The Fate of the Polish Intellectual Exemplified with the History of Ignacy Zieliński – a Former Soldier of the Polish Armed Forces in the West, an Economist, Pedagogue, English Lector and Translator. An Archival Biographical Study

Abstract

The article reminisces about the fate of a former soldier of the Polish Armed Forces in the West, economist, educator, English lector and translator – Ignacy Zieliński. The warfare caused his relocation from France to Great Britain, where as a second lieutenant of arms, delegated to Glasgow in 1941, he started working in civil education at the Center of the Correspondence Course in Commerce. Then, as the director of the Henry Brun State Secondary School of Commerce in Glasgow, he contributed to the creation of, and headed, the State Merchant Junior High School in Glasgow. Author of the script entitled Commercial arithmetic. During his stay in Great Britain, he could have completed his PhD studies at the Faculty of Arts at the Scottish University.

He returned to Poland by sea on the 21st of February 1946. Despite the harassment and surveillance by the communist authorities, he has been associated with economic vocational education since then. Mr. Zieliński served various administrative functions – he was the deputy director of the Commercial High School in Łódź. Dismissed for political reasons in September 1952, he was rehabilitated on a wave of „thaw” in January 1957 by the Rehabilitation Commission at the Teachers' Union of the Polish Lodz District and reemployed afterwards. Until his retirement in 1965, he continued teaching vocational subjects, working as a sworn translator and an English language teacher. After quitting his professional career, he focused on conducting English courses and translations. He died in 1971.