Polskie Dokumenty Dyplomatyczne

From 2005 on, the Polish Institute of International Affairs has been publishing source documents on the history of Polish foreign policy from 1918 to 1989, in successive volumes of the series Polskie Dokumenty Dyplomatyczne (Polish Diplomatic Documents, PDD). With 18 tomes brought out so far, the series represents a Polish equivalent of foreign collections such as Foreign Relations of the United States, Documents Diplomatiques Français, Documents on British Foreign Policy, and Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.

In line with the Editing Committee’s guidelines,  the documents covering the periods of the Second Polish Republic and of the People’s Polish Republic are published in parallel. The day of 5 July 1945 is the line drawn for editors to switch focus from documents created by the  Polish Government-in-Exile to those from the Government in Warsaw. While the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sources are of key import, major role is also played by documents from the Council of Ministers, its chancellery, ministerial correspondence and, after 1945, Communist party archives  (especially from the Central Committee).

Polish Diplomatic Documents comprises written sources  on Poland’s relations with abroad, created by the Polish authorities, public  institutions, the press, political parties and other social organizations, as well as varied documents kept in those entities’ repositories.

As a rule, each volume covers a whole calendar year (with the exception of the years 1919, 1939 i 1945), presenting documents concerning Polish foreign policy in that period.  The order of presentation is chronological, and wherever possible the documents are selected to illustrate the entirety of Polish foreign policy. Each volume is prefaced editorially  and  indexed (by name and by subject).

In addition to the regular series publications, the volume Polish Documents on Foreign Policy. 24 October 1938 – 30 September 1939  came out in 2009, with English translations of the most important records on Polish diplomatic activity in the period preceding  World War II and in the first month of the war.  

Director of the Central Archives of Modern Records (AAN)

Director Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Director of the State Archives

Piotr Długołęcki