December 8, 2022
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of Poland

Text source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of Poland

On 6 December [2022], Minister of Foreign Affairs Zbigniew Rau granted prizes and honourable mentions in the sixth edition of the History Competition. It should be noted that despite temporarily limited access to Polish and foreign archives and libraries, historians published many valuable studies and source publications last year, which were then submitted to this year’s competition.

At the request of the Historical Diplomacy Council, Minister Zbigniew Rau decided to award the following prizes and honourable mentions for 2021:

For best Polish-language publication on the history of Polish diplomacy:

The prize – Piotr Długołęcki for the source publication W obliczu Zagłady. Rząd RP na uchodźstwie wobec Żydów 1939–1945, Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych, Warszawa 2021 (published in English as Confronting the Holocaust. Documents on the Polish Government-in-Exile’s Policy Concerning Jews 1939–1945, Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych, Warszawa 2022).

The first honourable mention – Jan Stanisław Ciechanowski for the monograph Czarna legenda Mirandy. Polacy w hiszpańskim obozie internowania w Miranda de Ebro 1940–1945 [The black legend of Miranda. Poles in the Spanish internment camp at Miranda de Ebro, 1940–1945], Oficyna Wydawnicza RYTM, Wydział “Artes Liberales” Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Warszawa 2021.

The second honourable mention – Jarema Słowiak for the monograph Wielka improwizacja. Delegacja polska w Międzynarodowej Komisji Nadzoru i Kontroli w Wietnamie w latach 1954–1973 [Great improvisation. Polish delegation to the International Commission for Control and Supervision in Vietnam in 1954–1973], Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, Oddział w Szczecinie, Szczecin 2021.

For best foreign-language publication promoting Poland’s history:

The prize – Hacer Topaktaş Üstüner (Turkey) for the book Polonezköy: 180 Yıllık Mazi [180 years of the history of Polonezköy], Beykoz Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, [İstanbul] 2021.

The first honourable mention – Patrice M. Dabrowski (United States) for the book The Carpathians. Discovering the Highlands of Poland and Ukraine, Northern Illinois University Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press, Ithaca-London 2021.

The second honourable mention – Jane Rogoyska (United Kingdom) for the book Surviving Katyń. Stalin’s Polish Massacre and the Search for Truth, Oneworld Publications, London 2021.

Also, a certificate of recognition was awarded to Lidia Michalska-Bracha for her book Józef Kajetan Janowski (1832–1914). Po powstaniu styczniowym… Emigrant, weteran 1863 roku, lwowianin z wyboru [Józef Kajetan Janowski (1832–1914). After the January Uprising… An emigrant, a veteran of 1863, a resident of Lviv by choice], Wydawnictwo DiG, Warszawa 2021. The author and researcher was recognised for successfully taking up the subject of the January Uprising, the 160th anniversary of which will be marked in 2023.

The ceremony to present the prizes and honourable mentions will be held in 2023. The next year will also see the announcement of a new edition of the competition, open to books published in 2022.

Łukasz Jasina
MFA Spokesperson

More about The Carpathians

The Carpathians
Discovering the Highlands of Poland and Ukraine
by Patrice M. Dabrowski

Cornell University Press
Discount code: 09SAVE – 33%

In The Carpathians, Patrice M. Dabrowski narrates how three high-land ranges of the mountain system found in present-day Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine were discovered for a broader regional public. This is a story of how the Tatras, Eastern Carpathians, and Bieszczady Mountains went from being terra incognita to becoming the popular tourist destinations they are today.

Learn more about the book from the author Patrice M. Dabrowski from the talk at the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University published on YouTube.

Patrice M. Dabrowski was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland in 2014. Patrice M. Dabrowski has taught and worked at Harvard, Brown, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the University of Vienna. She is currently an Associate of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, a member of the Board of Directors of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA), and editor of H-Poland. Dabrowski is the author of three books: Poland: The First Thousand Years (2014; paperback edition, 2016), Commemorations and the Shaping of Modern Poland (2004), and The Carpathians: Discovering the Highlands of Poland and Ukraine (2021).