Profesor m.in. Szkoły Głównej Planowania i Statystyki (rektor w latach 1952-1955), Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego. Ekonomista, statystyk, działacz polityczny i społeczny. Podstawowym jego dziełem z zakresu statystyki jest praca pt. „Teoria statystyki”. Członek rzeczywisty PAN, Międzynarodowego Instytutu Statystycznego, Międzynarodowego Towarzystwa Ekonometrycznego. Twórca ekonometrii, pełnił funkcję redaktora naczelnego „Econometrica”. Jego dorobek naukowy obejmuje prace z zakresu ekonomii politycznej, polityki ekonomicznej, statystyki, zastosowań matematyki. Do najważniejszych prac należą m.in. „Teoria statystyki” (1952), „Wstęp do ekonometrii”(1958), „Ekonomia polityczna” (1959), „Optymalne decyzje”(1964), „Wstęp do cybernetyki”(1965).
Profesor Szkoły Głównej Gospodarstwa Wiejskiego i rektor tej uczelni (1926-1928). Polityk narodowej demokracji, ekonomista i historyk, minister skarbu oraz dwukrotny premier II RP. Auto reformy walutowej. Członek i kierownik wielu towarzystw naukowych m.in. Prezes Towarzystwa Ekonomistów i Statystyków Polskich (1928-1934), Towarzystwa Naukowego Warszawskiego. Prezes Towarzystwa Nauczycieli Szkół Średnich i Wyższych. Autor około 150 prac, dotyczących zagadnień ze sfery ekonomii, bankowości, nauk politycznych, agronomii społecznej, historii i socjologii wsi. Prace „Wieś i folwark” (1930) oraz „Historia wsi w Polsce” (1930) do dziś są wysokiej wartości.
Biographers of Maria Skłodowska-Curie, characterizing her features of personality, underline her pragmatism, consequence in action and logical mind. Her studies in the fields of mathematics, physics and chemistry developed these features of personality and, at the same time, paved her way to achievements on the world’s scale.
Professor Doctor habilitatus h.c.h.c. Z.H. Hellwig was born on 26 May 1925 in the small town of Dokszyce, not far from Wilno. Both of his parents were teachers. His father, Henry Hellwig, taught German and his mother taught Mathematics. Prof. Z. Hellwig was educated at King Zygmunt August Gimnazjum in Wilno. However his secondary school graduation certificate (’matura’ in Polish) he only obtained after the Second World War in Wrocław, in 1947. In the same year he enrolledin the Wyższa Szkoła Ekonomiczna (University of Economics) in Wrocław, from which he graduated in 1950 with a Bachelor’s Degree.
The increasing number of migrations is the main quality of modern society. Formerly, migration was a single action of leaving one’s country of origin, aimed at settling in a new place. Nowadays, migration should be described as a mobility that is a repeated change of the country of residence and a temporary stay in a new place. The status of mobility has a huge influence on modifying personal identity through the experience of life in different cultures. The article indicates the reasons for educational mobility and its consequences for personal biography. The change of self-definitions influences the further personal process of life.
This article aims to present the intellectual work of a prominent Karaite scholar, Solomon ben Aaron’s (of Poswol, Wilna and Troki), who was a man of great knowledge and extensive reading, including rabbinic literature. He was born in Poswol before 1665, and died in Troki in 1745 at an age exceeding 80 years. Solomon was the author of many religious writings and polemical tracts about Karaite practices and customs, such as ʾAppiryon ʿaśa lo, Migdal ʿoz, Raḵ wa-ṭoḇ, Ḥanoḵ lan-na᷾ar and Laḥem šeʿarim (known as Leḥem śeʿorim). He also wrote poems. Solomon b. Aaron was head of a Karaite Bet-Din (in Wilna), as well as a religious head of the Lithuanian Karaites. Of his private life hardly anything is known. Due to lack of data one cannot give a full picture of his life; the article thus compiles information gathered from various Hebrew texts. Alongside Karaite literature, the article employs recent findings into Karaism to verify information within the Karaite texts.
The biography became a controversial book before it even began to appear in bookshops. The review, thus, discusses not only its content, composition and inconsistencies but also potential reasons for the negative response of the protagonist and some of his family. As it turns out, Katarzyna Kubisiowska’s book arouses controversies for several reasons: firstly, it seems to be written mainly to meet the market needs, and secondly, it concerns a person who is close to the author. Above all, however, the book shows the protagonist in a bed light without giving him an opportunity to speak for himself, which is even more poignant in the case of a writer who hides behind the masks of literature.
Artykuł dotyczy postaci pisarza, autora prozy niesamowitej, określanego mianem „polskiego Hoffmanna”. O rysie życia Sztyrmera – wydawałoby się – wiele już powiedziano. Tym bardziej że jego pisarstwo miało także walor autobiograficzny. Tylko w niewielkim stopniu tekst ten odnosi się do hasła osobowego „Sztyrmer Ludwik”, zamieszczonego w jednym z tomów „Polskiego słownika biograficznego”, i hasło to, jako ułomne, było pretekstem do podjęcia wysiłku kwerendalnego w archiwach. Artykuł wprowadza szereg nowych informacji dotyczących Sztyrmera, jego sytuacji rodzinnej (wiadomości o rodzicach i dziadkach, o licznym rodzeństwie, zarówno rodzonym, jak i przyrodnim z pierwszego małżeństwa matki, o krewnych wzmiankowanych we wspomnieniach). Naświetlona także została kwestia małżeństwa oraz potomków pisarza, ustalone imiona i faktyczne daty życia.
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The article concerns the figure of a writer, an author of unusual prose, referred to as “a Polish Hoffmann.” Sztyrmer’s life, as it may seem, has been subject of many discussions, and more than that since his writing had also autobiographical valour. The present paper only in a slight degree refers to “Sztyrmer Ludwik” entry placed in one volume of “Polski słownik biograficzny” (“Polish Biographical Dictionary”), and this entry, as defective, became an excuse to start an intensive archive search query. The paper introduces a set of new pieces of information about Sztyrmer, his family commitments (data on his parents and grandparents, on numerous siblings, both whole and half, i.e. from his mother’s first marriage, on his relatives mentioned in his memories). Light is also shed on the issue of Sztyrmer’s marriage and his descendants, established names, and real dates of his life.
In the article author deals with the activities and attitudes of Andrej Kmeť in an early phase of his life, i. e. the period of his theological studies in Esztergom (1861‐1865) and of his chaplaincy service in Senohrad (1865‐1868). The author analyses a contemporary correspondence and focuses primarily on his publicistic writings from this period. Main attention of the author is paid to Kmeť’s views on the Slovak clerical‐literary school presented on the Seminary in Esztergom. The author briefly describes history of this organization as well as Kmeť’s activities within it. The fact that in Esztergom Kmeť identified with the Slovak National Movement was substantial for his further life. The analysis from the period in Senohrad focuses on two Kmeť’s publicistic texts. The one of them deals with the role of a clericus within the frame of the Slovak National Movement, the other one with duties of a clericus within farming development in his community. Kmeť practically realised these theoretical bases partly in Senohrad and fully during his service in Krnišov. Yet as far back as in Senohrad Kmeť launched some activities which were also characteristic for his further work (e.g. establishing libraries, gathering folk art collections).
The history of major Alexander Iwanski is associated with Tarnow and its neighbourhood for almost 150 years. First documented sign of his family, left in the birth certificate books, occurred in the Matrimony Register in 1805 and it was connected with Jan Kanty Iwanski and Franciszka Loszowska's wedding. The oldest son of this marriage Jan Kanty Junior and the grandson Franciszek Ksawery were on duty for many years as forest rangers. The first of them was a ranger in Jastrzabka Nowa near Zasow and the second one in Leki Gorne below Tarnow. Alexander Iwanski was born in 1892 in Dabie (near Mielec). His parents were Jan Tadeusz (the son of Franciszek Iwanski) a teacher in Tarnow and Rozalia from the Jaklinski family. After graduating from the Junior High School in Tarnow and beginning legal studies at Jagiellonian University in Cracow in 1914, Alexander Iwanski was conscripted to Austrian army. He served military service in the 56th Austrian infantry regiment fighting on a Russian, Romanian and Italian front. He also trained the soldiers in a reserve reeve in Kielce. Alexander Iwanski took part in gorlicka campaign in which the 56th Austrian infantry regiment fought for the Pustka Hill. At the end of May 1915, near Krakowiec, Alexander was seriously hurt in head and stayed in hospital in Vienna. For his military service and bravery he was honoured with Austrian distinctions: the Great Silver Bravery Order of the First Class and the Charles Military Cross. In 1918 he was on the Italian front as an officer and took part in the creation of the 12th Infantry Regiment of Wadowice. After returning with his army to Wadowice he was appointed to be the first aide-de-camp in the headquarters district Wadowice. After marrying Zofia Waligorska – the daughter of Franciszek Waligorski (retired post office cashier) his later duty was connected with the commissary. Zofia and Alexander Iwanscy had four children: Krystyna, Adam, Danuta and Andrzej. In the years 1919-1939 Alexander Iwanski took active part in the military service of the Officers Corps Commissary in Brzesc by the river Bug, in Grodno, Lodz, Warsaw, Bialystok, Katowice and Kielce. He had directional functions in all of the commissary divisions. After finishing the Commissary High School in 1925 in Warsaw, he had the military service in Lwow for six years. His brother Franciszek often visited him at that time. Franciszek was a pilot-observant and served in the 6th air regiment in Sknilowo near Lwow. For the last four years before the World War II Alexander Iwanski was the Director of the Receiving Group with the degree of the Major Commissary. His family spent a lot of months and sometimes even years with his grandparents Waligorscy in Wadowice. In 1937 the Iwanski family moved to Wadowice forever and their children Danuta and Adam continued learning in the local schools. After the broke out of the World War II and the evacuation to the West, major Alexander Iwanski served military service in France and in England (Scotland). In 1946 he returned home to his family. He died on 11th June 1965 in Krosno.
Professor Ján Svetoň (1905 – 1966), born in Romania, ranks thanks to his work in the field of science and activities on various positions among the leading Slovak cultural and public protagonists who at the end of the World War II contributed to the increased understanding of the development of Slovakia and its inhabitants. He was the co‐founder of the newer Slovak and Czechoslovak historical demography. His numerous papers and monographs are focused on demographic, historical, economic and socio‐cultural structure of the Slovak society and the Slovak emigration from 18th to 20th century. He was active as a scholar, pedagogue and citizen from 1930s to the mid‐1960s. From 1944 till 1951 he was a researcher and from 1949 a chairman of the Slovak Planning and Statistical Office. In the years 1947 – 1948 he was a member of the resettlement and re‐slovakizational commission which was dealing with the difficult relationships between Slovakia and Hungary. From 1952 he worked at the University of Economics and later became its vice‐chancellor. This paper tries to clarify these aspects of his life and introduce brief survey of his professional production.
The article addresses the texts of laments, biographies of lamenters, and the context of customs related to lamenting. The analysed biographies and songs of lamentation were gathered between 2000 and 2013 (Ermakov 2011; 2014: 16–24) and represent the traditions of Ardatovo district of the Republic of Mordovia. The Mordvins are a Finno-Ugric people living in Russia, who have a republic of their own within the Russian Federation (26,200 km2), with Saransk as its capital. The respondents were born in the late 1920s and early 1930s. For the sake of comparison, representatives of a younger generation born between 1964 and 1980 were also interviewed. All of them live in the countryside. The biographies of lamenters and texts of songs of lamentation provide an overview of the cultural and historical environment of the period. Among other things, the article presents observations on religious taboos concerned with the recording of these songs. Lamenters in their immediate environment are also described. The article aims to discuss lamenting, songs of lamentation, and the living environment of lamenters, focusing on the biographical aspects contained in these songs. As a song of lamentation is a traditional form of expressing sorrow and mourning, it is a genre with poetically quite well-developed representation language. At the same time, a song of lamentation is linked to the person’s stages of life and is always personalized, which justifies viewing the tradition of lamenting from the biographical perspective. The first part of the article introduces the material for analysis, recorded during field studies, and provides an overview of Mordvin, particularly Erzya lamenting tradition. The second part of the article describes lamenters through their biographies told by themselves, and stories recorded during field studies, and analyses the artistic language of the songs of lamentation, highlighting the connection of the poetics developed over centuries (i.e. the collective common language) with historical and personal specifics. The article concludes with an overview of a present-day performance of songs of lamentation, which, in its turn, can be interpreted as the life story of the lamenting tradition. Only few diaries, letters, and other documents about lamenters or those who know traditions have been preserved in Mordovia. Due to the scarcity of sources, biographical research as well as autobiographical stories have been somewhat overlooked so far. However, it is through biographical research that we can see the reflection of society’s life: developments, changes, accepting one’s fate, making compromises, etc. Field studies proved to be irreplaceable for the preservation of such material.
Anzelm Anton Pilarek came from a Polish Silesian family living in Laurahütte near Katowice. As a young boy, he fled to Poland in 1919, where he participated in the Polish-Bolshevik war. Released from the army, he returned to the German Silesia and engaged in various jobs on the edge of the law. In 1936, he was arrested for having insulted Reich Minister Göbbels and sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment. He was not released, as he was sent as a criminal prisoner to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Exercising the function of vorarbeiter and untercapo in the ‘wooden yard’ of the DAW kommando, he committed numerous crimes against his fellow inmates, whom he beat, tortured and killed. He inspired fear among prisoners and had the reputation of a sadist. In 1944 he was compulsorily conscripted into the Dirlewanger Brigade, but he escaped during his transport to Minsk. After the war, Anzelm Pilarek was captured by the British and deported to Poland. Witnesses’ confessions during the investigation and trials irrefutably proved his guilt and on 18 June 1949 he was sentenced to death by the Regional Court in Wadowice. His execution took place in the Wadowice prison.
Article presents the effects of research on life trajectories of young middle class representatives confronted with flexible working conditions. The research was based on collecting life-stories with representatives of different fractions of the middle class. Two different trajectories of the middle class are identified. The differences concern the character of link between education and labor market, stability of labor relations and possibilieties of carrier planning. Analysis of middle class trajectories enables to present the complexity of flexible life and working conditions when it comes both to structural features and the character of personal experiences.