For the Polish Borderlands, Kresy
with love,
Maria Hanna Makowiecka
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About
In the U.S. since 1988, Maria Hanna Makowiecka earned a doctorate in comparative literature from the Graduate Center, CUNY, has worked as an English professor, and contributed articles on literature and culture for the Nowy Dziennik. Her book publications include Women on the Rise. A Multicultural Reader for Basic Readers, co-author Nancy Gear, in 2000; The Theme of Departure in Women’s Travel Narratives 1600-1900: Taking a Leave from Oneself in 2007; and the new book From Wielick to Wola Suchożebrska, or the Story of One Question, Księgarnia Akademicka, Kraków, 2022.
Events
UPCOMING
July 2, 2025, at 6 PM "Opowiadania Kresowe: From Wielick to Wola Suchożebrska, or the Story of One Question" at the Wallington Veterans Memorial Library in Wallington, New Jersey
PAST
September 2024, Webinar Presentation on "Planting Trees as a Legacy, or the Life and Work of Stefan Leon Makowiecki" (1860-1949), for the Polish Dendrological Society on Its 100th Anniversary
June 7, 2024 Presentation on "The Woven Art of Wanda Kossecka" at Polish Nobility Conference Muzeum Regionalne in Siedlce, Poland
June 9, 2024 Presentation on "The Sarmatian Tale in the Polish Baroque" at the Polish Institute of the Arts and Sciences Conference in Warsaw, Poland
June 13, 2024, Writing Family Stories at Polskie Towarzystwo Ziemianskie, Białystok, Poland
August 2024 Stanisław Makowiecki at the Florianka Estate in 1928-1938, Izba Leśna at Ośrodek Edukacyjno-Muzealny (OEM) Roztoczański Park Narodowy, Florianka near Zwierzyniec, Poland
November 2023 The History of One Question at the Polish Institute of the Arts and Sciences in New York
June 2022 From Wielick to Wola Suchożebrska, or the Story of One Question at Polish Nobility Conference Muzeum Regionalne in Siedlce, Poland
August 2022 Meeting with the inhabitants of the village of Wola Suchożebrska, Poland
November 2022 Polskie Towarzystwo Ziemianskie, Warsaw, Poland
November 2022, Presentation at the Elementary School in Suchożebry, Poland
November 2022, Meet the Author: Maria Makowiecka Presents Her family Memoir, Muzeum Regionalne, in Siedlce, Poland
New Book
From Wielick to Wola Suchożebrska, or the Story of One Question
The creation of this book is linked to the story of a certain question that not only started a whole series of subsequent ones, but eventually led to interviews with numerous witnesses of dramatic events. And thus to the telling of their fates.
All events revolve around the landed Pomian Makowiecki and Łada Łobarzewski families, whose fate we begin to follow since the nineteenth century. Its representatives and, at the same time, our main characters are Stanisław and Zofia Makowiecki.
The panorama of their history is sketched from their idyllic life in a manor house in Wielick, Volhynia, to the purchase of a new manor house in Wola Suchożebrska near Siedlce just before the outbreak of World War II. Wandering with them through pre-war Volhynia, then through the harsh years of occupation in wartime Podlasie, we reach the events woven into the history of post-war Poland and Warsaw, i.e. the communist years of the Polish People's Republic. And we part with their descendants already in free, modern Poland.
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Reviews
"Dr. Maria Makowiecka's book is not just a dry collection of facts about her family's history, which geographically includes the Borderlands, areas that are now outside Poland. It is a peregrination through the homes of relatives, temples and archives of Europe in search of any traces confirming the remembered oral transmissions of deceased relatives. It is also a personal reflection on the impact of the general situation, material conditions, career and development opportunities, and all that is involved in striving for a better life despite the dangers of war and post-war exclusion. The publication is also a source of knowledge about the fate of, among others, landowners unrelated to their families, Warsaw insurgents of 1944, or people murdered by the NKVD in Katyn in 1941. The author also included her own philosophy of life, often laced with a fair amount of cheerfulness and humor."
~ Sławomir Kordaczuk, Director of the Mieczysław Asłanowicz Museum in Siedlce
"The book exemplifies a proper approach to the study of history… the results of her work are excellent... the study itself becomes a secondary historical source, which will serve to fill further gaps in our knowledge of the past. When we add to this a superb writing style, excellent language, ease of expressing thoughts, as well as the author's personal involvement and elements of subjective insight, we get a reading worth recommending to anyone interested in the family, the landed gentry, the regions it tells about, and recent history in general. Those reaching for this book will certainly not be disappointed."
~ Professor Dariusz Magier, Chair of Department of History at Siedlce University
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