History Conference "Scripta Manent: Estonian - Polish relations over the centuries" in Tartu
11.09.2019
The history conference „Scripta Manent: Estonian-Polish relations over the centuries: talking objects, documents and stories" took place on 13-14 September in Tartu. It was organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Tallinn in cooperation with the Estonian National Museum, Estonian National Archives and the University of Tartu under the patronage of the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Estonia Tõnis Lukas.
The conference focused on different threads in the Estonian-Polish history, i.a. the Jesuit heritage on the Estonian land, including the “Agenda Parva”, Polish governance of the south of Estonia at the end of the 16th and at the beginning of the 17th century, the graduates of the University of Tartu at the time of the partitions of Poland and the bilateral relations in the interwar period. The topics were presented by experts from the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Science, University of Warsaw, Jagiellonian University, “Hosianum” Olsztyn Library of the Theological Seminary and from the Estonian side: the Ministry of Culture, Estonian Academy of Science – institute of the Estonian language, Institute of History and Archaeology of the University of Tartu, Institute of History of the University of Tallinn, Estonian National Museum, Estonian Museum of Literature and Estonian National Archives.
The focal point of the 2-day event was the vernissage of the exhibition “Fighting and Suffering” about Polish citizens during the World War II, presented by the Museum of the Second World War. The exhibition was presented in the main gallery of the Estonian National Archives and it was accompanied by 6 unique polonica documents referring to the events from the 1939, i.a. the list of Polish citizens – residents of the Republic of Estonia from the secret archives of the Estonian Ministry of Interior Affairs or the typescript of the testimony of the commander of the ORP „Orzeł” - Henryk Kłoczkowski.
The exhibition was opened by the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland Grzegorz Kozłowski, the Estonian State Archivist Priit Pirsko and the Mayor of Tartu Urmas Klaas.
The event about different aspects of Polish and Estonian history was addressed to researchers, students, community of the student city Tartu and teachers associated in the Estonian academic society of teachers of history, science and social studies. About 100 of people took part in the event. This year’s conference was the fourth meeting of researchers from Poland and Estonia after 1989. The previous ones took place in 2002 in Laiuse and in 2009 and 2010 in Tartu.