Franciszek Bujak (16 August 1875, in Maszkienice near

Brzesko Brzesko (; , ''Brigel'') is a town in southern Poland, in Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It lies approximately west of Tarnów and east of the regional capital Kraków. Since Polish administrative reorganization (in 1999), Brzesko has been the admin ...

- 21 March 1953, in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

) was a Polish academic and historian of economic, political and social

history of Poland The history of Poland spans over a thousand years, from Lechites, medieval tribes, Christianization of Poland, Christianization and Kingdom of Poland, monarchy; through Polish Golden Age, Poland's Golden Age, Polonization, expansionism and be ...

Academic career

Bujak served as professor of the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

twice, from 1909 til 1918 before the re-emergence of

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

, and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

from 1946 til 1952. In the interwar Poland, Bujak was a professor of the

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well as 100 specializat ...

from 1919 til 1921, and the

John Casimir University The Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (named after Ivan Franko, ) is a state-sponsored university in Lviv, Ukraine. Since 1940 the university is named after Ukrainian poet Ivan Franko. The university is the oldest institution of higher ...

Lwów Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

from 1921 until the outbreak of

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

in 1941. Bujak was a member of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...

since 1952, and president of the

Polish Historical Society Polish Historical Society (, PTH) is a Polish professional scientific society for historians. History Founded in 1886 in Lwów by Ksawery Liske as a local society, its scientific journal became the '' Kwartalnik Historyczny'', which was first pu ...

twice from 1932 til 1933 and from 1936 til 1937.

Party-political activity

Bujak was active politically in the Polish People's Party "Piast" (PSL) and the

Stronnictwo Ludowe The People's Party (''Stronnictwo Ludowe'', SL) was a Polish political party, active from 1931 in the Second Polish Republic. An agrarian populist party, its power base was mostly farmers and rural population. In 1931, it was created from the mer ...

Ministerial post

Bujak briefly serving as minister of agriculture under

Władysław Grabski Władysław Dominik Grabski (; 7 July 1874 – 1 March 1938) was a Polish National Democratic politician, economist and historian. He was the main author of the currency reform in the Second Polish Republic and served as Prime Minister of Pola ...

Academic research and publications

Bujak was the founder of an original research school of Poland's rural economic history. He published a series of scientific monographs on the

called ''Badania Dziejów Społecznych i Gospodarczych'' (1931–1950), and founded the academic journal ''Roczniki Dziejów Społecznych i Gospodarczych''. He is the author of numerous dissertations on

rural economics Rural economics is the study of rural economies. Rural economies include both agricultural and non-agricultural industries, so rural economics has broader concerns than agricultural economics which focus more on food systems. Rural development ...

in Poland.

Before World War I

Bujak first groundbreaking analysis of the economic development generated by a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

during the

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...

was published under the title ''Żmiąca wieś powiatu limanowskiego. Stosunki gospodarcze i społeczne'' in 1903. ''Wieś zachodniogalicyjska u schyłku XIX w'' was published in 1904. ''Studia nad osadnictwem Małopolski'' was published in 1905. Prior to

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, and shortly thereafter, Polish

émigré An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social exile or self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French verb ''émigrer'' meaning "to emigrate". French Huguenots Many French Hugueno ...

s sent back

remittance A remittance is a non-commercial transfer of money by a foreign worker, a member of a diaspora community, or a citizen with familial ties abroad, for household income in their home country or homeland. Money sent home by migrants competes ...

. ''American'' money accelerated the parceling of rural land in Poland, and

manorial Manorialism, also known as seigneurialism, the manor system or manorial system, was the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of Europe, notably France and later England, during the Middle Ages. Its defining features included a large, ...

farms. The influx of money also triggered an increase in real estate prices and

wage A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work (human activity), work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include wiktionary:compensatory, compensatory payments such as ''minimum wage'', ''prevailin ...

s. In Polish villages, the number of small and large properties declined, while the number of medium sized properties increased. Bujak described the economic development of

Ropczyce Ropczyce () is a town in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship in south-eastern Poland, situated in the valley of the Wielopolka River (a tributary of the Wisłoka River). The town has a population of 15,098 (). and is the seat of Ropczyce-Sędziszów ...

County in detail, here only 1,595 of 9,088 manorial farms survived. The remaining land was parceled, as at least 80 percent of families in Ropczyce County were sent remittance from

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

prior to World War I. Bujak called this economic process "a victory of smallholders", crediting American émigrés and their money. Polish smallholders in Ropczyce County could at the time only go to

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

to work in the

seasonal industry A seasonal industry is activity within an economic List of recognized economic sectors, sector in which the majority of operations take place during only part of the year, usually within a period of half a year or less. In some cases, as with ag ...

, therefore their monetary contribution was insignificant.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bujak, Franciszek 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers Polish politicians 1875 births 1953 deaths Academic staff of Jagiellonian University Members of the Polish Ethnological Society Academic staff of the University of Warsaw Polish archivists