On the 14th anniversary of his tragic death, we recall Prof. Janusz Kurtyka, president of the Institute of National Remembrance. He was a historian, an expert on medieval Poland and a researcher of its modern history, the editor-in-chief of "Zeszyty Historyczne WiN", the president of the Management Board of the Social and Veterans Association "Freedom and Independence" Association. He died on 10 of April 2010 in the crash of the presidential plane in Smolensk, on the way to the ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre.
He was born on 13 of August 1960 in Kraków. He was graduated on the Faculty of History and Philosophy at the Jagiellonian University. He completed doctoral studies at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, where he defended his doctoral thesis in the field of humanities in 1995. In 2000, he obtained his habilitation degree.
In the years 2000–2005 he was the organizer and director of the Institute of National Remembrance Branch in Kraków. From 1979 he was involved in the democratic opposition activities in Krakow. Among others, he was co-founder of the Independent Students' Association at the Institute of History of the Jagiellonian University and member of the Founding Committee of NZS UJ, lecturer at the underground Christian Workers' University. Since 1985, Kurtyka was a researcher at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Additionally, he was a member of the Scientific Council of the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences in the years 1999–2002 and 2003–2006. In the years 1989–2000, he was the chairman of the NSZZ "Solidarność" of the Krakow branches of the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Professor Kurtyka is an author of approximately 140 scientific publications on the history of medieval and early modern Poland and the history of anti-communist resistance in Poland after 1944. That cover also four books: "Generał Leopold Okulicki "Niedźwiadek" 1898–1946", "Tęczyńscy. Study on the history of the Polish noble elite in the Middle Ages", "Tęczyńskie Latifundium. Estates and owners 14th-17th centuries", "The Restored Kingdom. The monarchy of Władysław the Elbow-high and Casimir the Great in the light of newer research", co-author of many collective studies. He was a collaborator of the "Polish Biographical Dictionary", co-author of the "Historical and Geographical Dictionary of the Kraków Voivodeship in the Middle Ages", and from 1994 the editor-in-chief of "Zeszyty Historyczne WiN". He chaired the Editorial Committee of the series "Conspiracy and social resistance in Poland 1944–1956. Biographical dictionary", he was a member of the editorial board of the Institute of National Remembrance scientific journal "Apparatus of Repression in People's Poland 1944–1989". Janusz Kurtyka belonged to, among others, to the Polish Historical Society, the Society of Friends of Sciences in Przemyśl and the Polish Heraldic Society.
On 9 December 2005, he was elected by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland as the President of the Institute of National Remembrance, and on 29 December 2005, he took the oath as the President of the Institute.
Winner of the Award Adam Heymowski (1996), 2nd prize in the Competition. Klemens Szaniawski Award (1998), Joachim Lelewel (2000), Awards Jerzy Łojek (2001). In 2009, he was awarded the Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta by President Lech Kaczyński. Posthumously awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. In 2010, he was posthumously honored with the IPN's Custodian of National Remembrance award.
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