Nature, knowledge, and politics in Polish Polesie until 1945
Publisher: Cracow: Universitas 2022
ISBN: 978-83-242-3958-0 (2nd ed. paperback), 978-83-242-3867-5 (paperback), 978-83-242-3794-4 (hardcover)
The Pripet Marshes, which belonged to Poland throughout the interwar period, are typically portrayed as being no different from the rest of the country. However, everything appeared to be unusual there: hay was gathered by men standing knee-deep in water, trade at the Pinsk market was done directly from boats, and the central part of the region used to change into an inland sea for many months of the year. Łotysz aimed to recreate the area’s interwar era by looking at it from an environmental point of view. As he explains, Polish efforts to drain the marshes were crucial in the state’s policy toward the eastern territories because only the draining of the marshes opened this vast land to colonization and, subsequently, polonization.
Table of Contents (in Polish): PDF
The Awards
Kazimierz Moczarski History Prize 2023
“This is a great contribution to our knowledge of the so-called Borderlands, but also a book that makes us more conscious of today’s environmental problems and anxieties about climate catastrophe. ‘Pińskie Błota’ provides a perspective that allows us to see contemporary problems in a historical mirror,” justified the verdict Prof. Andrzej Friszke, chairman of the jury.
In addition, the jury consisted of: Antoni Dudek, Dobrochna Kałwa, Barbara Klich-Kluczewska, Jan Kofman, Andrzej Kunert, Anna Landau-Czajka, Tomasz Łubieński, Anna Machcewicz, Tomasz Makowski, Małgorzata Szejnert and Andrzej Wielowieyski. The organizer and funder of the contest is the Capital City of Warsaw, and the co-organizers are the History Meeting House and the Kazimierz and Zofia Moczarski Foundation. The National Library is a partner of the award. “Gazeta Wyborcza” is the media patron.
The award ceremony, which consists of a statuette – a replica of the prize patron’s pencil sharpener – and fifty thousand zlotys, took place at the National Library on November 26, 2023. More information about the award, the full text of the jury’s opinion and additional photographs can be found HERE.
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KLIO Award 2023
The KLIO award was presented at the opening ceremony of the History Book Fair, November 30, 2023, in the Great Hall of the Royal Castle in Warsaw – Museum. ‘Pińskie Błota’ received the first prize in the author’s category – for the author’s individual contribution to the popularization of history. The award is eighteen thousand zlotys, a commemorative plaque and a whole lot of satisfaction.
The jury, chaired by Prof. Tomasz Szarota, included Jacek Banaszkiewicz, Zbigniew Czerwiński, Piotr Dobrołęcki, Maciej Janowski, Jan Kieniewicz, Halina Manikowska, Marian Turski and Tomasz Urzykowski.
The exclusive Patron of the KLIO Award is the Association of Authors and Publishers COPYRIGHT Poland.
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“Eastern Review” Award 2023
The book received the “Eastern Review” Prize, awarded by the Center for Eastern Europe of the University of Warsaw. The award ceremony took place on March 25, 2023, in the Senate Hall of the University of Warsaw in the Kazimierzowski Palace. The laudation was delivered by Professor Anna Engelking from the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
From the Jury’s verdict: “The winner of the Award managed to prepare an excellent work, the first monograph on this issue and this area, which has been written from a multidisciplinary perspective covering various scientific disciplines: from sociology and post-colonial theories of political science to biology and ecology, which gives the reader a wide range of knowledge and can be a starting point as well as a model for further research.”
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Jan Jędrzejewicz Prize 2023 – honorable mention
On September 26, 2023, during a gala ceremony at the Municipal Cultural Center in Płońsk, I received an honorable mention in the competition for the best book in the history of science and technology named after Jan Jędrzejewicz. This was the 11th edition of the prize awarded by the Committee on the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the city of Płońsk, where the astronomer and science popularizer Dr. Jędrzejewicz lived and worked in the second half of the 19th century.
In the first stage of the competition, ‘Pińskie Błota’ received the most, with 5 votes. In the end, however, they received an honorable mention. More information about the award can be found HERE.
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“Polityka” History Prize 2023 – nomination
May 9, 2023. ‘Pińskie Błota’ has been nominated for the “Polityka” Historical Prize in the category of scholarly works and monographs. The jury’s justification reads: “This is an innovative look at the history of Poland and the region from the perspective of environmental history, i.e. the intertwined history of man and nature. It is a fascinating story of political struggles over the fate of the now non-existent world of the Polesie wetlands and the Poleshuks living in symbiosis with them. Sławomir Łotysz moves confidently in the fields of medical history, military history, and social imagination. He is equally attentive to the processes of orientalization of Polesie as a ‘borderland’ region, as well as to the political squabbles and scholarly debates surrounding the idea of a new ‘Polesian Netherlands’, which was ultimately not implemented in the Second Polish Republic. Our contemporary fears resonate throughout the book. About drought, global warming, and ultimately about the wrong decisions of people who still think in terms of ‘progress’ or their own political gain.” – Prof. Barbara Klich-Kluczewska.
More information can be found HERE.
prepublication reviews
“Although it is a scholarly work, it is written in vivid and rich essayistic language, drawing the reader in from the first page and making it a passionate read to the end”.
Professor Anna Engelking, Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw
“This is the first monograph on the history of the Second Polish Republic written with an environmental perspective in mind, demonstrating the ecological dimension of key debates concerning this period in Polish history.”.
Professor Adam Izdebski, Institute of History, Jagiellonian University, Cracow
reviews
Review in Nasha Niva, an independent Belarussian web journal (in Belarusian and Russian). Dr. Alyaksandr Byely (Аляксандр Белы), the review’s author, is currently a political émigré.
What the readers say
Public presentations
Public presentations of the book at book fairs, conferences, seminars, and radio shows [read more in Polish].
buy
Paperbacks and ebooks can be purchased from various online bookstores, including
https://bonito.pl/produkt/pinskie-blota-natura-wiedza-i-polityka-na-polskim-polesiu-do-1945-ro-2
or straight from the Publisher
Cited by
Bienias, Barbara (2023). “Jak (nie) pisać o Mikołaju Koperniku – refleksje na marginesie nowych biografii,” Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki 68(2): 187-212. https://doi.org/10.4467/0023589XKHNT.23.020.17882 (OPEN ACCESS)
Mialik, Alexander M. (2023). “The history of the study of the flora of Pripyat Polesie,” (in Russian with English summary), Studies in the History of Biology 15(2): 7-37. http://shb.nw.ru/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/IBI_2023_02_compressed_compressed.pdf#page=31 (OPEN ACCESS)
Pospiszyl, Michał (2023). “The Fifth Element: The Enlightenment and the Draining of Eastern Europe,” Environmental History 28(2): 361-388. https://doi.org/10.1086/723839 (OPEN ACCESS)
Zysiak, Agata (2023). “Ludowa historia Polski: Historia wyzysku i oporu. Mitologia panowania. By Adam Leszczyński. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo W.A.B., 2020. 667 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Tables. zɫ59.99, paper. – Bękarty pańszczyzny: Historia buntów chłopskich. By Michał Rauszer. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo RM, 2021. 280 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Figures. zɫ39.99, paper – Chamstwo (Rabble). By Kacper Pobłocki. Wołowiec: Wydawnictwo Czarne, 2021. 384 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. zɫ49.90, hard bound,” Slavic Review 82(1), 184-193. doi:10.1017/slr.2023.105
cite
Łotysz, Sławomir. Pińskie błota. Natura, wiedza i polityka na polskim Polesiu do 1945 roku. Cracow: Universitas 2022.
This research was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland, under grant number 2015/19/B/HS3/03553 [read more].