it goes beyond Central and Eastern Europe and Russia). There were numerous genocide cases in the Soviet Union, and it is only about them that it is possible to accumulate substantial literature. Namely, the author reminds: the Cossacks genocide following the Bolshevik revolution; genocide in the countryside in connection with the collectivization process; Great Famine in Ukraine; the extermination of entire national minorities (so-called national operations 1937-1938); the most massive such operation was the "Polish operation." The author also recalls genocide in the countries of former Yugoslavia: especially in the fascist so-called Independent Croatian State [Nezavisna Država Hrvatska - NDH). The genocide of Ukrainian nationalists on Poles (1943-1946) closes the text. The article describes the largest genocidal operations carried out in Central and Eastern Europe over the course of a century and outlines their historical and political background, the manner in which they were carried out and their relationship with the international law and individual national regulations in force at the time.
PL
Ogromna jest literatura na temat ludobójstwa. Dowodzi to jak temat jest nadal aktualny, ważny i wciąż niedostatecznie zbadany. Twórcą pojęcia prawnego „ludobójstwo-genocyd” jest Rafał Lemkin, uczony polski narodowości żydowskiej: „Father of genocide Convention”. W 1948 r. Zgromadzenie Ogólne ONZ przyjęło konwencję w sprawie zapobiegania i karania zbrodni ludobójstwa. W ciągu stu lat (1894-1995) w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej ludobójstwo miało miejsce wielokrotnie. Największe ludobójstwo w historii ludzkości to Zagłada Żydów (Holokaust). Autor przypomina także ludobójstwo Ormian (1894-1915) w Imperium Osmańskim (mimo że to wykracza poza terytorium Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej i Rosji). W Związku Radzieckim były liczne przypadki ludobójstwa, tylko w stosunku do nich można zgromadzić pokaźną literaturę. Mianowicie autor przypomina: ludobójstwo Kozaków po rewolucji bolszewickiej; ludobójstwo „kułaków” w związku z kolektywizacją rolnictwa; Wielki Głód na Ukrainie; wyniszczanie całych mniejszości narodowych (tzw. operacje narodowościowe 1937-1938); największą taką operacją była „operacja polska”. Autor przypomina także ludobójstwo w krajach byłej Jugosławii: zwłaszcza w faszystowskim tzw. Niezależnym Państwie Chorwackim [Nezavisna Država Hrvatska – NDH). Ludobójstwo nacjonalistów Ukraińskich na Polakach (1943-1946) zamyka tekst. Artykuł opisuje największe operacje ludobójcze przeprowadzone w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej na przestrzeni wieku oraz nakreśla ich podłoże historyczno-polityczne, sposób przeprowadzenia oraz ich relacje w stosunku do obowiązującego w danych czasie prawa międzynarodowego i poszczególnych uregulowań krajowych.
Article is about Armenian history in 20th century. Author concentrate on main subject: Armenian Genocide between 1915 and 1920 in Turkey; Armenians trouble in USSR; Armenian minority in Lebanon, France, USA, Poland and Turkey; Armenian Independence.
PL
W artykule przedstawiono historię Ormian w XX w. Skoncentrowano się na następujących zagadnieniach: Ludobójstwo Ormian w Turcji w latach 1915–1920; problemy Ormian w ZSRR, skupiska Ormian w Libanie, Francji, Stanach Zjednoczonych, Polsce oraz Turcji; niepodległość Armenii.
Article concentrates mainly on the period before the Armenian genocide of 1915–1916, when the negative stereotype of the Turk as an ancestral enemy had not yet been so firmly ingrained as today. I am operating on the assumption that this stereotype, today presented as at least 900 years old and vigorously supported by Armenian propaganda, dates in reality from the early 20th century, probably originally concerning the category of Muslims in general and later the ethnic category of Kurds. I am looking for support for my hypothesis about the originally non-ethnically motivated image of the Muslim or of the economically defined category of the Kurd (nomad) with respect to the perception of Armenian authors in the texts of Armenian chronicles from the 16th till 18th centuries from the region of Van. Armenians there constituted the most populous minority in the Ottoman Empire while living in an extremely multicultural environment. The chronicles show a great variety of attitudes towards the category of Muslims and Heretics generally depending on the author, and they also provide an interesting anthropological excursion into the life of the local population.
Archbishop Jozef Teodorowicz (1864–1938), Ordinary of the Armenian Archdiocese of Lviv, was a respected preacher, author of theological works and a patriot active in many areas of religious and social life in Poland. The hierarch amassed an impressive private library of several thousand volumes in Polish, Latin, German, French and other languages. The collection of old prints, including rare Armenian-language publications and manuscripts, was of particular value. The book collection constituted a workshop for the ambitious priest, preacher and writer, and later archbishop, as well as shaped his views on socio-political issues. The archbishop successively expanded and complemented the library's resources throughout his life, keeping abreast of the book and antiquarian market both in Poland and abroad. The subject matter of the book collection varied. The largest group included religious publications, primarily representing various branches of theology: biblical studies, theology of spirituality, dogmatic theology, moral theology, liturgy, apologetics, and canon law. Several hundred works were devoted to the life of Jesus Christ, Mariology and hagiography. Interestingly, the authors of the theological works (mostly biblical commentaries) included representatives of various factions of Protestantism, Orthodox Christians and rabbis. J. Teodorowicz’s library also contained many publications of fiction by both Polish and foreign authors, as well as philosophical treatises, studies of Church history and general history, political science, culture, and art history. The book collection also included many works on psychology and the education and formation of youth. During World War II, the library of Archbishop J. Teodorowicz was fragmented and dispersed. Part of the collection was destroyed by Soviet soldiers quartered in the archbishop’s palace in Lviv, and the surviving books were deposited in 1940 at the Lviv branch of the Library of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (the former Ossoliński National Institute). Fragments of the preserved book collection are currently in several institutions in Ukraine and Poland.
PL
Arcybiskup Józef Teodorowicz (1864-1938), ordynariusz archidiecezji ormiańskiej we Lwowie, był cenionym kaznodzieją, autorem prac teologicznych i patriotą aktywnym na wielu płaszczyznach życia religijnego i społecznego w Polsce. Hierarcha zgromadził imponującą prywatną bibliotekę, liczącą kilkanaście tysięcy woluminów w języku polskim, łacińskim, niemieckim, francuskim i innych. Niezwykle cenna była kolekcja starodruków, w tym rzadkie wydawnictwa i rękopisy w języku ormiańskim. Księgozbiór stanowił dla ambitnego kapłana, kaznodziei i pisarza, a później arcybiskupa warsztat pracy pisarskiej oraz kształtował poglądy na tematy społeczno-polityczne. Arcybiskup sukcesywnie powiększał i uzupełniał bibliotekę przez całe życie, śledząc na bieżąco rynek księgarski i antykwaryczny zarówno w Polsce, jak i za granicą. Tematyka księgozbioru była zróżnicowana. Największą grupę stanowiły wydawnictwa religijne, przede wszystkim reprezentujące różne gałęzie teologii: biblistykę, teologię duchowości, teologię dogmatyczną, moralną, liturgikę, apologetykę, a także prawo kanoniczne. Kilkaset dzieł poświęconych było życiu Jezusa Chrystusa, mariologii i hagiografii. Co ciekawe, wśród autorów dzieł teologicznych (przeważnie komentarzy biblijnych) znajdowali się przedstawiciele różnych odłamów protestantyzmu, prawosławni oraz rabini. W bibliotece J. Teodorowicza znajdowało się również wiele wydawnictw z literatury pięknej zarówno autorów polskich, jak i zagranicznych, a także rozpraw filozoficznych, opracowań z historii Kościoła i historii powszechnej, politologii, kultury, historii sztuki. Na księgozbiór składało się również wiele prac poświęconych psychologii oraz wychowaniu i formacji młodzieży. W okresie II wojny światowej biblioteka abp. J. Teodorowicza uległa zdekompletowaniu i rozproszeniu. Część zbiorów zniszczyli żołnierze sowieccy zakwaterowani w pałacu arcybiskupim we Lwowie, a ocalałe książki zdeponowano w 1940 roku w Lwowskiej Filii Biblioteki Akademii Nauk Ukraińskiej Socjalistycznej Sowieckiej Republiki (dawny Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich). Fragmenty zachowanego księgozbioru znajdują się aktualnie w kilku instytucjach na Ukrainie i w Polsce.
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