UNIVERSITY OF WARSAW

'University of Warsaw' () is the largest university in Poland.

Contents
History
1816-31
1857-69
1870-1915
1915-18
1918-39
1939-44
1945-56
1956-89
Campus
Departments
Other institutes
Institutions
Notable alumni
Notable professors
See also
External links

History

1816-31

The Royal University of Warsaw was established in 1816, when the partitions of Poland separated Warsaw from the oldest and most influential Polish academic center, in Kraków. The first to be established in the Duchy of Warsaw were the Law School and the Medical School. In 1816 Tsar Alexander I permitted the Polish authorities to create a university, comprising five departments: Law and Administration, Medicine, Philosophy, Theology, and Art and Humanities. The university soon grew to 800 students and 50 professors.
After most of the students and professors took part in the November 1830 Uprising, however, the university was closed down.

1857-69

After the Crimean War, Russia entered a brief period of liberalization, the "Post-Sevastopol Thaw." Permission was given to create a Polish medical and surgical college (''Akademia Medyko-Chirurgiczna'') in Warsaw. In 1862 departments of Law and Administration, Philology and History, and Mathematics and Physics were opened. The newly-established college gained importance and was soon renamed the "Main School" (''Szkoła Główna''). However, after the January 1863 Uprising the liberal period ended and all Polish-language schools were closed again. During its short existence, the Main School educated over 3,000 students, many of whom became the backbone of Polish intelligentsia.

1870-1915

The Main School was replaced with a Russian-language "Imperial University of Warsaw". Its purpose was to provide education for the Russian military garrison of Warsaw, however the main group of the students (up to 70% out of an average of 1 500 to 2 000 students) were Poles. The tsarist authorities believed that the Russian university would become a perfect means of Russification of the Polish society and spent significant effort on building a new university campus. However, various underground organizations soon started to spread out and the students became their leaders in Warsaw. Most notable of these groups (the supporters of Polish revival and the socialists) joined the ranks of the 1905 Revolution. Afterwards a boycott of Russian educational facilities was proclaimed and the number of Polish students dropped to below 10%. Most of the students who wanted to continue their education left for Galicia and Western Europe.

1915-18

During the World War I Warsaw was seized by Germany in 1915. In order to win the Poles for their case and secure the Polish area behind the front lines the governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary allowed for a certain liberalization of life in Poland. In accordance with the concept of ''Mitteleuropa'', German military authorities permitted several Polish social and educational societies to be recreated. One of these was Warsaw University. The Polish language was reintroduced, and the professors were allowed to return to work. In order not to let the Polish patriotic movement out of control the number of lecturers was kept low (usually not more than 50), but there were no limits on the number of students. Until 1918 their number rose from a mere 1,000 to over 4,500.

1918-39

After Poland regained its independence in 1918, the University of Warsaw began to grow very quickly. It was reformed; all the important posts (the rector, senate, deans and councils) became democratically elected, and the state spent considerable amounts of money to modernize and equip it. Many professors returned from exile and cooperated in the effort. By the late 1920s the level of education in Warsaw had reached a western European level.
By the beginning of the 1930s the University of Warsaw had become the largest university in Poland, with over 250 lecturers and 10,000 students. However, the financial problems of the newly-reborn state did not allow for education to be free of charge, and students had to pay a tuition fee for their studies (an average monthly salary per year). Also, the number of scholarships was very limited, and only approximately 3% of students were able to get one. Despite these economic problems, the University of Warsaw grew rapidly. New departments were opened, and the main campus was expanded.
After the death of Józef Piłsudski the senate of the University of Warsaw changed its name to "Józef Piłsudski University of Warsaw" (''Uniwersytet Warszawski im. Józefa Piłsudskiego''). A time of troubles began for academics in Poland as the ''Sanacja'' government started to limit the autonomy of the universities, and rightist students proceeded to organize anti-Semitic demonstrations and riots. The government was forced to back down in 1937 and the right-wing followers of the nationalist parties were peacefully pacified, but professors and students remained divided for the rest of the 1930s.

1939-44

:''For more details on this period see: Underground Education in Poland During World War II''
After the Polish Defensive War of 1939 the German authorities of the General Gouvernment closed all the institutions of higher education in Poland. The equipment and most of the laboratories were taken to Germany and divided among the German universities while the main campus of the University of Warsaw was turned into military barracks.
German racist theories assumed that no education of Poles was needed and the whole nation was to be turned into uneducated serfs of the German race. Education in Polish was banned and punished with death. However, many professors organized the so-called "Secret University of Warsaw" (''Tajny Uniwersytet Warszawski''). The lectures were held in small groups in private apartments and the attendants were constantly risking deconspiration and death. However, the net of underground faculties spread rapidly and by 1944 there were more than 300 lecturers and 3 500 students at various courses.
Most of the students took part in the Warsaw Uprising as the soldiers of Armia Krajowa and Szare Szeregi. The German-held campus of the University was turned into a well-fortified area with bunkers and machine gun nests. Also, it was located close to the buildings occupied by the German garrison of Warsaw. Heavy fights for the campus started on the first day of the Uprising, but the partisans were not able to break through the fortified gates. Several assaults were bloodily repelled and the campus remained in German hands until the end of the fights.
During the uprising and the occupation 63 professors were killed, either during fights or as an effect of German policy of extermination of Polish inteligentsia. The University lost 60% of its buildings during the fighting in 1944. Up to 80% of the collections (including priceless works of art and books donated to the University) were either destroyed or transported to Germany, never to return.

1945-56

After World War II it was not clear whether the university would be restored or whether Warsaw itself would be rebuilt. However, many professors who had survived the war returned to Poland and began organizing the university from scratch. In December 1945, lectures resumed for almost 4,000 students in the ruins of the campus, and the buildings were gradually rebuilt. Until the late 1940s the university remained relatively independent. However, soon the communist authorities of Poland started to impose controls and the period of Stalinism started. Many professors were arrested by the Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (Secret Police), the books were censored and ideological criteria in employment of new lecturers and admission of students were introduced. On the other hand, education in Poland became free of charge and the number of young people to receive the state scholarships reached 60% of all the students.

1956-89

After Władysław Gomułka rose to power in Poland in 1956 a brief period of liberalization ensued. Although communist ideology still played a major role in most faculties (especially in such faculties as history, law, economics and political science), international cooperation was resumed and the level of education rose. However, the government soon started to suppress freedom of thought, which led to increasing unrest among the students. An anti-Semitic and anti-democratic campaign in 1968 led to an outbreak of student demonstrations in Warsaw, which were brutally crushed by the police and ''militia'' groups of ordinary workers. As a result, a large number of students and professors were expelled from the university, while some were drafted into the army. Most professors of Jewish descent were forced to emigrate, while the leaders of the democratic movement, Jacek Kuroń and Karol Modzelewski, were sentenced to 3.5 years in prison.
Nevertheless, the University remained the centre of reletively free thought and education. What professors could not say during lectures, they expressed during informal meetings with their students. Many of them became leaders and members of the Solidarity movement and other societies of the democratic opposition. The scientists working at the University of Warsaw were also among the most prominent printers of books forbidden by censorship.

Campus

The main campus of the University of Warsaw is in downtown Warsaw, in ''Krakowskie Przedmieście''. It comprises several historic palaces, most of which had been nationalized in the 19th century. The chief buildings include:

★ Kazimierzowski Palace (''Pałac Kazimierzowski'') - the seat of the rector and the senate;

★ the Old Library (''Stary BUW'') - since recent refurbishment, a secondary lecture building;

★ the Main School (''Szkoła Główna'') - former seat of the Main School until the January 1863 Uprising, later the faculty of biology; now, since its refurbishment, the seat of the institute of archaeology;

★ ''Auditorium Maximum'' - the main lecture hall, with seats for several hundred students.
There is also the New Library (''Nowy BUW'') - an impressive new building with spectacular roof gardens as well as several smaller campuses elsewhere in the city, most notably the physical and chemical center in Banacha Street (''ulica Banacha''), where the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Mechanics (''MIM'') is located.
The University of Warsaw owns a total of 126 buildings. Further construction and a vigorous renovation program are underway at the main campus.

Departments

# Applied Linguistics and East-Slavonic Philology ([2])
# Applied Social Sciences and Resocialization
# Biology ([3])
# Chemistry ([4])
# Economic Sciences ([5])
# Education
# Geography and Regional Studies ([6])
# Geology ([7])
# History
# Journalism and Political Science
# Law and Administration ([8])
# Management ([9])
# Mathematics, Informatics, and Mechanics ([10])
# Modern Languages and Oriental Studies
# Philosophy and Sociology ([11])
# Physics ([12])
# Polish Studies
# Psychology ([13])

Other institutes

★ British Studies Centre

★ Centre de Civilisation Francaise et d'Etudes Francophones aupres de l`Universite de Varsovie

★ Centre for Archaeological Research at Novae

★ Centre for Environmental Study

★ Centre for Europe

★ Centre for Inter-Faculty Individual Studies in the Humanities ([14])

★ Centre for Foreign Language Teaching

★ Centre for Open Multimedia Education

★ Centre for the Study of Classical Tradition in Poland and East-Central Europe

★ Centre of Studies in Territorial Self-Government and Local Development

★ Chaire UNESCO du Developpement Durable de l`Universite de Vaersovie

★ Comite Polonais de l`Alliance Francais

★ Erasmus of Rotterdam Chair

★ University of Warsaw for Foreign Language Teacher Training and European Education

★ University College of English Language Teacher Education

★ University College of French Language Teacher Education

★ University College of German Language Teacher Education

★ Heavy Ion Laboratory

★ Institute of Americas and Europe

★ Centre for Latin-American Studies (CESLA)

★ Centre for European Regional and Local Studies

★ American Studies Centre

★ Interdisciplinary Centre for Behavioural Genetics

★ Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling ([15])

★ Inter-Faculty Institute for Social Studies

★ Physical Education and Sports Centre

★ Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology

★ University Centre for Technology Transfer

★ Individual Inter-faculty Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences ([16])

★ Inter-faculty Study Programme in Environmental Protection

Institutions

★ University of Warsaw Libraries ([17])

★ Institute of Scientific Information and Book Studies ([18])

★ The Institute of Polish Language and Culture 'Polonicum' ([19])

Notable alumni

★ Jerzy Andrzejewski (1909-1983), author

★ Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński (1921-1944), poet

★ Menachem Begin (1913-1992), Zionist, prime minister of Israel

★ Tadeusz Borowski (1922-1951), poet and writer

★ Kazimierz Brandys (1916-2000), writer

★ Marian Brandys (1912-1998), writer and journalist

★ Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849), pianist and composer

★ Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz (b. 1950), politician, former Prime Minister of Poland

★ Adam Doboszyński (1904-1949), politician and writer

★ Joseph Epstein (1911-1944), communist leader of French resistance

★ Bronisław Geremek (b. 1932), historian and politician

★ Witold Gombrowicz (1904-1969), writer

★ Jan T. Gross (b. 1947), historian and writer, Princeton University professor

★ Gustaw Herling-Grudziński (1919-2000), journalist, writer and GULag survivor

★ Czesław Janczarski (1911-1971), poet and Russian literature translator

★ Alpha Oumar Konaré, (b. 1946), Malian president

★ Tadeusz Mazowiecki (b. 1927), author, social worker, journalist, former Prime Minister of Poland

★ Adam Michnik (b. 1946), journalist

★ Karol Modzelewski (b. 1937), historian and politician

★ Jan Olszewski (b. 1930), lawyer and politician, former Prime Minister of Poland

★ Janusz Onyszkiewicz (b. 1937), politician

★ Bolesław Piasecki (1915-1979), extreme right-wing politician

★ Lech Kaczyński (b. 1949), right-wing politician, former president of Warsaw, current President of Poland

★ Aleksander Kamiński (1903-1978), writer and one of the leaders of the Polish Scouting

★ Ryszard Kapuściński (1932-2007), writer and journalist

★ Mieczysław Karłowicz (1876-1909), composer

★ Jan Karski (1914-2000), Polish resistance fighter

★ Janusz Korwin-Mikke (b. 1942), right-wing, conservative-liberal politician and journalist

★ Marek Kotański (1942-2002), psychologist and streetworker

★ Jacek Kuroń (1934-2004), historian, author, social worker and politician

★ Jan Józef Lipski (1926-1991), literature historian, politician

★ Jerzy Łojek (1932-1986), historian and writer

★ Ludmiła Marjańska (b. 1923), poet and English literature translator

★ Bohdan Paczyński (b. 1940), astronomer

★ Longin Pastusiak (b.1935), politician

★ Krzysztof Piesiewicz (b. 1945), lawyer and screenwriter

★ Bolesław Prus (1847-1912), writer

★ Józef Rotblat (b. 1908), Nobel Peace Prize winner

★ Stanisław Sedlaczek (1892-1941), social worker and one of the leaders of Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego

★ Yitzhak Shamir (b. 1915) Prime Minister of Israel

★ Alfred Tarski (1902-1982), logician and mathematician

★ Julian Tuwim (1894-1953), poet and writer

★ Janusz Andrzej Zajdel (1938-1985), physicist and science-fiction writer

★ Anna Zawadzka (1919-2004), social worker and one of the leaders of Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego

★ Maciej Zembaty (b. 1944), poet and writer, famous for his grim humour and translations of Leonard Cohen's works

★ Andrew Paulukiewichz (1958) Microbiologist

★ Janusz Zeyland (1896-1944), medician and pneumonia specialist, one of BCG inventors

★ Rafał A. Ziemkiewicz (b. 1964), writer

★ Florian Znaniecki (1882-1958), philosopher and sociologist

Notable professors

★ Osman Achmatowicz (1899-1988), chemist, rector of the Technical University of Łódź (1946-1953)

★ Szymon Askenazy, historian

★ Karol Borsuk (1905-1982), mathematician

★ Cezaria Anna Baudouin de Courtenay-Ehrenkreutz-Jędrzejewiczowa (1885-1967), ethnologist and anthropologist, one of the founders of Polish modern ethnology

★ Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay (1845-1929), linguist, inventor of phoneme

★ Zygmunt Bauman (b. 1925), sociologist

★ Benedykt Dybowski (1833-1930), biologist and explorer of Siberia and Baikal area

★ Michel Foucault, French philosopher, at the University dean-faculty of the French Centre 1958-1959

★ Aleksander Gieysztor (1916-1999), historian

★ Stanisław Grabski (1871-1949), economist

★ Henryk Greniewski (1903-1972), mathematician, informatician and pioneer of computers in Poland

★ Henryk Jabłoński (1909-2003), historian, nominal head of state of Poland (1972-1985)

★ Feliks Pawel Jarocki (1790 - 1865), zoologist

★ Irena Jurgielewiczowa (1903-2003), writer

★ Leszek Kołakowski (b. 1927), philosopher

★ Kazimierz Kuratowski (1896-1980), mathematician

★ Joachim Lelewel (1786-1861), historian, politician and freedom fighter

★ Antoni Leśniowski (1867-1940), surgeon and medic, one of the discoverers of Crohn's disease

★ Edward Lipiński (1888-1986), economist, founder of the Main Statistical Office

★ Jan Łukasiewicz (1878-1956), mathematician and logician

★ Kazimierz Michałowski (1901-1981), archaeologist, explorer of Deir el Bahari and Faras

★ Andrzej Mostowski (1913-1975), mathematician

★ Stanisław Ossowski (1897-1963), sociologist

★ Juliusz Owidzki (1921-1986), actor and radio speaker

★ Grigol Peradze (1899-1942), Orthodox theologian

★ Leon Petrażycki (1867-1931), jurist, philosopher and logician, one of the founders of sociology of law

★ Wlasyslaw Pilars de Pilar - (
★ Opatowek 1874- +Chorzow 1952), a literature professor at the Warsaw University, poet and entrepreneur

★ Adam Podgórecki (1925-1998), sociologist of law

★ Henryk Samsonowicz (b. 1930), historian, rector (1980-1982)

★ Wacław Sierpiński (1882-1969), mathematician

★ Nikolay Yakovlevich Sonin (1849-1915), mathematician

★ Jan Strelau (b. 1931), psychologist

★ Jerzy Szacki (b. 1929), sociologist and historian

★ Stanisław Thugutt (1873-1941), politician, rector (1919-1920)

★ Włodzimierz Zonn (1905-1985), astronomer

See also

★ Warsaw school of history

External links

★ Official website of the University of Warsaw

★ The University's computer network

★ Website of The Universiy New Library

★ The WU Students Association