An important element of the project „Research and dissemination of the innovative economic and social achievements of the Gasoline Company in the Second Republic”.” subsidized by the Minister of Science and Education within the framework of the Science for Society program (identification number NdS/550914/2022/2022) was scientific research of the preserved collection of archival materials and documents related to the activities of the Gazolina fuel company.
Since the beginning of the project, the Independence Foundation has been cooperating with the descendants of the Gazolina Company's co-founders scattered around the world, including those affiliated with the Gazolina Wieleżyński Association. It is thanks to the long-term efforts of the descendants of the Gazolina Company's founders, Marian Wieleżyński and Wladyslaw Szaynek, that priceless documents testifying to the remarkable history of the pioneering economic enterprise have been collected in the country.
The Independence Foundation, having come across these unique family archives, decided to make it possible to disseminate them through a research project - popularization, funded under the Science for Society program. The results of this research were presented as part of the project's covered conferences and in related publications, which are available on this site under „Download”. Arranged archivistically and digitized documents, stored in the family archive of the Gazolina Wieleżyński Association in Brwinów near Warsaw (hereinafter: Brwinów Archive), are presented on this site in the section „Inventory structure”.
The following is a commentary by Jacek Gołębiowski, Ph.D., prof. of the Catholic University of Lublin, who, together with Tomasz Nowicki, Ph.D., prof. of the Catholic University of Lublin, and Piotr Rachwal, Ph.D., prof. of the Catholic University of Lublin, presented the results of the research conducted under the project at a scientific conference „Working together, yielding together - the success of the Gazolina oil company in the Second Republic”.”, on October 9-10, 2023 at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin.
The Institute of History of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin has for several years conducted large-scale research on the cultural, social heritage of Poland in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Brazil, Argentina. We strive to show outstanding personalities of Polish social and political life and disseminate their achievements both at home and to show the most important elements of Polish history to Polish emigrants.
After consulting with the Independence Foundation, we decided to expand our research into the space of the economic history of the Second Polish Republic, in order to disseminate the most important achievements of this beautiful period of history to expatriates abroad as well. We managed to establish, through the Independence Foundation, contact with the family of engineer Marian Wieleżyński and engineer Władysław Szaynok, and thanks to this we had direct access to the archives related to the activities of the fuel company „Gazolina”.
The fuel company „Gazolina” is one of the most important, outstanding, innovative companies that underpinned the economic life of the Second Polish Republic. Thanks to its involvement, we were the first in Europe to liquefy gas, which was exported in liquid form to Belgium, among other countries. Thanks to Gazolina, it was possible to gasify the city that became a model of Polish economic activity, namely Gdynia. Thanks to Gazolina, gas from the Boryslav Basin to Lviv was finally delivered through pipelines.
The Gazolina fuel company is one of the largest, most outstanding companies that created the economic independence of the Second Polish Republic. Therefore, I am pleased that the research conducted will allow us to popularize this beautiful part of Poland's economic history. The research was carried out by two prominent professors of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Professor Tomasz Nowicki and Professor Piotr Rachwal, who are well known to the Polish community and are involved in the dissemination of Poland's cultural and economic heritage. The special results of this work, are the acquired and described information related to the social part of the „Gazolina” company's activities. We are referring to employee shareholding and those efforts that prevented the takeover of this very valuable Polish entity by foreign capital.
An important result of the scientific research also carried out under the project was the publication of two book items accompanying our conference. One is a reissue of the biography of Mr. Wielezynski, written down by his son Leszek Wielezynski (first published in 1985 in London), and the other is a reprint of the 1937 report of the „Gazolina” company on the occasion of its 25th anniversary. In the commentary to the biography of Mr. Engineer Wielezynski, we also managed to characterize the clout of the output related to the analysis of sources concerning the „Gazolina” company.
I hope that the fruits of this work confirm that the humanities can contribute to the economic patriotism of Poland by showing the most important undertakings, the results of their work and by disseminating them both in Poland and abroad.