Włodzimierz Roman Aftanaziw, known as Roman Aftanazy (2 April 1914 Morszyn (Lwow Oblast) - 7 June 2004 Wrocław, Poland) – was a Polish historian, librarian and author of a monumental work of reference, Dzieje rezydencji na dawnych kresach Rzeczypospolitej - History of Residences in Poland's Former Eastern Borderlands, (1991–1997), listing and describing the cultural heritage contained in the myriad estates and grand residences in the once Polish Kresy and Inflanty regions.

[1][2] Having completed his primary education in the town of Morszyn, in what is now the Lviv Oblast of today's Ukraine, he attended the Marshal Jozef Pilsudski state secondary school in Stryj which he left in 1935.

[4] His master's degree in history was not formally granted until 1946 by the Humanities Faculty of the University of Wrocław, for a thesis, entitled Schooling in Congress Poland 1807–1815, which he had written before the war under the supervision of Stanisław Łempicki.

From April 1944 he worked in the library of the National Ossolineum Institute in Lwów, initially as a volunteer, and from August that year as a full-time librarian.

He assisted Mieczysław Gębarowicz and the Dominican Fathers in the covert preparation of a rescue transport to Poland of uncatalogued collections of the Ossolineum.

[14] But for the chance meeting of two women at the Morszyn Spa gardens, in the early 1930s, Roman Aftanazy's illustrious career might have turned out differently.

[15] Jadwiga Smolka asked the teenage Aftanazy's mother whether her son might be interested in seeing a still functioning traditional estate and its grand residence, mentioned by writers such as Maria Rodziewiczówna and Józef Weyssenhoff.

Using the pen name, Ksawery Niedobitowski, he published well over a dozen articles in several popular magazines, including: Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny, Światowid and the weekly As.

Each print run was limited to 500 copies, under the title Materials for the History of Residences, purposely avoiding to mention the territorial aspect of the series.

The project was funded with financial aid from the Polish art historian and philanthropist exiled in London, Andrzej Ciechanowiecki.

[22] Between 1991 and 1997 a second amended edition with additions was issued by the ZNiO publishing house, under the new title, History of Residences in Poland's Former Eastern Borderlands.