Author
Feliks Koneczny 1862-1949

Born in Kraków on the 1st of November, 1862, as a son of Józef and Józefa (nee Brazda). According to the family tradition, his ancestors descended from a Polish family that once settled in the town of Hranice in Moravia. They came to Moravia from Silesia with the army of John III Sobieski that marched for Vienna in 1683. The future historian attended the St. Hyacinth Gymnasium in Kraków, which he finished in 1883. Having obtained his secondary school certificate, he began studies at the Department of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University, where he studied history under the supervision of Stanisław Smolka and Wincenty Zakrzewski. He completed his education in 1888, submitting to the departmental head team a doctoral thesis on The Early Livonian-Polish Relations until the Year 1393. Shortly afterwards he left to Rome as an exhibitioner of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. Many years later, his explorations of the Vatican Secret Archives bore fruit in the form of his treatises entitled Walter von Plettenberg, land mistrz inflancki wobec Zakonu, Litwy i Moskwy (1891), and Jan III Waza i misja Possevina (1900). Having returned from Italy, Koneczny was employed in the chancellery of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. It was then that he published his papers on the history of Silesia and on King Władysław II Jagiełło and Vytautas the Great at the time of the Union of Krewo. Struggling with financial problems, in 1897 he moved to work in the Jagiellonian Library, where he was employed until 1919. In order to eke out his earnings, he regularly wrote articles on various theatrical issues for Przegląd Polski; besides, in 1905-1914 he edited the Świat Słowiański monthly, which represented the Slavophil standpoint with distinctly anti-Germanic inclination. During that period he established friendly relations with Czech scholars who also published their articles in the columns of the newly launched magazine. After Poland regained her independence, Koneczny was appointed for the post of a deputy professor at the revived Stephen Bathory University in Vilnius. In 1920 he qualified himself as assistant professor at the Jagiellonian University on the basis of his thesis entitled Dzieje Rosji do roku 1449. Shortly afterwards he was nominated assistant professor and the head of the Department of History of Eastern Europe. He lectured at the Vilnius University until his retirement in 1929. Today, it is difficult to find out what was the reason behind putting him on the retired list. The purport of the dry official records alone is unable to solve that riddle. According to Koneczny’s own surmise, expressed in his letter to Teofil Emil Modelski, he was pensioned after his public criticism of the administrative methods applied by the Sanation regime (rallied around Józef Piłsudski) to the sphere of science, expressed by the scholar in the columns of one of publicistic periodicals. However, it should be borne in mind, that this view is not confirmed by the source materials; while, according to the Vilnius archives, the only reason for Koneczny’s retirement was his advanced age. This opinion was also shared by Stefan Ehrenkreutz, who also worked at the Vilnius University at that period and vainly tried to convince Koneczny that his accusations were ungrounded. Having returned to Kraków, the scholar departed from strictly historical research, dedicating himself to historiosophy, ethics, and religiousness. In that period he also wrote his most important works: O wielości cywilizacji (1935; English edition: On the Plurality of Civilisations, London, 1962), Rozwój moralności (1938), Kościół jako polityczny wychowawca narodu (1938), and Święci w dziejach narodu polskiego (1937). The German occupation was a particularly painful chapter of Koneczny’s biography. In 1944, his son Stanisław was murdered by the Germans for his conspiratorial activities, while his second son, Czesław, lost his life during the Warsaw Uprising together with his wife Maria. In spite of the depth of family tragedy, the scholar did not give up his research work which bore fruit in the form of papers published by Polish emigration circles after his death. Roman Dmowski Society in London issued the following books written by Koneczny: Byzantine Civilisation (1973), Jewish Civilisation (1974), For Order in History (1977), Land in Latin Civilisation. Rules of Law in Latin Civilisation (1981), and History Laws (1982). Koneczny died in Kraków on the 10th of February, 1949.

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