Blessed Rafał Chyliński
Błogosławiony Rafał Chyliński
Keywords: blessed; Rafał Chyliński;John Paul II;
More...Keywords: blessed; Rafał Chyliński;John Paul II;
More...Keywords: Jewish schools; Jewish secular culture; Yiddish; shte
The YIVO Archive in New York contains a number of letters from the years 1926–1927, which were sent by students of the Yiddish Teachers’ Seminary in Vilnius to its director, Abraham Gołomb. In this correspondence they describe the conditions of their new workplace and the character of work in their particular school, whilst also giving unique information about life in the shtetl and social relations there. In this article I try to reconstruct the life of a secular Jewish school with Yiddish as a medium of instruction in Wysokie Litewskie by using letters written by three teachers from a school there: Eugeniush Braude, Mordukh Kahanowitsh and Eydla Segalovitsh.
More...Keywords: Jesus Christ; history; past; present;civilization;
The figure of Jesus Christ is firmly etched in the history and human consciousness. For some Jesus Christ was a religious leader, for others – the embodiment of the highest values, a paragon of self-sacrifice for humanity. Yet others see him as an usurper or a revolutionist who suffered his greatest defeat when death was inflicted upon him. For Christians Jesus is the Son of God Yahweh whose death by crucifixion granted salvation to all people. Jesus can be worshipped, respected, ignored or opposed. No matter the response he provokes, Jesus has definitely become the landmark figure and the touchstone of our civilisation. It’s no wonder he has captured the minds of historians, theologists, culture experts and philosophers. Leszek Kołakowski is one of them. The purpose of this dissertation is not to afford a glimpse of the Polish philosopher’s views on Jesus, but – bearing in mind who Jesus was as a historical figure – to look at the relationship between the past and the present. Личность Иисуса Христа прочно закрепилась в истории и сознании человечества. Для одних он был религиозным лидером, для других – воплощением высочайших ценностей, образцом посвящения себя человечеству, некоторые же считают его узурпатором или рево-люционером, который потерпел поражение в момент его насильственной смерти. Христиане видят в нем Сына Божьего, Яхве, который своей смертью на кресте даровал всем возможность вечного искупления. Иисус – это личность, которой можно поклоняться, почитать ее, игнори-ровать либо же критиковать. Несмотря на различие взглядов, он стал переломным моментом в истории, исходным элементом нашей цивилизации. Ничего удивительного, что о Нем говорят историки, теологи, культурологи, а также философы. Одним из них является польский философ Лешек Колаковский. В представленном труде, однако, речь идет не только об изложении взгля-дов польского философа о том, кем был Иисус, а скорее о том, чтобы думая о Нем, как об исто-рической личности, взглянуть на взаимосвязь, возникающую между историей и современ-ностью.
More...Keywords: bulwark of Christianity (antemurale Christianitatis); Ottoman Empire; Tatars; Christian-Muslim relations; Renaissance diplomacy; calendar
Contrary to enduring stereotypes, war rarely broke out in relations between Poland-Lithuania and the Ottoman Empire. Instead, relations were mutually characterized as a way to maintain peaceful neighborliness. Admittedly, the Polish court readily used the phrase the bulwark of Christianity in its relations with other European capitals, especially with papal Rome. However, only with the post-partition era, mainly due to the influence of literary works by Henryk Sienkiewicz, did the names “Turk” and “Muslim” become synonymous with the enemy, though Sienkiewicz did this to avoid censorship from the partitioning states. Nevertheless, studies on the era of the Jagiellonian dynasty reveal that Jagiellonian kings took a pragmatic attitude in their relations with Muslims, which involved having a familiarity with their customs, religious fests and calendar, as well as an openness towards forming political and military alliances. This attitude was unchanged during the times of elective kings, when the phrase “defense of Christianity,” which was applied for domestic use and especially in relations with the West, often coincided with a respect for Muslim partners and a lack of religious bias in mutual relations. Current efforts to instrumentalize the person of John III Sobieski for anti-Muslim propaganda must be regarded as a misunderstanding, since the said monarch valued Oriental culture, spoke the Turkish language, maintained regular contacts with Muslim capitals, and his decision to led his army to Vienna was motivated by political pragmatism rather than religious concerns.
More...The etnic minority of the East Wall. The Eastern Wall: Lithuanians in Poland, the Sudovians, Old Believers, Tartarsand Belarusians, the Southern Podlasie people, Ukrainians in Poland, Dutchmen by the Bug, the Cherven Cities, German colonisation in the Zamość estates, Greek settlers, Josephine colonisation, Jews and the Boykos.
More...Keywords: Kurek Mazurski; East Prussia; the Old Believers; a calendar; Masuria; Antoni Gąsiorowski
In the 19th century, writing underwent a rapid development. Books and magazines were widely available, not only among high society but also among the people who were less wealthy. New printing houses were established, also in Prussia, such as Walenty Stefański’s printing house in Poznań and Ernst Lambeck’s printing house in Toruń. Antoni Gąsiorowski learnt the art of printing and making woodcuts in the above-mentioned places. He set up his own printing house in Brodnica in 1847, but he transferred it to Masuria to Szczytno (Ortelsburg) in 1848, and a year later to Pisz (Johannisburg). In Szczytno he started printing the bilingual weekly Kurek Mazurski – Der Masurische Hahn, which he continued to publish in Johannisburg. Gąsiorowski’s printing house was one of the most active printing houses in East Prussia, in which a number of magazines were published. However, most of them were discontinued after releasing the first issue, for instance, Ewangelicki Tygodnik Gminny or Gospodarz Mazurski. Apart from weeklies, Antoni Gąsiorowski published Polish and German books, particularly religious ones, course books and calendars. In the 1860s, his printing press also released the texts written in Cyrillic intended for the Old Believers. Gąsiorowski’s printing house operated in Johannisburg until 1866. Nevertheless, from 1862 onwards, most publications – including the calendar – were taken over by the library and printing house of Ernst Lambeck in Toruń. The last Polish print published by Antoni Gąsiorowski was the book by B. Schmolke ‘The Gold Jewel Dedicated to God Intended for People Worshipping God the Father and the Holy Spirit’. It was released in 1865.
More...Keywords: Polish language
The past hundred years of the development of the Polish language, i.e. the period 1918-2018, is distinguished primarily for commemorative reasons connected with regaining independence by Poland after 123 years of partitions. It turns out, however, that the century can be easily captured in linguistic categories. As regards periodisation of the history of Polish, it encompasses the last four phases of the Modern Polish period, which are determined by a coincidence of six sociolinguistic trends and five major system development trends based on more than 150 processes and specific changes.
More...Keywords: Roman Catholic Church; national spirit; national identity; democratic governance; national hospitality; cultural trends; Bolshevik aggression; globalization; multiculturalism; communist authorities
A national spirit derives directly from a sense of national identity, a sense of having a common language, culture, traditions and history. A national spirit also encompasses religious values as in this case the Roman Catholic Church. This religion is the very foundation of the national identity as it identifiesthe beginning of the Polish nation in 966 AD and has remained the common thread throughout thelast 1050 years of our history. Over this millennium the nation has been exposed to numerous challenges but three national characteristics seem to dominate throughout – democratic governance, national hospitality to strangers and a respect for the deceased. National identity, as opposed to the national spirit, is rooted more in current cultural interpretations and is subject to manipulation by such factors as cultural trends, current governments or external pressures from abroad. Three distinct periods can be recognized in the development of the national spirit in the last 100 years. In 1914–1944 there was the rush to statehood, a brief independence and defeat at the hands of our two neighbors. In 1944–1989, the Polish People’s Republic era, Soviet dominated government unrepresentativeof its people and actively fighting against the national spirit, for example the Catholic religion. 1989–2017 mark a new era with governments preoccupied with a rush to globalization and integration into supranational structures such as the global markets and the European Union, actively suppressing many national characteristics in order to be more global in its image and acceptance. The role of the Catholic Church and institutions in the USA was fundamental in maintaining that national spirit, especially in the first two periods. Great Poles such as Jan Ignacy Paderewski were instrumental in returning Poland onto the world map but also the Catholic Church helped in spreading the message resulting in huge rush to the ranks of Polish volunteers, which then were able to defend the new nation against Bolshevik aggression in 1919/1920. During the second period the Catholic Churchwas instrumental in stressing the milestone of 1966, when Poland was celebrating a millennium of her nationhood. The communist authorities were celebrating statehood trying desperately to separate this momentous occasion from any role of the Catholic Church in its creation. It was the message of Poland and US based Polish clergy such as Cardinal Wyszynski and bishop J. Krol that stressed that it was the Roman Catholic religion that created the nation and later the state and its absolutely fundamental role. That message was then taken up by the first Polish Pope, John Paul II, who visited the USA seventimes. In conclusion the role of the Catholic Church now is to preserve the national spirit when it is challenged with new ideas such as globalization and multiculturalism. Religion is progressively seen and propagated by the new social media platforms as a brake on progress of humanity and needs to be discouraged whenever possible. Poles as a nation still retain our identity and God, Honor and Fatherland are our signpost for the future.
More...Keywords: annotation tool brat v1.3.; tags for phrasemes; Verb-Noun constructions; parallelization of Russian and Polish sentences; parallel corpora
This article considers tagging methods for parallel Russian-Polish phrasemathic objects. In particular, an opinion about the annotation tool brat v1.3.is given. This online tool offers a palette of possibilities for classifying words and phrases in parallel texts. Working with this software is largely simplified by a user-friendly interface, and therefore working with the corpus does not cause difficulties for philologists and translators who do not have programming skills. As an example of such a classification, the layout of the metadata system for tagging Russian and Polish parallel phrasemes is described. These resources allow experience to be gathered and concurrent objects to be categorized in the workshop of a translator. As an example, the article presents the tagging of Verb-Noun of the text classified as collocation phrasemes, for example, погасить свет. The status of Verb-Noun constructions is also discussed, which, according to a number of factors, relate to autonomous phrases, although with the status of “free compatibility”, for example, поехать в клуб. A number of recommendations is proposed for the configuration of parallel texts at the level of single sentences.
More...Keywords: Aleksander Bochenski; historiography; journalism; political realism; Aleksander Bocheński; historiografia; publicystyka; realizm polityczny
The History of Stupidity in Poland. The historiographical pamphlets was the most important publication by Aleksander Bocheński. It was also one of the most representative reflections on the postwar trend of political realism in Poland. The journalistic reception of the first edition of this book in the 1940s proved the unpopularity of the thesis included in its contents. Criticism of insurrection trends in the Polish politics by the author met with opposition from both Marxists, non-party intellectuals in the country and on the emigration. Although the motives of Bocheński’s concepts were usually understood, they were rejected because they: serve the communists, are contrary to the Marxist doctrine or have not any moral foundation. These opinions constitute an important contribution to the views of the Polish intelligentsia on the political realism at the threshold of the Polish People’s Republic. // Dzieje głupoty w Polsce. Pamflety dziejopisarskie były najważniejszą publikacją Aleksandra Bocheńskiego. Stanowiły także jedną z najbardziej reprezentatywnych refleksji dla powojennego nurtu realizmu politycznego w Polsce. Recepcja publicystyczna pierwszego wydania tej książki w latach czterdziestych XX w. dowodziła niepopularności tez w niej zawartych. Krytyka insurekcyjnych nurtów polityki polskiej dokonana przez publicystę spotykała się ze sprzeciwem zarówno marksistów, bezpartyjnych intelektualistów w kraju, jak i środowisk emigracyjnych. Chociaż zazwyczaj rozumiano motywy koncepcji Bocheńskiego, odrzucano je jako: służące komunistom, sprzeczne z doktryną marksistowską bądź pozbawione fundamentu moralnego. Opinie te stanowią istotny przyczynek zapatrywań polskiej inteligencji na problematykę politycznego realizmu u progu Polski Ludowej.
More...Keywords: Western civilization; Europe; Poland
The author bring up a subject Polish state to broadly understood Western civilization based on values and ideas that at the turn of the years laid the foundations for a way of understanding who a modern European is. The article refers to the theory and concept of the most important classical thinkers dealing with issues of civilization and culture, such as: Samuel Huntington, Arnold Toynbee, Oswald Spengler, Feliks Koneczny and others. The author also tries to answer the question: What is the current West and what role does Poland play in it? The article will have a theoretical character and can serve as an introduction to much more detailed aspects falling within the broadly understood Western civilization.
More...Keywords: Polish primacy; Church Historiography; archbishops on the primatial capital; Polish history
The subject of this article’s inquiry is the origin of Polish primacy, which is bound up with the office of the Archbishop of Gniezno. The lack of a nomination document gave rise to several traditions. Generally speaking, the oldest sources provided three traditions: the beginnings of statehood and Christianization of Poland – X age (times of Prince Miec- zyslaw and King Boleslaw the Brave), half of the fourteenth century (the rule of King Casimir the Great) and the Council of Constance (1414-1418). These traditions influenced the development of historical writing. The second theme of interest which is reflected by literature, was the nature of the office of the primate, i.e. whether he was appointed by the ruler or the church (council, the Pope). At the current stage of research it is widely accepted that the dignity of the Primate received Archbishop Nicholas Trąba during the Council of Constance, but closer circumstances are still not explained.
More...Keywords: the development of hunting law in Poland
An article under the title “The Development Of Legal Standards Governing Hunting in Po-land," shows the evolution of the rules of law concerning hunting in Poland. In the paper there is a discussion on hunting as the activities in the natural environment. In addition, the author demonstrates whether legislation on hunting is a protective and is essential to the functioning of the State and society.
More...Keywords: Cezary Łazarewicz; Rita Gorgonowa; biographical reportage; journalistic biography; literary reportage
The purpose of this article is to discuss the relations between literary reportage and biography. In the era of “blurred genres” both forms strongly influence each other, which results nowadays in creation of very popular biographical reportages and journalistic biographies. In this context, it is worth discussing the book Koronkowa robota. Sprawa Gorgonowej by Cezary Łazarewicz, which combines the elements of reportage with biographical discourse.
More...Keywords: Germany; heritage language maintenance; bilingualism; immigration; diaspora
The study aims at identifying socio-demographic, social and attitudinal correlates of Polish language skills and knowledge about Poland in a sample of 41 teenagers aged 13–18 whose mothers migrated to Germany from Poland and who have been raised in Regensburg, Germany, since birth or infancy. Stepwise forward analysis was used to estimate the association between a range of socio-demographic, attitudinal and developmentalfactors on the one hand, and a range of skills on the other. Cluster analysis followed, confirming the outstanding role of maintenance of a long-term friendship with an age peer in Poland which had been identified as a strong predictor of four out of five competences.
More...Keywords: Stanisław Brzozowski; Brzozowski’s “Alone among People”; Marcin Ogieński; Klemens Rotuła
The subject of the article are references to the 18th century in Stanisław Brzozowski’s novel “Sam wśród ludzi” (“Alone among People”). 18th century exponents in the novel are first and foremost the figures of Marcin Ogieński and priest Klemens Rotuła who in various ways struggle, in the face of the social-political changes that took place at the onset of the Age of Reason, with the fall of their ideals. The aim of the argument is a presentation of the references’ functionalities as well as placing them against the background of Brzozowski’s general creative and world view assumptions. In Brzozowski’s reflection, returns to the 18th century provide with opportunities to question for the roots of modernity and for the sources of the (negative) stances contemporary to him. The returns also co-create, which the author of the paper tries to prove, the cultural diagnoses and projects put forward by Brzozowski, as well as support the ethical conceptions.
More...Keywords: Polish Air Forces; Great Britain; France; II World War; catholic chaplain; patriotism; religious formation; II wojna światowa; Polskie Siły Powietrzne; Francja; Wielka Brytania; kapelani wojskowi
All of the chaplains of the Polish Air Force in the West during World War II were Roman Catholic priests. They were delegated to the pastoral ministry of soldiers serving in air units in RAF bases, assigned to a given pastoral area. Their duties included: celebrating Sunday Masses, administration of sacraments (Baptism, Matrimony), visiting the sick and wounded in hospitals, celebrating funerals, as well as hearing confessions, everything connected with the spiritual care and support for the air force soldiers. The chaplains served Poles who fought far from their families, often without any news about them since the beginning of the war. Even if contact with their families could be established, the soldiers remained concerned and uncertain about the future of their relatives living under the German and Russian occupation. The chaplains had to make efforts to keep up the morale in the ranks. They played a significant role not only in the spiritual and religious formation of soldiers but also their patriotic formation. The purpose of this formation was to shape in them not only the mature attitude of Christian soldiers, but also a deep love for their Homeland (patriotism).
More...Keywords: Old-Believers' dialects; lexis; borrowings; common features;
Old-Believers, who were escaping from persecutions, started moving towards the western neighbours of Russia. They set up their settlements in The Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Lithuania, Belarus), Livonia (Latgale) and on the western shore of the lake Peipus. The lexis of the displaced people was influenced by numerous borrowings through centuries. We can observe many synonyms of the elements of the native and foreign vocabulary. The article presents typical features common for the five enclaves of the Old-Believers in Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Estonia. The analysis of the features is based on the material excerpted from dictionaries of the Old-Believers' dialects.
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