Research on the evolution of education after 1945, developed with varying intensity in several research centres in Poland, has brought about a broadening knowledge about the reconstruction of the school system, but also about the limitations resulting from the ideologisation of education, which weighed on the development of Polish education in this period. On the one hand, historians attempt to examine the functionality of education as a model of preparation for life in society by tracing the vision of society and the values and social norms that a community would adopt as a result of education. On the other hand, a narrowing understanding of the term education to legal and organisational issues amounts to an analysis of the legal basis and construction of school structures over a certain period of time, including the model of teacher preparation, the curricular vision, the construction of a system of assessment and examination and thus the validation of the effects of the educational system and so on. The sources that form the basis of this research are legal acts both produced by the state educational institutions at the central level, providing the framework of the education system, and at the departmental and local level. These sources require special skills from researchers dealing with the

history of education in post-war Poland allowing them to critically refer to the figures and arguments contained therein. They also require an in-depth knowledge of the history of education, knowledge of the socio-economic conditions of a given region and the competence of the members of the bodies deciding on the direction of educational development in a given area. Studies on the history of education must take into account the influence of various socio-economic factors and to show the impact of schools on the life of their local communities with all the consequences of the institutional operation of these institutions. They have to also comprehensively examine the professional group of teachers and their influence on the level of historical awareness of Poles.

The aim of the study is to analyse essential changes in the work of teachers in Slovakia after February 1948, when the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia imposed a totalitar-ian regime and assumed control of all spheres of life, including the educational system. Teachers had to implement upbringing and educational processes at schools in line with the ideology of the ruling Communist Party. Teachers, whose main task was to raise from the young generation new builders of socialism, were exposed to strong ideological pres-sure. They were obliged to accept the new regime without reservations. Teachers who  expressed any sign of disagreement were persecuted. Exceptionally hard harassed were teachers,  who  refused  to  give  up  their  religious  conviction.  Public  identification  with  the Christian world outlook and criticism of the leading role of the Communist Party resulted in loss of employment, or in better cases, transfer to another school. The out of school activity of teachers was directed and controlled. The method of historical analysis was used in the composition of this study.

The objective of the article is to briefly present the functioning of the education system in Romania under the leadership of the Romanian Communist Party. This article tries to capture in general terms the structure and functioning of schools during the first part of the communist regime, i.e. during the period 1947–1965. There were two distinct  periods  that  marked  the  evolution  of  pre-university  education:  1947–1955  and 1956–1965.The first period was characterised by the adaptation of the Soviet model, made concrete by the adoption of the education law of 1948, which laid the foundations for a secular education system, coordinated entirely by the Romanian state authorities. In the second period, an attempt was made to break away from the Soviet model and restore Romanian education to a structure close to the interwar one. The  achievements  were  significant  (many  schools  were  built,  the  enrollment  and  attendance  of  students  in  elementary  and  secondary  schools  increased,  as  well  as  the  elimination of illiteracy), but the politicisation and control of the education system by the communist regime was permanent throughout this period.

Schools and education represent one of the most important tools of every totalitarian regime. The aim of the paper is to approach and clarify the process of ideologisation in education at all levels of schools, i.e. pre-primary education, national schools, and universities in Slovakia during the period of communism (1948–1989). Archival sources, period legislation, newspapers as well as existing research in this area (Gabzdilová 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021; Kudláčová, ed., 2017, 2018, 2019, 2023; Olejník 2018; Glossová 2021, see the Bibliography) were used in this study. The paper proves that education was under the control of the regime, the supervision of the communist party in particular, and it was shaped by its conclusions and resolutions. Thus, education became one of the tools to spread and promote the communist ideology. The analysis also points out the fact that the given period was not homogeneous, rather it had several stages in which some was recorded strong political interference (the period of Stalinism, the so-called normalisation) and in others, political release can be noted (Prague Spring, the 1980s).

In  school  history  education,  but  also  outside  of  it,  the  newspaper  “Trybuna  Ludu”  (TL) is quite often mentioned. Most often it is mentioned as a source to demonstrate the propagandic nature of the press in “people’s” Poland. For this purpose, newspaper texts are used, and less often, illustrative material, but in the study of the history of historical education in that period they  should not be omitted. To properly understand and describe this, one must take into account the nature of the press source itself, as determined  by  the  status  of  the  newspaper  in  the  broadly  understood  information  system  of Poland during the years 1944–1989. For this purpose, an analysis was made of party documents specifying the criteria for disseminating illustrative materials in the context of specific examples from TL. Generally speaking, it can be said that among the mass of iconographic sources from “people’s” Poland used in history teaching then and now, those from TL occupy a special place. They should be seen as specific content and considered a tool for creating socio-political reality. The image of the broadly understood personal structure of power in the Polish People’s Republic that was developed in this newspaper is a model that should also be disseminated through other media.

The  article  presents  several  months  of  the  activities  of  Inowrocław  teachers  from  the  Independent  Self­Governing  Trade  Union  “Solidarity”  during  1980–1981.  It  began  in  October 1980, when several education workers organised a meeting during during which the Interschool Founding Committee was established. Its members were involved in the development of the union in several gminas in the region. On 14 December 1980, the District Commission was established, one of the largest and most active structures of a union independent of the communist government in the area in question. What is particularly noteworthy is that teachers from Inowrocław did not limit themselves to trying to introduce changes in the education system. They also participated in the development of the Solidarity movement  at  various  levels,  took  part  in  the  activities  of  the  Inter­Enterprise  Founding  Committee of NSZZ “Solidarność” (since July 1981, the Solidarity Branch) in Inowrocław, and cooperated with the NSZZ of Individual Farmers “Solidarność”. They also supported the aspirations of high school students, who, largely thanks to their help, established their own organisation – the Independent Self­Governing School Youth Union “Solidarność”. Moreover, they introduced the topic of restoring historical street names into public discussion and tried to shape their own remembrance policy until the imposition of martial law.

In 1949, in Kwidzyn, a group of school youth created an underground organisation. It started with simple propaganda activities and ended with expropriation actions. Contact was also established with a partisan group operating in the Grudziądz area. The organisa-tion, operating for six months, was part of the broad phenomenon of creating youth struc-tures within the independence underground. Its characteristics open the research ques-tion of what else needs to be done to determine the scale and type of this phenomenon.

The scope of the study concerns the activities of Polish schools during 1945–1948 in Romania. There were Poles in this country, both from the old emigration (being Romanian citizens) and military and civilian refugees from the Second Polish Republic. After being given  the  opportunity  to  repatriate,  some  of  them  returned  to  Poland,  while  others  decided to stay. Due to the changes that took place in 1945 in the international arena, including in Romania, the question arises: to what extent did the new political, social, and economic situation condition the functioning of Polish schools in this country? The analysis of sources collected mainly in the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw contributed to solving this research problem. Based on them, I conclude that the following Polish schools existed in post-war Romania: a) a private primary school in  Lupeny  (in  Romanian  –  Lupeni);  b)  different  types  of  refugee  schools  operating  in  southern Romania; c) Polish sections at Romanian state schools in southern Bukovina. Polish language courses were also conducted. The activities of schools and courses were mainly determined by the migration of Poles, including their returns to the country.

The officers, educated at the Training Centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Legionowo, joined the ranks of the Security Service throughout Poland, becoming role models for their younger colleagues. In the period covered by this article, an important feature of training was indoctrination in the spirit of Marxism, but the most important were courses aimed at increasing general and specialised knowledge. The first type dominated during the 1950s and 1960s, when attempts were made to raise the generally low
level of education of officers who began serving in the Stalinist period. Since around 1970, the qualifications of people joining the Security Service have improved, which necessitated changes in the teaching process. As a result, the training system for officers of the discussed formation, which was developed at the beginning of the communist regime in Poland, was thoroughly reformed in 1972.

The Polish Junior High School, opened in May 1922 in the Free City of Gdańsk, was one of the most important centres of Polishness in a city dominated by the German population. The facility, called “gamaja” by the students, primarily achieved its most important goal – it enabled children of Poles of Gdańsk citizenship, Polish citizens per-
manently residing in Gdańsk, and Polish clerks and functionaries employed at WMG to obtain a secondary education and, consequently, study at universities. The Polish Junior High School implemented the ideas of: a “work school”, a “creative school”, a school that was “bustling with life, knew no routine or passivity”, which aroused the student’s activity, subjectivity, independence, and skilfully exploited their interests and abilities. The activity of the institution was interrupted on 29 August 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II. The article raises an issue that has not been addressed in historiography so far and is an attempt to answer the following research questions: Did the educational ideas of the Polish Junior High School continue in the First State Junior High School and Secondary School in Gdańsk that was established in 1945? If the activities of the Polish Junior High School were revived, to what extent? Finally, if the educational ideas of the Polish Junior High School were reactivated within the First State Junior High School and Secondary School, to what extent did they prove to be sustainable?

The article discusses the reality of the work of general secondary school teachers in “people’s” Poland. At that time, school daily life was largely filled with training and inspections. A massive campaign of ideological training of teachers began from the 1949/1950 school year, introducing new curricula based entirely on the tenets of Marxism-Leninism. During these courses, educators were to familiarize themselves with the political priorities of the authorities and their educational strategy, and then put the acquired knowledge and skills into practice in their schools. A period of hospitalization, visitation, indoctrination and surveillance of teachers began. The text was written on the basis of an analysis of historical sources, primarily archival materials and memoirs supplemented by literature on the subject. The author presents the methods and means used by the authorities to achieve success and create a “new man” embedding them in examples of investigative cases conducted against teachers of the Katowice Province in the 1950s and 1960s.

The article concerns to the contemporary Kuyavian-Pomeranian Province (the today’s Pomeranian one in 1945 was called the Gdańsk Province). During World War II, teachers from that part of Poland were one of the social groups that were particularly subjected to German terror. The occupation brought enormous destruction to the education system in the Pomeranian Province: some teachers died, others lost their health, schools and their equipment were destroyed. So far, education has been described in the literature mainly through the prism of bulding an administration along with formal and legal issues. The issues of teachers’ attitudes, their opinion on the installed regime, and their role and participation in the reconstruction of education remained on the sidelines. The article presents the results of research conducted in the educational, administrative and security archives, also being based on memories and information in the press. In 1945, educators,  many  of  whom  were  teachers  before  the  war,  immediately  started  creating  education, sometimes immediately after returning from camps and forced labour. They cleaned the buildings, prepared the necessary learning materials and teaching aids, and, in addition to fulfilling their professional duties, they took part in broadly understood social life. They did this with dedication despite very poor living conditions. Although the communist authorities tried to put ideological pressure on them, some teachers had a negative attitude towards the system and expressed it during classes. Educators joined existing parties, but few became members of the communist one.

Professional, institutionalized fishing education was one of the most important elements  of  fishing  in  the  Polish  People’s  Republic.  Reactivated  in  1945,  it  was  intended to quickly recruit staff at various levels to the industry, from those responsible for management to specialists working in rank-and-file positions. The aim of this article, which is a contribution to research, is to present the so-titled issue as comprehensively as possible and show its impact on the fishing industry in the period 1945–1989. At the beginning, the text synthetically discusses fishing in the Polish People’s Republic, which is intended to allow for the location of vocational education in time and space. Then it presents the education system and indicates the types of educational institutions along with profiling candidates desired as future employees of this industry. In the  next  part,  the  article  presents  the  history  of  individual  schools  involved  in  educating professional staff for fisheries – state maritime schools in Gdynia and Szczecin (later  maritime  universities),  which  were  the  first  institutions  where  future  skippers  and motorists were educated, as well as secondary (technician) and vocational schools. This text is supplemented by a presentation of other entities involved in teaching, such as vocational training centers of the Ministry of Shipping, company schools at enterprises and voluntary labor units.

Mutual contacts between the education system and the Polish People’s Army became more and more intense in the 1960s. An important context for this phenomenon was the army’s interest in creating a country defense system in which schools were to fulfill the responsible task of the initial preparation of future soldiers of compulsory military service and participants of general self-defense and civil defense. At the same time, the army was building its influence through, among other things, participating in the construction of schools and naming them after military patrons, supporting specific educational institutions and shaping teachers’ attitudes to be favorable to the Armed Forces of the Polish People’s Republic. The period described above was also a time of more intensive development of teaching military (defense) preparation in schools, largely subordinated to the Ministry of Defense.

The Polish resistance functioned, in parallel to the Soviet one, during the German occupation in South-East Latvia, in the region of Latgale and the district of Ilūkste. After the second occupation of the country by the Red Army the Poles continued their activity. Both the objective of its existence (rebulding of the independent Polish state) and the structures were the same as those under the Nazi rule. At that time the Polish resistance existed near the Latvian one. Around 30–40 people of the Polish armed unit of partisans led by Bronisław Worsław (Broņislavs Vorslavs) were active in the civil parish of Kaplava and also in the nearby Belarus territories (previously the eastern provinces of Poland). Also in Krāslava and Daugavpils there was an active underground organization called the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland; in addition several smaller units of partisans, mainly consisting of Polish, existed too. It is significant that Soviet repressive institutions incriminated in their investigation for the custodies underground activities between 1942 and 1943 – during the German occupation. Apparently, the above-mentioned activity was roused by a certain confusion of the local Soviet punitive functionaries, because after the Second World War these institutions and their employees lacked the practice of management of these situations in the territory of Latvia. At the end of the war and after it, many inhabitants of Latvia of Polish nationality were involved also in the Latvian national resistance movement. Many of them were accordingly arrested and punished by the Soviet authorities. Likewise, in the years after the termination of the armed resistance, there were people among the Polish nationals in Latvia that dared to act against the governing regime. Undoubtedly, the most prominent was the dissident Jan Jachimowicz (Jānis, in documents – Ivan, Jahimovičs), born in 1931 in Daugavpils and arrested in March 1969.

The article analysed selected aspects of the functioning of academic and quasi-scientific institutions in the Soviet Union, conducting research and expert activities related
to broadly understood Polish issues. The authors discussed individual institutions that collect and develop analytical materials for the purposes of “decision-making factors” and the implementation of current government orders. In addition to presenting the genesis of the establishment of these institutions, the development of their field of activity and the staff who analysed the situation in Poland, an attempt was made to determine the scope of tasks performed and the methods of their implementation.

On the territory of the Russian Empire at the turn of the 19 and 20th century, a religious awakening started. This was due to new translations of the Holy Bible, traditions inherited from the German and Dutch colonies in this state and the release from serfdom of the peasants. Evangelical movements were supported by the rise of opposition to the Orthodox Church as well as the politically-social reality in Russia including the growing control of the state over its subjects. Tsar Nicolas the II abolished state protection for the Russian Orthodox Church in 1906, and gave religions apostates the right to cultivate their convictions. The phenomena gave rise to the beginning of the Stundists. After World War I the majority of the Stundists, who stayed in Poland, lived in Wolyn in the complicated national and religious reality of this region. The article attempts to describe legally political conditions of the Stundists in the period 1918–1939 and their social reactions with the Polish state and with the Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Churches.

Organisation Todt (OT) – a structure originally established to build a line of fortifications on the border of Germany with France (Western Wall). Starting from the September
Campaign of 1939, it operated in the rear of the Wehrmacht, organising war logistics, and carried out numerous construction projects subordinated to the German war effort in the occupied territories. Its activities significantly influenced the effectiveness of the German armed forces and provided significant support for the economy of the Third Reich. During the period indicated in the title of the article, the OT experienced enormous
growth, caused by the expansion of the area of military operations and the demands of a conflict that was heading towards total war. The founder of the organisation, Fritz Todt, until his death (8 February 1942), expanded the OT and managed it efficiently, creating the foundations for a gigantic structure, and at the same time expanding the scope of his personal influence. This was fully taken advantage of by his successor, Albert Speer, who improved the well-functioning construction machine and exploited its reserves. The assessment of Todt’s activities, apart from his indisputable organisational and engineering competences, requires emphasising his obvious tendencies towards careerism and boundless devotion to Nazi ideology. This resulted in the ruthless implementation of the tasks entrusted to him, which led to thousands of victims losing their lives or health as a result of the very hard work on construction sites managed by OT. This text contains a description of the OT’s activities from the end of the French campaign until Speer took control of it after the accident in which Todt died. It is a supplement to the article that appeared in the 38th issue of “Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość” [“Remembrance and Justice”] under the title Organizacja Todta – powstanie, rozwój i zakres działalności w latach 1938–1940 [Organisation Todt – creation, development and scope of activity in the years 1938–1940] and contains a discussion of the history of OT from the moment its creator was entrusted with the responsibility for the construction of the Western Wall (28 May 1938) to June 1940. The entire material is an attempt at a synthetic approach to the activities of the discussed organisation under Todt’s leadership.

The subject of the article are selected activities of Władysław Gomułka, who for nearly twenty years (1944–1948, 1956–1970) was the leader of the communist party in Poland and  during  that  time  sought  the  strengthening  and  international  legal  recognition  of  the western border of post-war Poland. He was not satisfied with the verbal and written guarantees of the Soviet leaders on this matter, and until the end of his political activity he was convinced that Moscow was capable of giving the Polish Western Territories to Germany in exchange for appropriate economic and political gains. In 1967, he led the Eastern Bloc countries to establish common rules of conduct towards the Federal Republic of Germany. At the same time, he tried to consolidate these countries as much as possible economically, scientifically and technically, which was to contribute to the strengthening of the Polish People’s Republic and thus securing its western border. In 1969, he concluded that Moscow and its allies were acting selfishly and decided to establish bilateral relations between Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany on his own. The  result  of  his  actions  was  the  conclusion  of  a standardisation  agreement  between  Warsaw and Bonn in 1970.

The authors of this study attempted to discover the origin of the rust stains on the marble floor in the Staszic Palace in Warsaw, Poland. It was suspected that these streaks and
stains were blood traces of wounded Warsaw Insurgents. According to the authors, the experiments they conducted have shown that it is possible to obtain permanent staining
of marble with human blood under some conditions. The list of the wounded during the defense of the Staszic Palace between August 23 and September 6/7, 1944 has been
established. The conducted experiments allowed the authors to conclude that the traces are most likely the result of wounds sustained by many insurgents and that this place needs to be commemorated.

In the last years of his life, Cardinal August Hlond was surrounded by the aura of the steadfast Primate of Poland, who never recognised the communist regime, never met
the communist president Bolesław Bierut and did not make any concessions to the communists. In church circles, this attitude was contrasted with the attitude of Primate Stefan
Wyszyński, who concluded an agreement with the government in 1950 (this assessment was only changed by the famous was only changed by the famous “Non possumus” and his arrest). This article is based
mainly on the extensive biography Pełnia prymasostwa. Ostatnie lata prymasa Polski kardynała Augusta Hlonda 1945–1948 [Height of primacy. The last years of the Primate
of Poland, Cardinal August Hlond, 1945–1948] (Poznań 2009), written by the author of this article on the basis of many sources, often previously unknown or unavailable,
as well as previous literature. Its purpose is to show the primate’s attitude towards the regime in Poland. Primate August Hlond, who returned to the country from war emigration, was aware of the need to start talks with the communist regime and to normalise church life, especially after the breaking of the concordat. However, he believed that talks should be conducted only on specific issues, while maintaining the independence of the Church. He personally contacted only the Poznań voivode (provincial governor), Feliks Widy-Wirski, and the deputy minister of administration, Władysław Wolski. The talks basically con-
cerned one issue – the authorities’ demand that the Primate pay a visit to the President of the National Council of the Judiciary, Bolesław Bierut. The repression and fraud used by the regime during the referendum resulted in the Primate and the Episcopate sending a confidential memorandum to the authorities, in which they demanded an improvement in the situation of the Church and the nation in the state. As a result of this step, official
talks began between representatives of the episcopate and the government. The regime treated them instrumentally, interrupted them many times, nor it did keep the promi-
ses it had made, but rather it abandoned its policy of repression, and even intensified it. Cardinal Hlond, however, believed that the talks should continue. He was ready to meet Bierut (which he had previously ruled out) and began correspondence with him. This was
not due to political naivety, but to prudence and the “necessity of the moment”. Although these talks did not achieve much, they delayed the upcoming crackdown between the communists and the Church and gave them more time to mobilise their forces before the general trial.
The article slightly corrects the opinion about Cardinal Hlond as a steadfast and unyielding primate – an interrex who did not recognise the communist president and never met him, despite the regime’s efforts – but this does not diminish his greatness and merits.

The article presents in detail how Archbishop/Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński approached the concept of an agreement between the Church and the communist authorities. The Primate  believed  that  creating  a modus  vivendi  with  the  communists  was  necessary  because – in his opinion – the new political system was to last longer than one generation. The text analyses the influence of the leader of the Church in Poland on concluding the agreements with the authorities on 14 April 1950 and 31 December 1956. It is also argued that without the determination of Cardinal Wyszyński, such arrangements would probably not have been made.

The aim of this study is to show the involvement of the Ordinary of Łódź, Bishop Michał Klepacz,  in  negotiations  between  the  government  and  the  Catholic  Church.  The  role  played by the Ordinary during the work of the Mixed Committee and his contribution to the final shape of the concluded agreement were significant. The hierarch’s conciliatory attitude allowed him to start talks with Minister Wolski and Colonel Brystygier when, at the turn of 1949 and 1950, both sides of the negotiations found themselves at an impasse. The result of several months of negotiations was an agreement signed on 14 April 1950.

This publication, devoted to the wartime history of Polish communities in Eastern Lesser Poland, is part of the concern for the cultural heritage of the Eastern Borderlands
of the Republic of Poland. The author of the memoirs published here belonged to the Latin rite clergy of the Archdiocese of Lviv. For eleven years, until the end of World War II, he performed various functions in the structures of the local Church. For the longest time – six years – he managed the religious and social life of the Wołczuchy parish in the Gródek Jagielloński poviat in the Lviv voivodeship. In his memoirs, Father Orkusz does
not limit himself to describing the events of World War II, although this period undoubtedly dominates them. Time and time again, he digresses back to the interwar years and
reports on his experiences – as a priest and as a Pole. He draws attention to the differences in the mentality of Poles living in the Tarnopol and Lviv voivodeships, emphasises the scale of their involvement in religious and social life and observes the state of religious and national identity. He recalls the results of community efforts – of parishioners and a priest – in the field of sacred construction, burdened with centuries of neglect, both by the higher hierarchy and the Polish landed gentry. Father Orkusz’s reports on the co-
existence of Greek Catholics with the Latin rite population are extremely valuable. There are positive elements here, such as the help provided to Poles by some Uniate clergy in
the era of Ukrainian massacres, but also negative ones: the “fight for souls” conducted by the Greek Catholic Church in centres with ritual diversity in Eastern Lesser Poland. The
document published here is a valuable contribution to the reconstruction of the history of this region at the end of the Second Polish Republic.