Henryk Zielinski
Encyclopedia
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
at the University of Wrocław.
Biography
During the Invasion of PolandInvasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
he was wounded during the Battle of Bzura. Soon he was imprisoned in a German POW camp, from which he tried to escape three times, finally succeeding in 1944. He moved to Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, where he became one of the students of the underground university.
After the war, in the People's Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
, although at first he opposed the Polish communist government, in 1949 he joined the PZPR communist party and was allowed to become a staff member of the University of Wrocław. Years later, a few days before his mysterious death, he told the listeners that in 1949 he 'allowed himself to be manipulated'. Around 1951/1952 he defended his PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
thesis
Thesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
. In 1955 he became a docent
Docent
Docent is a title at some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks below professor . Docent is also used at some universities generically for a person who has the right to teach...
, and in 1962 he became professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
. However from the 1960s he became increasingly critical of the government. In the aftermath of the Polish 1968 political crisis
Polish 1968 political crisis
The Polish 1968 political crisis, also known in Poland as March 1968 or March events pertains to the major student and intellectual protest action against the communist government of the People's Republic of Poland...
, the Prague Spring
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
and the Polish 1970 protests
Polish 1970 protests
The Polish 1970 protests were protests that occurred in northern Poland in December 1970. The protests were sparked by a sudden increase of prices of food and other everyday items...
, where he openly supported the opposition, he was persecuted by the Polish secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
, Służba Bezpieczeństwa, and in the period of 1970-1972 he was forced to retire from Wrocław University, and briefly worked at the new University of Silesia
University of Silesia
The University of Silesia in Katowice is an autonomous state university in Silesia Province, Poland.The University of Silesia should not be confused with a similarly named university in Opava, Czech Republic ....
. In 1972 he returned to Wrocław, as the environment there became more open again, while the Silesian University became a party's stronghold, with Zieliński's research criticized for not being "proletariat
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
ic" enough, and his refusal to bow down to the nomenklatura
Nomenklatura
The nomenklatura were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of those countries' activity: government, industry, agriculture, education, etc., whose positions were granted only with approval by the...
and accept the children of party officials as his students, irrespective of merit. He supported the Solidarity movement created in 1980.
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, from the next day the official line was that it was an accident and the investigation was annulled.
Works
Henryk Zieliński was interested in the history of Polish-GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
relations, especially the history of germanization. He was the author of many publications related to Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
and its history, such as the Silesian Uprisings
Silesian Uprisings
The Silesian Uprisings were a series of three armed uprisings of the Poles and Polish Silesians of Upper Silesia, from 1919–1921, against German rule; the resistance hoped to break away from Germany in order to join the Second Polish Republic, which had been established in the wake of World War I...
and the Wielkopolska Uprising after the First World War. Near the end of his life he also became interested in the development of Polish political thought in the 19th and 20th centuries.
In the 1970s, with the improving relations between Poles and Germans, he took part in the work of the Polish-German Textbook Commission, a joint Polish-German governmental organization which reviewed the current textbooks in both countries in order to remove anti-German and anti-Polish stereotypes and former propaganda.
His last major work, "Historia Polski 1914 – 1939" (History of Poland 1914-1939), was printed posthumously. Due to the government crackdown on opposition
Martial law in Poland
Martial law in Poland refers to the period of time from December 13, 1981 to July 22, 1983, when the authoritarian government of the People's Republic of Poland drastically restricted normal life by introducing martial law in an attempt to crush political opposition to it. Thousands of opposition...
the book was heavily censored
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
, but the underground errata was soon realised in the form of bibuła (Russian samizdat
Samizdat
Samizdat was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader...
). The censorship of his books is a good example of the problem faced by historians under regimes which interfere with academic work. Specifically, the Polish communist censorship completely removed any mention of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
(Nazi Germany-Soviet alliance) and the section on the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September 1939 together with the photo of the German-Soviet parade in Brześć was removed and replaced with a general note on changed borders.
Among his former students are three notable contemporary Polish historians: Marian Orzechowski, Adolf Juzwenko and Włodzimierz Suleja.
Zieliński received the Knight's Cross of Polonia Restituta
Polonia Restituta
The Order of Polonia Restituta is one of Poland's highest Orders. The Order can be conferred for outstanding achievements in the fields of education, science, sport, culture, art, economics, defense of the country, social work, civil service, or for furthering good relations between countries...
and the Medal of the National Education Commission.
Selected bibliography
- "Liczba Polaków w Niemczech w latach 1918-1939 na tle systemu niemieckiej statystyki narodowościowej" (Number of Poles in Germany from 1918-1939 un the background of German national statistics); in: "Przegląd Zachodni" z.9, (1948)
- "Polacy i polskość Ziemi Złotowskiej w latach 1918-1939" (Poles and Polish culture of Ziemia Złotowskia in 1918-1939) (1949)
- "Zagadnienie powstań śląskich" (The issue of Silesian Uprisings); in: "Wiadomości Historyczne" nr 5 (1952) i nr 1 (1953)
- "Położenie i walka górnośląskiego proletariatu w latach 1918–1922" (The situation and fights of the proletariat in the Upper SilesiaUpper SilesiaUpper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...
from 1918-1922) (1957) - Znaczenie traktatu wersalskiego dla rozwoju stosunków polsko-niemieckich"; in: "Kwartalnik Historyczny" nr 1 (The importantce of the Treaty of VersaillesTreaty of VersaillesThe Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
to the development of Polish-German relations), (1963) - "Polska myśl polityczna a sprawa ziem zachodnich (przed rokiem 1914)" (Polish political thought and the issue of western lands (before the year 1914)) ; in: "Sobótka" nr 1-2 (1964)
- "Historia Polski 1864–1939" (History of Poland, 1864-1939) (1968)
- "Rola powstania wielkopolskiego oraz powstań śląskich w walce o zjednoczenie ziem zachodnich i niepodległą Polskę (1918-1921)" (The role of the Wielkopolska Uprising and Silesian Uprisings in the fight to unite the western lands and independent Poland (1918-1922)); in: Droga przez półwiecze. O Polsce lat 1918-1968. Referaty z sesji PAN i UW poświęcone 50 rocznicy odzyskania niepodległości, (1969)
- "Batalii podręcznikowej ciąg dalszy (Historia Polski w zachodnioniemieckich podręcznikach szkolnych)" (The textbook warfare continued: History of Poland in the West Germany school textbooks); in: "Odra", nr 10, (1973)
- "O potrzebie i trudnościach badania polskiej myśli politycznej" (On the needs and problems in studying the Polish political thought); in: "Polska Myśl polityczna XIX i XX w.", t.I: "Polska i jej sąsiedzi", Wrocław (1975)
- "Polska Myśl polityczna XIX i XX w." (Polish political thought in the 19th and 20th c.), t.I: "Polska i jej sąsiedzi", Wrocław (1975), (ed.)
- "Czy istniał model polskiego działacza politycznego (Piłsudski, Witos, Paderewski, Dmowski)" (Was there a model of a Polish political activist?); in: Dzieje kultury politycznej w Polsce pod red. J.A.Gierowskiego, (1977)
- "Polska myśl polityczna XIX i XX wieku" (Polish political thought in the 19th and 20th c.), t.II: "Twórcy polskiej myśli politycznej", Wrocław (1978), (introduction, ed.)
- "Historia Polski 1914–1939" (History of Poland 1914-1939) (1983, wyd.II 1985)