Władysław Konopczyński: a Polish Historian of European Caliber

Abstract

Władysław Konopczyński, a Polish scholar and an investigator of modern history, certainly deserves to be recalled and to reappear yet again in all-European awareness. It must be done due to the fact that the name of that very outstanding and titled pre-war scholar was forced to disappear completely from the European humanities for fifty years. The decision of expelling Konopczyński from the world of European historians was made by the communist leaders of Poland. However, before that time, Konopczyński had played an important role in Europe. It is just enough to mention that during Poland's twenty years of independence after World War I, in the year 1931, Konopczyński was granted a membership in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Moreover, he was awarded the Swedish Royal Order of the Polar Star and the French Legion of Honour. Furthermore, the historian participated in many international congresses and his works were printed in many countries of Western Europe. In 1947 in Stockholm the heir to the throne himself attended Konopczyński's lecture.