#pianist!belarus
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aaaa this weekend my friends took me to the cities to hear Alexander Rybak (and like the best pianist from Belarus/Norway) play classical music!! they were fantastic, holy shit. godddd I miss playing and being around musicians who are Genuinely passionate about music. and he seems so down to earth. I think the pianist, Stefan Zlatanos, is probably one of the best pianists (&by far the best accompanists I’ve ever heard, WOW).
if you ever have a chance to hear them play, please go see them! they like small venues which is sooooo nice, and they rly wanna support these local places. I want them to be my friends, lol.
#also mr. rybak .... you are literally pursuing the career I wanted after college lmao#we had the same degrees: film score composition#rip that future but I sincerely wish him well !#the eurovision fanatics in the crowd were SOOOOO annoying tho#srsly go watch youtube if you wanna scream#especially WHILE he's in the middle of a piece ;A;#there was one where he was super stressed about playing#(they were supposed to be joined by a third--an opera singer--but his stalker appeared and made her feel unsafe to appear onstage :S )#and they scrambled to fill the concert#so he added a piece that was rly tough#and he was nervous for it and admitted it to the audience#and ppl SCREAMED at him during tough passages ;__;#and he turned and was like ''huh??''#and fumbled#ngl I honestly think concerts like that (esp where artists play both pop/contemp & classical)#a few rules/concert etiquette so#should* be read aloud b4 the concert#just so things like that don't happen & freak out the performers#(like this isn't a *snobbish classical music major* opinion--it's genuinely so things like that don't happen)#nan.text
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“Well, you know what they say.”
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/tPVcjOQ
by EtherSynth (Etherealium)
What happens when a very strange and weird group of highschoolers decide to make a band?
(“Well, you know what they say! Teamwork makes the dreamwork!”)
Words: 1433, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English
Series: Part 1 of Lonesome Barriers (Hetalia AU)
Fandoms: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Categories: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi
Characters: England (Hetalia), France (Hetalia), America (Hetalia), Canada (Hetalia), Cuba (Hetalia), Spain (Hetalia), South Italy (Hetalia), Female North Italy (Hetalia), Germany (Hetalia), Prussia (Hetalia), Austria (Hetalia), Lithuania (Hetalia), Female Poland (Hetalia), Hungary (Hetalia), Other Character Tags to Be Added, Belarus (Hetalia)
Relationships: England/France (Hetalia), South Italy/Spain (Hetalia), Germany/Female North Italy (Hetalia), Austria/Hungary (Hetalia), Canada & Cuba (Hetalia), Minor or Background Relationship(s), Lithuania/Female Poland (Hetalia)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Alternate Universe - High School, And mild Coffee-shop AU because they have part-time jobs, Baker!France (Hetalia), Barista England (Hetalia), Brothers America & Canada (Hetalia), Guitarist America (Hetalia), Bassist Canada (Hetalia), Keyboardist Lithuania (Hetalia), Singer England (Hetalia), Drummer Prussia (Hetalia), High-school Club Manager South Italy (Hetalia), Club Treasurer Belgium (Hetalia), Pianist Austria (Hetalia), Student Council President France (Hetalia), Happy Spain (Hetalia), Minor Greece/Japan (Hetalia), One-Sided America/Japan (Hetalia)
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/tPVcjOQ
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Shostakovich, Piano Concerto No. 2 (complete) for solo piano (sheet music, Noten)
Shostakovich, Piano Concerto No. 2 (complete) for solo piano (sheet music, Noten)
ShostakovichOrigins and early years
Best Sheet Music download from our Library.Beginning of his career
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Shostakovich, Piano Concerto No. 2 (complete) for solo piano (sheet music, Noten)
https://rumble.com/embed/v2n4p04/?pub=14hjof
Shostakovich
Origins and early years
Dmitri Shostakovich (Russian: Дми́трий Дми́триевич Шостако́вич) ( Saint Petersburg , September 12 , 1906 (Julia) - Moscow , August 9 , 1975 ), full name with patronymic Dmitri Dmitrievitch Shostakovich , was a composer and pianist Russian of the Soviet period .
He started on the piano of his mother's hand.
Later, from 1919 to 1925, he studied piano and composition at the Petrograd Conservatory.
He composed his first symphony in 1925, premiered on May 5, 1926 in Berlin .
The Soviet government of the time commissioned the second symphony for the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution .
From 1925 to 1935 he wrote several avant-garde compositions. His operas El Nas in 1930 and Ledi Màkbet Mtsènskogo Uiezda in 1934 stood out. The latter caused a scandal in New York City and strong criticism from the Stalinist government, which banned it.
Over time, Shostakovich regained favor with the Soviet government, notably with his Fifth Symphony in 1937.
During World War II he wrote about the heroism of the Soviet people. His seventh symphony was written during the siege of Leningrad .
After the war, from 1948, he suffered the persecution of Andrei Zhdanov and could not write freely until the death of Stalin in 1953.
He died on August 9, 1975, leaving a legacy of fifteen symphonies, fifteen concertos, two operas, three dozen film pieces and many works of chamber music, including fifteen string quartets, and many others minor works and songs.
Born on Podolskaya Street in Saint Petersburg ( Russian Empire ), Shostakovich was the second of three children of Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofiya Vasílievna Kokoúlina. Shostakovich's paternal grandfather, originally surnamed Szostakowicz, was of Catholic Polish descent (his family roots go back to the region of the city of Vileyka in present-day Belarus ), but his immediate ancestors came from Siberia .
A Polish revolutionary in the January Uprising of 1863–1864, Bolesław Szostakowicz went into exile in Narym (near Tomsk ) in 1866 during the repression that followed Dmitri Karakózov's assassination attempt on the Tsar Alexander II .
When his period of exile ended, Szostakowicz decided to remain in Siberia , where he became a successful banker in Irkutsk and raised a large family. His son, Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich, the composer's father, was born in exile in Narym in 1875, studied physics and mathematics at St. Petersburg University and graduated in 1899. He then went to work as an engineer with Dmitri Mendeleyev at the Bureau of Weights and Measures in St. Petersburg. In 1903, he married Sofiya Vasílievna Kokoúlina, one of six children born to a Siberian who also immigrated to the capital.
House in which Shostakovich was born (now School no. 267), with a commemorative plaque on the left.
Her son, Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich, showed great musical talent after he began taking piano lessons with his mother at the age of nine. On several occasions, he showed a remarkable ability to remember what his mother had played in the previous lesson and was "caught in the act" of playing music from the previous lesson while pretending to read different music placed in front of him.
In 1918, he wrote a funeral march in memory of two leaders of the Russian Constitutional Democratic Party murdered by Bolshevik sailors.
In 1919, at the age of 13, Shostakovich was admitted to the Petrograd Conservatory, then directed by Aleksandr Glazunov , who closely monitored his progress and supported him.
He studied piano with Leonid Nikoláiev after a year in the class of Elena Rózanova, composition with Maximilián Steinberg and counterpoint and fugue with Nikolái Sokolov, of whom he became a friend.
He also attended the musical history classes of Aleksandr Ossovski. Steinberg tried to guide it in the way of the great Russian composers, but was disappointed to see him "wasting" his talent imitating Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokófiev .
Shostakovich also suffered from his apparent lack of political zeal, and initially failed his Marxist methodology exam in 1926. His first major musical achievement was the First Symphony (premiered in 1926), written as his graduation piece in the age of 19 years. This work attracted the attention of Mijaíl Tujachevski , who helped him find accommodation and work in Moscow , and sent a driver in "a very elegant car" to take him to a concert.
Beginning of his career
After graduation, Shostakovich initially embarked on a dual career as a concert pianist and composer, but his dry playing style was often unappreciated (his American biographer, Llorer Fay, comments on his "emotional restraint » and «fascinating rhythmic impulse». He won an 'honorable mention' at the first Frédéric Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1927 and attributed the disappointing result to suffering from appendicitis and the all-Polish jury. He had his appendix removed in April this year.
After the competition, Shostakovich met the conductor Bruno Walter , who was so impressed with his First Symphony that he conducted it at its premiere in Berlin that same year. Leopold Stokowski was equally impressed and directed the play in its premiere in the United States the following year in Philadelphia . Stokowski also made the first recording.
Shostakovich concentrated on composition thereafter, and soon limited his performances mainly to his own works. In 1927, he wrote his Second Symphony (subtitled October ), a patriotic piece with a pro-Soviet choral ending. Due to its experimental nature , as with the later Third Symphony , it was not acclaimed by critics with the enthusiasm received in the First .
This year also marked the beginning of Shostakovich's relationship with Iván Sollertinsky , who remained his closest friend until the latter's death in 1944. Sollertinsky introduced the composer to the music of Gustav Mahler , which had a strong influence on him from his Fourth Symphony onwards.
While writing the Second Symphony , Shostakovich also began work on his satirical opera The Nose , based on the story of the same name by Nikolai Gogol . In June 1929, against the composer's wishes, the opera was performed and fiercely attacked by the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians (RAPM).
Its stage premiere on 18 January 1930 opened to generally poor reviews and widespread misunderstanding among musicians.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Shostakovich worked at TRAM, a proletarian youth theater . Although he did little work on this publication, it protected him from ideological attack. Much of this period was spent writing her opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk , which was first performed in 1934. It was an immediate success, both popularly and officially. It was described as "the result of the general success of socialist construction, of correct party politics", and as an opera that "could only have been written by a Soviet composer educated in the best tradition of Soviet culture".
Shostakovich married his first wife, Nina Varzar, in 1932. Difficulties led to divorce in 1935, but the couple soon remarried when Nina became pregnant with their first daughter, Galina.
Between October 1950 and March 1951 he composed the 24 Preludes and Fugues op. 87, dedicated to the pianist Tatiana Petrovna Nikolaieva . During the period that Shostakovich was composing these pieces, Nikolayeva called him every day and went to her house to watch him play what he had re-composed.
In 1952, the complete 24 preludes and fugues were performed for the first time, in the city of Leningrad, by Nikolayeva.
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Leon Gurvitch komponiert Ukraine-Konzert für die Elphi
Im März wird der Pianist Leon Gurvitch mit geflüchteten Musikern aus der Ukraine seine Stück "Silentium" präsentieren.
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Falisha is a 11 yr. old musician from Bangalore, an avid Classicalpianist, artist, and a Western classical vocalistShe began learning piano at the age of 8, just 4 years ago and her questfor learning western classical piano grew immensely under the tutelageof Belarusian Concert pianists & Concert masters Natallia Kapylova andLiudmila Drazhnik who graduated from Belarus State Conservatory…
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“Portrait of the Pianist Maria Szymanowska”, 1828 by Walenty Wańkowicz (1799-1842)
■ Maria Szymanowska (14 December 1789 – 25 July 1831) was a Polish composer and one of the first professional virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. She toured t throughout Europe, especially in the 1820s, before settling permanently in St. Petersburg. In the Russian imperial capital, she composed for the court, gave concerts, taught music, and ran an influential salon.
■ Her compositions—largely piano pieces, songs, and other small chamber works, as well as the first piano concert etudes and nocturnes in Poland—typify the stile brillant of the era preceding Fryderyk Chopin. She was the mother of Celina Szymanowska, who married the Polish Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz.
■ Walenty Wańkowicz (February 14, 1799 - May 12, 1842) was a Polish painter of Belarusian origin. He was a representative of classicism and romanticism as well as a supporter of the embossed from the Vilnius University art school.
■ Walenty Wańkowicz was born on the family estate near Minsk, Russian Empire (now in Belarus). His father was Melchior Wańkowicz, an agent working in Minsk judge. He was brought up in a Polish patriotic home, with Polish culture and Catholic faith, however, also with his Belarusian (Ruthenian) noble ancestry in mind.
#maria szymanowska#poland#polska#europe#european#art#artist#painter#painting#malarz#piano#pianist#belarus#minsk#belarusian#culture#travel#history#walenty wankowicz
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@lithugraph replied to your photo: OH NO, GUESS WHO STARTED WRITING ANOTHER AUSBELA...
Aaaahh! I can’t wait for this! The drabbles you’ve posted have been sustaining me, but only slightly.
Thank you!!! It’s weird-but-good to get back to the characters and the pairing, especially in this particular AU context. I’m really enjoying it, and the fic is coming along nicely!
And now I’m just going to leave this here, FOR REASONS, MUAHAHAHA:
youtube
Also, LOLing at this top comment:
#reply#hetalia#aph austria#aph belarus#ausbela#fic rambles#music#the firebird#the dude isn't austrian but damn if there isn't some physical resemblance there amirite?#in other news you can read into this musical choice as much as you want (i in fact encourage it!) lololololol#never mess with a pianist with glasses
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A musician plays piano on the shore of a lake on the outskirts of Minsk, Belarus. (Tatyana Zenkovich, wsj.com, August 26, 2018)
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About two month ago started a new Sims 4 account which has a Hetalia character as townies. I don’t have all the packs for Sims 4 but I do use a lot of Mods to do this. Most of the house building I found online.
Each household has background and drama which was fun the think about. I have written over 10 pages of notes for this town so enjoy.
Luper Family
Boris Luper (Bulgaria) - CHILD, VAMPIRE Traits – Cheerful/ Aspiration – Whiz Kid
Vladimir Luper (Romania) - ADULT, VAMPIRE Traits – Good, Cheerful, Family- Oriented/ Aspiration – Good Vampire
Mai - (Cat) Traits – Affectionate, Clever, Friendly
Vladimir (Vlad) adopted Boris because of his vampire powers
They took Mia in as most people think black cats are unlucky
Vald doesn’t need the money but has a part time job at a coffee shop
Vlad and Arthur have afternoon tea once a month
Vlad wants Boris to be creative so he started playing the violin
Positive atmosphere in the house
Vlad will cook for Boris as he can still eat human food however not very good
Vlad is a good vampire
Vlad hobby is annoying Elizabeta
Boris talks to Mia when Vlad goes out
Oxenstierna Family
Berwald Oxenstierna (Sweden) - YOUNG ADULT Traits – Family – Oriented, Bookworm, Perfectionist/ Aspiration – Successful Lineage
Simon Oxenstierna (Denmark) - YOUNG ADULT Traits – Bro, Goofball, Self- Assured/ Aspiration – Fabuluosly Wealthy
Tino Oxenstierna (Finland) - YOUNG ADULT Traits – Good, Goofball, Cheerful/ Aspiration – Soulmate
Lukas Bondevik (Norway) - YOUNG ADULT/MAGIC Traits – Family- Oriented, Love Outdoors, Bookworm/ Aspiration – Purveyor of Polions
Emil Bondevik (Iceland) - TEEN Traits – Gloomy, Loner/ Aspiration - Angling Ace
Charlotte (Dog) Traits – Jumpy, Smart, Independent
Berwald and Tino are married, Simon is in a relationship with Lukas and Emil is Lukas brother.
Berwald and Simon are brothers but 90% they can’t agree to anything which leave them fighting over stupid things. For example TV remote, who cleaning up and food shopping
Simon is a Manager of a top end company, to bad he to lazy to move out.
Everyone love Charlotte that the dog get the best treats and love.
Emil keep to himself and hide in the bedroom. No one know he seeing someone 😛
Lukas is over protective with Emil
Tino is a stay at home mum so he does most of the cleaning which Lukas help out using magic
Berwald my find it difficult expressing himself with words but he good at writing it down. His works as a writer.
Simon my be a pain but always help out with bills
Tino take any holiday seriously!
Wang Family
Yao Wang (China) - ADULT Traits – Materialistic, Family- Oriented, Foodie/ Aspiration – Master Chef
Kiku Wang (Japan) - TEEN Traits – Genious, Geek/ Aspiration – Computer Whiz
Li Xiao Wang (Hong Kong) - TEEN Traits – Creative, Gloomy/ Aspiration – Musical Genius
Im Yong Wang (South Korea) - CHILD Traits – Goofball/ Aspiration – Artistic Prodigy
Lin Yi Wang (Taiwan) Traits – Cheerful/ Aspiration – Rambunctious
Pochi (Dog) Traits – Loyal, Smart, Adventurous
Yao work as a Chef
Lin Yi wanted a dog for a very long time so Yao after work went and bought a dog so she can shut up.
Yao favourite is Kiku because of his talent this make Li Xi jealous.
Yao too old to deal with drama.
Every meal everyone must come to the table and sit together as a family
Lin Yi and Im Yong are trouble maker when bored.
Kiku goes to see Alfred for game night
Lin Yi love flowers
Li Xiao goes to Emil for emotional support
Yao helps other household with meals
Belischmidt Family
Gilbert Belischmidt (Prussia) - ADULT Traits – Family –Oriented, Self- Assured, Dog Lover/ Aspiration – Friend of the Animals
Ludwig Belischmidt (German) - TEEN Traits – Active, Bookworm/ Aspiration –Academic
Aster (Dog) Traits – Smart, Couch Potato, Friendly
Blockie (Dog) Traits – Adventurous, Active, Independent
Berlitz (Dog) Traits – Sleuth, Couch Potato, Friendly
Gilbert work as a manual laborer great at his job and the people love him
Francis or Antonio will walk into the house at random times
All dogs are well behaviour and won't hurt anybody
Ludwig can be shy when near to Feliciano
Every Sunday they have a father and son time which include playing football or watch TV
Gilbert is trying to give up drinking because one time he got so drunk Ludwig had to help him get home.
Gilbert and Elizabeta are rivals with who can do the most push ups
Ludwig very close to his dad will ask about anything
Gilbert want more dogs in the future
Ludwig need to relax than worry what other people will think about him
Edelstein Family
Roderick Edelstein (Austria) - ADULT Traits – Snob, Lazy, Music Lover/ Aspiration – Musical Genius
Elizabeta Edelstein (Hungary) - ADULT Traits – Active, Good, Cat Lover/ Aspiration – Bodybuilder
Feliciano Edelstein (North Italy) - TEEN Traits – Creative, Art Lover/ Aspiration – Painter Extraordinaire
Buffi (Cat) Traits – Affectionate, Friendly, Lazy
Roderick work as a professional pianist
Elizabeta is a stay at home mum but gets bored so she goes to the gym or babysit other children round the area
Felliciano has a twin brother (Lovino) but got kick out over a disagreement with the father
Elizabeta still upset about Lovino but Roderick won't speak to him
Elizabeta and Feliciano cook together
Buffi is the best hot water bottle
Roderick will drop dead if he has to clean
Feliciano spend 65% of the time napping
You can tell what mood Roderick by the way he plays on the piano
There is always music playing in the house
Carriedo Family
Antonio Carriedo (Spain) – ADULT Traits – Childish, Music Lover, Clumsy /Aspiration - Freelance Botanist
Lovino Edelstein (South Italy)- TEEN Traits – Hot-Headed, Loner/ Aspiration – Master Chef
Antonio is a part-time gardener
Lovino ran away because of an argument with his dad. He doesn’t talk about it but grateful Antonio support him.
Antonio is an old friend of the Edelstein family that why Lovino know him
Antonio is very patient with Lovino
Lovino really miss spending time with his brother
Lovino gets jealous when Antonio goes out with Gilbert or Francis
Lovino like his own space but does get lonely
Antonio just wants everyone to be happy and will do anything to help them
Tomato solve everything
Lovino is angry with everything including himself
Branginsky Family
Katyusha Branginsky (Ukraine) – YOUNG ADULT Traits – Clumsy, Family- Oriented, Neat/ Aspiration – Successful Lincage
Natalia Branginsky (Belarus) - CHILD/MAGIC Traits – Mean/ Aspiration – Whiz Kid
Ivan Branginsky (Russia) - TEEN Traits – Borderline Personality Disorder, Shy/ Aspiration – Big Happy Family
Katyusha work at a coffee shop, she tries to be the older sister but is ashamed about how little money they have
Very poor but they get by
Natalia has a ghost friend that she talk to at night
Ivan want friends doesn’t know how to do it without freaking people or say something weird
Natalia is slowly making friends
Katyusha gets worried when Ivan doesn’t want to leave his bedroom
Ivan will knit anything
Yao will come by with food
Something always breaks in the house
Natalia is scary when she angry
(Will Upload image soon!!!!!)
Zwingli Family
Basch Zwingli (Switzerland) - ADULT Traits – Family- Oriented, Loner, Perfectionst/ Aspiration – Successful Lineage
Eva Zwingli (Liechtenstein) - CHILD Traits – Good/ Aspiration – Artistic Prodigy
Basch is Eva father
Basch is the chief of the town
Basch double check people background (doesn’t trust no one)
Eva doesn’t have a bad bone in her body
Elizabeta babysits Eva when Basch is busy working
Basch and Roderick are old friends
If anyone upset Eva expect Basch to threaten them with his gun
Eva love drawing pictures of Basch looking happy
Eva is really good friends with Natatia
Basch never talks about his job
Kirkland Family
Arthur Kirkland (England) - ADULT/MAGIC Traits – Hot-Headed, Bookworm, Snob/ Aspiration – Spellcraft + Sorcery
Alfred Kirkland (America) - TEEN Traits – Active, Goofball/ Aspiration – Leader of the Pack
Arthur work as a teacher
Arthur is Alfred father
Arthur is divorced to Francis. One night at a pub he saw Francis flirting with someone else. They spilt everything which including Alfred and Matthew.
Arthur not happy with Alfred tattoo even though he got a big tattoo on his arm when he was young
Alfred wants to be everyone friends and try to fix everyone problems which can make the issue a lot worst
Alfred doesn’t like Ivan because Ivan knows how insecure Alfred is with himself (doesn’t like rejection)
Arthur can’t cook but his magic can fix that
At times when they have a heated argument Arthur wish he had Matthew instead of Alfred
Alfred will make a cup of tea for Arthur before telling bad news (example bad report in school)
Alfred spend most of his time gaming or going out
Bonnefoy Family
Francis Bonnefoy (France) - ADULT Traits – Art Lover, Foodie, Romantic/ Aspiration – Soulmate
Matthew Bonnefoy (Canada) - TEEN Traits – Shy, Cheerful/ Aspiration – Bestselling Author
Francis works as a celebrity chef
Very close with Matthew will cook together
Alfred comes in after a big argument with his dad. Francis will reason that Arthur doesn’t mean what he says and love him no matter what
People who are not Francis, Alfred or Arthur will forget about Matthew
Matthew start getting knitting gifts but doesn’t know who it’s from
Francis is back on the dating game but still thinks about Arthur and wants to give it another go
Matthew is never stress
Arthur calls Matthew once a week to check up on him
Francis regrets that night and tries to hide his emotion in front of Matthew and friends
Francis love his food however looking good is more important
I also made clubs for everyone because I am THAT bored 😊
Freedom - Party till they drop/ Having a great time/ Good vibes/ Away from family drama and life
Gym - To keep fit/ Started out with Simon and Berwald/ No drama or Basch will get involve/ Gilbert behave in the gym and it help him stop drinking
Lets Party - Old friends meeting together/ All trying to get a date but end up getting drunk and gossiping all night/ Antonio end up paying for everyone drinks
Playtime - Yao set up a play date so it keeps Im Yong and Lin Yin in line. That was a mistake/ Everyone friendly/ They love watching Pokemon/ If someone upset they help one another
'Ohana' means 'family. ' 'Family' means 'no one gets left behind”
I hope people like this stupid project now I’m heading to the kitchen to drink my problems away 😛
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Can I bother you for some Poland headcanons?
It’s impossible to bother me with my baby! I think all my hcs for him are pretty basic, but lets see what I have.
Although his favorite animals are horses and ponies, when it comes to house pets he’s a reptile person! But he also loves dogs as one must love to live with liet aushda
Although he is a super talented pianist, his singing is… terrible. Can’t hold a note if his life depends on it.
He kept a journal since the moment he learned to write. The oldest ones are unreadable by this point
He’s very close to N. Italy and Hungary and the three hang out together all the time. They have game nights, wine nights, movie nights,. Just the best trio ever.
Also really likes Ukraine and Belarus! He gets along well with both.
Loves liet…;; so much……….;.…………………
Goes on long horse rides whenever he’s stressed. If for some reason he can’t, his second best anti stress is a long bubble bath with scented candles.
Needs reading glasses because he’s Old.
Has way too many swords for a 21th century home
#sorry these arent many im not in a po mood these days aushuda but i do still love him very much#hws poland#ask
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Hmmm how about some random creative headcanons for your favourites?? As in what are their creative outlets? Do they create often or sporadically?? Did they change over the years??
ohhh this is such an interesting question!!!
as i said i think belarus would be a decent painter, she likes watercolors the best... all three siblings /russia ukraine and belarus, are really good singers and they all play the piano pretty well. poland would also be a decent pianist... russia is the best at music though... he loves singing whenever he’s working on something and he composes his own songs sometimes.
also baking is a creative outlet russia and ukraine share, as well as liet?? he’s a bad cook mostly (because he can’t be bothered, why cook when you have convenience store soup and microwave stuff) but he’s a really good baker once he gets into the mindset...
and speaking of cooking it’s a creative outlet for both ukraine and poland, they both love to set aside some time and make comfort food, especially dishes that take them back to the past.
i think czech and poland would both be good at art but in different ways... czech is definitely a photographer, she takes really artsy black and white candids of the people especially the ones she loves... feliks is very good at life (both human figures and still life) drawing which he learned from italy back when they spent a lot of time together.
both of the italy siblings are REALLY good at art and music AND cooking they got it all, but what do u expect they are italian lol creativity runs in their blood :D also they have fashion as a creative & self expression outlet (with very mixed results)
and when it comes to writing i think prussia and lithuania share it... we know prussia has his endless journals in canon (and that he plays the flute).. liet would just write whatever passes through his mind on scrap paper and just. leave it around the house or between the pages of books, for himself to find later.
austria is the obvious one but hungary... i really gotta think about this because she’s an illiterate lesbian jock i think she would enjoy cooking? as a memory from when she first went to live at austria’s house perhaps... OH YES AND SHE LOVES KNITTING she knits when she’s overwhelmed and needs some time alone, ukraine taught her how to do it and now she cannot stop. poland and lithuania’s house is full of terrible ugly scarves and sweaters knit for them by hungary (and by russia who still sends liet homemade presents for his birthday, for christmas, for easter, and every other occasion)
also this is perhaps a strange one but i think czech would find weaving and embroidery really relaxing ... she’s very into everything textiles...
what am i forgetting hmmm oh yeah belarus, romania and poland are definitely into makeup. romania especially loves stage makeup and loves to create weird and really out there looks
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Myths about Poland and Poles
It’s time.
Let me explain you some things. I hope this post will be a nice Polish culture lesson.
I asked some foreign friends what they think about Poland and Polish people, what had they thought before going there, how it was different at the end, etc. And also I added what I usually hear and drives me crazy 🤦
1. Temperature
Polish person: “It’s cold” ;
Foreigner: “but you’re from Poland..”
And what? I’m Polish and I don’t feel cold? Aha.
I think this is the most annoying answer which I hear a loooooot of times.
People have really bad image of Polish climate especially when they haven’t stayed there for longer time. So we have 4 seasons (+ 2 transitional ones).
early spring - March and April when the weather is going crazy. One day is snowing and -10⁰C, another day sunny and +15⁰C. You never know :D So if you go to Poland that time - be prepared for that, take different kind of clothes.
spring - May - first storms, during Juwenalia always rains, but the first week last years was really sunny and warm - perfect for Polish barbecue opening season :D
summer - may be hot as f.ck or colder and rainy. Many storms especially in August. Nights are much colder than days. But - surprise- temperature around 30⁰C is normal. And because the nights are colder you can sleep well - you won’t melt in your bed.
autumn - colder nights, leafs are brown, it may be really beautiful. More rainy days but still can be sunny.
early winter - October/November - crazy like early spring - may snow, may rain, may be sunny. You feel the winter in the air.
winter - yes it’s cold, but outside. Inside the buildings - it’s warm - surprise. For example I don’t have special pyjamas for winter nights because in my room is around 20⁰C. You go outside you put winter jacket and boots on. May be even -20⁰C (omg wow omg) but then you enter the house and t-shirt is enough. For example in Spain - I’m dying. Winter in Barcelona and in the flat for 3 months 12⁰C - IN THE FLAT. I opened the windows to put some warm air. In Valencia maybe not that drastic (probably it depends on the flat as well) but still I slept with 1 duvet, 2 blankets and the warmest pyjama ever xDDD
So please, don’t tell that I’m from Poland and 12⁰C in the room should be perfect. Please.
So in Poland it’s like from minus extreme to plus extreme - variety! I think I like it, I just don’t like that the weather changes immediately.
But the most important - inside the buildings - nooooo extreme. It’s pleasantly.
So please don’t say to Poles that we should be used to the cold temperature. It’s personal not national thing, I love when is warm and I’m “more ok” with the summer in Valencia than Valencianos (they should be used to that hot no? XD exactly).
2. Music
“Omg la polaca knows reggaeton songs”
“OMG there is Polish reggaeton”
Ok. Music is a difficult topic. But yyy yes, in Poland they use to play reggaeton (fortunately or unfortunately). For example - in Warsaw and Krakow there are clubs: Teatro Cubano - where there is only reggaeton and some latino rhythms. So if you love to dance to this kind of music, don’t worry, you will find a perfect club for you.
I really like Polish music, especially now I think it’s really good one. But I like others as well, I have Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, even one German song in my playlists because - why not - variety!
And reggaeton I like for the energy and dancing rhythms. Also I like it as a “culture”, for me it’s interesting and fascinating - I can talk about it hours! :D
3. The look
“Polish people are blond with blue eyes” XDDDD hehehehehehhehehehehehhehe
I’M NOT BLOND - first thing to note. The sun in Spain makes my hair lighter but still is not blond. In Poland there are different types of hair and skin. We are not so white. And blue eyes are not thaaaat common. Brown, green, blue, grey - but also not that brown like Spanish ;) AAAAAND - surprise - we can be tan! Wow! xD
There are people who have really white skin and the sun changes it to red, but mostly Poles are tan in summer and even I would say that we love to be morenitos ;) What is funny for me (here we have the Spanish myth) that I’m more tan than many Spaniards. So let’s repair the myths:
Poles may be tan in summer
Spaniards are not tan at all (the Latinos yes - but also not always!).
4. Location
OK. It’s geographic lesson time.
What I heard once:
“For me everything what is on the right from Germany is RUSSIA”
omg. Where is my patience. omg. Please, think before saying shits like that. It hurts.
We are not that small in Europe. We have 7 neighbors, OWN language which is not Russian (it’s juuuust a liiiiittle bit similar, like some words). I can understand somehow Slovaks and Czechs but Russians - few words. AND IMPORTANT - we have Latin alphabet! Not Cyrillic like Russia. We are Slavic countries, our language is from Slavic family, Slavs love each other (in their way of love ;* ) but each of us is different and we exist, we are not Russia - note that in your head.
5. Religiousness
This is difficult topic. Yes, we are mostly Catholics and we don’t hide it. But not everybody. Many people are very religious - and I respect that. It’s kind of beauty, traditions and everything. It builds the culture. The problem appears when someone forces others to own rights. When religious is an argument in the politic world. And this I agree - in Poland we have a problem with that. But when you visit Poland don’t show your aversion to the religion. Respect it and be curious - then you can discover many nice things, interesting traditions and some kind of passion. I love to talk about our traditions and you can see it in my posts about Christmas and Easter.
6. Safety
This is more region problem than country problem. I mean, everywhere you go - you can meet bad people. In Kraków there were “bad times” but it was long time ago. When I was living there I felt really safe. Many times I came back alone and I’ve never had a strange/dangerous situation. And I always passed so many police during the night. So I think in big cities the government cares about the security.
Just don’t enter any places where you can meet pseudo-fans of football and don’t scream any football team name. This I see still as a problem in Poland. But I don’s say that going to the matches is a bad idea.
7. Food
This I’m writing thanks to the opinions of those who visited Poland and tried Polish cuisine.
So what I heard, that some Erasmus were afraid about the food, that it may be a bad quality and not tasty, but theeeen - surprise!
- Where are you from?
- from Poland
- oooo soplica!!!! (ok, this is not food)
- żurek!
- pancakes - placki ziemniaczane!
- PIEROOOOOGI <3
So if you haven’t visited Poland yet, you haven't tried Polish cuisine - be prepared 😋😋😋
And you have me to ask before!
8. Language
Hehe
Ok, it’s not the easiest language in the world. But it’s not an impossible one!
So if you are planning to spend in Poland even only few days it’s nice to use:
- dzień dobry - good morning
- dziękuję - thank you
- przepraszam - I’m sorry/excuse me
- proszę - please/you’re welcome
- do widzenia - goodbye
- dobranoc - good night
Poles will appreciate a lot! We love when someone is trying to say something, and we know that it’s not easy.
And! I know some people who stayed to live in Poland and their Polish is - wow! So as you see, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE ;)
9. Character
Hmmm I heard that some of you were afraid that Poles won’t be friendly but then again surprise. Well, I think we are nice people xD We are for sure hospitable. There is always a bottle of vodka and some cookies for a casual visit.
English is not our native language, more and more people can speak it but still not all (well like in other countries). But we won’t leave you without helping you when you ask. Gesticulating, speaking slower and louder (because this changes everything xD) - there is always a way to communicate and express yourself.
So smile and don’t be afraid of us, especially me, I don’t bite! :D
Meme to sum up
10. Famous Poles
I think you may know many but even you don’t realize that. So let me remind you or introduce you Poles who have changed the world.
- Robert Lewandowski - football player in Bayern Monachium
- Jakub Błaszczykowski - was a football player in Borussia Dortmund
- Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikołaj Kopernik) - Heliocentrism, stopped the sun, moved the Earth ;)
- Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin - composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era
- Marie Skłodowska Curie - (note: her first surname is Polish. And in many places they skip it -.-) - physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and the only woman to win the Nobel prize twice, and the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields
- Tadeusz Kościuszko - military engineer, statesman, and military leader who became a national hero in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and the United States.
- Pope John Paul II - Karol Wojtyła - the first non-Italian pope since the 16th-century, the second longest-serving pope in modern history, one of the most travelled world leaders in history, visiting 129 countries during his pontificate. Etc, etc. We are really proud of him and you can see that - everywhere there is his name, a looot of monuments etc.
- Lech Wałęsa - statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as the first democratically-elected President of Poland.
- Andrzej Wajda - film and theater director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards.
- Roman Polański - film director, producer, writer, and actor. There was a quite big scandal with him - no comment.
- Robert Kubica - he became the first and only Polish driver to compete in Formula One.
- Anja Rubik - supermodel, activist, philanthropist, and businesswoman.
- Adam Małysz - former ski jumper and rally driver, one of the most successful athletes in the history of the sport.
- Wisława Szymborska - poet, essayist, translator and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature.
- Robert Korzeniowski - the best walker in the world, he won 4 gold medals at the Olympics (Atlanta, Sydney and Athens).
- Izabella Scorupco - actress, singer, and model. She is perhaps best known for having played Bond girl Natalya Simonova in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye.
- Justyna (Justi, JB) Biel - Polish butterfly with Latin blood, author of this (and the other) blog. Known by you, one day by others as well.
and much much more!
11. Alcohol
Yes, I know, I shouldn’t forget about the most important - vodka. Yes we drink it, yes, on the parties, birthdays, etc. Yes, shots. We drink shot of vodka and then one/two/many sips of juice/coke/water/etc.
But come on, I don’t get why it horrifies you. Like vodka is 40%, rum, whisky, gin - all which you drink is also 40% and for me has even worse taste (especially gin, uff please don’t offer me that, never). Or tequila! Madre mía.
We don’t drink vodka with the dinner, like many people do with wine. Wine is also kind of alcohol I would like to remind.
And yes, we love beer a lot. And normal glass of beer is 0.5l - we don’t have smaller ones.
So, I hope... since now when I ask you to drink vodka on the before party - please, don’t be afraid and drink it with me, I’ll appreciate it!
Ok. I think that’s all. I hope that since now your image of Poles and Poland is much better - the correct one.
Here you have everything in one picture xDD
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A list of 100 remarkable women from Polish history - for the anniversary of the 100 years of Polish independence!
My random choice of 100 notable, inspirational and controversial women known from the history of Poland - people of various different backgrounds and occupations, and with interesting, happy or tragic stories.
If you think I missed an important person you adore or feel inspired by (there are so many more I could include below!), then feel free to expand the list by adding an extra in the reblogs!
(you can click the links under their names to read a bit more, however some of them point to Polish articles only - sorry! I’m hiding the list under ‘read more’ for the reblogs because it’s obviously too long to be browsed comfortably on the dashboard!)
Jadwiga of Poland (1384-1399), who was crowned with the title of ‘King’ during an era when female rulers were relatively uncommon in Europe. She donated most of her personal wealth (including royal insignia) to charity and education, funding and restoring many schools and hospitals, and focused on maintaining peace and development during her rule.
Nawojka (14th/15th-century), who was a semi-legendary woman known to attend studies at the University of Kraków (later known as Jagiellonian University) in the 15th century, which she entered illegally dressed as a boy. She is considered to be the first historically acknowledged female student and teacher in Poland.
Magdalena Bendzisławska (17th/18th century), who was the first historically attested female surgeon in Poland. The dates of her birth and death are sadly unknown, and the main document confirming her existence and profession is a diploma issued by King Augustus II the Strong in the year 1697. She took over the role from her husband after he passed away, and she worked as the chief surgeon at the famous salt mine in Wieliczka.
Maria Skłodowska-Curie (1867-1934), who was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize (which she got along with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel) – the only woman to win the prize in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciences. She was the first scientist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity, and she discovered the elements radium and polonium (the second named after her beloved home country).
Emilia Plater (1806-1831), who was a Polish-Lithuanian noblewoman and a revolutionary fighter in the partitioned Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. She fought in the November Uprising of 1830, during which she raised a small unit and received the rank of a Captain in the Polish-Lithuanian insurgent forces. She is a national heroine in Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus, all formerly parts of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Irena Sendler (1910-2008), who was a nurse working in Warsaw when WW2 started. She joined the secret Polish resistance organization Żegota (codename for 'Council of Aid to the Jews’). Despite many dangers she managed to rescue around 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto in occupied Warsaw, with the assistance of other members of Żegota. She’s on the list of the Righteous Among the Nations.
Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831), who was a skillful composer and one of the first professional virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. She toured extensively throughout Europe during the 1810s and was one of the first pianists to perform a memorized repertoire in public. She is known as the first female composer from Poland to achieve both national and international recognition.
Narcyza Żmichowska (1819-1876), who was a novelist and a poet, considered the precursor of the organized feminism movement in Poland. She inspired and co-founded a group called Entuzjastki (transl. Enthusiasts, which was a progressive association founded in 1830 in Warsaw by a group of women intellectuals in favor of equal rights for men and women). She was among many Polish intellectuals exiled after the failed November Uprising of 1830, after which she settled in Paris where she enrolled at the Bibliothèque Nationale, becoming one of the first women at the French Academy ever. Her first published novel was Poganka (The Heathen) in which she expressed interest in her female friend Paulina Zbyszewska. She was deemed an 'eccentric’, smoked cigars (prohibited for women at that time), and refused to marry. After returning to Poland she founded a group of suffragettes in Warsaw, active in the 1840s, who also took part in anti-tsarist activities.
Klementyna Hoffmanowa, nee Tańska (1798-1845), who was a writer, translator, and editor. She was the first woman in Poland to fully support herself financially from writing and teaching, and to consider herself primarily a writer by a profession. In 1831 she moved to Dresden and later to Paris, and was later called 'the Mother of the Great Emigration’ (mass emigration or exile of the Polish elites, mainly to Western Europe, after the failure of the anti-tsarist November Uprising of 1830 during the time Poland was under Partitions).
Simona Kossak (1943-2007), who was an award-winning scientist and ecologist. She spent over 30 years living in a hut in the Białowieża wilderness, Europe’s oldest primeval forest located on the border between Poland and Belarus where she grew close to the wild animals to the point it looked like she could understand their language, which gave her the nickname 'witch’.
Bona Sforza (1494-1557), who was a member of the Milan-based House of Sforza and became the Queen of Poland and Duchess of Lithuania by marriage to King Sigismund I the Old. She was known for her ambitious and energetic nature, ensuring a strong political position on the Polish court almost right from the beginning of her marriage. She was responsible for many economic and agricultural reforms implemented in Poland and Lithuania, eventually making her the richest landowner in the Grand Duchy.
Princess Izabela Czartoryska (1746-1835), who was a writer, art collector, and prominent figure of the Enlightenment movement. Her palace was an important political and intellectual meeting place, known as one of the most liberal and progressive court in the pre-Partitioned Commonwealth. She was the founder of Poland’s first museum, which she called the 'Temple of the Sibyl’ or 'Temple of Memory’ (later moved to Kraków where it exists under the name of Czartoryski Museum).
Countess Karolina Lanckorońska (1898-2002), who was an art historian and philanthropist. During WW2 she was an anti-Nazi and anti-communist resistance fighter of the Polish underground, and survived a German concentration camp for women (as a political prisoner). After the war she refused to live in Poland under the communist rule and spent most of her life abroad as a political émigré. She inherited her family’s enormous art collection, which she donated to the Polish state only after 1989 – after Poland underwent a democratic transition.
Elżbieta Zawacka (1909-2009), who was a Polish university professor, scouting instructor, SOE agent, and freedom fighter during WW2 (using the codename 'Zo’). She was the only woman in the elite special unit Cichociemni ('Silent Unseen’) of the Polish underground, served as a courier carrying letters outside of the German-occupied Poland, and fought in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
Irena Kempówna-Zabiełło (1920-2002), who was a skilled pilot and renowned glider. In 1949 and 1950 she established two world speed records for women: over a triangular course of 100 km and over a straight distance of 100 km.
Elżbieta Sieniawska (1669-1729), who was a noblewoman, Grand Hetmaness of the Crown, and renowned patron of arts. She was described as a 'lady of great wisdom, reason and shrewdness’, and she was deployed by her husband on diplomatic missions, duties, and obligations that he could not manage. As an influential woman politician in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the reign of Augustus II the Strong, she was deeply embroiled in the Great Northern War and in Rákóczi’s War for Independence. She was considered the most powerful woman in the Commonwealth and called the ‘uncrowned Queen of Poland’.
Michalina Wisłocka (1921-2005), who in the 1970s published the first guide to sexual life in communist countries, focusing on women’s needs. She fought for equal rights for women in a bid to fully participate in public, political, and economic life at that time.
Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980), born Maria Górska, who was a renowned painter of the Art Deco movement and gained international fame for her decorative portraits. She is known for her unconventional style of self-expression, and her art manifested bisexual, bold, liberated female sexuality.
Zofia Stryjeńska (1891-1976), who was a painter, graphic designer, illustrator, and stage designer, one of the best-known Polish women artists of the interwar period. In 1911 she was briefly studying abroad at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where she enrolled using the name of her brother and dressed like a boy, because at that time the academy did not accept women. She grew in fame in Poland during the interwar period for her style inspired by the Polish folklore and Slavic paganism.
Jadwiga Grabowska (1898-1988), who was nicknamed the 'Godmother of the Polish fashion industry’ during communist rule. She promoted the modern 'tomboy’-ish style of the 1950s and 1960s and was responsible for persuading the state-owned textile industries to produce a wide range of colorful fabrics available for common women, coming under constant criticism from supervisors and governmental authorities.
Pola Negri (1896-1987), who was a stage and film actress during the silent and golden eras of Hollywood and European film, famous for her femme fatale roles. She was the first European film star to be invited to Hollywood and became one of the most popular actresses in the American silent film era. She started several important women’s fashion trends at that time that are still staples of the fashion industry.
Maria Konopnicka (1842-1910), who was a poet, novelist, children’s writer, translator, journalist, and activist for women’s rights and for Polish independence under the Partitions, as well as an activist against the repression of ethnic and religious minorities in Prussia. Her life was turbulent, and her sexual orientation is widely speculated on by modern historians. After an unhappy marriage, she spent most of her late life living in a romantic relationship with the painter and feminist Maria Dulębianka.
Maria Dulębianka (1861-1919), who was a social activist, feminist, painter, writer, and publicist. She was a prominent representative of the suffragette movement. She promoted women’s right to political participation and in 1908 enrolled herself as a candidate to the Galician Parliament (in the Austrian partition of Poland), where she was denied ‘due to formal reasons’. Her social work included founding of many children’s nurseries and kitchens for the poor, as well as setting up a help and activity club for homeless street kids. She was known to wear ‘masculine’ clothes.
Maria Dąbrowska, nee Szumska (1889-1965), who was a writer, novelist, essayist, journalist, and playwright, author of the historical novel Noce i dnie (Nights and Days). She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. She specialized in the themes of human rights and human potential for development under life hardships. In her personal life, she is considered one of a few historically-confirmed Polish bisexuals. She maintained long-term open relationships – first a marriage with publicist Marian Dąbrowski until his death in 1925, then a concubinage with painter Henryk Szczygliński until his death in 1952. She spent the remaining years of her life living in a romantic relationship with a writer Anna Kowalska (also a widow at that time), whom she had first met during the WW2 period, when they had fallen in love. In her articles published for the Polish press during the interwar period she openly advocated tolerance for homosexuality and diversity of society.
Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969), who was a composer and violinist. She is only the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition. She belonged to a large group of Polish composers from the interwar and post-war years creating in the neoclassical style. Despite constant pressure from the postwar communist government, she never composed any socialist realist work on their orders.
Anna Jagiellon (1523-1596), who was the Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania. Despite multiple proposals, she remained unmarried until the age of 52. Then she was elected, along with her then-fiancé Hungarian noble Stephen Báthory, as the co-ruler of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Their marriage remained rather a formal agreement for the following 10 years, until the death of Báthory. She didn’t take the opportunity of claiming the throne for herself. During her reign she spent most of her time in Warsaw on local administrative matters and sponsoring construction works, adding greatly to the development of the city.
Irena Krzywicka (1899-1994), who was a controversial Polish-Jewish feminist, writer, translator, and activist for women’s rights. During the interwar period she became one of the most famous feminists in Poland, spreading knowledge about sexual education and birth control. She was considered a scandalist at that time as, she talked openly about abortion, women’s sexuality, and homosexuality.
Helena Modrzejewska, known also as Modjeska (1840-1909), who was a renowned actress specializing in Shakespearean and tragic roles. She emigrated to the USA in the 1870s where, despite her imperfect accent, she achieved great success, eventually gaining a reputation as the leading female interpreter of Shakespeare on the American stage. She was a women’s rights activist, describing the difficult situation of Polish women under the Russian- and Prussian-ruled parts of Partitioned Poland. Her speeches led to a Tsarist ban on her traveling to Russian territory.
Hanka Ordonówna (1902-1950), born Maria Anna Pietruszyńska, who was a singer, dancer, and actress, one of the main stars during the interwar period in Poland. In 1931 she became a countess by marriage to Michał Tyszkiewicz, which made her an adored legend among lower classes of society who dreamed about a similar romantic life. Her career ended with the outbreak of WW2. She was arrested a few times as a political enemy and eventually sent to a gulag (Russian labor camp) in Uzbekistan where her chronic lung disease worsened dramatically. She was eventually evacuated to Beirut, where she stayed until her death, hoping to fight the disease.
Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska (1891-1945), who was a renowned dramatist and poet in Poland, known as the 'queen of lyrical poetry’ of the interwar period and the 'Polish Sappho’. She established herself as one of the most innovative poets of her era, writing about many taboo topics such as abortion, extramarital affairs, and incest, which provoked numerous scandals. Her plays depicted her unconventional approach to motherhood, which she understood as a painful obligation that ends mutual passion. She spoke in support of a woman’s right to choose. She has a minor planet named after her, thanks to the Czech astronomer Zdeňka Vávrová.
Barbara Radziwiłł (1520/23-1551), who was briefly the Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania as the consort of King Sigismund II Augustus (the last male monarch of the Jagiellon dynasty). They married in secret in 1547, after a few years of a love affair, causing a huge scandal. Her life became surrounded by many rumors and myths, and she became the heroine of many legends that inspired numerous paintings, literary works, and films.
Maria Wittek (1899-1997), who was a soldier promoted to brigadier general in the Polish Army, the first woman ever to acquire that rank in Poland (but only in 1991, after the collapse of the communist government). At the age of 18 she joined the underground Polish Military Organization (Polska Organizacja Wojskowa) and completed the NCO (non-commissioned officer) training course. During the First World War she fought against the Bolsheviks as a member of the Voluntary Legion of Women. Between 1928-1934 she was the commander of the Female Military Training (Przysposobienie Wojskowe Kobiet – an organization training women for military service. During WW2 she became the commanding officer of the Women’s Military Assistance Battalions and fought in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. After the war she initially returned to her previous position as a head of the women’s military division, but in 1949 she was arrested by the communist authorities and spent several months in prison. After her release she worked in a newspaper kiosk. She never married.
Maria Kazimiera d’Arquien (1641-1716), born Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d'Arquien (and known in Poland by the diminutive name 'Marysieńka’) who was the Queen Consort to King Jan III Sobieski. They were remembered as a compatible couple, rare in those times for high-status marriages. Their love letters reveal authentic feelings between the loving pair, but also their reflections on contemporary issues and difficulties, as well as down-to-earth matters concerning the royal household and little day-to-day decisions made by the monarch, who often consulted his wife about them.
Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930-2017), who was a sculptor and fiber artist, widely regarded as one of Poland’s most internationally-acclaimed artists. She’s known for her experimental sculptures, such as the series called Abakans: gigantic three-dimensional fiber works created in the 1960s that placed her in the international art world as one of the greatest and the most influential figures of that time. She created many large-scale projects such as the art installation Agora, consisting of 106 headless and armless iron sculptures located in Grant Park in Chicago.
Anna Jabłonowska (1728-1800), who was a magnate and politician, referred to as one of the most significant women of 18th-century Poland. She was known for remarkable activity on her estates, introducing numerous management reforms and funding hospitals, factories, schools, and a printing press, all with the wellness of the people living on her estates in mind. She was known for her personal interests in science and botany. Her naturalist collection was one of the best in Europe.
Olga Boznańska (1865-1940), who was a notable painter combining the impressionism and realism movements. She was known for her unique style and intimate portraits, emphasizing the spirituality of her models. She was widely acclaimed during her lifetime and today is regarded as one of the most significant Polish painters.
Anna Dorota Chrzanowska (17th century), who became a heroine of the Polish–Ottoman War (1672–76). She was the second wife of Captain Jan Samuel Chrzanowski. During the war they were stationed in Trembowla Castle, besieged by the Ottoman Turks. The castle managed to withstand many attacks, and the defenders underwent an internal crisis only after several days when shortages of food and water became severe. The captain decided to surrender, but his wife disagreed with his decision – she urged the defenders to carry out a daring attack on the Turkish positions, which is said to have raised the morale among the Poles greatly, and led the soldiers out herself, resulting in heavy losses among the Ottomans. Due to her act she has been called the 'Polish Joan of Arc’.
Anna Rajecka (c.1762-1832), later known as Madame Gault de Saint-Germain, who was a portrait painter and pastellist, recognized for her talent and raised as a protégé of King Stanisław August Poniatowski. She was one of a few women who frequently attended the king’s famous Thursday Dinners, and therefore she was rumoured to be his illegitimate daughter or his mistress (neither true as far as historians have researched). In the early 1780s, she was enrolled at the king’s expense at the art school for females at the Louvre in Paris and stayed in the city after falling in love and marrying a French miniature artist. She became the first Polish woman to have her work presented at the Paris Salon.
Jadwiga Szczawińska-Dawidowa (1864-1910), who was an activist, publicist, and teacher. She founded the so-called Flying University, an underground educational organization primarily for women. It operated in secret in private apartments in Warsaw (changing the location frequently – hence the university’s name) at the time when that part Poland was under control of the Russian Empire, providing educational courses outside the occupiers’ censorship at the time. During the 20 years of the university’s existence, around 5,000 women graduated from it, among them Maria Skłodowska – later a Noble prize winner.
Countess Maria Walewska (1786-1817), who was a Polish noblewoman remembered most for her long-lasting affair with Emperor Napoleon I. According to his memoirs, Napoleon remembered her for her extraordinary beauty after only a brief meeting in 1806, and requested to meet her again. She was said to be pious for her time and status, and admitted to have forced herself to get involved with Napoleon for purely patriotic reasons. She sought to influence his Eastern European policy, and during the affair she convinced him to create the Duchy of Warsaw.
Katarzyna Kobro (1898-1951), who was a notable avant-garde sculptor of the constructivist and abstract movements. She co-founded a few major Polish and international modernist artistic groups in the 1920s and 1930s. She signed a number of manifestos, including the early-modern Dimensionist Manifesto (concerning a “new conception of space and time”). She was most famous for her “spatial sculptures” – combinations of rigorously architectural structures, sculptural forms, and constructivist aesthetics.
Zofia Na��kowska (1884-1954), who was a prose writer, dramatist, and prolific essayist. During the interwar period she became one of Poland’s most distinguished feminist writers of novels, novellas, and stage plays characterized by socio-realism and psychological depth. In her writings, Nałkowska boldly tackled subjects which were difficult and controversial at that time, such as eroticism.
Jadwiga Sikorska-Klemensiewiczowa (1871-1963), who was a pharmacist, and one of the first official female students in the history of Jagiellonian University, after graduating from the underground Flying University. She became the first chairwoman of the General Association of Working Women in Poland.
Scholastyka Ostaszewska (1805-1851?), who was a social activist and an underground independence activist. She belonged to the group Entuzjastki (a progressive association founded in 1830 by a group of female intellectuals in favor of equal rights for men and women). Around 1848 she was active in a female branch of the Polish People’s Spring movement, which fought for independence from Partitions. In 1851 she was put under strict police supervision by the Russian occupants. Her date of death is unknown.
Alina Szapocznikow (1926-1973), who was a sculptor and illustrator representing the surrealist, nouveau realist, and pop art movements. She is mentioned among the most important Polish artists of her generation. She was born to a Polish-Jewish family and survived the Holocaust during the Nazi Germany’s occupation of Poland. That period of her life made a huge impact on her art. She created a visual language of her own to reflect the changes going on in the human body and introduced new sculpting materials and forms of expression.
Zofia Daszyńska-Golińska (1866-1934), who was a socialist politician, suffragette, university professor, and early female senator in interwar Poland. She was a member of a number of leading feminist organisations, including the Little Entente of Women.
Kazimiera Bujwidowa (1867-1932), who was a notable feminist and suffragette in Poland. She was involved in campaigns to improve general education and literacy in Warsaw and Kraków, and she organized the first Kraków Reading Room for Women. She is credited with starting the first junior school for girls and for campaigning for women’s admission to Jagiellonian University as students (as they got in 1897).
Maria Kokoszyńska-Lutmanowa (1905-1981), who was a notable logician and author of studies in philosophy, methodology, epistemology, and semantics. For some years after WW2, she was viewed as dangerous enough by the communist government to be deprived of the right to teach philosophy, being able to teach logic only.
Gabriela Zapolska (1857-1921), who was a novelist, playwright, naturalist writer, feuilletonist, theatre critic, and stage actress. She received the most recognition for her socio-satirical comedies in which she mocked the moral hypocrisy of the upper classes (she herself was born to a wealthy family of Polish landed gentry). Her most famous work, The Morality of Mrs. Dulska (written in 1906), became a key work in early modernist Polish drama. In it, she criticized the hypocritical double standard of sexual behaviours and two-faced family values.
Stefania “Barbara” Wojtulanis (1912-2005), who was an experienced glider, balloon and motor aircraft pilot, and parachute-jumping instructor (she received licenses for all of the above before her 24th birthday). At the start of WW2 she was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant, assigned to the general staff of the Polish army, and flew missions to deliver fuel to the fighter brigade defending against the 1939 attack on Warsaw. She was evacuated to Great Britain in 1940 and later assigned to the Air Transport Auxiliary as a ferry pilot, where she logged over 1,000 hours of flying. She was twice awarded the Silver Cross of Merit for her services during the war and was honoured at the International Forest of Friendship with a plaque for her aviation achievements.
Helena Mniszkówna (1878-1943), who was a novelist and author of several books popular in pre-war Poland. She debuted with the novel Trędowata (The Leper, 1909) that brought her to prominence and became one of the most famous Polish melodramas (later in the 20th century dramatised four times by different directors). In 1951 all of her works were banned by communist censors in People’s Republic of Poland due to their bourgeoisie content, which they deemed 'may have been harmful for society’.
Eleonora Ziemięcka (1819-1869), who was considered the first female philosopher in Poland. She bravely entered that field at the time it was reserved exclusively for men. She played a significant role in the history of Polish philosophical thought at the time, representing the so-called Polish religious thought (or Polish Messianism). Her Thoughts on the Upbringing of Women, published in 1843, was the first book in which the issues of reforming women’s education and their need to develop the mind were addressed.
Maria Ilnicka (1825-1897), who was a poet, novelist, translator, and journalist. In 1863/1864 she took part in the January Uprising against the Russian Empire, as an archivist of the underground Polish National Government. She was promoting feminism and organic work. In 1865 she was the editor-in-chief of a weekly magazine for woman, Bluszcz.
Wanda Rutkiewicz (1943-1992), who was a computer engineer and a mountain climber. She is known as the third woman, the first Pole, and the first European woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, which she accomplished in 1978. In 1986 she became the first woman to successfully climb K2, what she did without supplemental oxygen.
Zofia Rogoszówna (1881-1921), who was a poet, translator, and writer of children’s literature. She was the first female writer in Poland who adapted rural short stories and rhymes into the literature for children, which she compiled in three tomes over time. She is considered a valuable researcher of folklore.
Jadwiga Piłsudska (1920-2014), who was a pilot. She obtained her first pilot’s licence in 1937 (at the age of 17), then her aircraft pilot’s license in 1942, and served in the Air Transport Auxiliary during WW2. As a daughter of the Marshal Józef Piłsudski, she remained in Great Britain after the war as a political émigré. She never accepted British citizenship and used a stateless person passport, valid for all countries in the world except the communist People’s Republic of Poland. She was able to return safely to her country only in 1990, after the collapse of the communist government.
Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa (1829-1901), who was a writer, journalist, and author of several popular Polish cookbooks. After 1875 she devoted herself to preparing a yearly publication, Kolęda dla Gospodyń (A Housewife’s Carol), a calendar filled with cooking recipes, women’s suffrage ‘propaganda’, and short novels and poems. Her books made her the best-selling author in pre-war Poland. By the year 1924 her first cookbook was issued 23 times, with more than 130 thousand copies sold worldwide – more than all the books by the novelists and Nobel Prize laureates Henryk Sienkiewicz and Bolesław Prus combined had sold before that year.
Anna Leska (1910-1998), who was a skilled pilot assigned to the Polish Air Force HQ squadron to fly liaison missions. After the 1939 defeat of Poland, she was evacuated to Great Britain and started ferrying aircraft with the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) where she eventually became a flight leader in charge of eight female ferry pilots, whom she instructed and assisted. She was one of only three Polish women serving in the ATA, and the only woman flying in the ATA to receive the Royal Medal.
Zofia Sokolnicka (1878-1927), who was a social and political activist and member of parliament after Poland regained independence in 1918. During the First World War she worked as a courier – thanks to her outstanding memory, she could convey detailed political information and instructions without transporting any papers or notes.
Izabela Elżbieta Morsztyn (1671–1756), who was a noblewoman, known for her political salon and role in the Familia (an 18th-century political party or fraction led by the House Czartoryski and allied families). In 1736 in Warsaw, she established the first political salon, where politicians met and the Familia party conferred. Women played a significant role in those meetings.
Princess Konstancja Czartoryska (c.1696-1759), who was a noblewoman, later known as the mother of King Stanisław August Poniatowski. She was described as a serious person with an interest in education and politics, strongly devoted to her mother Izabela Elżbieta Morsztyn. She played a political role as a driving force within the Familia (political party led by House Czartoryski). She acquired a great influence within the family and led the political careers of her spouse and brothers. At the interregnum and royal election after the death of King Augustus II in 1733 she, alongside her mother and Zofia Czartoryska, were described as the most influential people in the Familia party, and she was represented her faction during negotiations (e.g., with a French ambassador).
Stefania Sempołowska (1869-1944), who was an educator, social activist, and writer. At the age of 17 she passed the Teacher Patent at the Government Commission in Warsaw. She became a teacher and children’s rights activist, and was the author of many school books. During the Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland (1905) against the Russian Empire, she initiated a congress of delegates of the Polish teacher organizations, in which solidarity with the protesting common people was declared and the teachers decided to run lessons in the Polish language despite Russian prohibition.
Faustyna Kowalska (1905-1938), born Helena Kowalska, who was a nun and mystic. Throughout her life, she reported having visions of Jesus and conversations with him, which inspired the Roman Catholic Divine Mercy devotion and earned her the title of 'Apostle of Divine Mercy’. Based on her descriptions, the famous Divine Mercy image was created (she herself didn’t know how to paint, so she asked a few painters to recreate her vision on canvas, resulting in a few known versions of the scene). She was canonized in 2000.
Helena Radlińska (1879-1954), who was a teacher, historian, and librarian, and the creator of the Polish school of social pedagogy. She promoted librarian pedagogy, readership, the creation of home book collections, and access to literature for different social groups (especially those from culturally underprivileged groups).
Irena Morzycka-Iłłakowicz (1906-1943), who was a Polish second lieutenant of the National Armed Forces and an intelligence agent. During WW2 she was active in the Polish resistance movement and conducted military, economic, and intelligence reconnaissance. Her section was destroyed by the Nazi Germans, followed by numerous arrests of underground activists. She was captured in October 1942 and underwent harsh interrogations. She was rescued by fellow underground agents: first a bribed guard put her in the group of non-political prisoners to be transported to the Majdanek camp, from where she was rescued by agents dressed in stolen German uniforms. She continued her work as an agent. In the days before her death she was involved in an action against a radio contact point which supported Soviet Russian activities in Poland. She was murdered in 1943 in unknown circumstances after being summoned for an important meeting. Because the Nazi Germans often sent agents to family funerals (and other ceremonies), she was buried under a false name, and her husband participated in the funeral dressed as a gravedigger; her mother as a cemetery helper. Only in 1948 did her mother place a plaque with her true name on the grave.
Maria Grzegorzewska (1888-1967), who was a Polish educator and teacher. She introduced and developed the special education movement in Poland. Maria Grzegorzewska worked out the original teaching method, called “the methods of working centers” focused on a creative work environment, which is still used in today’s special needs education. She was the first to start systematic research on pedagogical issues of the disabled in Poland.
Agnieszka Osiecka (1936-1997), who was a poet, writer, author of theatre and television screenplays, film director, and journalist. She was a prominent Polish songwriter, having authored the lyrics to more than 2,000 songs, and is considered an icon of Polish culture.
Barbara Sanguszko (1718-1791), who was a noblewoman, poet, translator, and moralist during the Enlightenment in Poland. She organised and hosted a salon in Poddębice, where the gathering of intellectuals, artists and politicians was modelled after French 18th-century salons. Sanguszko was known for her piety, generosity and philanthropy. She not only restored many Catholic churches and convents, but laid the foundations of new religious houses, including also Orthodox churches. Having in mind the future of her children and of the family estate, she took an active part in the political life of her country. She took it upon herself to attend parliaments and tribunals. Her soirées spawned the future theatrical initiatives of the Lazienki Palace. She hosted grand occasions in the Saski Palace, including illuminations, concerts and balls for dignitaries of the period.
Barbara Kwiatkowska-Lass (1940-1995), who was a notable film actress. Raised in communist Poland, she took an opportunity to leave the country in 1959 to pursue her career in the West and starred in a few major Italian, German, and French films. She actively opposed the communist regime and cooperated with the United States-controlled Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which transmitted anti-communist propaganda, information, and programmes free from censorship to Poland.
Anna Iwaszkiewicz (1897-1979), who was a writer and translator, born to the family of a wealthy entrepreneur. She entered Polish artistic circles by marriage to Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz (then a novice writer) and they both were known for their turbulent bisexual orientation. During WW2 she and her husband actively helped rescue Jewish people from the Nazi German occupiers by hiding them, finding new shelters, and providing them with funds and with false documents. She is on Israel’s list of the Righteous Among the Nations.
Katarzyna Ostrogska (1602–1642), who was a Polish–Lithuanian noblewoman, known as the founder of the city of Biała (modern Janów Lubelski). She was married to the nobleman and voivode Tomasz Zamoyski. Widowed in 1638, she took over management of the Zamoyski estates. In 1640 the king granted her the privilege to found the city of Biała, including the right to organize the government of the city and appoint its officials. She wrote several documents regulating life in her city.
Alina Centkiewicz (1907-1993), who was a writer and explorer, as well as the co-author of many travel books (written with her husband). She was best known for her descriptions of the Antarctic Circle region. In 1958 she was the first Polish woman (and the sixth woman in the world) to explore Antarctica.
Wanda Gertz (1896-1958), who was a soldier and independence activist. Born to a noble family, she began her military career in the Polish Legion during the First World War dressed as a man, under the male pseudonym of Kazimierz Zuchowicz, or 'Major Kazik’. With the outbreak of WW2, thanks to her experience and skills she became an officer of an all-female battalion in the underground Home Army, where she took the codename 'Lena’, and created a female division and sabotage unit. She was captured after the failed 1944 Warsaw Uprising and remained imprisoned in various German camps until the liberation by the US army in 1945. After the war she travelled throughout Germany and Italy in a search of displaced Polish women, joining the Polish Resettlement Corps. After demobilisation she worked in a canteen until her death.
Ewa Szelburg-Zarembina (1899-1986), who was a novelist, poet, and screenplay writer, best known as the author of numerous works for children. She co-initiated a fundraising program that eventually led to the construction of the Children’s Memorial Health Institute, the largest and the most modern centre of paediatric care for children in Poland.
Anna Kostka (1575–1635), who was a Polish–Lithuanian noblewoman. She inherited the city of Jarosław as well as several other areas from her mother. After being widowed in 1603, she lived an independent life as the manager of her and her children’s dominions. She financially supported the University of Jarosław, introduced the Benedictine Order to the city, protected the Jesuits, commissioned several (later famed) art objects for the churches, and became known for her charity toward the poor.
Seweryna Szmaglewska (1916-1992), who was a writer, known for books for both children and adults alike. During WW2 she was arrested by the Nazi Germans in a łapanka (street roundup), and sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as a political prisoner. She survived three years in the camp, and after the war she was one of very few Poles to testify at the Nuremberg Trials. She collected her memoirs in a few books, the most famous being Smoke over Birkenau.
Janina Lewandowska (1908-1940), born Janina Dowbor-Muśnicka, who was a second lieutenant in the Polish air force, devoted entirely to her flying career. After the outbreak of WW2 she was drafted for service in the 3rd Regiment, but her unit was taken hostage by Soviet forces in unknown circumstances. She was one of only two officers in the imprisoned group. She died in the infamous 1940 Katyn Massacre, and her remains were identified only in 2005.
Wanda Błeńska (1911-2014), who was a tropical disease expert and missionary who succeeded in developing the Buluba Hospital in Uganda, an internationally recognized centre for leprosy treatment.
Aleksandra Zagórska (1884-1965), who was am independence activist and soldier. During the First World War she commanded the women’s intelligence service in the Polish Legions. In 1918 she formed the female paramilitary organization Ochotnicza Legia Kobiet (Voluntary Legion of Women) and served as the organization’s commander. In her military career she was eventually promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. During WW2 she joined the resistance as part of the left-leaning Coalition of Independence Organisations. After the war she lived under the pseudonym 'Aleksandra Bednarz’ to avoid the communist government’s persecution on account of her history of independence activism.
Maria Nostitz-Wasilkowska (1858-1922), who was a painter and portrait artist, nicknamed ‘Charmante Polonaise’ by the upper classes. Her favourite medium was pastels, and she specialized in female portraits, valued for her ability to interpret the model’s psychology through subtle color and light. Her portraits were often described as 'living and vibrant’, as if she caught the model in an ephemeral moment. She graduated with honors from the art academy in Saint Petersburg and paved her way to become a favourite artists of the elites in Saint Petersburg and Warsaw, travelling between those cities during her lifetime. Sadly, not many portraits by her have survived to the modern day.
Lena Żelichowska (1910-1958), who was a dancer and actress, one of the most popular in interwar Poland. She debuted on screen in 1933 and quickly gained popularity, becoming one of the most promising film stars in Poland. Before the outbreak of WW2 she managed to appear in 14 movies and starred in numerous theatre plays. During the early stages of the war, she and her husband Stefan Norblin (a notable art deco artist) escaped Poland, and only his reputation as a painter opened many doors, including those of the royal family in Iraq and the Maharajahs in India, where they lived until the end of the war. In the late 1940s they eventually settled in the US. Due to her accent she never managed to return to acting.
Krystyna Skarbek (1908-1952), also known as Christine Granville, who was a WW2 spy working for the British Special Operations Executive. She became celebrated especially for her daring exploits in intelligence and irregular warfare missions in Poland and Nazi-occupied France, and she was one of the longest-serving of all Britain’s wartime women agents. After the war, Skarbek was left without financial reserves or a native country to return to (she didn’t recognize the communist government in postwar Poland). Her life is said to be an inspiration for the fictional characters of Vesper Lynd and Tatiana Romanova in the James Bond novels Casino Royale (1953) and From Russia, with Love (1957).
Teresa Bogusławska (1929-1945) was a promising Polish poet and a participant in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. She joined the Polish scouts’ underground resistance movement at the age of 12. In 1944 (aged 15) she was arrested by the Nazi Germans while pasting independence slogans on German posters. She was imprisoned and tortured during questioning, and suffered badly from tuberculosis after barely three weeks spent in prison. She was freed, but her health never recovered. During the Warsaw Uprising later that same year, she helped the insurgents by sewing uniforms and arm bands. She died early in 1945, aged 16, from meningitis caused by the tuberculosis.
Anna Pustowójtówna (1838-1881), who was a noblewoman, activist, and soldier, famed for her participation in the January Uprising. She identified herself fully as a Pole despite being a child of a mixed Polish-Russian couple, her father being a high-ranking Russian general. She became an activist for the cause of the Polish independence and sided with the Polish troops during the 1963 January Uprising. She disguised herself as a male soldier and went by the alias 'Michał Smok’ (literal translation: Michael the Dragon). She fought as an assistant to the general Marian Langiewicz. She took active part in a few battles, such as the Battle of Małogoszcz, Battle of Pieskowa Skała, Battle of Chroberz, and Battle of Grochowiska, becoming a living legend of the Uprising (much like Emilia Plater, who became a symbol of the November Uprising c. 40 years earlier).
Maria Piotrowiczowa (1839-1863), who was a January Uprising insurgent, participating in the Battle of Dobra (the Łódź province). Upon news of failures of the ongoing uprising, she decided to support the fighters, cutting her hair and putting on a men’s insurrectionary garment. She joined a small troop led by a man from a nearby manor. At the beginning she was on an auxiliary duty, but when the military situation deteriorated she declared her intention of joining front-line duty. In February of 1863 the Russian troops took her unit’s camping site by surprise. She fought to the very end and stayed on the battlefield, rejecting the suggestions of surrender given to her by Russian officers. With a remaining small group of young people, she bravely defended the troop flag donated to the unit by women from the city of Łódź. Armed with a revolver and a scythe, encircled by Cossacks, she killed one, wounded another, and killed the horse under yet another one before dying from their hands. Her body was pricked with pikes and sabres. The tragedy was magnified by the fact that Maria was pregnant at that time.
Natalia Zarembina (1895-1973), who was a writer and journalist. During WW2 she was also a participant of the underground resistance in occupied Poland: she served as an activist of the Polish Socialist Party – Freedom, Equality, Independence (a WW2 underground resistance party) and as a member of the underground organisation Żegota (Council of Aid to the Jews). In late 1942 she published the book Obóz śmierci (Eng. Death Camp), released by the underground press, which was the first document telling about the German concentration camp of Auschwitz. She included firsthand information based on reports of refugees and people dismissed from the camp. Her book was translated to English in the following year, becoming one of the first reports of the Nazi German atrocities in the occupied Poland, followed by the famous Pilecki’s Report.
Eliza Orzeszkowa (1841-1910), who was a journalist, social activist, novelist, and leading writer of the Positivism movement during the late era of the Partitions of Poland. In 1905, along with Henryk Sienkiewicz, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. She authored over 150 powerful works dealing with the social conditions of her occupied country.
Teofila Chmielecka (1590–1650) was a Polish military spouse, married to Stefan Chmielecki. She was known for her dedication to the military ideals and for maintaining the Spartan lifestyle necessary in the army, and came to be known as the ideal role model of a military wife. She displayed her personal courage on several occasions, earning the nickname “The Wolf of the Frontier”.
Teofila Ludwika Zasławska (c.1650-1709), who was a noblewoman known as perhaps the most significant landowner in Poland in her time. She was the daughter of Katarzyna Sobieska (sister of King Jan III Sobieski) and an heiress of the Ostrogski family. She was married twice: to the Great Crown Hetman Dymitr Jerzy Wiśniowiecki, and after his death to Prince Józef Karol Lubomirski. Upon her first husband’s death, she inherited large holdings that included the Baranów Sandomierski Castle (not without a legal fight for those rights). After the death of her brother she became the only heir to one of the largest estates in the Commonwealth, the Ostrogski Ordination, which included several dozen towns. As a result of her second marriage, the large landed estates of the Ostrogski Ordination in Poland were transferred to the Lubomirski family. The combined fortune of the Zasławskis and Lubomirskis would become for a time the largest fortune in the Commonwealth. Her second husband had an ongoing extramarital affair which became public, resulting in her attempting to declare him legally insane. They were formally separated until his death in 1702. During the last years of her life she was involved in charity work, including management and development of schools.
Rozalia Lubomirska (1768-1794) was a noblewoman, most noted for her death. At the age of 19 she was married to Prince Aleksander Lubomirski. They travelled to France but, unhappy in her marriage, she decided to divorce her husband and did not accompany him on his way back to Poland. The time of the French Revolution met her in Paris. She was arrested along with her child and tried for alleged conspiracy against the Revolution. As a result, the 26-year-old princess was sentenced to death and soon beheaded by guillotine, although her guilt was (and remains) widely questioned. The death of a Polish national caused much concern among the Polish nobility who, prior to the Reign of Terror, openly cheered the Revolution. Among those who spoke in her defence was Tadeusz Kościuszko. After her death, Rozalia became the subject of legends. According to one, her ghost appears in the Lubomirski Palace in Opole Lubelskie.
Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowicz (1857-1893) was a painter known for her portraits, painted with a great intuition. Her Self-Portrait with Apron and Brushes (1887) developed a new self-portrait pose by placing the artist in front of a model’s backdrop, thus showing that she is her own model. She was internationally recognized during her lifetime and studied art in Paris. After returning to Poland she intended to open a painting school for women in Warsaw, which would have mimicked the practices of the Parisian academies. However the project was stopped short when the artist fell ill with a heart condition.
Zofia Rydet (1911-1997), who was a professional photographer best known for her project 'Sociological Record’, which aimed to document every household in Poland. She began working on that project in 1978 at the age of 67, taking an enormous collection of nearly 20,000 pictures until her death in 1997. The photos show various informal scenes in different ordinary Polish households, often with the owners among their belongings.
Teofila Certowicz (1862-1918), who was a sculptor and artist. For a brief time she opened and managed her own art school for women in Kraków, the first one of that kind in the city, and invited prominent artists such as Włodzimierz Tetmajer and Jacek Malczewski to teach the girls in her school.
Wanda Telakowska (1905–1986) was an artist best known as the founder of Warsaw’s Institute of Industrial Design. She was a member of an Arts and Crafts collective that encouraged a new artistic identity which included folk art. After the WW2 she joined the communist government in Poland, creating the Bureau of Supervision of Aesthetic Production. As the head of the Bureau, she commissioned artists to design many mass-produced Polish goods, under the motto 'Beauty is for every day and for everybody’. However, some artists were suspicious of collaborating with the communist government during a time of continued political conflict. Ultimately, the Bureau was shut down, as the value of artist designs was not convincing enough to factory owners. She went on to create Warsaw’s Institute of Industrial Design in 1950 and served as its first director. In this role, she 'invited artists, ethnographers, art historians, pedagogues, sociologists, and enthusiasts of folk art to contribute to her institute’s efforts to develop new forms of sociologist culture in collaboration with working women, peasants, and youth.’ She’s known as a promoter of the term ‘industrial design’ in Poland. Some Polish artists have dismissed her legacy as a failed attempt to work with communists.
Zofia Baniecka (1917-1993), who was a member of the Resistance during WW2. In addition to relaying guns and other materials to resistance fighters, she and her mother rescued over 50 Jews by hiding them in their home between 1941 and 1944. Later, she was an activist with the Intervention Bureau of the Polish Workers’ Defence Committee in 1970s. She and her husband were active participants in the Solidarity movement in the 1980s, distributing underground media. In her professional capacity, Baniecka was a long-time member of the Warsaw chapter of the Association of Polish Artists and Designers.
Maria Kotarba (1907-1956), who was a courier in the Polish resistance movement, smuggling clandestine messages and supplies among the local partisan groups. She was arrested, tortured, and interrogated by the Gestapo as a political prisoner and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943. She was recognised by Israel as Righteous Among the Nations for risking her life to save the lives of Jewish prisoners in the camps.
Zofia Leśniowska (1912-1943), who was a first lieutenant (porucznik) in the Polish Armed Forces. She was the daughter of General Władysław Sikorski. During the interwar period she was active in the Polish Red Cross and known for her passion for horse riding. After the outbreak of WW2, her father ordered her to organize a resistance movement. In 1940 she was called as an emissary to France and travelled as an underground courier, smuggling documents. She was her father’s personal secretary, coder, interpreter, and advisor. She was killed, along with her father and nine others, when their plane crashed into the sea 16 seconds after takeoff from Gibraltar Airport in July 1943.
Maria de Nisau (née Vetulani) (1898-1944), who was a Polish soldier, active in fighting for Poland’s independence. During WW2 she was a liaison soldier of the underground Home Army, where she took the pseudonym Maryna. In her apartment in Warsaw she organised a contact point and a hiding place for Jewish people. In 1944 she took part in the Warsaw Uprising. During the fighting she was wounded and treated in the hospital at Długa Street. There she was killed during a German liquidation of the Uprising hospitals.
Cezaria Jędrzejewiczowa (1885-1967), who was a scientist, art historian, and anthropologist. She was one of the pioneers of ethnology as a systematic study in Poland, and one of the first scientists to adopt empirical research in studies on folk culture. During WW2 she escaped from Poland and settled in British-held Palestine, where she co-founded the Polish Scientific Institute of Jerusalem, a sort of exile university for the soldiers of the Polish II Corps. In 1947 she moved to Great Britain, where she became one of the founding members of the Polish Scientific Society in Exile. In 1951 she became a professor of ethnography at the Polish University in Exile and soon afterwards was chosen as its rector.
Elżbieta Drużbacka (c.1695 or 1698/1699 - 1765), who was a poet of the late Baroque era in Poland, known as a 'Slavic Sappho’ and a 'Sarmatian Muse’. Much of her work deals with the beauty of nature – her best known work is Description of the Four Seasons (Opisanie czterech części roku). Her style was characterized as natural, simple, and pure, free of the so-called ’Macaronic language’ characteristic of her times. Most of her manuscripts, stored in the Krasińscy Library, were destroyed during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
The list appeared also on Krakow Post :)
#poland#women in history#short bio#long post#dzień niepodległości#11poland11#independence day#poland's independence day#polish independence day#polish independence
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Nadzeya Vashkevich
Nadzeya Vashkevich is a Belarusian pianist located in Poland.
She started her musical education in 2009. Being a schoolgirl she has always been very activeand took part in different educational competitions and Olympiads. Also, Nadzeya was fond of sportactivities, such as handball or ballet-dancing. But music interested her most. At the age of 10 she said toher mom, that she wants to learn…
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5 Interesting Nonfiction Books
1.) Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment by Anna M. Cienciala, Natalia S. Lebedeva, and Wojciech Materski
“The 14,500 Polish army officers, police, gendarmes, and civilians taken prisoner by the Red Army when it invaded eastern Poland in September 1939 were held in three special NKVD camps and executed at three different sites in spring 1940, of which the one in Katyn Forest is the most famous. Another 7,300 prisoners held in NKVD jails in Ukraine and Belarus were also shot at this time, although many others disappeared without trace. The murder of these Poles is among the most monstrous mass murders undertaken by any modern government. Three leading historians of the NKVD massacres of Polish prisoners of war at Katyn, Kharkov, and Tver—now subsumed under “Katyn”—present 122 documents selected from the published Russian and Polish volumes coedited by Natalia S. Lebedeva and Wojciech Materski. The documents, with introductions and notes by Anna M. Cienciala, detail the Soviet killings, the elaborate cover-up, the admission of the truth, and the Katyn question in Soviet/Russian–Polish relations up to the present.”
(amazon)
2.) The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939–1945, by Wladyslaw Szpilman
“On September 23, 1939, Wladyslaw Szpilman played Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor live on the radio as shells exploded outside―so loudly that he couldn't hear his piano. It was the last live music broadcast from Warsaw: That day, a German bomb hit the station, and Polish Radio went off the air. Though he lost his entire family, Szpilman survived in hiding. In the end, his life was saved by a German officer who heard him play the same Chopin Nocturne on a piano found among the rubble. Written immediately after the war and suppressed for decades, The Pianist is a stunning testament to human endurance and the redemptive power of fellow feeling.”
(amazon)
3.) White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish-Soviet War 1919-1920 and The Miracle on the Vistula by by Norman Davies
“In White Eagle, Red Star, distinguished historian Norman Davies gives us a full account of the Polish-Soviet War, with its dramatic climax in August 1920 when the Red Army—sure of victory and pledged to carry the Revolution across Europe —was crushed by a devastating Polish attack. Since known as “The Miracle of the Vistula,” it remains one of the most crucial conflicts of the Western world. Drawing on both Polish and Russian sources, Norman Davies shows how this war was a pivotal event in the course of European history”
(Goodreads.com)
4.) Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher R. Browning
“Ordinary Men is the true story of Reserve Police Battalion 101 of the German Order Police, which was responsible for mass shootings as well as round-ups of Jewish people for deportation to Nazi death camps in Poland in 1942. Browning argues that most of the men of RPB 101 were not fanatical Nazis but, rather, ordinary middle-aged, working-class men who committed these atrocities out of a mixture of motives, including the group dynamics of conformity, deference to authority, role adaptation, and the altering of moral norms to justify their actions. Very quickly three groups emerged within the battalion: a core of eager killers, a plurality who carried out their duties reliably but without initiative, and a small minority who evaded participation in the acts of killing without diminishing the murderous efficiency of the battalion whatsoever. While this book discusses a specific Reserve Unit during WWII, the general argument Browning makes is that most people succumb to the pressures of a group setting and commit actions they would never do of their own volition.”
(Goodreads.com)
5.) The Warsaw Ghetto: A Guide to the Perished City by Barbara Engelking, Jacek Leociak, Emma Harris (Translator)
“The establishment and liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto has become an icon of the Holocaust experience. Remarkably, a full history of the Ghetto has never been written, despite the publication over some sixty years of numerous memoirs, studies, biographical accounts, and primary documents. The Warsaw Ghetto: A Guide to the Perished City is this history, researched and written with painstaking care and devotion over many years and now published for the first time in English. The authors explore the history of the ghetto’s evolution, the actual daily experience of its thousands of inhabitants from its creation in 1940 to its liquidation following the uprising of 1943. Encyclopedic in scope, the book encompasses a range of topics from food supplies to education, religious activities to the Jundenrat’s administration. Separate chapters deal with the mass deportations to Treblinka and the famous uprising. A series of original maps, along with biographies, a glossary, and a bibliography, completes this masterful work.”
(Goodreads.com)
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A noise comes from the other side of the wall—the bang of a pan or something similarly domestic—and he thinks about Miss Natalya Arlovskaya, his new employer, landlady, and technically neighbor, as she lives in the main space above the studio. She’s a thin, athletic type, as most ballerinas usually are, and has the somber, suspicious personality of one who fled political upheaval. Was she part of a company back home, perhaps even a principal dancer? And if so, does she miss the theaters and opera houses the way he sometimes does?
Paris, they’ve always said, is the city for lovers, but in this post-war world, Roderich watches the rain come down and wonders if it hasn’t become the city for broken hearts, instead.
WHY DO I ALWAYS MAKE THESE TWO SO DEPRESSING??? 😫
#hetalia#aph austria#aph belarus#ausbela#fanfiction#i made a thing#aka: pianist roderich edelstein and ballet instructor natalya arlovskaya help each other out in post-wwi paris#you may be worried by these excerpts--like am i giving too much away?#but no need for concern my dudes because it looks like this is going to shape up to be a pretty long fic#(for me at least which means we're talking a few thousand words#like maybe in the 4K-5K range?#not that i've written that much yet but i'm kind of planning it out and that's my educated guess)#fic rambles
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