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LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES 7. POLAND ANTONY POLONSKY London School of Economics POLAND HAS SUFFERED more than most countries from the ravages of war and foreign conquest. This has naturally had a highly deleterious effect on the state of the country’s archives. Moreover, for over 130 years, Poland had no existence as a state; as a result the main documentary sources for her history during this period are located in the archives of Austria, Germany and the Soviet Union. Of these, the most important are the Staatsarchiv in Vienna, the Deutsches Zentralarchiv in Merseburg and Potsdam, the Sachsisches Landes-Hauptarchiv in Dresden, the Central State Historical Archive in Mos- cow and Leningrad as well as the Central State Historical Archive in L w ~ w , which has most of the records of Galicia during the period in which it enjoyed autonomy. In addition, the Poles’ struggle in the nineteenth century to regain their independence, and the existence during the Second World War of a Government-in-exile, first in France and subsequently in the U.K., has led to the establishment of important archival collections in western Europe and the United States. Of these, the most significant are the Polish Library in Paris, with its important collection dealing with the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Josef Pibudski Historical Institutes in London and New York, which have some material on the emergence of the Polish state and the inter- war years, the Hoover Institute and Library on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University, which has a section of the archives of the pre-war Polish Embassy in Washington, and the Polish Research Centre in London which has much material relating to the Government-in-exile and to the underground movement in Poland. Yet the main sources for the study of Polish history are to be found in Poland, and in spite of all the damage they have suffered they include a number of extremely rich collections. There is, unfortunately, no description in English of archival holdings in Poland. In Polish, useful information can be obtained from S. Kutzeba, Historia irddel danegoprawapolskiego, t. 1-11, Lw6w 1925-6; J. Siemieliski, Przewodnik PO archiwach polsich, f I, Archiwa dawnej Rzplitej, Warsaw 1933 ; ed. P. Bankowski, Straty bibliotek i archiwdw warszawskich, Warsaw 1955. Many articles on archival holdings have been published in the periodical Archeion, which first appeared in 1926. Convenient summaries of the source material for particular periods can be found in the relevant chapters of the Polish Academy of Sciences Historia Polski, 4 VOIS, The largest of the archives in Poland is the Archiwum Gldwne Akt Dawnych (Principal Archive of early documents) in Warsaw. It contains material from 408 195%.

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Page 1: LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES 7. POLAND : LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES 7. POLAND

LIBRARIES A N D ARCHIVES 7. POLAND

A N T O N Y P O L O N S K Y London School of Economics

POLAND HAS SUFFERED more than most countries from the ravages of war and foreign conquest. This has naturally had a highly deleterious effect on the state of the country’s archives. Moreover, for over 130 years, Poland had no existence as a state; as a result the main documentary sources for her history during this period are located in the archives of Austria, Germany and the Soviet Union. Of these, the most important are the Staatsarchiv in Vienna, the Deutsches Zentralarchiv in Merseburg and Potsdam, the Sachsisches Landes-Hauptarchiv in Dresden, the Central State Historical Archive in Mos- cow and Leningrad as well as the Central State Historical Archive in L w ~ w , which has most of the records of Galicia during the period in which it enjoyed autonomy. In addition, the Poles’ struggle in the nineteenth century to regain their independence, and the existence during the Second World War of a Government-in-exile, first in France and subsequently in the U.K., has led to the establishment of important archival collections in western Europe and the United States. Of these, the most significant are the Polish Library in Paris, with its important collection dealing with the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Josef Pibudski Historical Institutes in London and New York, which have some material on the emergence of the Polish state and the inter- war years, the Hoover Institute and Library on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University, which has a section of the archives of the pre-war Polish Embassy in Washington, and the Polish Research Centre in London which has much material relating to the Government-in-exile and to the underground movement in Poland.

Yet the main sources for the study of Polish history are to be found in Poland, and in spite of all the damage they have suffered they include a number of extremely rich collections. There is, unfortunately, no description in English of archival holdings in Poland. In Polish, useful information can be obtained from S . Kutzeba, Historia irddel danegoprawapolskiego, t. 1-11, Lw6w 1925-6; J. Siemieliski, Przewodnik PO archiwach polsich, f I, Archiwa dawnej Rzplitej, Warsaw 1933 ; ed. P. Bankowski, Straty bibliotek i archiwdw warszawskich, Warsaw 1955. Many articles on archival holdings have been published in the periodical Archeion, which first appeared in 1926. Convenient summaries of the source material for particular periods can be found in the relevant chapters of the Polish Academy of Sciences Historia Polski, 4 VOIS,

The largest of the archives in Poland is the Archiwum Gldwne Akt Dawnych (Principal Archive of early documents) in Warsaw. It contains material from

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ANTONY POLONSKY 409 the earliest written records of the Polish state until 1914. It has an important medieval collection and is particularly rich for the eighteenth century. For the nineteenth century, it possesses a fair amount of material, particularly relating to the Russian administration in the Congress Kingdom.

Important archival material is also to be found in the Zbiory Czartoryskich (The Czartoryski collections) in Cracow. These contain much important in- formation, particularly on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Woje- wodzkie Archiwa Panstwowe (State Provincial Archives) also possess much documentation for the period before 1918 as well as for the pericd after inde- pendence. Particularly important are the archives in Cracow, Danzig (which has rich sources for the trade and organization of the free city from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century), Lublin and Wroclaw (Breslau) which has a large collection of Silesian material. Additional archival material is to be found in the manuscript collections of a number of the Polish libraries, which will be discussed later.

For the period of independence, archival material is much more scattered. What remains of the record of Central and Local Government, as well as a number of collections of private papers, are collected in the Archiwum Akt Nowych (Archive of recent documents) in Warsaw. Foreign ministry records are in the Archiwum Ministerstwa Spraw Zagranicznych (Foreign Ministry Archive) in Warsaw, while a good deal of material from the interwar Ministry of the Interior are to be found in the Centralne Archiwum Ministerstwa Spraw Wewngtrznych (Central Archive of the Ministry of the Interior), Warsaw. Army records are kept principally in the Centralne Archiwum Wojskowe (Central Military Archive) in Warsaw, but some material is also to be found in the Archiwum Wojskowego Instytutu Historycznego (Archive of the Military Historical Institute), Warsaw. Documents on the history of the ruling Polish United Workers Party and its precursors both in the interwar and pre-1914 periods are located in the Archiwum Zakiadu Historii Partii przy KC PZPR (Archive of the Party Historical Institute), Warsaw. Some documentation on the various Peasant parties of prewar Poland are found in the Archiwum NK Zjednoczonego Stronnictwa Ludowego (Archive of the United Peasant Party), Warsaw. The Archiwum Polskiej Akademii Nauk (Archive of the Polish Academy of Sciences), Warsaw, also has some material on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

There are in addition a number of important libraries in Poland. Of those connected with universities, one could mention the libraries of the University of Warsaw, the Jagiellonian university in Cracow, the University of Poznari and the Catholic University of Lublin. These all have important manuscript collections, and the Jagiellonian library, in particular, has much medieval material, including a good deal on the early history of the university itself. Other important libraries are the National Museum in Cracow, the libraries of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kbrnik and Cracow, the National Library in Warsaw, the Raczyriski Library in Poznari and the Ossolineum in Wrodaw (formerly in Lwbw).

On the question of access, it is in general true that the earlier the material H-HH

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410 LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES

the more likely is permission to be given. The use of ink and ball-point pens is permitted in most archives. Facilities for the use of a typewriter are not, how- ever, widely available. Hours of opening vary from archive to archive, and all are closed for one month in the summer, usually August. Seats are normally readily available. A letter of introduction from one’s own university is desir- able, but one does not need to present either a passport or photographs. As it is sometimes difficult to see archival catalogues, it is as well to go with some idea, derived from the bibliographies of Polish books on subjects related to one’s own interest, of what one wants to look at. It is generally easier to work in archives if one is in Poland on one of the British Council exchange scholar- ships. Those who wish to make private scholarly visits to Poland should con- sult the officials at the Polish Cultural Institute, 16 Devonshire Street, London W.l. Tel. 636-6032. Access to libraries presents no problems at all. In general, one may say that there is in Poland a rich mine of material on all periods, only waiting to be worked by those willing to learn the Polish language, which is not, in fact, particularly difficult.