national self-help under foreign rule: ii. the jubilee of the mianowski foundation

National Self-Help under Foreign Rule: II. The Jubilee of the Mianowski FoundationAuthor(s): William RoseSource: The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 10, No. 29 (Dec., 1931), pp. 427-433Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4202679 .

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NATIONAL SELF-HELP UNDER FOREIGN RULE. 427

publications is part of Machal's Slavonic Literature proves that the Matice has not lost the place which it has held from the very first in cultivating the idea of Slavonic reciprocity and solidarity.

Caroline University, Prague. JAROSLAV PROKES.

NATIONAL SELF-HELP UNDER FOREIGN RULE

II THE JUBILEE OF THE MIANOWSKI

FOUNDATION

IN an age when pure and applied science are playing an ever increasing role in everyday life, any event of importance in the scientific world is of interest to all. And when that event serves as another proof of the growth of scientific work in a land where less has been possible in the past than was needed, the interest attached is the greater. The year I93I is a double anniversary in Poland in this respect. Memories are mixed- both sad and glad. A century ago the Warsaw Association for the Advancement of Science, of which the mighty Staszic was the spiritus movens, was suspended by the Tsarist regime. Fifty years later there was founded a Society that can truly be said to have taken its place-the Mianowski Foundation, now able since a decade of political freedom to extend the field of its influence over the whole area inhabited by the Polish people. In this short paper something of its purposes and achievements will be told.

The decade that marked the founding of the Scientific Societies in Western Europe, coming as it did about a generation after the death of Francis Bacon, can rightly be ascribed in a large measure to his inspiration. England, France, Italy-in these three lands concrete results were obtained. East of the Rhine there was less stirring of the new life, and apart from Prague the Slavonic world was hardly touched. Not till a hundred years later did the mind of Poland awaken, and that under the influence of the French enlightenment-especially of the Encyclopredists.

True, Poland had an enviable record, that some day must be written, of research in the sciences going far back into the medieval times: when alchemy was as yet all we had of what is now chemistry, and astrology was more esteemed than astronomy. It is notable that both commerce and industry were laid under contribution already in the I5th century to endow chairs in Cracow in mathematics, astronomy, medicine and "natural science." The teachers of Copernicus were men of international reputation. Already the university had amassed a more than ordinary



428 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW.

collection of maps, drawings, coins, intaglios, tapestries and objets d'art, not to mention instruments for measuring all sorts of physical phenomena in earth and heaven. Without globes, astrolabes, clocks, and the rest there never would have been a book in I543 On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies.

And with varying fortune this interest in the exact sciences lived on in the land-witness the college founded in the I570's by John Zamoyski in his native town, or the interest in such things shown by King Wladyslaw IV; who did two notable things-brought the Piarist Order to Poland and a few years later (I647) brought the first barometer into the land. The telescope came at the same time. The first chair of land-surveying in Cracow should not be forgotten, though all this was of small account in comparison with what was done from I750 on for the most part under the pressure exerted by Konarski and the Piarist Order. Now for the first time observatories were organised and their operation put on a proper footing. So, too, the influence of Buffon and others was seen in the rise of a generation that studied geology-that of Poland, and with it planned a survey of the natural resources of that land, partly, no doubt, for patriotic reasons.

II. Scientia animae medicina! This might have been taken as the motto

of those gallant people who founded in i8oo the Warsaw Association already referred to, resolved in a time of the darkest national humiliation at least to keep the torch of intellectual life burning. Nor was it different when late in the i86o's the first steps were taken that led soon to the creation of the Cracow (now " Polish ") Academy of Sciences. Political reasons made a wide field of influence difficult for this latter organisation and it was therefore no wonder that on the Russian side of that criminally closed barrier that ran through the heart of the nation, a group of men should decide to honour the name of the man who had been the head of the short-lived university of the sixties. Two years of effort were necessary before the government in St. Petersburg would consent to the founding of a " Bank," i.e., a philanthropic agency for the support of scientific effort, nothing else being possible.

Fortunately the Polish public knew very well what was meant by all this, and from the start three main purposes began to be realised:

(i) the publishing of scientific works in Polish; (ii) the founding of a new Science Museum; and

(iii) the making of material awards for research projects undertaken by Polish students.

From the start gifts began to be made, coming from all ranks of society: and the first yearly balance stood at just under 20,ooo roubles. Twenty years later it had risen to almost half a million roubles. During the first year the total of awards made to scholars was under 7,00o roubles;




while the year I902 saw over 40,000 roubles given, of which over half went to help in publishing monographs.

The ten years from I906 to the taking of Warsaw by the Germans (August, I9I5), saw a tremendous expansion on the part of the Foundation in all lines of activity. This was made possible in the first place by the generous bequest of the Zglenicki family of the income from oil fields in the Caucasus-later cut off in its entirety when the Russians retired. Thus it came about that the books showed a balance in I9I2 of I3,500,000 roubles and in I9I6 of over i8,ooo,ooo roubles. In the latter year the total of awards was over 220,000 roubles; of which, with the exception of io,ooo roubles given for loans and prizes, the whole was divided almost equally between research and publishing. A survey of the list of 674 volumes appearing during these years shows that 3I2 were in the field of the sciences proper, while the balance belonged to various branches of the humanities.

In the order of their emphasis the subjects promoted by the Founda- tion were as follows:-

Mathematics, physics, astronomy, meteorology, chemistry, mineralogy, geology, geography, botany, zoology, anthropology, psychology, sociology, history, jurisprudence, economics, statistics, philology, literature, art, philosophy, pedagogy, medicine, technics, and agriculture.

When larger benefactions were received, the income accruing was devoted to the special use designed by the giver. As a sample of this we might take the Natanson bequest, from which every fourth year prizes were given to two distinguished men. A glance at the record of names covering thirty-five years, shows names that have become known both within and without Poland since her liberation in I9I8. They include economists, philosophers, historians, and specialists in the exact sciences. Among them is a Rector of the University of Cracow, an eminent parlia- mentarian of the new State, and thirdly a former prime minister. The same is true of the other bequests. And if we look at the list of works published with the help of the Foundation, we find there many of the most used and valued authorities in many of the fields already mentioned. The eight-volume Polish Dictionary was not completed till I927, but the famous Encyclopeedia of Polish Antiquities by Gloger, long since out of print, is only a sample of the achievement we are recording. It is impossible to estimate to how great an extent the present generation of national leaders were fitted for their tasks by the help given in the name of the Mianowski Foundation.

The contribution made by the organisation to the all-important cause of adult education is deserving of special notice. In a land where popular schools were as good as unknown, being frowned on by the Russian overlord, nothing could be more vital than this. It took above all the form of providing for popular use three series of works:-

(i) Counsels for Study at Home-of which four volumes appeared before I9I6, while the series has been carried to twenty volumes by I929.




Here we have a veritable encyclopaedia of handbooks covering every field -of the knowledge an intelligent man or woman should possess today. The whole series has been put together on the soundest pedagogical lines, and with constant attention to the matter of methodology in study.

(ii) The World and Man-a comprehensive account of the universe as seen in the light of the theory of evolution.

(iii) A History of Thought-a volume of lectures on the development of the various sciences that deal with the life of man and the world he lives in.

The purpose of these works was to provide some sort of substitute for the spoken word; and they reached the hands of thousands to whom the privileges of school and college had been denied. The debt owed by the -nation to these works, and to the man who conceived the whole scheme- a former railway clerk and now an Under-Secretary of State for Education -will never be known. His name is Stanislas Michalski.

Finally, one other important service must be noted, viz., the establishing of special work-shops and laboratories. Among these are the observatory in Swider, the Archives for Iconography in Warsaw, the Institutes for psychology and philosophy, the Laboratory of Genetics in Mory, and the Technical Laboratory of Zoology in Baniocha.

III. In the Autumn of I9I6 the Governing Committee took stock of the

-new political situation and set about forming plans in keeping therewith. In the consciousness that, no matter how the war ended, private initiative would have to play a large part in all scientific advance in the land, it decided to attempt:

(a) the continued support of existing institutions for scientific work and the founding of new ones;

(b) the creation of its own plant for publishing all manner of scientific -treatises;

(c) more adequate material assistance to men and women engaged on research projects.

As an essential preliminary, it was resolved to make a survey of the -whole field of study and research in Poland. Requests were then sent out to all notable masters in the numerous branches of learning, for precise information as to present status and immediate needs. This was .rightly felt to be the first step toward a plan of action, as giving surer guidance in the distribution of subsidies for work to be undertaken, or of .prizes for work already done.

Information was asked with regard to the following: A.-i. Existing Polish institutions of learning, at home and abroad,

-with data covering these points: (a) the exact nature of its work; (b) any special emphasis prevailing;



NATIONAL SELF-HELP UNDER FOREIGN RULE. 43I

(c) tasks or enterprises of a peculiar local nature; (d) the scientific level of the work going on; (e) its efficiency, and its value to the nation; (f) the immediate needs, at least of the kind which the Foundation

might hope to meet.

2. Data as to the relations existing between institutions already in operation and the possibilities of co-operation.

3. Projects for founding new plants, with data as to their needs, the relative insistence of the same, and the relation of the new plants to already existing ones.

B. Publications of all kinds:-gaps in existing scientific publications and projects for repairing them-

(a) in the case of Polish works ready for printing; (b) in the matter of materials still to be utilised; (c) in respect of national problems-especially the culture of the

Polish people; (d) in regard to translations from foreign languages. In I9I8 there appeared the first volume of Polish Learning (Nauka

Polska), conceived as an Annual of which by now I3 volumes have been issued-the official document of the Foundation. In the first volume, forty-four of the reports made as to the state of scientific work and its needs were given to the nation, totalling upwards of 500 octavo pages. A similar sheaf of reports followed the next year. The two volumes form a very comprehensive review of what people are doing in the field of study, more especially of what they would like to do in the new Polish State. In addition, valuable materials are given as to what Poles are doing abroad, as to the support learning has been receiving from private and public sources, and the like.

Volume III gave an account of the proceedings of the first Congress of Polish Learning, held in Warsaw in April, I920. Volumes IV-VI contained scientific papers from many fields, with a section devoted to a chronicle of what was going on at home and abroad-the latter now much enlarged. Volume VII was taken up by four surveys:

(a) of all Polish collections of archives-both public and private; (b) of all museums and kindred collections; (c) of all libraries in the land; (d) of all scientific societies of any kind, including such as promote

learning, and of all professional groupings of workers in the sphere of learning as such.

Volume VIII was a record of the second Congress of Polish Learning. Volume IX was devoted to accounts of productive work in different fields-mostly autobiographical. Volume X was chiefly commemorative, containing a series of short commentaries on the work of a decade. Volume XI contained a series of scientific papers, and the usual




chronicle. Volume XII served as a supplement to Volume VII, while the latest number is again of mixed content, with reports of work done, and book reviews.

IV.

From this account of a new and valuable departure on the part of the Foundation-one that serves all seekers after information in the whole country-we pass now to a few data as to practical tasks attempted, and that in times when resources have been very hard to find. Indeed, only the loyal support given to the institution by an ever increasing circle of friends-both individuals and groups, and the latter both private agencies and such bodies as town councils, county boards and, of course, the national Ministries-has made possible any adequate development of the work.

And, first, a matter that shows how human such a Foundation can be, namely, the founding of Homes for workers-research and other intellectual specialists, where not only their health can be recuperated in case of fatigue, but opportunity is given for quiet thought and for contact with fellow seekers after knowledge. The first of these was established at Otwock in the woods of the great central plain, and its success made necessary an extension of this service, until, at the present time, three others have been added-one of them in the High Tatra section of the Carpathians. In any of these homes the simplest of comforts for the most modest of dues can be had by such as are entitled to them, and thus a big stimulus is given to work which hard times like the present might otherwise drive underground altogether.

In a different field we must note first the undertaking of publication directly by the Foundation. No longer then are funds allotted to authors, but the MSS. are taken over and issued by the institution itself. And as a further step in the guaranteeing of proper results, the Foundation has launched its own press, equipped so far as resources permit with all the needful machinery for giving to the world every kind of scientific work. Finally, it acts as a selling agency not only for its own publications, but also for those of the Ministry of Education, as well as kindred intellectual institutions in the country. All this, however, does not mean that no funds are allotted for the support of other publishing enterprises. Such periodicals as the official organs of the philological, plhilosophical, and legal societies are in receipt of regular help from the Foundation in the issuing of their annual or quarterly journals.

As samples of scientific works recently issued by the Foundation- apart from the big series of Counsels for Studv at Home and the Dictionary already noted-it will suffice to name works in medical botany, agriculture, ethnology, literature, history, architecture, astronomy, mathematics and physics. It may be safely claimed that the only limits set to the expansion of this branch of work are those of the funds available.




One more phase of service must be noted-that of fostering all kinds of international contacts. Poland desires this more than most peoples, perhaps owing to the successive generations of relative isolation in which she waited for political freedom. Such matters as the exchange of visits by distinguished men, and facilities for the exchange of books and periodicals, are the simplest in this category of activities. Officially, the Foundation sees to the Polish representation on the Board of the Institute for Intellectual Co-operation of the League of Nations. So, too, the office work of the representation is done by the Foundation. Along with this goes that very important and not easily soluble question of the protection of authors by the rules of international copyright. For the last five years the leadership of Poland's interests in these fields has been centred in the Mianowski Foundation.

These and the host of other more especially domestic cares.devolving on the Institution would demand a good deal of space to describe. It was not only fortunate but extremely significant that the Palace presented over a century ago to the Warsaw Association by the warm-hearted and indefatigable Staszyc, should have been made available as the home for these activities. Left by the Russians in a state so altered from the original that a great deal of expense and toil was necessary to restore it, the Staszic Palace stands in the heart of the city of Warsaw, facing the broad Cracow Faubourg and set off in front by the Thorwaldsen statue of Copernicus that occupies a tiny triangle of green. All around the palace and the statue goes day and night the hum and bustle of a mighty city; but the things for which Science has stood and of which scientists have dreamed from the days of Copernicus are not forgotten. Neither the politics of the capital, nor the commerce of the banks and business interests, nor the hundred concentrations of industry-none of these can be more essential to the ultimate success of a social order than the attention to the things of the intellect that such institutions as the Mianowski Foundation are there to emphasise.

Dartmouth College. WILLIAM ROSE.



national self-help under foreign rule: ii. the jubilee of the mianowski foundation

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