The Szadek Period in the Life of Józef Błaszczyk, a Peasant Activist of the Sieradz Region: Based on Memories from 1936

Abstract

In 1936, the diary of Józef Błaszczyk, “the son of a moderately wealthy farmer, an enriched entrepreneur and activist, a farmer on 47 acres in the Sieradz district”, was published. In his adult life – owing to his abilities, resourcefulness, dili-gence, and social involvement, as well as to his undoubted ability to take advantage of favourable circumstances – Józef, step by step, became quite a wealthy farmer. This enrichment, however, does not make him indifferent to the situation of the Polish countryside at that time, which is reflected, among others, in his involvement in the activities of the peasant movement. In his diary, against the background of his own and his family’s fate, he draws attention to many problems affecting the Polish countryside.
Memories of the Szadek period cover approximately 10 years, from the mid-1880s to the mid-1890s. This is the time spent with his parents in Wola Przatowska and the following years when he lived in Szadek with the notary, Jan Kuczyński. Józef Błaszczyk spent the last half century of his life, also described in his diary, on a farm in nearby Zadzim.
In the article referring to J. Błaszczyk’s memories from his childhood and early youth, an outline of the achievements of this outstanding activist of the peasant movement in the first half of the 20th century was also presented.