Scholarly Activity of Polish Researchers in Humanities in Kiev, Kharkov and Novorossiya Imperial Universities

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the study of the scholarly activity of Polish researchers in humanities — philologists, historians, philosophers, literary critics and jurists — who worked at the universities in Kiev, Kharkov, and Odessa in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Covered in this article are: Henryk Jakubakis, Władysław Jurgiewicz, Witold Klinger, Leonard Kołmaczewski, Edmund Liwski, Witold Nowodworski, Józef Piechowski, Leon Szepielewicz, Alfons Walicki, Leopold Wojewódzki (Faculties of History and Philology), Konrad Dynowski, Leon Fiedorowicz, Alekander Mickiewicz, Jan Sobestyjański, Antoni Stanisławski, Eugeniusz Waśkowski (Faculties of Law). This article analyses the academic careers of the professors and determines the duration of their work at the aforementioned universities. It gives an overview of their contribution to the development of humanities and jurisprudence in Russia, and to the creation of academic schools in the field of humanities. The most significant group of Polish scholars became the specialists in classical philology (five professors). To some extent, a study of the distant historical epochs can be explained by the desire to disengage from the actual political situation in the country and from assessment of the developments of the recent past. Two academics represented each of the following disciplines: Western European literature, world history, and Roman law. The encyclopaedia of law, the history of Russian law, civil law and civil procedure, political economy and statistics were represented by a different Polish academic each. Some professors were also engaged in translations. This article is a step towards further study of the participation of Polish academics in the scholarly life of the Russian Empire.