Introduction

The most important encounter of the Sandomierz Rebellion — the battle of Guzow — attracted significant interest of the Holy See. The Papal Nuncio Francesco Simonetta, who was in summer in 1607 in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, dedicated a lot of attention to this battle. In three letters he described the genesis and progress of the battle as well as the situation which occurred after the encounter. Despite a subjective attitude of the nuncio resulting from his attachment to the royal party his report was truthful, which is confirmed by historical resources and contemporary research. The Simonetta’s description of the battle confirms that Rome was interested in events taking place in Poland at the time of the Sandomierz Rebellion and it allows for looking at the battle from another perspective.

The development of health care in Katowice has happened successively starting from the second half of the 19th century. The very period was connected with creating organizational basis in the form of urban structures dealing with health issues coordinating the functioning of the institutions of closed services and outpatients’ care, and tasks realized by the stations of social care as well as those responsible for ambulance prevention. The increase in number of the citizens in Katowice and neighbouring villages, as well as migration movements in the near-the-border area conditioned the necessity to introduce the control of the adherence of sanitary rules, food and drinking water control in order to decrease the risk of a high incidence and dissemination of the epidemic. A specialization in this area led to the development of scientific studies, realized by the Sanitary Institute in Katowice and the inclusion of school youth in the prevention examinations. A successive development of agglomeration conditioned the necessity to create the institutions of health care in the city, being able to provide not only first aid, but also specialist hospitalization. The citizens used among others Szpital Ojców Bonifratrów in Bogucice, Szpital Miejski and Szpital św. Elżbiety. The members of Spółka Bracka employed in neighbouring industrial factories made use of care offered by field hospitals. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries also the private initiative was developed, thanks to which private medical clinics were founded in Katowice. The popularization of accessibility to health care was also connected to the development of chemists which were responsible for providing hospitals and individual clients with medicaments, herbal preparations and articles on sale at the chemist’s. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries different forms of urban and charity social and welfare care were created in Katowice which supported, and at the same time, completed the actions of the public health system. Among such organizations were among others a Sanitary Column and institutions as well as foundations taking care of orphans and the poor. Religious communities in Katowice also took part in the process of creating the structures of the charity care.

Describing the attitude of lieutenant Stanisław Szeptycki, as a commander of different units of the Polish army in the Polish-Bolshevik war, especially as a commander of the North-Eastern Front, to the eastern borderline of the Republic of Poland it can be said that his approach did not differ from the opinions presented by the majority of independent activists at that time. Szeptycki’s generation fought for such a Poland — in a territorial sense — which was erased from the map of Europe in the 18th century. They simply did not know another Poland. Such an image was provided to them by their ancestors, they learned about such a Poland and it was in their hearts. So why did they require to include Silesia into Poland which was eliminated from the Polish nation a long time ago? They believed that the nation would be weak without a serious economic base (a gold apple in the Polish crown, as Szeptycki used to say about this land) Upper Silesia could constitute for the Republic of Poland and the lack of access to the sea. The question that arises is whether lieutenant Szeptycki was not afraid of the fact that a big number of ethnic minorities in a young nation, aware of their separateness could weaken the nation and be the cause of internal fears. It seems that the lieutenant did not voice such fears. He himself was brought up in a family home in the culturally-diversified environment, in the Russian area, learned and served in the army in a multinational dualistic Austro-Hungarian monarchy which he treated as his political homeland till 1918 and was certain that a reborn Polish nation could be such a homeland for its loyal citizens other than the Polish nationality.

The occupation politics of German authorities during World War I led to a revival of national movements in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the final period of war, the aspirations of the elites from particular ethnic groups aiming at building their own state organisms became the source of the conflict. The object of rivalry was Vilnius and the Vilnius Region. The Lithuanians aimed at building a nation based on the domination of Lithuanian culture and language with the capital in Vilnius. They were against a federation with Poland. They received support from part of the Jewish politicians in exchange for promises of national-cultural autonomy, although the Jews from Vilnius preferred the conception of an ethnic, not national, state. The Polish community was divided. A minority advocated for a return to the tradition of a multinational Lithuanian state where different languages would be justified, and a restoration of the relationship between Poland and Lithuania would protect Polish culture and create a potential force against the Russian threat. However, in the Polish camp, the dominant idea was the incorporation of the Vilnius Region and Vilnius into Poland. The Belarusian elites found themselves in the most difficult situation, aspiring to build a nation encompassing parts of both the Vilnius Region and Minsk. The undeveloped national awareness among Belarusian masses and the lack of a broader intelligentsia class forced Belarusian activists to seek external support from Russia, Poland, and Lithuania. However, each neighboring country had territorial interests that conflicted with Belarusian aspirations. The advocates of Piłsudski, editing Nasz Kraj in 1919 in Vilnius, saw a multinational Lithuania federated with Poland as the only chance to reconcile the contradictory programs. Nevertheless, they failed to persuade Lithuanians, Belarusians, or even the majority of the Polish society in Vilnius to support this conception.

The article presents the role of the Catholic Church in the education of young people in the period in which Father Arkadiusz Lisiecki was the bishop of the Katowice (Silesia) diocese. The text consists of two parts. The first one describes the legal basis for the functioning of education in the Silesian Voivodship. It takes into account the resolutions of the Organic Statute, the March Constitution, the Upper Silesian Convention, and the Concordat. It also discusses the most important resolutions by the Ministry of Religious Beliefs and Public Enlightenment having a significant influence on school life. The second part of the article concentrates on the practical activity of the Church trying to play a crucial part in educating young people. It discusses the issues related to school nomenclature, the syllabus of religion in schools, the activity of youth organizations and teacher’s organizations. Selected aspects illustrate the activity of the Church in the whole process of educating young people.

Unemployment insurance introduced in Poland (also in the territory of an autonomous Silesian voivodship) by the legislation of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland from 18 July 1924 was the first social insurance in the history directed at the unemployed. Firstly it concerned only the blue collar workers and subsequently also the white collar ones. The role of such an insurance for the Silesian voivodship was big (the article discusses only the unemployment insurance for blue collar workers in Polish Silesia because the unemployment of intelligentsia did not reach big numbers, even at the time of a big economic crisis), much bigger than in other districts of Poland due to the industrial nature of the voivodship. Here only 13% of the society lived by farming, foresting and gardening, the rest by the industry, trade and different types of services. The industrial working class as such in the Upper-Silesian part of the voivodship constituted over 72% of blue collar workers. In Polish Silesia the unemployment in the interwar period was permanent. At the time of a big economic crisis about half of the unemployed in the whole country was in the Silesian voivodship (over 100 thousand). The article, apart from a legislative insurance of the blue collar workers from unemployment (i.e. the principles included in the legislation from 18 July 1924 and its few amendments by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, as well as other changes introduced by the resolutions of the President and the Ministry of Work and Welfare) also presents the data concerning the number of people receiving this form of benefits in the Silesian voivodship and its amount between 1924 and 1928. The very considerations indicate that this form of legislative support fulfilled its function in the period of the economic situation when the unemployment level was low. At the time of the big economic crisis, on the other hand, when the unemployment was massive, the number of the unemployed receiving the benefits and their amount decreased. What increased, however, was the role of support from the welfare and charity activity. The legislation of the unemployment insurance in the Silesian voivodship is discussed in this article as an example of the unifying actions of the country. It was the only type of insurance which was not supervised by the Silesian Sejm, but the central authorities which financed this insurance in 50% (the rest of the money came from the employers and workers, the Treasury of the Silesian Sejm did not pay anything). Legal regulations of this insurance were created in the Sejm of the Republic of Poland and were also changed by the central institutions.

The article was based on unknown correspondence by Major Stefan Fabiszewski (former commander of Westerplatte) with the Cracow writer Janina Skowrońska-Feldmanowa and with the soldiers fighting at Westerplatte in September 1939: Ignacy Zarębski and Stefan Grodecki. Major Fabiszewski and the Westerplatte soldiers are analyzing military consequences of decisions taken by the Headquarters Military Transitive Depot during 7-day defence, and reveal many unknown yet details, concerning first of all work of the radio station and its workers.

The article describes the course of battle between the Red Army and Germany in Upper Silesia, the aim of which was to occupy Bytom among others. Eventually, the Red Army entered into the town on 28 January 1945. The author raises the issue of crimes the Red Army soldiers committed in Miechowice and their attitude to locals. The state of infrastructure after freeing as well as dwelling buildings, schools, factories and local transport was described in detail. On the basis of questionnaires concerning war damages, the author presents the problem of the lack of dwelling substance which was among others described on the basis of the witnesses’ reports. The author analyses the damages in the industry and plan of new authorities aiming at its rebuild. The situation in a heavy industry is illustrated by two tables including the data on the changes in the number of mining and realization of mining plans. The text also touches upon job competition. The author concludes that thanks to hard work of immigrant and local people supported by a new communist authority, Bytom managed to rebuild itself relatively fast and become one of the leading towns in the region.

The Ministry of Higher Education received the project “the school of talents” at the beginning of the 1970s. Its aim was to create a special educational institution at the elementary level for extremely talented students. The frames and principles of school functioning were included in seven points, where among other things, the proposal of localization and estimated cost related to it, the anticipated number of students and classes. Special attention was paid to four profiles to be found at school, i.e. a liberal, a mathematical-physical, a natural and a general one. The academics of the University of Silesia were to supervise the profiles. Due to the fact that the “School of talents” was to be created for students with special talents, the rules of enrolment and conditions the candidates had to fulfill were described. The very project is worth considering because in the light of the policy of education conducted by the authorities at that time was very innovative. It inscribed into the trend of experiments carried out in other countries, especially in the USSR. What the authorities were afraid of was a selected group of students of the school to be and that is why the project designers began to face multiple difficulties and, additionally, the situation got complicated thanks to the reorganization of the ministry.

The symbol and guarantee of stability of the parish community — permanently established — are the founding decree of the diocese bishop, congregation connected with a given territory either permanently or temporarily, their own priest and a proper holy place devoted to conducting the cult of God. The area where the districts and settlements were developing within the borderline of Katowice was always close to a parish and its residents belonged to one of the parish churches in Bogucice, Czeladź, Michałkowice, Chorzów Stary, Mikołów, and Tychy. The borderlines of some parishes in Katowice were formerly determined by rivers and streams and currently also interchanges. By observing the process of creating new parishes in Katowice, the question arises on the origin of initiatives and their formation. The answer lies in the analysis of archive sources and the conclusion that the initiatives were launched either by the local people, the parish priest of the home parish, or by the Curia in Wrocław or Katowice. The dwellers of Katowice usually were in favor of shortening the way to church and participating in a full parish life. The motive raised by parish priests was their willingness to increase the level of religious life of the congregation. Occasional motives include places of tragedy, for example in “Kleofas” and “Wujek” mines, and the willingness to build a substitute temple to create the center of the cult of Saint Anne in the Katowice diocese. Currently, 37 parish communities of the Roman Catholic Church located in 22 Katowice districts belonging to four deaneries — Katowice Bogucice, Katowice Panewniki, Katowice Śródmieście, and Katowice Załęże — have legal stabilization. Over 300 thousand members of the congregation live there, among whom 276 clerics conduct pastoral services.