mgr Łukasz Podolak

ORCID: 0000-0001-6161-1145 

The topic of my dissertation is “Influence of underground organizations in development of local administration in selected poviats of the Rzeszów voivodeship (Jarosław, Lubaczów, Przemyśl and Przeworsk poviats) in the years 1944-1947”

The subject of research is the formation and functioning of public administration and local government at the poviat and lower levels in the described area (poviats: Jarosławski, Lubaczowski, Przemyśl and Przeworsk) directly after World War II. The study aims to present the methods of formation of local government bodies and attempt a collective portrait of people holding power in the discussed offices. The influence of the armed organizations of the Polish and Ukrainian underground on the functioning of the discussed organs will also be investigated, especially since they contributed to certain isolation of the discussed area. The degree of isolation of individual counties from provincial and central state authorities will also be determined.

Another research problem is the impact on the current situation of strong people's organizations (People's Party, Union of Rural Youth of the Republic of Poland "Wici") and other opposition organizations (the so-called legal opposition).

However, perhaps the most important issue is the in-depth study of the impact of the so-called illegal opposition, i.e. Polish underground organizations, on local centres of state power, as well as determining the degree of this influence. This will allow us to answer the question about the likely participation of independent organizations in the management of the discussed area.

These aspects should be considered in the context of the influence of the Red Army units stationed in this area, NKVD units, and then units of the Polish Army and the authorities of the UB and MO.

It is crucial to take a closer look at these topics as their absence is a major gap in the image of the post-war past, concerning the organization of local administration and local government in the then Rzeszów Province. The studies conducted so far do not in any way show the uniqueness of the situation in the described area, caused by the threat from the Ukrainian underground, which led to wide participation of people from the structures of the Polish Underground State and the Home Army in the administration to ensure the protection of the Polish population. This publication aims to fill these gaps and open up new areas of research into the history of post-war Poland.