Klaudia Jędrzejewska - Theoretical archival thought of Kazimierz Konarski (1886-1972)


Kazimierz Konarski was most of all a methodologist. But his wide experience in archives enabled him to draw theoretical conclusions and generalizations. The archival work of Konarski was focused mostly on arrangement and description of archival holdings and on organizing it, which gave notable methodological effects in the form of systematics of archival aids and methodological guidelines for arrangement and description of various types of documents. For Konarski arrangement and description of archival holdings was always a central problem in archives’ activity. To a small degree his experience involved problems of disposal and providing access to archival materials. But performing leading functions in archives enabled him to get to know the organization of archives and mechanisms of functioning of the archival service. In the thought of Konarski, the scope of archival science was outlined by activities of archives. Problems of arrangement and inventorying of archival holdings occupied a crucial role. It was a consequence of the central position of a fonds, which was, for Konarski, the subject of archival science. Konarski understood the scope of archival science very widely. In this scope he included all the activities performed by archivists, even issues of building up and running an archival library or the atmosphere of an archive. The subject of archival science itself did not change. What did change was emphasis placed by Konarski on particular problems. First, the crucial issue for him was the principle of provenance, then he focused on the understanding of an archival fonds. Finally Konarski recognized that the cornerstone to archival studies is the process of crystallizing the term "akt". This approach is clearly an effect of being influenced by some fashion. What can be seen is, at first, relishing the principle of provenance, and then turning towards diplomatics, certainly under the influence of Meissner. Konarski consequently held his view on the necessity of creating the Polish version of archivistics. He thought that archival science is not a universal discipline and that it has to have a local character, what he probably achieved. He made a key contribution to creating the specific, Polish archival science, focused on issues of records and office, demanding a detailed archival description, at least in that different from the world archivistics. Kazimierz Konarski has become an inherent part of history of Polish archival science. But could it be a surprise, if he is the creator, the first and maybe the main promoter of the Polish version of archivistics?