Jerzy Jedlicki (born Jerzy Grossman 14 June 1930,

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

– died 31 January 2018, Warsaw) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

historian of ideas Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual histor ...

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

Professor and an

anti-communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

activist during the times of the

Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...

Life and work

Born into an assimilated Jewish family, he graduated in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

from the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

in 1952. In 1989, he was granted the title of a Humanities Professor. He worked at the Institute of History of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...

(PAN). He specialized in the history of the culture of the 18th-20th centuries as well as

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

. He was also a member of the Warsaw-based

Collegium Invisibile Collegium Invisibile is an academic society founded in 1995 in Warsaw that affiliates outstanding Polish students in the humanities and science with distinguished scholars in accordance with the idea of a liberal education. The association aim ...

. Since 1948, he was a member of the Union of Youth Struggle and later the Polish Youth Union (ZMP). Between 1952–1968 he was a member of the communist

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...

(Polish: ''Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza'', PZPR) which he left as a sign of protest against the so-called

March events The March Days or March Events () was a period of inter-ethnic strife and clashes which led to the death of about 12,000 Azerbaijani: "The results of the March events were immediate and total for the Musavat. Several hundreds of its members we ...

of 1968. He was the only member of the Institute of History of PAN who decided to resign from the membership of the ruling communist party in Poland at that time. He took part in the discussions at the

Crooked Circle Club The Crooked Circle Club ( pl, Klub Krzywego Koła) was a discussion club for young intelligentsia in Poland. It was founded in 1955, the first meeting taking place in an apartment on Crooked Circle Street in Warsaw. It had connections with the ''P ...

and was a signatory of the 101 Memorial, an initiative of Polish intellectuals aimed against changes to the Constitution of Poland of 1952. Since 1977, he dealt with organizing meetings of the Flying University. He was the founder, lecturer and member of the Scientific Training Association. He collaborated with the Student Committee of Solidarity and participated in the Doświadczenie i Przyszłość ("Experience and Future") discussion group. In 1980, he became a member of the

Solidarity movement Solidarity ( pl, „Solidarność”, ), full name Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity" (, abbreviated ''NSZZ „Solidarność”'' ), is a Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. Subseq ...

. After the imposition of the Martial law in Poland he was interned since December 1981 until July 1982. He published articles in opposition magazines such as ''Tygodnik Mazowsze''. After the

fall of communism in Poland Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( South ...

, he became involved in the activities of

PEN Club PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internation ...

. He was appointed a member of the supervisory board of the Polish Information Agency and chairman of the "Open Res Publica" Association Against Anti-Seminitsm and Xenophobia. In 2009, he was awarded (together with Maciej Janowski and Magdalena Micińska) the

Jerzy Giedroyc Jerzy Władysław Giedroyc (; 27 July 1906 – 14 September 2000) was a Polish writer and political activist and for many years editor of the highly influential Paris-based periodical, '' Kultura''. Early life Giedroyć was born into a Polish- ...

Prize for their collaborative work entitled ''Dzieje inteligencji polskiej do roku 1918'' ("The History of the Polish Intelligentsia until 1918"). In 2011,

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Bronisław Komorowski Bronisław Maria Komorowski (; born 4 June 1952) is a Polish politician and historian who served as President of Poland from 2010 to 2015. Komorowski served as Minister of Defence from 2000 to 2001. As Marshal of the Sejm, Komorowski exercised ...

awarded him with the Commander's Cross of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta ( pl, Order Odrodzenia Polski, en, Order of Restored Poland) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on al ...

. In 2015, he received the

Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science The Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science () is the most prestigious scientific award in Poland given every year from 1992 by a non-governmental non-profit Polish organization, Foundation for Polish Science (). The prize is widely regarded a ...

in the humanities and social sciences category for his "fundamental studies on the phenomenon of the

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the in ...

as a social stratum and its role in modernization processes in

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

". He died on 31 January 2018 and was buried at the

Powązki Military Cemetery Powązki Military Cemetery (; pl, Cmentarz Wojskowy na Powązkach) is an old military cemetery located in the Żoliborz district, western part of Warsaw, Poland. The cemetery is often confused with the older Powązki Cemetery, known colloquiall ...

in Warsaw.

Selected publications

*''Klejnot i bariery społeczne: przeobrażenia szlachectwa polskiego w schyłkowym okresie feudalizmu'', Warsaw 1968 *''Jakiej cywilizacji Polacy potrzebują: studia z dziejów idei i wyobraźni XIX wieku'', PWN, Warsaw 1988 *''Źle urodzeni, czyli o doświadczeniu historycznym'', Aneks, London 1993 *''Świat zwyrodniały. Lęki i wyroki krytyków nowoczesności, Sic!'', Warsaw 2000 *''Błędne koło 1832–1864'', (collaborative work: Dzieje inteligencji polskiej do roku 1918), Institute of History PAN, Warsaw 2008 *''Droga do narodowej klęski'', Warsaw 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jedlicki, Jerzy 1930 births 2018 deaths 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers Academic staff of the University of Warsaw University of Warsaw alumni Polish dissidents Solidarity (Polish trade union) activists Polish United Workers' Party members Burials at Powązki Military Cemetery Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta Polish atheists Politicians from Warsaw

Life and work

Selected publications

See also

References