History of the Slavic Studies Committee
Slavic Studies Committee (Polish Academy of Sciences, Division I – Humanities and Social Sciences) was established by the resolution of the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences on July 4th, 1952. Initially known as the Committee of Slavic and Russian Studies, it holds its present name since 1957.
The first chairman and a person of particular merit for the establishment of the SSC was Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński. He was followed as a chairperson by Julian Krzyżanowski (1965–1969), Witold Hensel (1969–1991), Janusz Siatkowski (1991–1996), Lucjan Suchanek (1997–2002), Leszek Moszyński (2003–2006), Ewa Rzetelska-Feleszko (2006), Małgorzata Korytkowska (2007–2015) and Piotr Fast (2016-2019). The current chairman (2020-) is Zbigniew Greń.
Established as an interdisciplinary body, the SSC is involved in all aspects of Slavic studies: linguistics, literary studies, ethnology and folklore studies, archaeology and history of the Slavs as well as cultural studies. The SSC acts as the Polish National Committee for Cooperation with the International Committee of Slavists, and its chairman is by default a member of the ICS. Among the greatest achievements of the SSC, one can name organizing of the VII and XII International Congress of Slavists, respectively in 1973 (Warsaw) and 1998 (Cracow).
Throughout its history, the SSC has supported many seminal works of Polish Slavic studies, such as Słownik starożytności słowiańskich (The Dictionary of Slavic Antiquities, 8 volumes, 1961–1996) and Atlas językowy kaszubszczyzny i dialektów sąsiednich (Language Atlas of Kashubian and its Neighbouring Dialects, 15 volumes, 1964–1978). Every 5 years, the SSC publishes the proceedings from the International Congress of Slavists in the series Z polskich studiów slawistycznych (From the Polish Slavic Studies). In addition to the already mentioned books and series, the SSC PAS currently publishes 2 prestigious academic journals: Rocznik Slawistyczny (The Slavic Annual) and the quarterly Slavia Orientalis.