Adam Próchnik

Próchnik was born in Lwów, Austrian partition (now, Lviv, Ukraine) on 21 August 1892 to a middle class Jewish family.[1] His mother, née Felicja Nossig, was the sister of the sculptor and Zionist activist Alfred Nossig.[2] According to some sources, he was the extramarital son of the Polish socialist Ignacy Daszyński.[3][4]

While in high school he became involved in socialist activism.[1] As a student, he joined the Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia; he supported the Polish Socialist Party – Left faction over the Polish Socialist Party – Revolutionary Faction led by Józef Piłsudski.[1]

Before World War I he joined the pro-independence paramilitary Polish organization, the Union of Armed Struggle. With the outbreak of World War I, he was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1914, and was badly wounded in 1917.[1] During his convalescence in Vienna, he became a member of a secret Polish organization, the Polish Military Organisation.[1] As a member of PMO he encouraged Polish soldiers to desert from the Austrian Army and join newly created Polish formations. This resulted in a threat of court martial from the Austro-Hungarian Army, but eventually he was freed. Next, he participated in the battle of Lwów during the Polish–Ukrainian War.[1]

In interwar Poland, Próchnik became an activist of the Polish Socialist Party and supported initiatives designed to improve the situation of the country's working class.[1] He supported the inclusion of Silesia into renascent Poland. In the 1928 legislative elections, he was elected a deputy to the Polish Sejm.[1] He steadily drifted to more extreme left position, supporting cooperation with the communists.[1] Often - under pen-name Henryk Swoboda and publishing mostly in Robotnik - published essays attacking the right-wing sanacja Polish government and the endecja faction, which he blamed for undermining the nascent Polish democracy.[1] This resulted in some of his publications being censored by the state.[1] Some of his works would appear in unabridged version only after his death, published in the People's Republic of Poland.[1]

He worked as an archivist in Piotrków and Poznań.[1] For a time he was employed by Poland's Ministry of Culture and Religion. His attempt to enter the academic life ended when his application for a position in the University of Warsaw was rejected, due to his left wing views being unpopular among the right wing faculty there (despite a support from his candidature from professor Wacław Tokarz.[1] He nonetheless became a member of the Polish Historical Society, published in historical journals and attended professional conferences.[1]

During World War II, in occupied Poland, Próchnik continued his political activities, supporting a PPS-affiliated underground printing press (Barykada Wolności).[1] He joined the leftist PPS group, Polish Socialists (Polscy Socjaliści), but he tried to reconcile the divisions within PPS and took part in the negotiations with the more centrist PPS-WRN.[1] He was involved in the collaborative underground effort to document Nazi crimes in Poland, worked in the underground Military History Bureau and contributed to the Kronika Okupacji project.[1] He advocated cooperation with the Soviet Union.[1] He became a member of the Political Consultative Committee. On 22 May 1942 he died of a heart attack.[1] He is buried in Evangelical-Reformed Cemetery in Warsaw.

Próchnik's Warsaw grave

Several landmarks and organizations in Poland bear Próchnik's name.

In his historical works, Próchnik was a strong adherent to Marxist views, and supported the dialectic materialism perspective.[1] He was interested in studying the revolutionary processes, including social movements.[1] He published numerous articles, both in academic journals and popular press, as well as several books.[1] His historical research focused on following areas: French Revolution and its Polish contemporary, the Kościuszko Uprising; the period of Polish history following the failure of the January Uprising of 1863–1864; the study of the labor movement in Poland, including a study of the women's role in the Polish labor movement (both areas in which he was a pioneer); and contemporary history of the Second Polish Republic.[1] Overall, his works are regarded as well researched and well written.[1]

• "Obrona Lwowa od 1 do 22 listopada 1918", Zamość 1919;
• "Demokracja Kościuszkowska", Lwów 1920, Warszawa 1947;
• "Bunt łódzki w roku 1892", Warszawa (?) 1932;
• as Henryk Swoboda "Pierwsze piętnastolecie Polski niepodległej", (first serialized in 1933 in newspaper "Robotnik" (censored), first full version translated into German in 1933. Complete Polish editions in 1957 and 1983.
• "W trzynastą rocznicę "Krwawej środy", Warszawa 1936;
• "Ideologia spółdzielczości robotniczej" Warszawa 1937;
• "Co to jest spółdzielczość. Istota - cel - zadania", Warszawa 1937;
• "Idee i ludzie", Warszawa 1938;
• "Powstanie państwa polskiego", Warszawa 1939;
• "Stronnictwa polityczne Wielkiej Rewolucji Francuskiej", Warszawa 1958;
• "Studia z dziejów polskiego ruchu robotniczego" (editor K. Dunin-Wąsowicz), Warszawa 1958;
• "Studia i szkice" (editor K.Dunin-Wąsowicz), Warszawa 1962;
• "Francja i Polskaw latach 1789-1794" (editor K.Dunin-Wąsowicz), Warszawa 1964;
• "Wybór publicystyki" (editors M.M.Drozdowski, K.Dunin-Wąsowicz, Z.Marciniak, J.Żarnowski), Warszawa 1971;

• List of Poles

• "Próchnik, Adam Feliks," Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN (PWN Universal Encyclopedia), Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, vol. 3, 1975, p. 712.
• Nicieja S., Biografia i działalność Adama Próchnika – historyka, polityka, publicysty, Warszawa 1986;
• Marciniak Z. i J., Adam Feliks Próchnik (1892-1942), "Z pola walki", r.1, 1958, nr 3.