Keywords: Red Army; Penal Battalions; Wiktorowicz; memoirs
Penal battalions functioned in every army. Building on Władimir W. Wiktorowicz memoirs I show how did the Red Army’s penal battalions function. I analyzed the penal battalion soldiers’ deal of their service and faith in their duty.
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Keywords: kords; combat knives; medieval arms; Late Middle Ages; Ukraine; Central and Eastern Europe
This article continues the authors’ preliminary research in the history of weapons within the territory of modern Ukraine and is dedicated to the introduction of three kords with a bayonet-shaped blade into the scientific circulation. Combined in this publication on the basis of a specific structure of the blade, they are quite peculiar and extraordinary specimens of combat knives dating from the period between the 15th and the early 16th centuries.
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Keywords: Indica; Ctesias; India; literary images
Indica of Ctesias is a priceless material for research into the perception of distant lands in the Greeks, or the shaping of literary images.
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Keywords: Parthian military; sword; Bonyad-e Mostazafan Museum; Iran
This study is going to introduce one of the unique and less known Parthian sword which have not been released to public for purpose of exhibit and study so far.
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Keywords: Lori; Old Persian; Pahlav; Middle Persian; Polish; language; God; brother; high; earth
In general the Slavic languages has a lot in common with old Iranian languages. As Polish language and some Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family. The similarity between two languages seems to be possible. This brief note could give new insight in Indo European cultural relations.
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Keywords: The Čāhārbāzār site; Bačun; city; garden; Sasanian period; Farāšband; Iran
As a result of field survey and remote sensing of aerial photo and satellite imagery, a large archaeological site, probably belonging to the Sasanian period, was identified in Farāšband. This site covers an area of 14.4 square kilometers, very regular and walled, implanted on virgin land. The initial survey shows that it was probably a large geometric city consists of six large almost rectangular shape sections. Based on the archaeological evidence, this site has never been completed nor filled with population and had some gardens.
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Keywords: Iran; Māhūr Tomb; Khuzestan; Parthian period; Sasanian period; Mithra
Tomb of Māhūr is located at a village called Mahur Berenji, district of Sardasht a part of Dezfūl, Khuzestan province, Southern Iran. This tomb has been discovered by Karamian and Astraki in 2018. There is a four-legged cross symbol in the above part of the tomb entrance.
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Keywords: Fortress; Defensive Fortifications; Sasanian Period; Iran; Linear Walls
Defensive structures have been applied as the permanent elements of the Iranian urbanism, from the first phases of sedentism in the Neolithic period onwards. Following the Iranian tradition in architecture, Sasanian fortifications having local features were constructed in adaptation with the regional circumstances. Nevertheless, we can find some similarities in the components of the defensive installations. The defensive structures located within the Sasanian territory turned Iran into the unconquerable fortress providing Sasanians with military, political, cultural, and economic dominance over a vast area of the ancient world for more than four centuries.
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Keywords: Holy War; Christianity; Icons; Iconoclasm; Paganism; Jihad; Valhalla; Elysian Fields; Rome; Roman Army; Byzantium; Byzantine Army; Strategikon; Leo the Wise
The article analyses the development of the holy war in East Rome from its beginning until the 11th century. The article takes the stance that it is meaningless what the official religious doctrine was when the soldiers themselves believed and followed the doctrine of holy war which promised a place in heaven for all fallen soldiers.
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Keywords: lamellae; armour; Penjikent; Sogdiana; Central Asia
This article analyses the lamellae discovered in the Tajik village of Kuktoš in the territory of the mediaeval part of the city of Penjikent, published by F.Š. Aminov in Petersburg in 2017 and currently held in archives of the Historical Museum of Ancient Penjikent. This item, which dates to the pre-Mongol, most likely Karakhanid, period, provides an opportunity to look again on some already published finds of lamellar plates from Central Asia. It gives a chance to look again on the problem of the armour used by Mongols during their conquest of Asia and Eastern Europe.
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Keywords: European History; International Law; Empire; Colonialism; Civilization
The modern international law is considered an offshoot of European intellectual contributions as its basic foundation is deeply imbued with the political and social upheavals took place in European history. As an example, the Westphalian order emerged in the culmination of thirty years war in 1648 was regarded as the most pivotal mile stone in modern history of international law. Yet the European domination and its intellectual contribution to the development of international law systematically excluded non-European nations from international law and its protection, which finally paved the path to use international law in the 19th century as a tool of legitimizing the colonial expansion. This paper seeks to trace the historiography of modern international law and its dubious nature of disdaining non-Europeans and their civilizational thinking. Furthermore, this paper argues how European historical encounters carved the map of international law from a vantage point, which gave an utter prominence upon the European intellectual monopoly. The results emerge from this paper will strongly suggest the need of an alternative scholarship to unveil the history of international law.
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Keywords: Jewish Students; Lviv Polytechnic; until 1939; statistical statement
The aim of this paper is presentation some statistical data on Jews studying at the Lviv Polytechnic until 1939. Also, the question of Jewish women – students of the Lviv Polytechnic, has been examined. The Author have touched upon a completely new research area which is women’s education in the broadly-defined technical field at the turn of the 19th and 20th century.
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Keywords: Zaolzie; Spiš; Orava; the Polish-Czechoslovakian conflict; periodicals; Siedlce
The paper touches upon the theme of how the provincial press in Poland commented on the Polish-Czechoslovakian conflict over Cieszyn Silesia, Spiš and Orava. The timespan covers a few months in 1938 and 1939 - from the time Hitler made his claims towards Czechoslovakia until the moment the state was dismantled. The author has focused on presenting the Polish-Czechoslovakian relations as reported by the press published in Siedlce, a district town located in the centre of pre-war Poland. At that time four periodicals were published there. The analysis of these publications has allowed the author to determine that the editors informed their readers about the situation of the disputed territories on a regular basis. The editors tried to make their message more attractive by posting photos or accounts by special correspondents. They built among its readers a negative image of the Czechoslovakian state, which was presented as an artificial creation where the rights of national minorities were not respected. The incorporation of these lands into Poland was presented as a symbol of historical justice. The press also played an important part in mobilising the local community to act for fellow countrymen from the lands being the object of the Polish-Czechoslovakian dispute. However, it did not recognise the growth of Slovakian independence activities, which were important for the internal affairs of Poland’s southern neighbour.
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Keywords: Iran; Sasanian; History
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Keywords: Middle Ages; Christianity; Kyivan Rus’; Byzantium; funeral rites; princely burials
The spread of Christianity in the lands of Kyivan Rus caused radical, but not rapid, changes in the religious, philosophical, and mental worldviews of contemporary society. Funeral rites were a significant factor in which the feature of the spiritual transformation of local societies was reflected. The proposed study is devoted to the peculiarities of the Christian funeral rite and ceremony in the lands of Kyivan Rus’ and the Galician-Volhynian state, which are covered in written sources of the time. Therefore, the upper chronological date of the study is the XIV century. Their elaboration and systematization led to the construction of the article in a linear way – starting with pre-death, and then post-mortem preparations, directly funeral and memorial service. The analysis and generalization of the funeral rite, characteristic for the Christian Orthodox tradition as a whole, is carried out. At the same time, their separate local elements are highlighted. Some comparisons and parallels between the Rus’ and Byzantine funeral traditions were made.
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Keywords: Kingdom of Kongo; Dethronement; Violence; Christianity; Ideology of Power; Bernardo II
The article presents a spectacular occurrence of violence in Kongo during the first half of the 17th century related to power struggles, shown mainly on the example of Bernardo II being dethroned by Álvaro III. Executing rivals in such a striking fashion was both meant as a warning to potential rebels against taking similar actions, and as a way to emphasize the monarch’s power. Christianity played also important role in Kongolese ideology of royal power, which obviously did not exclude referring to pre-Christian customs. Despite such actions, the Kongolese monarchs did not manage to gain full control of the territory during the first half of the 17th century or to counteract the revolts.
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Keywords: Josaphat Kuntsevych; Biała Podlaska; Uniate Orthodox Church; interculturalism; cult of relics; Slavia unita
The article describes the history of the relics and cult of Josaphat Kuntsevych in Biała Podlaska (ca. 1705-1915) in terms of their significance for the creation of cultural space. After the relics had been transported from Polatsk to Biała Podlaska, they were kept in the chapel of Radziwill Castle, and then from 1764 they were displayed in the Basilian Orthodox church. The analysis of visual forms, musical culture, and religious practices demonstrated the readiness of the Uniate community to adapt and absorb cultural phenomena. The activity of the Basilians contributed to the transmission of elite culture to the whole society. The creation of the cult did not cause barriers for any groups to act either as creators or as recipients. Josaphat Kuntsevych gained popularity among people of different social status, believers of Greek and Latin rites; he was not identified with any ethnic group or nationality.
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Keywords: History; Vilnius; Artillery School; School of Military Engineering; technical schools
The beginnings of a stable system of technical troops in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth date back to the second half of the 18th century, and the key role in this process was played by the artillery general Alois Friedrich von Brühl. The first specialist technical schools were established in Warsaw and Vilnius. General Brühl gathered a team of eminent specialists, thus guaranteeing the highest professional standard of the future graduates. The Aim of the Article is to present attempts at introducing specialist military education in Vilnius in the last years of the 18th century.
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Keywords: Kingdom of Poland; customs administration; Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Finance; clerk
In 1851 the Kingdom of Poland was placed under the Russian customs jurisdiction, which resulted in the emergence of the Russian customs administration. For the system to function properly, the selection of appropriately trained clerical staff was needed. Moreover, the functioning of the customs administration in the consecutive years was only possible thanks to permanent full staffing of customs offices. The research into archival sources made it possible to analyze the personnel policy conducted in the Kingdom of Poland by the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Finance in the Russian Empire. As it turned out, the customs administration, despite being Russian in structure, was dominated by clerks of Polish origin and Roman Catholic denomination. Furthermore, the Russian authorities tried to rely on employees experienced in working for the customs offices operating in the Kingdom of Poland before 1851.
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Keywords: Gypsies; Polish Socialist Party; Roma people; Socialist Press; The Second Polish Republic
The publication discusses the Polish Socialist Party's (PPS) attitude to Gypsies and the Gypsy question in the interwar period from 1918 to 1939. An extensive search of the PPS press, including around 1600 articles on the Gypsy population, has shown that this issue also interested the PPS. However, the socialists had a decidedly negative attitude to Gypsies. This was conditioned by the fact that the party found itself in opposition to the government camp, which supported the aspirations of Gypsy kings from the Kwiek clan, and it was with them that the PPS identified Gypsies. Secondly, the strong ideologization of the party's press, based among other things on the cult of work, led to a rejection of the lifestyle of the majority of Gypsies, who represented a nomadic and semi-nomadic culture of life.
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