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So far the figure of Jan Gorzeński was treated marginally by researchers dealing with the subject matter of the political and military clientele of Jan III Sobieski. The activity of Gorzeński in the institutions of political life in the province of Greater Poland became the starting point to his further activity in the Sejm. Obedience and loyalty which were evinced by Gorzeński first towards the castellan, next to the voivode of Poznań Krzysztof Grzymułtowski allowed him to get closer to the people associated with Sobieski. Upon his inspiration, Gorzeński recruited members of the Sejm and converted them into supporters of the marshal and grand crown hetman. In the 1670s the activity of Gorzeński was also discernible in the military field. His participation in war campaigns against the Tatars, Turks and Cossacks made him a recognizable and praiseworthy commander of the dragoon regiment.The coronation of Jan Sobieski constituted the turning point in Gorzeński’s career as he was promoted and entrusted with the starost estates. His marriage with Sobieski’s relative – Elżbieta – the widow after Władysław Denhoff (died 1671) also helped him to be one of the co-operators of the king. Thanks to this, Jan won respect and had the opportunity to rise above the level of middle-income noblemen. In the last years of his life Gorzeński focused on the struggle with the Sapiehas, who at the end of the reign of Jan III Sobieski set up a faction which was in opposition to the court.
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The aim of the article is to present trade contacts between Prussia and Hungary from the end of the 13th century to the mid-15th century. The problem has hitherto remained beyond the interest of researchers dealing with trade relations. On the basis of the Hanseatic, Polish and Hungarian sources the author analyses the structure of goods being traded, participants of the trade and trade routes. The author points out the connection between the development of trade contacts with political relations in East Central Europe. After the death of King Louis I of Hungary (1382) the trade conducted between Hungary and Prussia, which went through the Polish territories, became heavily dependent on the balance of power between the Teutonic Order, the Kingdom of Poland and the Kingdom of Hungary. The author underlines that the range of goods which were the subject of the trade started to grow at the end of the 13th century. Apart from metals (copper, iron, silver) Hungarian merchants sold to Prussian merchants wax, furs, wine, cheap cloth and southern products such as fruit, spice and condiments. In the 15th century Melnaterite (Kupferwasser), the mineral used in dyeing, was exported from Upper Hungary to the Baltic zone. Merchants from Prussian towns exported to Hungary goods imported from West Europe, mainly cloth. Until the mid-15th century the main role in Prussian trade with Hungary was played by merchants from Toruń, while in the second half of the 15th century their place was taken over by merchants from Gdańsk.
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The visuality of the seal, as expressed in the title of the article, should be understood as a collection of stamp elements received by means of wax. Consequently, they will include not only the image of the seal and the caption, but also the shape, size and colour of the wax in which the imprint was made. All those elements can transfer important information from the point of view of the owner, expressing their individuality. Two groups of factors have had an impact on the visuality of the seal: legal and cultural factors. The first group of factors defined the sigillographical system of the owner, but they could also indicate the circle of persons deciding on the shape of a particular seal, or they could directly refer to the form of imprints. The second groups of factors influenced the shape of the message on the seal recorded in both the verbal sphere, iconography and in the form of prints. Among the city seals from the area of Prussia, round seals prevail; their diameters range from 80 to 30 mm. They were usually imprinted in natural wax, green or, less often, black. Only Gdańsk and Toruń were allowed to use red wax under the special privileges granted by the monarchs. Captions included in the seal were usually formulated in Latin, although the names of towns were usually written in German despite the existence of their Latin counterparts. Imaginary ideas, in the context of the typology proposed by Toni Diederich, mostly represented the symbolic type, although a significant percentage of them constituted the canting arms and coats of arms. Other types appear less often. However, the complexity and ambiguity of messages written on the seal by means of images means that any attempt to include them in the typology framework results in the simplification of interpretation. That is why, the research of city seals based on the assumption that they represent the urban self-awareness – the sign of the center’s identity (Brigitte Miriam Bedos-Rezak) becomes more and more significant. In this context, information provided by the visual side of the seal can be reduced to three sets of messages: presenting the city as a topographic space, presenting the city as a social space and presenting the city’s relations with the surroundings. The name of the city determined the town’s definition as a settlement point, which we encounter in legends, but also the notions of canting arms frequently found in Prussia (e.g. Sepopol, Orneta, Allenburg). Seals with the images of walls and urban buildings (e.g. Malbork, Cynty, Toruń) showed the city as an organized space. Paradoxically, the images of wild animals, extremely popular in Prussia, which combined with the legend identifying the owner as a city, showed what the city was not. It is in the seal’s legends that we find the most frequent reference to the city as a social space. Determining the main seals as sigillum civitatis, burgensium, civium, Borger, indicates that the owner of the seal maker was the community of residents. The language of the caption indicates the cultural embedding of the commune. In turn, the size and material of the print inform about the real significance of the center, or about the aspirations of its inhabitants. In connection with the legend, it sometimes brings information about the place occupied by the seal in the urban sigillographic system, which is often derived from the structure of municipal authorities. The images shown on the seal, in turn, refer to the devotion of the commune (e.g. Brodnica), or professions of its residents (e.g. Pieniężno, Młynary, Elbląg, Gdańsk). Through the images representing the city walls or the arms, they finally illustrate the readiness of the inhabitants to defend themselves (e.g .Toruń, Malbork), or they indicate that the urban community had its defender (Chełmno, Pasłęk?). Many of the seal’s images from the Prussian region refer to the city’s relationship with the broadly understood surroundings. By showing the coats of arms (Bisztynek, Malbork), symbols (Toruń, Gardeja, Lidzbark Wamiński), or insignia or attributes (e.g. Reszel, Barczewo, Fischhausen) of a land master or his representative, the seal indicated the owner of the center. In this context, particularly interesting, but also poorly recognized are the links between the iconography of city seals and the images of the seals of the Teutonic officials (e.g. Święta Siekierka, Górowo Iławckie, Radzyń Chełmiński). Finally, the hagiographic seals indicate the relations of the urban community with the supernatural world (Frombork, Pieniężno, Sztum, Gierdawy, and Toruń). The example of the Frombork seal shows that all these meanings can interpenetrate, contributing the creation of a complex image of the city represented on the seal.
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A number of Cyrillic documents written by Šćepan Mali have been published in this paper.Based on their transcribed versions,the author of the paper points out the importance of these materials for the deciphering of the motives behind the appearance of Šćepan Mali, who proclaimed himself to be the Russian Tsar Peter III.
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Based on archival documents and press information, an attempt is being made to find out whether in 1993 the DLPL government and President Algirdas M. Brazauskas legally recalled Ambassador Stasys Lozoraitis (Junior) from Washington and transferred him to a similar position in Rome. An attempt is made to evaluate the selected candidate for the Honorary Consul General of Lithuania in Los Angeles, Vytautas Čekanauskas, to temporarily lead the Lithuanian diplomatic mission in Washington. Although some Lithuanians in the United States supported Čekanauskas’ candidacy, there was an outcry that Lozoraitis had been illegally withdrawn from the United States and treated with disrespect; Čekanauskas refused the proposed post. This may have been influenced by the vague prospects offered to him by the Lithuanian authorities, as there was no clear talk about the post of ambassador. At the same time, the governments of Latvia and Estonia appointed Latvian and Estonian representatives in the United States as their ambassadors in Washington.
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The publication of the scientific source includes a 1955 letter from Dr. Stasys Abramauskas to the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the LSSR, Justas Paleckis. The author of the letter raised questions about the situation of Lithuanians in the historical Vilnius region, and about cultural heritage. As one possible solution to the problems, a plan for territorial change in Lithuania and Belarus was proposed, i.e., the areas inhabited by Lithuanians could be assigned to the territory of the Lithuanian SSR. The published source has been supplemented with comments and clarifications. The published document is relevant for further research by the humanities and social sciences.
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The aim of the article is to present the origins of the Polish Committee in Stockholm during the First World War. The author verifies all the findings that researchers in this field have made so far. Józefa Ledóchowska, an Ursuline nun, stated that the Polish Committee in Stockholm was established on the initiative of Aleksander Lednicki, President of the Council of Polish Organisation Congresses for War Victims and the Polish Committee in Moscow. Andrzej Nils Uggla presented a different view on the origins of the Stockholm Committee. He argued that the organization was established on the initiative of Polish emigration in Sweden, which originated from the descendants of emigrants who came to this country after the January Uprising, supported by national democrats. The above-mentioned researchers did not present the sources on which they based their findings. Based on primary sources stored in Swedish and Polish archives, as well as Swedish and Polish press, the author of the article confronted both aforementioned claims. A detailed analysis of the above-mentioned primary sources allowed to determine that the initiative to establish the Polish Committee in the Swedish capital was taken during the mission of Józef Evert, Vice-President of the Polish Committee in Moscow, who went to Stockholm. The mission took place at the end of November and beginning of December 1915. In Stockholm, Evert met the representatives of the ‘old emigration’, as well as the ‘new emigration’ caused by the First World War. The talks resulted in an offer made by Evert to allocate a certain amount of money from the funds of aid organizations operating in Russia to a charity to be established in Sweden. The goal of this new organisation was to help the Poles living in Sweden regardless of their citizenship.
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The marriage of Duke Vytautas the Great’s daughter Sophia to the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily in 1391 was a momentous event that impinged on the course of history. Although the circumstances in which this marriage was concluded address extremely important historical issues, such as relations between Lithuania and Moscow, Vytautas’ biography, and the politics of the Grand Duchy of Moscow towards the end of the fourteenth century, historiography has not recorded many attempts to study them. This is probably due to the rather vague primary sources which are dominated by the accounts contained in the chronicles. The author of the article makes an effort to analyse them, which, combined with other evidence, as well as a review of the political situation at the time, led him to believe that it was the Moscow side that initiated the talks on the marriage of Sophia and Vasily. The Grand Duke of Moscow, Dmitry of the Don, had been looking for the possibility of a dynastic rapprochement with the ruling circles of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for a long time. The conclusion of the Polish-Lithuanian agreement in Krevo (1385), uncertain situation in the Golden Horde and the desire to strengthen the position of his son were the reasons that could force the Moscow ruler to act more decisively in this field. Therefore, having left Tartar captivity at the end of 1385, Vasily son of Dmitri of the Don, went west, where he took the opportunity of meeting Vytautas to start first talks. The negotiations were interrupted due to a rather weak political position of Vytautas before 1389. They were resumed when it turned out that Władysław Jagiełło, after taking the throne in Kraków, did not intend to forgo his active policy in Eastern Europe. Therefore, when Vytautas fought together with the Teutonic Knights to seize power in Lithuania, Moscow decided to support his efforts. In this way, the duke, with his allies in the Teutonic Order and strong ties with Moscow, became a dangerous rival for Władysław Jagiełło. Such a turn of events could have influenced the Polish king’s decision to reconcile with his cousin yet again.
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This article investigates the case of four Lithuanian-Ruthenian dukes vouching for Duke Żedywid before the Polish King Władysław II Jagiełło. The original Ruthenian document does not include a date nor does it contain any information about the circumstances in which the surety (poręczenie) was issued. There have been attempts to solve this riddle in the historical literature, with reference to information about Żedywid contained in primary sources, biographies and genealogies of the vouching dukes, and the political history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the late fourteenth century. However, the majority of conclusions that have been drawn so far are based on misreadings of the text of the surety. The identification of the scribe who prepared the document has made it possible to determine its chronological framework, and information about the vouching dukes and King Władysław’s itinerary indicates that it was written between August 1392 and October 1393, most likely in Kraków. An attempt to put the surety into a broader political context requires us to take into account its possible connection with the actions undertaken by Vytautas aimed at extending and strengthening his power in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania after the Ostrów Agreement of 1392. This connection, however, remains only in the sphere of hypothesis. The exceptionally short diplomatic form of the document and lack of detailed information about these events and Żedywid himself in contemporary sources indicate that Żedywid’s actions did not pose any serious threat to Jagiełło.
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The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of memoirs and diaries for researching literary and cultural history. Thus far, the main focus has been on researching this type of material created by the writers themselves. No less significant, however, is the material created by their contemporaries who lived and worked among them but did not engage in literary work. There is great documentary potential regarding the lives and work of Serbian writers in memoires and diaries left by other significant figures of our political and cultural history (politicians, statesmen, publicists, artists, etc.). We focus on the memoirs of the publicist, politician and diplomat Dragoljub S. Ilić, written half a century after the fact. In them, Ilić recalls his clerical days in the Serbian diplomatic mission in Athens and writes about the young Jovan Dučić who had just arrived in Athens as the first Secretary of the Mission. Ilić is essentially a strict judge of Dučić’s clerical skills, but he also judges his character and his poetry.
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This article focuses on the manner in which the Polish-Romanian military convention was presented by two military journals – Żołnierz Polski and Polska Zbrojna –, both under the control of the Polish Ministry of Military Affairs, yet with two different profiles and two different narratives about the Polish-Romanian treaty.
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This work reviews the stages of the creation of the National Military Museum, a process concluded on December 18, 1923, when King Ferdinand I signed the decree establishing this institution. The objectives pursued by the museum management from the interwar period were identified and the ones that had in the foreground the rediscovery of the events, personalities, traditions of the Romanian army from the entire Romanian space are highlighted. The National Military Museum was an effective tool, through which the Romanian authorities strengthened diplomatic relations with the states that had been allied with it in the World War I and developed new ones with the states that served Romania’s regional interests.
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Slavko Burzanović, MONTENEGRO IN ITALIAN FOREIGN POLICY 1861–1923, Montenegrin Academy of Science and Arts, Podgorica, 2019, p. 589
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This paper presents two diplomatic reports written by the Russian envoy in Belgrade on the events which took place in the Serbian capital on May 28–29 1903. Their significance lies in the fact that they were the main source on which the Russian policy-makers relied in their analyses of the events surrounding the May Coup. The documents published in this paper are kept in the Archives of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (AVPRI) in Moscow.
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If anything can be seen to signal the watershed of modern history, it is the year 1648. It marks the termination of old conflicts, the culmination of the general crisis of the 17th century and the beginning of new developments. The Westphalia peace treaties put an end to the thirty years war. It confirmed that the Holy Roman Empire as a whole would not undergo centralisation of the kind experienced by other European states. At the international level France, Holland and Sweden gained a firm position as great powers. There were civil wars in this year in Britain, France and in Italy, but the bloodiest conflict arose in Poland, where the rebellion of the Cossacks opened a much more prolonged age of crises. The most significant outcome of the so-called salt-riots in Moscow was the enactment of a new legal code that would be used for centuries. Some historians argue that the phenomenon known as the Little Ice Age is essential background of these events, others remain skeptical.
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The paper, drawing primarily on archival material located in Austria, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey, examines the lifeworld of an Ottoman officer, Şerefeddin, who in the midst of the Balkan Wars (1912/13), after accepting Christianity, voluntarily joined the army of the Kingdom of Serbia. By relying on the theoretical concept of loyalty, the essay claims that loyalty towards state is not given and fixed, but rather is subject to change. It indicates in particular that Şerefeddin’s decision to join the enemy army is context-driven and thus should be imbedded in the momentary setting. It pursues to show how a person amid war is nevertheless able successfully to adjust to a new emerging context. This case should not be co understood as a typical biography, but rather as an episodic one because similar cases are noticeable in different settings worldwide as well.
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