The organizers of the congress wrote that "The jubilee 20th Congress of Polish Historians is being held in Lublin on the 450th anniversary of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, which for the people of our part of Europe marked a long historical path, leading - as John Paul II said – “ from the Union of Lublin to the European Union”. The congress further marks « the 30th anniversary of the great transformation of 1989, called "the Revolutions of 1989", which for the end of the twentieth century was no less significant than the "Revolutions of 1848” "were for the nineteenth century. [...]
We are meeting in Lublin on 18-20 September 2019, 50 years after the 10th Congress of Polish Historians, which also took place in Lublin. This serves as an impulse to think about the changes which have taken place in Polish historiography and the challenges we are currently facing. A reliable evaluation of achievements and failures of the past half-century of academic historiography in Poland and its current place in European and world science is still ahead of us, and it is time to finally deal with this task."
As part of the Congress, the Institute of National Remembrance has organized two panels with the participation of eminent historians from Poland and abroad. The first of the panel discussions focused on the Polish independence emigration from 1945-1990. During the second panel the researchers discussed the manner in which political transformations took place in Central and Eastern Europe.During the deliberations, the historians also dealt with issues related to the condition and significance of history as a field of knowledge as well as the place of Polish academic historiography in European and world science.
***
The 20th Congress of Polish Historians began on September 18. The opening was attended by the organizers and representatives of state authorities: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and Higher Education Jarosław Gowin, Minister of National Education Dariusz Piontkowski; local government authorities: Marshal of the Lublin Province Jarosław Stawiarski, Mayor of the City of Lublin Krzysztof Żuk.
Dr Jarosław Szarek, the President of the Institute of National Remembrance, co-opened the Congress of Polish Historians.
The IPN is one of the co-organizers of the 20th Congress of Polish Historians in Lublin. At the beginning Dr Szarek referred to the very presence of the Institute as an institutional partner.
- The Institute of National Remembrance is the youngest institution in this group. We've been operating for 20 years, but I think we've already made our mark with regard to researching Poland’s recent history. Over the past 20 years, we have become one of the most important institutions not only in Poland, but also in the entire post-Soviet zone. The IPN’s activities include scientific research, educational activities, its archives, as well as the search for and commemoration of our heroes. History is our passion! - said the head of the Institute of National Remembrance.
The President of the Institute of National Remembrance also referred to the Conference of Museums, Archives and Polish Libraries in the West. We are here in Lublin, in a city where one can still feel the extraordinary meeting of the heritage of the First Polish Republic - between East and West. I would like to warmly welcome our guests from abroad, because Lublin was the meeting place for institutions associated in the Conference of Museums, Archives and Polish Libraries in the West. They are the guardians of our memory: from Australia to both Americas. For many decades, they were the guardians of our heritage and expressed our aspirations for free, independent Poland, when we could not do it in our homeland- said Jarosław Szarek about MABPZ members.
-
The IPN exhibition "Emigration Polonica”. From the collections of the member institutions of the Conference of Museums, Archives and Polish Libraries in the West." Was oficially opened at 2:30 p.m.
On 17 September, a press conference was held at the Lublin Conference Center regarding the 20th Congress of Polish Historians.
The conference was attended by, among others Dr Dorota Koczwańska-Kalita, the Director of the Office of the President and Social Communication of the Institute of National Remembrance, Jarosław Stawiarski, the Marshal of the Lublin Province, Dr Krzysztof Żuk, the President of the City of Lublin and Prof. Jan Pomorski from the Maria Curie Skłodowska University, one of the organizers of the event.
Professor Pomorski presented the program of the 20th Congress of Polish Historians to the gathered journalists and thanked the Institute of National Remembrance for joining the organization of the event as well as the two previously mentioned panel discussions.
The Director of the Office of the President and Social Communication of the Institute of National Remembrance, Dr Dorota Koczwańska-Kalita, referred to the Institute's presence among the event's partners. – It is the first time that the IPN will be present at the Congres as an institutional partner. Thanks to this we can show the Institute's huge achievements. The IPN has access to many documents, which allows us to make new hypotheses and verify many existing ones. That is why our presence here perfectly fits in with the motto of this year’s Congress, namely, "Big Change".
Dr Koczwańska-Kalita discussed the topics of the panels prepared by the Institute:
- These two panels are also the result of many years of research conducted by the Institute's employees. Our scholars participate in central research projects: one of them is a project concerning Polish emigration after 1945, and the other focuses on "Solidarity" and social resistance. It was the research of these topics that initiated our panels. We then invited eminent historians from Poland and abroad to participate in the discussion. Polish independence emigration 1945-1990 is an extremely important topic. There is still little knowledge of the area of emigration. During the panel, historians will discuss what independence emigration looked like, who were its most important figures associated with the government in exile. Political and cultural issues will also be addressed. Especially the latter were of great significance because they became one of the reasons for the changes which took place in 1989.
The second panel will focus on the "Revolutions of 1989" and transformation in Central and Eastern Europe presented from not only the perspective of Poland and Solidarity, but also from the point of view of other countries of the region. The historians will try to answer the question of the extent to which these changes developed independently and how many elements they had in common.
Dr Koczwańska-Kalita also talked about two exhibitions of the Institute of National Remembrance, which will be presented during the Congress. One of them is "Emigration Polonica", showing documents and exhibits from the collections of member institutions of the Conference of Polish Museums, Archives and Libraries in the West, and "Through the Red Sea" – portraying the Republic of Poland in exile after World War II.
The Director of the Office of the President and Social Communication of the Institute of National Remembrance also added that the Institute is very much up to date with new technologies and modern ways of presenting historical knowledge to the younger generation. Some of this can be seen in a special folder prepared by the Institute of National Remembrance for the Congress: ‘History creates our identity. The activities of the IPN in numbers.
