Stanisław Kętrzyński (1876-1950)

Member of the editorial team of Przegląd Historyczny from its founding until 1916, then editor-in-chief until 1938 (together with Marceli Handelsman).

A historian of the Middle Ages, he studied Poland’s political history, diplomacy, sphragistics and library science. A graduate of the University of Lviv (where he studied with Ludwik Finkel, among others), he wrote his doctorate under Stanisław Smolka’s guidance, defending it in 1900, and obtained his habilitation in 1913. After Poland regained its independence, he settled in Warsaw. Initially in the diplomatic service (as, among others, Poland’s ambassador in Moscow in 1925–1927 and The Hague in 1927–1931), from 1932 he worked at the Department of Polish History of the Middle Ages and Auxiliary Sciences of History at the University of Warsaw, from 1934 as department chair and full professor; in 1935–1939 he was president of the Vilnius-based Research Institute of Eastern Europe. In 1939–1943 he was involved in clandestine teaching in Warsaw, and was later imprisoned at Pawiak and Auschwitz-Birkenau. In 1945–1946 professor at the Jagiellonian University, 1946–1947 at the University of Warsaw, then professor emeritus.