Register of the Jerzy Urban papers

Finding aid prepared by Malgosia Szudelski
Hoover Institution Library and Archives
© 2009, 2023
434 Galvez Mall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6003
hoover-library-archives@stanford.edu


Title: Jerzy Urban papers
Date (inclusive): 1927-2006
Collection Number: 2011C9
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: Polish
Physical Description: 8 manuscript boxes (3.2 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Correspondence, writings, personal documents, printed matter, and photographs, relating to political conditions and journalism in Poland.
Creator: Urban, Jerzy, 1933-
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives

Access

The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

Use

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Acquisition Information

Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2011.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Jerzy Urban papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Biographical Note

Jerzy Urban (1933-1922) was a Polish journalist, writer, commentator and politician. He was born as Jerzy Urbach to a Polish-Jewish family in Lodz. After the Second World War outbreak, he fled with his parents the German-occupied Lodz to the Soviet-controlled Lviv. After the German army invaded Lviv in the summer of 1941, the family went into hiding and survived the war under the false name "Urban."
Jerzy Urban was then educated in the People's Republic of Poland and began his journalistic career in the mid-1950s in the weekly Po prostu, during the political "thaw" that ensued after Stalin's death. A natural contrarian, stubborn, and provocative, Urban was frequently in trouble with communist censors. He found stable employment and relative security on the weekly Polityka, run by a relative liberal, Mieczyslaw Rakowski.
When the Solidarity trade union movement emerged in 1980, Urban criticized and ridiculed its leaders in dozens of columns he signed as "Rem". In 1981, General Jaruzelski, the first secretary of the Polish Communist Party and prime minister, made Urban a government spokesperson. Urban initiated the tradition of weekly press conferences, transmitted by Polish television and attended by Polish and foreign journalists.
After the "Roundtable Talks" between the communists and the opposition and the June 1989 national elections, which ended the Party's monopoly of power, Urban returned to private life. In 1990, he founded an anticlerical tabloid-like newspaper Nie (Polish for No).
Jerzy Urban died in Konstancin-Jeziorna on October 3, 2022, at the age of 89. He was buried at the Powazki Military Cemetery in Warsaw on October 11, 2022.

Scope and Content of Collection

Collection contains correspondence, writings, personal documents, printed matter, and photographs, relating to political conditions and journalism in Poland. It includes family documents, materials from his unsuccessful parliamentary run in June 1989, as well as a lot of published and unpublished texts. Most valuable perhaps are copies of political strategy memoranda submitted by Urban to General Jaruzelski during 1987-1989.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Poland -- Politics and government
Journalism -- Poland
Journalists

box 1, folder 1-14

Family papers 1942-2006

Scope and Contents

Contains information and documents regarding Jerzy Urban and his mother (Maria Urban) father (Jan Urban), wife (Malgorztata Daniszewska), and daughter (Magdalena Grzesik). Includes letters to and from family members, and family photographs.
 

Correspondence 1982-1989

box 2, folder 13

General 1989

Scope and Contents

Formal letters between Jerzy Urban and Mieczyslaw Rakowski and other politicians.
box 2, folder 1-2

From Publishing Houses 1982-1988

Scope and Contents

Correspondence among Jerzy Urban and Publishing Houses.
box 2, folder 3-4

Greetings and Invitations 1986-1989

Scope and Contents

Formal and official greetings and invitations.
box 2, folder 10

Greetings and Invitations 1986-1989

Scope and Contents

Formal and official greetings and invitations.
box 2, folder 5-9

Committee of Polish Radio and Television 1988-1989

Scope and Contents

Letters from the office of Committee of Radio and Television when Jerzy Urban was a Chairman.
box 2, folder 11-12

Letters from voters 1989

Scope and Contents

Letters from voters of Jerzy Urban.
 

Writtings 1960-1990

box 3, folder 1-5

Spokesperson for Polish Government 1981-1989

Scope and Contents

Contains handwritten notes, press notes, notes from meetings with journalists; proposals and analyses.
box 4, folder 1-9

Columns 1970-1990

Scope and Contents

Columns written by Jerzy Urban to the various magazines under the pseudonym Jan Zych with handwritten notes, corrections and deletions.
box 5, folder 1-9

Columns 1960-1983

Scope and Contents

Clippings of columns from various magazines written under pseudonyms: Jerzy Kibic and Jerzy Kilon.
box 5, folder 10-15

Polemics 1963-1983

Scope and Contents

Polemics run by Jerzy Urban with opponents in various magazines.
box 5, folder 16-18

Writings related to J. Urban 1982-1992

Scope and Contents

Contains interviews with J. Urban, articles about him and clippings regarding his weekly newspaper "Nie".
box 6, folder 1-8

Miscellaneous Writings 1958-1984

Scope and Contents

Includes T. Toranska "Rozmowy z Jakubem Bermanem, Dariusz Fikus "Foksal 81", "Konspira. Rzecz o podziemnej Solidarnosci" Paryz 1984, Z. Ciesiolkiewicz "Inwazja upiorow 1944-1970"
box 3, folder 6-10

Election 1989 1989

Scope and Contents

Contains various materials (fliers, pamphlets, financial settlements, press comments, etc.) from the Election 1989 when Jerzy Urban was a candidate to the Parliament of Poland.
 

Printed Matter 1927-1990

box 7, folder 1-13

1927-1989

Scope and Contents

Includes "Glos prawdy", periodyki "Swiat", "Morze", ocena stanu srodowiska w Polsce, praca magisterska Beaty Parzniewskiej "Okragly stol w przekazach polskojezycznych rozglosni zachodnich", UJ 1989.
box 8, folder 1-6

1984-1990

Scope and Contents

Miscellaneous printed matter, includes duplicates.