2019 Recipient

The Kulczycki Book Prize in Polish Studies (formerly the Orbis Book Prize), established in 1996 and sponsored by the Kulczycki family, former owners of the Orbis Books Ltd. of London, England, is awarded annually for the best book in any discipline, on any aspect of Polish affairs, published in the previous calendar year.

Winner: Jochen Böhler
Title: Civil War in Central Europe, 1918-1921: The Reconstruction of Poland (Oxford University Press)

Jochen Böhler’s book title captures the author’s core insight: that we need to shift our perspective on the years immediately following World War I, moving away from triumphant teleologies about national state-building and towards a much messier picture of confusion and violence. This vantage point reminds us that descriptions of “Polish-Lithuanian” or “Polish-Ukrainian” conflicts presuppose the existence of distinct historical agents called “Poland,” “Lithuania,” and “Ukraine.” In the midst of the postwar chaos, it was by no means foreordained that these polities would consolidate beyond the declarations of a handful of national activists in the major cities. Poles might celebrate November 11, 1918, as the moment when independence was restored, but it would take several years before even the most rudimentary state structures would be instituted. During this time of indeterminacy (and this is Böhler’s second major contribution), life in northeastern Europe was characterized by extraordinary levels of violence, often carried out by groups with unclear, overlapping, or shifting allegiances. The civil war paradigm can be seen in many different territories in the region where the borders shifted after the Treaty of Versailles, often stemming from pockets of a newly minoritized ethnicities. Antisemitic pogroms were widespread, but other communities also endured brutal attacks (and then often became agents of retribution). Böhler’s account of the atrocities carried out during these years is shocking. As he points out, these stories were hiding in plain sight, rendered either invisible or tangential by getting framed by overly-coherent narratives of war and nation-building. By placing all the tales of brutality alongside each other, Böhler allows us to sense for the first time what it must have been like to actually live through that horrible time.

Co-Winner: Natalia Nowakowska