Today is the 122nd anniversary of the birth of Professor Tadeusz Manteuffel, an outstanding Polish historian-medievalist, soldier of the Home Army and founder of the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

He was born on 5 March 1902 in Rzeżyca in present-day Latvia. In 1918, he and his family moved to Warsaw. There he graduated from the Jan Zamojski Gymnasium and a year later began studying history at Warsaw University. Together with his brothers, as a volunteer, he took part in the Polish-Soviet War. During the defence of the capital, he lost his right arm. After the end of warfare, he returned to the university. In 1924, he completed his doctorate, after which he undertook several scientific internships in France, England and Italy, among others. Due to his outstanding scientific achievements, he was awarded the rank of Associate Professor already in 1931.

In 1939, he began working at the Archives of New Records. During the German occupation, he was a soldier in the Home Army and collaborated with the Home Army Information and Propaganda Bureau, serving as deputy editor of the “Polish News”. Moreover, from 1 October 1940 to 30 June 1944, he took part in secret teaching, being the head of the history section and a lecturer in medieval history at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Warsaw.

After the war, on 1 September 1945, he became an Associate Professor in the Department of Medieval General History and Head of the Historical Institute of the University, and later held the post of President of the Polish Historical Association. In 1951 he became one of the co-organisers of the First Congress of Polish Science and was one of the co-editors of a speech at which significant words were spoken about the readiness of the environment for historical science to “play a role in the overall plan of the ideological offensive of socialism in Poland”.

In 1953, despite being non-partisan, he became the first director of the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, which now bears his name.

Prof. Manteuffel was seen as one of the unquestioned moral authorities in the scientific community. At the 8th General Congress of Polish Historians, he delivered a paper criticising the communist system, which had reduced science to a political tool. Furthermore, in March 1968, he strongly opposed the anti-Semitic campaign.

He died on 22 September 1970 and was buried in the Avenue of the Distinguished at Warsaw’s Powazki cemetery.