Flying University

[7] After the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned in the late-18th century, its lands were divided among its neighbors: Imperial Russia, Prussia and Austria's Habsburg monarchy (which seven decades later became part of Austro-Hungary).

At first it was a series of conspiratorial education courses for women, and among the first teachers were Józef Siemaszko, Stanisław Norblin, Piotr Chmielowski and Władysław Smoleński.

Among the teachers of the university were the best contemporary Polish academics, including many prominent liberals and socialists[14] such as and Tadeusz Korzon (history), Bronisław Chlebowski, Ignacy Chrzanowski, socialist Zofia Daszyńska-Golińska[15] and Piotr Chmielowski (literature), Jan Władysław David and Adam Mahrburg (philosophy), prominent Marxist anthropologist, economist and sociologist Ludwik Krzywicki and Józef Nussbaum-Hilarowicz (biology).

[13] Around 1905–1906 the Flying University was able to start legal activities, and was transformed into the Society of Science Courses (Towarzystwo Kursów Naukowych),[16] as Poland's partitioners, anticipating the First World War, sought to convert the Poles to their cause.

During the time of communist domination in the People's Republic of Poland, as the curriculum became a tool of politics, and much of Polish history (like the Polish-Soviet War, Katyn Massacre or Praga Massacre) was censored in an attempt to 'erase' the history of Polish-Russian conflicts,[21] the tradition of the Flying University was revived once again, first by the Society of Free Polish University (Towarzystwo Wolnej Wszechnicy Polskiej) active in Warsaw from 1957, later from 1977 by the new Flying University and Society of Science Courses, supported by Polish dissidents: Stefan Amsterdamski, Jerzy Jedlicki, Andrzej Celiński, Bohdan Cywiński, Aldona Jawłowska, Jan Kielanowski, Andrzej Kijowski, Jacek Kuroń, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Adam Michnik, Wojciech Ostrowski.