Page 222 - Ciancia, On Civilization's Edge

Hoffman also recognized that the expansive geographical nature of the province (almost

36,000 square kilometers by the early 1930s, following the addition of Sarny county) and its sparse

transportation network meant that only a fraction of Volhynia’s population could enjoy a trip to

Łuck’s flagship museum. In response, he decided to create a regional journal, the Volhynian

Yearbook (Rocznik Wołyński), that would disseminate knowledge to a broader audience. The idea, he

recalled in an unpublished history, which he penned after the Second World War, had originated at a

meeting of the Volhynian branch of the Union of Polish Elementary School Teachers (Związek

Polskiego Nauczycielstwa Szkół Powszechnych) in 1926 or 1927 at which members discussed how

teachers lacked the materials they needed to acquaint students with both their immediate

surroundings and Volhynian history more broadly. The editorial committee was made up of people

sympathetic to the Sanacja’s regionalist approach: beyond Hoffman himself (who acted as secretary),

it included governor Józewski, vice-governor Śleszyński, school inspector Szelągowski, and Joachim

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Wołoszynowski. The first issue of the Yearbook rolled off the press in 1930, featuring an eclectic
selection of articles on Volhynia’s physical geography, economics, vegetation, rural housing,

Christmas and Easter customs, and peasant families. The reviews were generally positive. One

statewide geographical journal praised the Yearbook as “a valuable contribution” that enlightened

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readers about the “little-known” province of Volhynia. There was even praise from foreign
observers. While he unsurprisingly lamented the lack of focus on Volhynia’s ethnic German

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community, one German professor stated that the journal was of interest, “even here in the West.”

As had been the case with the museum, the contents of the inaugural Volhynian Yearbook

emerged from an event that had taken place the previous year—a regional course organized by

Hoffman and the Union of Polish Elementary School Teachers. In the summer of 1929, 22 teachers,

47 “Dzieje ‘Rocznika Wołyńskiego’,” PISMA KOL 18/12/1-2.
48 Deszczka, “Regionalizm,” 267.
49 E. Hanisch, “Neue Literatur Über das Polnische Wolhynien,” Jahrbücher für Kultur und Geschichte der Slaven
(1931), 286.

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