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The Institute of History (IH) was founded in 1930 on a decision of the Council of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Warsaw which was endorsed a year later by the Ministry of Religious Beliefs and Public Enlightenment. However, its roots run deeper, in fact back to 1913 with the es-tablishment of the Department for History of the Warsaw Scientific Society, under the active in-volvement of the future IH founder and first director, professor Marceli Handelsman.
The outbreak of the Second World War, in 1939, cut short all official academic activity, though even under occupation covert education continued, to the extent that in the academic year 1943/44 the IH had as many as 90 students. These ‘underground’ studies came under the directorship of professor Tadeusz Manteuffel, one of a number of academics who helped reestablish the Institute after the war. He was director from 1945 to 1955. His successors included, among others, professor Aleksander Gieysztor and professor Henryk Samsonowicz, who - like many other distin-guished academic staff of the IH - played a significant role in the intellectual development of post-war Poland. Many members of the Institute’s academic community played the key role in the developments that led to the political transformation in 1989. Many have since played active roles in the formation of Poland’s new reality. IH employees and graduates alike have served in the Lower and Upper houses of parliament and the first democratic governments of the 3rd Republic of Poland. They also have a strong presence in the diplomatic corps, as well as in many central and local government institutions, not to mention the media. Many former IH graduates now work for the Institute of National Remembrance, playing an important role in the shaping of our historical consciousness. Likewise, IH academics contribute to this process through the production of curricula and handbooks for schools and universities. They write press articles, present open lectures, take part in or co-produce TV and radio programmes and, importantly, co-organize the annual Olympiad in history. An indubitable contribution to expanding the awareness of history comes from the numerous IH graduates who make up the teaching staff of educational institutions at all levels, and who work in publishing or archiving. |
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