Summary

The first part of the annual is filled with articles which are the outcome of the scientific conference on January’s uprising in Suwalki region, organized by Scientific Society of Augustów and Suwalki on 19th January, 2002.

Waleria Śliwowska presented a work, which cannot be overestimated, that is to say a file and database of Polish exiles in 19th C and she showed their importance to research into the fate of the rebels taking part in the January’s uprising. The author, for example, disclosed some tremendous biographies of some people coming from contemporary Augustów province.

Sławomir Filipowicz wrote about resources from Lithuanian State Historical Archives and the article is optimistic about further researches, on condition that there will be more scientists working on it and the terms of using archives in Wilno, Grodno, St. Petersburg, Moscow and Irkutsk will not make worse.

Andrzej Matusiewicz studiously compiled dispersed data of patriotic demonstrations in Suwalki, in 1861, revealing, among others, the significance of Własysław Syrokomla’s two visits in the town, the activities of priests and congregation (Studzieniczna, and the events of 11th June. Jarosław Szlaszyński wrote a source-based text on January’s uprising in Augustów area. He mentions a lot of names of people of civilian organizations (function of munitions) and military units, not only those commanded by Konstanty Ramotowski „Wawer”. The author corrected, and supplemented prior compilations, among others the basic work of Stanisław Chankowski „The January’s uprising in Augustów region”. All the authors mentioned tsarist repressions. A. Matusiewicz presented some strands relevant to 13 executions in Suwalki. The article of Jerzy Szumski deals with settlement in Suwalki area after the January’s uprising as the repercussions of property laws.

In the section „Resarch and materials” there are three articles, two on historical matters and one on nature. Sławomir Cenckiewicz’s disertation „Tadeusz Katelbach and the uprising in Sejny” is an extremely interesting view on the Polish-Lithuanian conflict at the begining of Poland’s independence , through the role which the hero of the article played in it. The text is outstandingly documented and contains a lot of knowledge of the time prior to the break out of the uprising in Sejny, which is one of the few insurrections in the history of Poland that ended with victory, as the author fairly concludes, but nevertheless it has always been controversial militarily and politically, even before the II World War.

An extensive disertation by Danuta and Zbigniew Kaszlej „The coming out of soldiers of Suwalki – Augustów district of the organisation Wolność i Niezawisłość (WiN)” belongs to pioneering ones. It deals with anticommunist resistance in Suwalki and Augustów land till spring of 1947. The authors started their analysis with the day of coming out of the soldiers of WiN from Suwalki – Augustow district, on 25th April 1947. The young historians also reconstructed the structure of WiN in Suwalki region. The base of their research were documents (most of them appeared for the first time). Among others: questionnaires of statements filled in by the employees of inner security ministry for each of the coming out soldiers, trial documents of the members of anticommunist resistance, documents owned by the Institute of National Memory; relations of organizers, soldiers and witnesses of the resistance.

During the research on the communities of wild bees and ground beetles along the road from Suwałki to Budzisko, 174 species of Apoidea (of which 16 species were new in Suwalszczyzna) and 79 species of Carabidae were found. The most bee species were discovered in dry and wet meadow ecosystems and in the xerothermic swards (118, 85 and 83 species). In clay and wooden building walls there were found 20 bee species, 29 in blooming willows, and 70 species in the forest ecosystem.

The most ground beetle species occurred in the ecotonee zone, in dry meadows and grass as well as along the waterside. The communities existing in the pine fields and in wet meadows appeared to be the poorest in species. All communities of ground beetles were characterized by a moderately balanced structure of domination. Three rare species in Poland – Colliuris menalura, Dromius laeviceps and Lebis cruxminor – were discovered to exist in the caught material.

The two articles placed in the bulletin describe interesting facts relevant to monuments in Suwalki. Andrzej Matusiewicz tries to find the answer to the question whether the statue in front St. Alexander’s church, founded in 1862, represents Holy Mary or St. Hedwig? It is still hard to give clear answer.

Krzysztof Skłodowski describes fascinating fortunes of the bust of the patron of 3rd Masovian Cavalry Regiment, colonel Jan Hipolit Kozietulski, unveiled on 2nd July, 1930, on the area of barracks in Sejneńska street. The bust was standing there until September, 1939, and then it was hidden by the soldiers who were leaving the town. A few months later it was found by Germans and disappeared soon. It returned to Suwalki after sixty years.

„The regulation of duties of peasants of Czostków estate (1840)” published in the bulletin is a valuable economical document from the time before the introducing of property laws in the kingdom of Poland. It should be read not only by the researchers of social and economical history. The document is situated in the collection of state archives in Suwalki and was deeply analysed and commented by Tadeusz Radziwonowicz.

The rest of the annual is filled with two reviews of books („75th anniversary of Liceum in Augustów” and „The forgotten heritage: not-exisiting orthodox churches in the basins of the Rivers Narew and Biebrza” by Grzegorz Sosna and Antonina Troc-Sosna) and the description of activities, in the year 2001, of the Scientific Society of Augustów and Suwalki, the regional museum and the State Archives in Suwalki.

Tłumaczył Jarosław Szczypiń