The place of the University of Lodz Institute of History in Polish historical science (1945–1989)

Abstract

The topic of this analysis is the role performed by the Historical Institute (from 1970: Institute of History) at the University of Lodz during the People’s Republic of Poland era. In view of the unsatisfactory state of research both regarding the history of historiography and the organisation and development of Polish historical sciences the author based his analysis on three aspects of the functioning of the Institute: conditions for pursuing scientific undertakings, the organisation of the Institute against the backdrop of other academic institutes in Poland, and the participation of the Institute staff in General Conventions of Polish Historians. The foundation of this, by definition incomplete, study demonstrates the relatively substantial involvement of the Institute historians in Polish scientific life in the wake of World War II as a consequence of, i.a. the political part assigned to it by the authorities as well as a comparatively considerable conflict within the historical milieu, the uneven progress of research in particular domains of history, and concentration on economic and social history. The decline of the part performed by the Institute, and its status, at the turn of the 1940s was due to the migration of particular staff members to other academic centres and the susceptibility of Lodz-based researchers to ideological pressure. The gradual rise of the scientific potential of the titular Institute after October 1956 was disturbed by the events of March 1968, whose outcome encompassed changes affecting the staff to a degree unique among all academic centres, a decline of research, and political pacification. In 1970 these consequences signified a reorganisation of the Institute, which resulted in a temporary derangement of its functioning and a further waning of a conducive scientific ambiance and co-operation. The deterioration of the Institute during this period became increasingly discernible in the course of successive General Conventions of Polish Historians. The presence of Lodz-based historians – distinct at the 1948 and 1958 Conventions – become once again conspicuous during the 1980s, including the marked (for obvious reasons) reappearance at the Convention held in Lodz in 1989. The outcome of the relatively undisturbed progress of the Institute during the 1970s and 1980s – also the result of the Institute’s considerable politicisation – included a gradual growth of the research potential, whose unhampered course became possible from 1989 on.