Leon Barszczewski’s (1849–1910) expeditions through the former Emirate of Bukhara
Igor Strojecki: The collection of photographs that Leon Barszczewski took between 1885 and 1909 is unique, and perhaps the only one of its kind in this part of Europe.
‘On this “rock” I will build my city’ – remarkable cases of Jan Koziełł-Poklewski
Jerzy Rohoziński: Colonel Jan Koziełł-Poklewski, pseud. ‘Jakub the Rock” (pol.: ‘Jakub Skała’) or ‘Hlebowicz’, war chief of the Augustów and Grodno Voivodeships, commander of III Insurgent Army Corps, commander of Warsaw in the January Uprising. In 1872, he returned to the Kingdom of Poland from France, where he had fled after the Uprising. Contrary to the promises of the Russians, he was arrested and deported to Russian Turkestan.
In the heart of the continent. Soviet deportations in 1945.
Dariusz Węgrzyn: Polish territory was a key theatre of warfare for the Soviets. Advancing westwards, they headed straight for Berlin. To ensure calm in the rear of the fighting armies, the Soviets conducted an operation to detain and then deport to the Soviet Union those who might pose a threat to the Red Army. At the same time, their political opponents were deported to gulags in aid of the new Moscow-dependent communist authorities.
From the labour camp to Kultura (the case of Herling-Grudziński)
Włodzimierz Bolecki: ‘As a writer, I was born in a labour camp,’ Gustaw Herling-Grudziński said many times. This approach remains valid today and is reflected in the writer’s path to becoming an editor at Kultura.
In Tambov and Kirsanov… The life in exhile of Helena Skirmuntowa, painter and sculptor
Lidia Michalska-Bracha: The story of the life and artistic activity during the deportation to Siberia of Helena Skirmuntowa (Skirmunttowa) (1827-1874), a painter and sculptor from the Pinsk region, creator of the excellent historical chessboard – an artistic vision of the relief of Vienna by John III Sobieski.
Rybnica 1863. Monument to the tsarist ‘fighters’ who died in battles with Czachowski’s insurgents
Eugeniusz Niebelski: On 20 and 21 October 1863, two battles took place in the Sandomierz region against the Tsarist army. There are two monuments devoted to the fallen soldiers…
Doctor Benedykt Dybowski – exiled without the right to practice medicine
Zbigniew J. Wójcik: Relatively late, the tsarist police discovered the involvement of Dr. Benedykt Dybowski, a zoology lecturer at the Main School of Warsaw, in the January Uprising. He was arrested in February 1864. During the investigation at the Warsaw Citadel, he steadfastly refused to “cooperate.” This was enough to sentence him to 12 years of hard labor (hard labor) in Siberia. He had a chance to escape. He remained in solidarity with those sentenced to exile.
Yakutsk and its surroundings – impressions from a winter trip to the Republic of Sakha
Anna Zapalec: Yakutia is a vast region, still naturally wild and geographically surprising, as most of its area is not developed by man.
Stalin’s shooting lists in the soviet state terror system
Jan Raczynski: Although the Great Terror is usually associated with the activities of the ‘NKVD troika’, its prelude was the so-called ‘death lists’.