ROMANOWSKI Andrzej

Born on 20 August 1951 in Krakow; son of the doctor Tadeusz Romanowski and the biologist Lidia, née Bytnar. He attended the King Jan III Sobieski Grammar School in Krakow from 1964, completing his advanced secondary education in 1968. He then studied Polish philology at the Jagiellonian University (UJ) in Krakow. He made his debut the same year with the article Zaczarowany dorożkarz [The Enchanted Cabman], which appeared in the weekly "Panorama" (no. 51/52). Due to his involvement in the workers' protests of December 1970 he was briefly held in custody. He was active in student scholarly societies, chairing the Circle of Polish Studies Scholars from 1971 to 1973. He later went on to head the organizing committees of international philology conferences in 1974 and 1976. He published in "Student" (1970, 1972, and 1981) and "Dziennik Polski" (1971). He graduated with a master's degree in 1974 before working as an assistant at the Institute of Polish Philology (later the Institute of Polish Studies and from 2004 the Faculty of Polish Studies). In his research he initially focused on Polish patriotic poetry and the poetry of the independence movement, before later exploring literature from Poland's former eastern borderlands (known in Polish as Kresy). In 1976 he joined the Alliance of Democrats (SD), serving as lector for the party's Krakow Committee and chairing its Circle at UJ. He left the Alliance in 1982, following the imposition of martial law at the end of the previous year. He became a regular contributor to the Catholic weekly "Tygodnik Powszechny" in 1976. He also published in "Tygodnik Demokratyczny" (1976) and "Nowy Wyraz" (1976), while his reviews and scholarly articles appeared in "Ruch Literacki" (1977-79). He was awarded a doctoral degree in 1982 for his thesis Poezja polska 1908-1918 wobec problemów wojny i niepodległości (Polish Poetry 1908-1918 on war and independence), which was supervised by Prof. Tomasz Weiss. He joined the Independent Self-governing Trade Union Solidarity in 1980. He was involved in distributing "second circulation" publications at UJ, i.e. those that were published outside the reach of state censorship. He contributed to several uncensored periodicals: "Polityka Polska" (1983), "Solidarność Narodu" (1983) and "Arka" (1984-89). He was arrested several times by the Security Service (SB). In 1983, he received a grant from the French Foundation for European Intellectual Mutual Aid (Fondation pour une entraide intellectuelle européenne, FEIE) and was a lecturer at the World Polonia University (Uniwersytet Polonii Świata), a summer school held in Rome. His essays appeared in the journal "Pamiętnik Literacki" between 1987 and 1989, while he also published in the Catholic "Przegląd Katolicki" (1985-88) and "Znak" (1985-89, 1996, 2011-12, and 2014-15). In 1989/90, he was a member of the UJ Workplace Commission of the Independent Self-governing Trade Union Solidarity. He left the trade union in 1992. He was on the editorial board of "Świat" (1989) and the bimonthly "Myśl Demokratyczna", becoming editor-in-chief of the latter in 1991. In 1990, he travelled to New York on a Józef Piłsudski Institute of America scholarship and to Paris on a S. Lam Fund scholarship. From 1990 to 1994 he worked with the daily "Gazeta Krakowska" (his contributions including the weekly column "Sine ira/Bez gniewu" [Without anger] in 1993/94). In 1990, he was a signatory to the Alliance for Democracy and from 1990 to 1991 he was a member of the Citizens' Movement for Democratic Action (Ruch Obywatelski Akcja Demokratyczna – ROAD), serving on its National Coordinating Commission. From 1991 to 1994, he was a member of the Democratic Union (UD) and then from 1994 to 1999 a member of the Freedom Union (UW), serving on the respective National Councils from 1991 to 1994 and from 1995 to 1998. He was also a member of the Regional Council in Krakow and from 1992 to 1993 deputy chair in the Krakow region. In the first fully free parliamentary elections of 1991, he stood for UD in Sosnowiec. For several years he ran the UD/UW Club of Political Thought in Krakow and published in the parties' internal bulletins, including "Biuletyn Informacyjny ROAD" (1991), "Biuletyn UD" (1991-92) and "Biuletyn Małopolski" (1992-94 and 1996-2000). He joined the editorial team of the Catholic weekly "Tygodnik Powszechny" in 1990, where he contributed the regular column Co nowego na Wschodzie [What's happening in the East] from 1992. In 1993, he was appointed politics editor and in 1999 editor of the history section. He left the publication in 2002. He joined the Jan Nowak-Jeziorański Association of Employees, Freelancers and Friends of Radio Free Europe. From 1993 to 2015, and again from 2018 he worked as a journalist with the daily "Gazeta Wyborcza", where he published the features Nie ma już Bytnarów(No more Bytnars; 2003, no. 69), Moskale w Warszawie [Muscovites in Warsaw; 2007, no. 47], Gdy Litwini budzili grozę [When the Lithuanians filled us with fear; 2012, no. 140 in the supplement "Ale Historia", no. 22], Niekochane królowe [Unloved Queens; 2013 no. 157, in the supplement "Ale Historia", no. 28], and Jak zepsuliśmy polski zegarek [How we ruined Polish watches; 2018, no. 209, in the supplement "Magazyn Świąteczny"]. He continued his research at universities in Minsk and Vilnius, among other places. From 1994 he lectured at the Chair of Polish Philology at the University of Vilnius. In 1994, he gave a series of lectures in the Canadian cities of Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto. He was awarded a habilitation degree in 1999 from UJ for his book Młoda Polska wileńska [Young Poland in Vilnius]. He left the UW party the same year. In 2002, he was appointed associate professor at UJ. In 2003, he was appointed Chair in Literary Culture of Eastern Borderlands at UJ and head of the interdisciplinary student initiative, the Eastern Circle, which was affiliated to the Faculty of Polish Studies at UJ. Around the same time he took up a post at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences as editor-in-chief of the Polish Biographical Dictionary (PSB) and as head of the PSB Department. Between 2003 and 2006, he was a member of the Committee on Literary Studies (KNoL) of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He was made state-appointed professor in 2004. From 2007 to 2010, he was a member of the Scientific Council of the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, while from 2008 to 2012 he served on the UJ College of Electors. He published in the current affairs weekly "Polityka" from 2006 to 2010 and in 2013 (including the articles Ostatnie Zgromadzenie Obojga Narodów [The Final Assembly of Two Nations] – 2007, no 4; Skandalistka znad Niemna [The Scandalous Woman from the Banks of the Niemen] about Eliza Orzeszkowa – 2010, no. 23; Kochliwa niewiasta [The Amorous Maiden] about Maria Konopnicka – 2010, no. 41; and the feature Tajemnica Witolda Pileckiego [The Secret of Witold Pilecki] – 2013, no. 20, which inspired numerous polemics in the press). He also published in "Przegląd" (2007-10, 2012, and 2013), "Zdanie" (2008-10, 2012, and 2014-15) and from 2005 in the monthly "Kraków" (serving on its editorial board from 2012). Between 2008 and 2015 he was on the Editorial Board of the bimonthly "Nowa Europa Wschodnia". In 2012, he joined the political council of Partia Demokratyczna – demokraci.pl. That year he formally became editor of the series Biblioteka Literatury Pogranicza [Library of Borderland Literature]; he had in fact been in the role much longer), which is published by the Krakow-based publishing house Universitas. In 2013, he became a member of the Scientific Council of the series Polish Biographical Studies, published by the Centre for Biographical Research at the University of Szczecin. In 2019, he received the Prince Konstanty Ostrogski Award from the Orthodox periodical "Przegląd Prawosławny" for his outstanding contributions to the development to Orthodox spirituality, thought and culture and for his work in promoting Christian unity. He was awarded the Silver Cross of Merit in 2003, the Medal of the Commission of National Education in 2008, the Medal of Merit for Tolerance (Zasłużony dla tolerancji) in 2008, the honorary distinction of the Kuźnica Association in 2008, the Medal for Civil Wisdom in 2012, and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta in 2015. He is father to Rafał (b. 1978) and Agnieszka (b. 1980; married name Piskorz). He lives in Krakow.