Iza Mrzygłód | Polish Academy of Sciences (original) (raw)
Papers by Iza Mrzygłód
Acta Poloniae Historica, 2022
November 1936 saw the blockade of the University of Warsaw, an occupational strike organised by f... more November 1936 saw the blockade of the University of Warsaw, an occupational strike organised by far-right students demanding the introduction of the so-called 'ghetto benches' for Jewish students. This article draws a social portrait of the ordinary participants in the blockade and analyses their motivations. I argue that the socialisation of youth into exemplary citizens of a modern nation-state created a fertile ground for far-right organisations and their demands. Moreover, the largest student association, the Fraternal Aid Society, became a space for self-organisation into extreme nationalist politics. Its leaders tapped into the positive motivations of youth, i.e. the search for a sense of belonging and the desire of individuals to fi t into the normative order of the community. My examination of the blockade offers a unique insight into the academic background of the far-right and its means of political mobilisation.
Polityka. Między współpracą a odrzuceniem - Żydzi i Polacy w XIX i XX wieku, red. Zofia Trębacz, 2021
The Law Students' Circle at the University of Warsaw was among largest and most active student or... more The Law Students' Circle at the University of Warsaw was among largest and most active student organisations operating in interwar Poland. Many important academic activists emerged from its ranks and the Circle became a centre for young legal elites and a source of talent for Warsaw's legal community. The article explores the activity of this association in the context of the attitude of Polish students towards their Jewish counterparts and the changes occurring in legal professions in general and the Bar in particular. It shows the process of nationalist radicalisation of this group and analyse their increasingly far-reaching postulates that aimed to prevent legal professionals of Jewish descent from participating law and establish an extreme nationalist order. The Circle also became a testing ground for broader anti-Semitic practices leading to the exclusion of Jewish students from the milieu of young legal elite. This case study sheds light on the wider processes of radicalisation in the interwar period and the right-wing mobilisation of student community that provided a fertile ground for youth movements associated with the extreme right.
Sprawy Narodowościowe, 2021
Violence was a key element of the interwar radical habitus and was particularly affirmed in far-r... more Violence was a key element of the interwar radical habitus and was particularly affirmed in far-right movements, which found fertile ground for their ideas among students. However, the influence of the systems of ideas advocated by ideologues on student masses seems limited and indirect. Student support for antisemitism and extremism cannot be explained only by cultural conditions, ideology or political engineering. What is needed here are intermediate stages, linking radical ideology with the actions of social actors. I argue that the intermediary function was performed by the symbol of Stanisław Wacławski, a student and member of the Camp of Great Poland (Obóz Wielkiej Polski) who was killed during the antisemitic riots in Vilnius in 1931. The figure of Wacławski was a key element of antisemitic discourse in far-right press and was used by academic societies to construct the annual ritual of violence in the 1930s. I employ the micro-sociological approach and draw on Randall Collins’ theory of “interaction ritual chains” to show that the factors behind the mobilization of ordinary students for collective violence and a chauvinistic agenda included also emotions and personal relations, and not only political identification and advertising.
East European Politics and Societies, 2021
Bolesław Piasecki, the leader of the Polish National Radical Movement (RNR), was one of the influ... more Bolesław Piasecki, the leader of the Polish National Radical Movement (RNR), was one of the influential far-right activists in the 1930s. This article examines his political leadership through the lens of Weberian charismatic authority, enhanced by Anthony Ammeter’s framework for analyzing the power dynamics of leadership. Through a close investigation of the development of his political career, the article shows—in contrast to much of the existing literature—that Piasecki’s power was forged through triangular interactions between his skills and influential personality, the expectations and needs of his associates, and as a result of a series of events in which he displayed the ability to wield political impact. This approach sheds light on the ways in which political leadership is reliant on a wider network of relationships and shows that Piasecki’s charismatic authority was to a large extent an image constructed by his closest associates. At the same time, it shows parallels and connections between the RNR and other European fascist movements. This approach enables us to define and specify more precisely the nature of the RNR, and dig deep into the complex dynamics lying behind the final failure of the movement and Piasecki’s leadership.
Przegląd Historyczny, 2018
The League for the Defence of Human and Civil Rights, founded in 1921, was an elite organization ... more The League for the Defence of Human and Civil Rights, founded in 1921, was an elite organization bringing together representatives of various political groupings and progressive intellectuals, associated primarily with the Polish Socialist Party and the Polish Peasant Party “Liberation”. The aim of the organization was to defend and spread human rights, fight all forms of discrimination as well as promote tolerance and develop civic awareness. As a grassroots initiative, in the 1920s the League supported the state’s and society’s efforts to build the foundations of democracy. In the 1930s, on the other hand, it was transformed into a platform for opposition activities, creating a space of protest of left-wing intellectuals against the non-democratic practices of the ruling camp. With time, it became a platform bringing together socialists and communists.
The League has not yet been studied thoroughly by Polish historians and its activities have usually been referred to in passing in biographies of its members and in discussions of other political and social phenomena. The aim of the present article is to follow the work of the League and to analyze its relations with the state authorities, various political milieus as well as the resulting tensions. An analysis of the forms of engagement of people associated with it and their actions sheds light on the emergence of the authoritarian regime and ideological evolution of progressive intellectuals in the Second Polish Republic.
Die neuen Wirren des Nationalismus - Zwischen Agonie und Auftrieb, hg. Georg Wenz, Klaus Kufeld, 2017
Remembrance and Solidarity. Studies in 20th Century European History, 2015
The paper shows the impact of hyperinflation on the everyday lives of the inhabitants of Warsaw i... more The paper shows the impact of hyperinflation on the everyday lives of the inhabitants of Warsaw in 1923, focusing specifically on the situation of those population groups who earned their income. It analyses the problem of a drop in the value of real wages and the way households were managed at the time of rapid collapse of the value of money. The article shows the changing life conditions of the inhabitants of Warsaw in the face of economic crisis and attempts to answer the following questions: What were the costs of hyperinflation for the population of Warsaw? What strategies did Varsovians adopt to protect themselves against economic losses? What kind of an impact did financial hardship have on social relations in Warsaw in the early 20th century? Hence, the paper follows in the tradition of historical research into everyday life adding a bottom-up perspective to the portrayal of the Polish hyperinflation, a dimension which is rarely present in the relevant publications by economists and economic historians.
Books by Iza Mrzygłód
Reviews by Iza Mrzygłód
Acta Poloniae Historica, 2020
Przegląd Historyczny, 2018
Kultura Liberalna, 2018
Wystawa o marzeniach śnionych i realizowanych po 1918 roku mogłaby zapoczątkować dyskusję o nadzi... more Wystawa o marzeniach śnionych i realizowanych po 1918 roku mogłaby zapoczątkować dyskusję o nadziei i grzechach naszej międzywojennej demokracji. Zamiast tego skupia się jednak na budowaniu mitu lewicy, postępu i modernizacji.
Conferences / CfP by Iza Mrzygłód
Program konferencji na Wydziale Historii UW, 22-23 listopada 2022
Cenference Reports by Iza Mrzygłód
H-Soz-Kult, 2020
Report on the conference report in the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN, 01.12.2019 – 0... more Report on the conference report in the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN, 01.12.2019 – 02.12.2019 Warszawa
Journalism by Iza Mrzygłód
Kultura Liberalna, 2019
Dziś Armię Krajową i Delegaturę Rządu na Kraj często postrzega się jako strażników dawnego wspani... more Dziś Armię Krajową i Delegaturę Rządu na Kraj często postrzega się jako strażników dawnego wspaniałego świata, którzy – gdyby tylko nie zostali w geopolitycznej rozgrywce skazani na klęskę – przywróciliby przedwojenne porządki. Tymczasem większość sił politycznych i agend podziemia opowiadało się za progresywną zmianą, której nieodłącznym elementem miała być demokracja, pluralizm poglądów i bezpieczeństwo socjalne.
Kultura Liberalna, 2018
Setna rocznica odzyskania przez Polskę niepodległości póki co nie przynosi pogłębionej refleksji,... more Setna rocznica odzyskania przez Polskę niepodległości póki co nie przynosi pogłębionej refleksji, a raczej blade rytuały i sentymentalne mity. Nowy cykl tekstów „Kultury Liberalnej” proponuje alternatywę – namysł nad niepodległością jako doświadczeniem ważnym, ale trudnym i nie zawsze pięknym.
Acta Poloniae Historica, 2022
November 1936 saw the blockade of the University of Warsaw, an occupational strike organised by f... more November 1936 saw the blockade of the University of Warsaw, an occupational strike organised by far-right students demanding the introduction of the so-called 'ghetto benches' for Jewish students. This article draws a social portrait of the ordinary participants in the blockade and analyses their motivations. I argue that the socialisation of youth into exemplary citizens of a modern nation-state created a fertile ground for far-right organisations and their demands. Moreover, the largest student association, the Fraternal Aid Society, became a space for self-organisation into extreme nationalist politics. Its leaders tapped into the positive motivations of youth, i.e. the search for a sense of belonging and the desire of individuals to fi t into the normative order of the community. My examination of the blockade offers a unique insight into the academic background of the far-right and its means of political mobilisation.
Polityka. Między współpracą a odrzuceniem - Żydzi i Polacy w XIX i XX wieku, red. Zofia Trębacz, 2021
The Law Students' Circle at the University of Warsaw was among largest and most active student or... more The Law Students' Circle at the University of Warsaw was among largest and most active student organisations operating in interwar Poland. Many important academic activists emerged from its ranks and the Circle became a centre for young legal elites and a source of talent for Warsaw's legal community. The article explores the activity of this association in the context of the attitude of Polish students towards their Jewish counterparts and the changes occurring in legal professions in general and the Bar in particular. It shows the process of nationalist radicalisation of this group and analyse their increasingly far-reaching postulates that aimed to prevent legal professionals of Jewish descent from participating law and establish an extreme nationalist order. The Circle also became a testing ground for broader anti-Semitic practices leading to the exclusion of Jewish students from the milieu of young legal elite. This case study sheds light on the wider processes of radicalisation in the interwar period and the right-wing mobilisation of student community that provided a fertile ground for youth movements associated with the extreme right.
Sprawy Narodowościowe, 2021
Violence was a key element of the interwar radical habitus and was particularly affirmed in far-r... more Violence was a key element of the interwar radical habitus and was particularly affirmed in far-right movements, which found fertile ground for their ideas among students. However, the influence of the systems of ideas advocated by ideologues on student masses seems limited and indirect. Student support for antisemitism and extremism cannot be explained only by cultural conditions, ideology or political engineering. What is needed here are intermediate stages, linking radical ideology with the actions of social actors. I argue that the intermediary function was performed by the symbol of Stanisław Wacławski, a student and member of the Camp of Great Poland (Obóz Wielkiej Polski) who was killed during the antisemitic riots in Vilnius in 1931. The figure of Wacławski was a key element of antisemitic discourse in far-right press and was used by academic societies to construct the annual ritual of violence in the 1930s. I employ the micro-sociological approach and draw on Randall Collins’ theory of “interaction ritual chains” to show that the factors behind the mobilization of ordinary students for collective violence and a chauvinistic agenda included also emotions and personal relations, and not only political identification and advertising.
East European Politics and Societies, 2021
Bolesław Piasecki, the leader of the Polish National Radical Movement (RNR), was one of the influ... more Bolesław Piasecki, the leader of the Polish National Radical Movement (RNR), was one of the influential far-right activists in the 1930s. This article examines his political leadership through the lens of Weberian charismatic authority, enhanced by Anthony Ammeter’s framework for analyzing the power dynamics of leadership. Through a close investigation of the development of his political career, the article shows—in contrast to much of the existing literature—that Piasecki’s power was forged through triangular interactions between his skills and influential personality, the expectations and needs of his associates, and as a result of a series of events in which he displayed the ability to wield political impact. This approach sheds light on the ways in which political leadership is reliant on a wider network of relationships and shows that Piasecki’s charismatic authority was to a large extent an image constructed by his closest associates. At the same time, it shows parallels and connections between the RNR and other European fascist movements. This approach enables us to define and specify more precisely the nature of the RNR, and dig deep into the complex dynamics lying behind the final failure of the movement and Piasecki’s leadership.
Przegląd Historyczny, 2018
The League for the Defence of Human and Civil Rights, founded in 1921, was an elite organization ... more The League for the Defence of Human and Civil Rights, founded in 1921, was an elite organization bringing together representatives of various political groupings and progressive intellectuals, associated primarily with the Polish Socialist Party and the Polish Peasant Party “Liberation”. The aim of the organization was to defend and spread human rights, fight all forms of discrimination as well as promote tolerance and develop civic awareness. As a grassroots initiative, in the 1920s the League supported the state’s and society’s efforts to build the foundations of democracy. In the 1930s, on the other hand, it was transformed into a platform for opposition activities, creating a space of protest of left-wing intellectuals against the non-democratic practices of the ruling camp. With time, it became a platform bringing together socialists and communists.
The League has not yet been studied thoroughly by Polish historians and its activities have usually been referred to in passing in biographies of its members and in discussions of other political and social phenomena. The aim of the present article is to follow the work of the League and to analyze its relations with the state authorities, various political milieus as well as the resulting tensions. An analysis of the forms of engagement of people associated with it and their actions sheds light on the emergence of the authoritarian regime and ideological evolution of progressive intellectuals in the Second Polish Republic.
Die neuen Wirren des Nationalismus - Zwischen Agonie und Auftrieb, hg. Georg Wenz, Klaus Kufeld, 2017
Remembrance and Solidarity. Studies in 20th Century European History, 2015
The paper shows the impact of hyperinflation on the everyday lives of the inhabitants of Warsaw i... more The paper shows the impact of hyperinflation on the everyday lives of the inhabitants of Warsaw in 1923, focusing specifically on the situation of those population groups who earned their income. It analyses the problem of a drop in the value of real wages and the way households were managed at the time of rapid collapse of the value of money. The article shows the changing life conditions of the inhabitants of Warsaw in the face of economic crisis and attempts to answer the following questions: What were the costs of hyperinflation for the population of Warsaw? What strategies did Varsovians adopt to protect themselves against economic losses? What kind of an impact did financial hardship have on social relations in Warsaw in the early 20th century? Hence, the paper follows in the tradition of historical research into everyday life adding a bottom-up perspective to the portrayal of the Polish hyperinflation, a dimension which is rarely present in the relevant publications by economists and economic historians.
Acta Poloniae Historica, 2020
Przegląd Historyczny, 2018
Kultura Liberalna, 2018
Wystawa o marzeniach śnionych i realizowanych po 1918 roku mogłaby zapoczątkować dyskusję o nadzi... more Wystawa o marzeniach śnionych i realizowanych po 1918 roku mogłaby zapoczątkować dyskusję o nadziei i grzechach naszej międzywojennej demokracji. Zamiast tego skupia się jednak na budowaniu mitu lewicy, postępu i modernizacji.
H-Soz-Kult, 2020
Report on the conference report in the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN, 01.12.2019 – 0... more Report on the conference report in the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN, 01.12.2019 – 02.12.2019 Warszawa
Kultura Liberalna, 2019
Dziś Armię Krajową i Delegaturę Rządu na Kraj często postrzega się jako strażników dawnego wspani... more Dziś Armię Krajową i Delegaturę Rządu na Kraj często postrzega się jako strażników dawnego wspaniałego świata, którzy – gdyby tylko nie zostali w geopolitycznej rozgrywce skazani na klęskę – przywróciliby przedwojenne porządki. Tymczasem większość sił politycznych i agend podziemia opowiadało się za progresywną zmianą, której nieodłącznym elementem miała być demokracja, pluralizm poglądów i bezpieczeństwo socjalne.
Kultura Liberalna, 2018
Setna rocznica odzyskania przez Polskę niepodległości póki co nie przynosi pogłębionej refleksji,... more Setna rocznica odzyskania przez Polskę niepodległości póki co nie przynosi pogłębionej refleksji, a raczej blade rytuały i sentymentalne mity. Nowy cykl tekstów „Kultury Liberalnej” proponuje alternatywę – namysł nad niepodległością jako doświadczeniem ważnym, ale trudnym i nie zawsze pięknym.
Kultura Liberalna, 2016
Kult „żołnierzy wyklętych” staje się dziś fundamentem państwowej polityki pamięci. Pomieszanie bo... more Kult „żołnierzy wyklętych” staje się dziś fundamentem państwowej polityki pamięci. Pomieszanie bohaterów i zbrodniarzy jest tylko jednym z kryjących się w nim niebezpieczeństw. Nie wystarczy jednak ten mit krytykować – potrzeba przemyślanej i atrakcyjnej alternatywy.
Kultura Liberalna, 2019
Od 1914 roku ciała imperialnych potęg coraz szybciej zaczęła trawić gorączka unarodowienia, dopro... more Od 1914 roku ciała imperialnych potęg coraz szybciej zaczęła trawić gorączka unarodowienia, doprowadzając w końcu do ich zgonu. O tej i innych przemianach tamtego czasu Iza Mrzygłód dyskutuje z Maciejem Górnym, współautorem „Naszej wojny”.
Kultura Liberalna, 2015
„W mojej książce nie ma ani nostalgii, ani wielkiej przyjaźni pomiędzy narodowościami. Ona jest p... more „W mojej książce nie ma ani nostalgii, ani wielkiej przyjaźni pomiędzy narodowościami. Ona jest pełna konfliktowych relacji, ale też mówi o umiejętności wzniesienia się ponad to”, mówi Ola Hnatiuk o „Odwadze i strachu”, swojej opowieści o okupowanym Lwowie.
Kultura Liberalna, 2015
Der Zweite Weltkrieg bedeutete für Polen materielle Zerstörung und das Zerbrechen des zuvor gewac... more Der Zweite Weltkrieg bedeutete für Polen materielle Zerstörung und das Zerbrechen des zuvor gewachsenen sozialen Gefüges. Aber auch schöpferische Kräfte wurden durch ihn freigesetzt. Obgleich dabei längerfristige historische Entwicklungen nicht vergessen werden dürfen, spielte der Krieg eine Schlüsselrolle bei der Herausbildung dessen, was heute die polnische Nation ausmacht.
Kultura Liberalna, nr 590, 2020
Ostatnie miesiące przywróciły świadomości społecznej problem epidemii. W „Kulturze Liberalnej” pu... more Ostatnie miesiące przywróciły świadomości społecznej problem epidemii. W „Kulturze Liberalnej” publikujemy zapis rozmowy z dr Eweliną Szpak o tym, czym zdrowie i choroba były po wojnie dla mieszkańców polskiej wsi – i jak walczono wtedy z widmem zarazy. https://kulturaliberalna.pl/2020/04/28/rewolucja-felczerow-o-zdrowiu-i-chorobie-w-prl/