After nearly fifty years of the history of Polish Bolesławiec, the city has not produced a single monograph covering this most recent and, to us, closest period. Attempts to present its history comprehensively should be considered rather modest. The purpose of this article is to bring researchers closer to the archival sources concerning the recent history of the city and region. The starting point here is the end of World War II and Poland’s takeover of the Western Territories; the endpoint is 1989 and the end of the communist era. The change in the political system led to the archiving of documents produced by state administration offices.
During the last fifty years under discussion, the country underwent two major reforms of its administrative system. In 1950, county offices and city administrations were abolished and, in their place, on 20 May 1950, county- and city-level national councils were established, modeled on the Soviet system. With certain modifications (1954: the establishment of collective rural municipalities; 1958: a change in the structure of the councils; 1972: the establishment of municipalities and another change in the councils’ functions), this arrangement survived until 1975. The laws of May 1975 abolished the counties. The country’s division into 17 voivodeships was eliminated and replaced by 49 smaller and weaker units, both politically and economically. The horizontal structure consisted of cities and rural municipalities. This system survived until the end of communist rule, while the territorial division was not to be changed until the near future.
The fundamental difference and the changes after 1989 were qualitatively entirely different from all previous reforms. They gave society agency, along with its representation at all levels of power and administration. A consequence of these changes was the aforementioned archiving (that is, the obsolescence and transfer to archives) of records produced by offices that were abolished or reformed. These documents were transferred to state archives. The records from Bolesławiec and the county (as well as Lubań and Zgorzelec) went to the State Archive in Lubań. The process of taking over archival materials has not yet been completed; nevertheless, a substantial portion of the basic sources is already held in the aforementioned archive. In principle, for the history up to 1975, complete documentation is kept there and is currently being processed.
The beginnings of Polish statehood in Bolesławiec are represented by five fonds, which will be briefly discussed below.
1. The County Office from 1945–1950 comprises 123 archival units (abbreviated as a.u.). The records are grouped according to the office’s structure, by departments. These include the general-administrative, budgetary and economic, administrative and legal, criminal-administrative, socio-political, military, health, provisioning, industry and trade, social welfare, reconstruction, culture and art, agriculture and agricultural reform, land, and veterinary departments. These records are a wealth of information about conditions in Bolesławiec and the county during the first postwar years. They contain information about settlers, the German population, crime, political organizations, trade unions, and more. For example, we find information about censorship activities and bans on screening many films, including the ban on the traveling cinema’s screening of the well-known film "Casablanca" on 2 September 1946. From the political matters, we learn about the deteriorating security situation in the second half of 1946. I will quote a handwritten note intended for the Provincial Office in Wrocław, dated 23 October 1946 and signed by Deputy County Head Franciszek Ciastoń: "...Finally, I report that on the 22nd of this month, at 1 a.m., under cover of the dark night, Ostasz Mikołaj, an inspector of the Provincial Peasant Self-Help organization, was murdered. As the investigation established, the deceased had been attending to his needs in a restaurant in Bolesławiec and, returning in an intoxicated state, was murdered in front of the gate of one of the houses in the Market Square. The investigation into this case is being energetically conducted by the Citizens’ Militia, the Security Office, and the Soviet military authorities. The motive for the murder was political, as the deceased probably belonged to democratic activists..."
It should be added that, based on the county office records, searches for people who disappeared during the wartime turmoil are still being conducted to this day.
2. The County National Council from 1947–1950. This is a small fonds comprising 36 archival units, arranged by departments: the presidium, administrative, organizational, and commissions. Here we find the budgets of collective rural municipalities, minutes of presidium meetings, and reports on the activities of individual commissions.
3. The City National Council and City Administration, 1945–1950, comprising 148 archival units. In 1945–1946, it functioned as the city’s political representation and that of local self-government corporations. Distinguished individuals were also co-opted onto the council; the criterion presumably accorded with the realities of that era (to be continued in the next issue).