Name: "Córka mazowieckich równin czyli Maria Sk?odowska-Curie na Mazowszu" Price: 25.00 PLN

The Mazovia Plains shaped the life of Maria Sk?odowska-Curie: it is there that she got educated, formed her character, acquired strong personality and fortitude. It is the place where she gained her knowledge, learnt four languages, and cherished nature. All her ancestors came from the Mazovia both on her mother and father?s side. Both families represented the impoverished gentry of Catholic and patriotic tradition. The Sk?odowscy of the Do??ga arms came from an old village Sk?ody, Zar?by Ko?cielne parish in the Ostrów Mazowiecka commune, where for centuries they had been in the possession of Sk?ody Piotrowice, Sk?ody ?rednie and Sk?ody Stachy villages. Maria?s grandfather, Józef Sk?odowski, was the first to leave the family?s farming tradition to become a teacher. On the other side, Maria?s mother?s, Boguska of the Topór arms, came from Boguszyce in the vicinity of ?om?a, the Szczepanowska commune and parish. There the future Noble prize winner?s grandfather, Feliks Boguski, worked as a farm manager. He and his wife Maria Zaruska also represented the unpropertied gentry. Maria Sk?odowska?s parents, W?adys?aw and Bogus?awa, teachers by profession, were also closely related to the Mazovia. This time, however, with its capital, Warsaw. All their children followed in their footsteps except for the youngest one, Maria, who settled down in France. When she was leaving for Paris, Maria was already a mature 24-year- old woman. However, whenever possible she would come back to Warsaw, not just during her academic holidays. This way she sustained her close and strong relations with her family, which mattered so much in her life. By the end of her life, Maria was even considering a return to her beloved Warsaw, or at least staying there longer and carrying out some research in the two Parisian branches in Poland: the Radium Laboratory and the Radium Institute, which offered the scientist their lodgings. My recent research seems to indicate that Maria, though living on the Seine, seemed more closely related to her family as well as Warsaw, the Mazovia and Poland. Thus it appears probable that she would have stayed in her motherland for good after gaining her degrees in physics and chemistry, had it not been for the fact that no university in Poland offered her any position in their laboratories and had her search for employment not proved fruitless in 1893. She appeared to be willing to sacrifice her love relationship to Piotr Curie, who, in turn, was ready to leave for Poland even at the cost of abandoning his research. While reading the biographies on this great scientist, her own memoirs and other publications, there seems to be an understanding that Maria stayed in France merely for the sake of her scientific work. It was science, her greatest passion, that won Maria?s heart. At the same time she was truly lucky to find a man, whom she loved and who would devote his energy and time to the same pursuit. Doing her own research on radioactivity, which required an enormous effort, Maria, the daughter of ?the Mazovia Plains? - as her daughter Ewa Curie would call her, never stopped in her effort to enhance scientific development in Poland. She co-operated with the Warsaw institutes, published scientific papers in Polish journals, presented her findings at conferences and meetings, as well as actively participated in the founding of the Radioactivity Institute and the Radium Institute in Warsaw. She would then direct their work from abroad, supporting them with her knowledge, experience, funds and authority. She helped Polish scientists with numerous educational programmes and presented the Radium Institute with 1 gram of radium worth $100.000, which she gained in the USA, for medical purposes. It is worth adding as well that Maria Sk?odowska Curie was proud of her Polish origin. She would always insist that her surname be spelled correctly, i.e. with a diacritically marked ??? , which figures, for example, in her Noble prize diploma. Others, like a close friend of hers Kazimierz Zórawski from Szczuki, tended to omit the Polish characters in their names. ?órawski would thus be known internationally as prof. Kazimierz Zorawski. It seems a shame that presently in Poland, as well as in her other homeland, France, the origin of Maria Sk?odowska is not always properly exposed. Let?s consider the way her surname is spelt by one of the Polish universities, which since 1944 has been bearing her name (the Maria Curie-Sk?odowska University in Lublin), or the commemorating plate in Szczuki, the Mazovia, where she spent an important, though not the easiest part of her life working as a governess for 3.5 years. The improper, unPolish spelling of her surname usually as Maria Curie-Sk?odowska or Maria Curie was soon adopted by numerous schools, institutes and streets. Unfortunately nothing has changed since then. The inhabitants of Szczuki and the neighbouring villages, have not shown any consideration to the double Noble prize winner so far. The manor house in Szczuki is in ruins and no museum, even the most modest one, has been established to honour the well-known scientist there. Fortunately, Maria?s beloved city, Warsaw, the place where she was born, brought up and educated, where she studied illegally and took up her first jobs (the capital was under the Russian rule and the universities did not admit women at that time) ? remembers and presents the name of its compatriot properly. Both the Museum of Maria Sk?odowska Curie and the Radium Institute and their frequently run projects: scientific sessions, exhibitions, and publications, popularise her origin and achievements. This message, however, should be more resonant, Maria?s position stressed and her Polishness exposed so that nobody else claims the legacy of ?the Mazovia Plains daughter?. So far, however, it has not happened. Translated by Izabela Dšbrowska