iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 23h

Coming back to spread the word about a very special publication, out today🥳 For history buffs and those who like like to dabble in true crime, here it is: To Kill a Spy, a historical investigation of a 1910 murder in Kraków that unravels everyday nationalism, radicalization and espionage paranoia.

Cover of a book To Kill a Spy: Everyday Nationalism and Political Violence in Fin-de-Siècle Europe

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

First time for everything - this time in the archive I stumbled upon an ID card issued by the Control Commission for Germany (British Zone). A trace of one woman’s story, from forced labor to a passage to the “Recovered Territories.”

an ID card issued in 1947 by the Control Commission for Germany (British Zone)

reverse of an ID card issued in 1947 by the Control Commission for Germany (British Zone)

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

In non-Lower Silesian news, I was super lucky to spend the last week in Aberdeenshire and a small part of the Scottish Highlands and I am blown away. I also felt that, with some of the mountain views, I saw a glimmer of my Lower Silesian home 🥲 Maybe we’re view-and-granite-related, after all 😂

Crovie - a remote fishing village at the North Sea

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Yesterday I stumbled across this archival search platform, and can I just say: this is so cool. As someone obsessed with archives, I wholeheartedly approve of this acronym 🫠 I feel seen! Dear Belgians, thanks for making my day.

A welcome photo of Agatha - the online search platform of the Belgian State Archives. Also happens to be my name.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

I sailed on grass and I liked it! Last weekend I had the chance to take a boat trip on the Elbląg Canal (formerly Oberländischer Kanal). I went specifically to experience history - the canal was built in the mid-19th century, and the engineering marvel is still running!

A print of the Oberländischer Kanal by Hermann Penner

The canal, completed in 1860, is still running.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

📢 Syllabus Award competition📢 If you teach a Polish Studies class and have a syllabus you’re quite proud of - why don’t you share it with us? My colleagues and I will be delighted to read your syllabi, and who knows? The award might be yours! 🥰

Announcement for a Polish Studies Association syllabus award competition.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

PKP(@pkpintercitypdp.bsky.social) don’t even know it, but today they’re transporting what may be their oldest passenger yet: my grandpa, aged 100 years and 10 months. We're recreating a trip we took together 30 years ago, heading to Lubuskie. Stories from the 1940s abound!

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

I’ve gotten used to exploring ruins. With so few Protestants left in the area, many former German Protestant churches either “converted” to Catholicism or were left to decay. But here’s a lovely surprise - this one in Bolków (formerly Bolkenhain) is now a beautiful library and gallery. Swoon!

An interior of a formerly German Protestant church turned into a library/gallery.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Today in the archive: ran into a German obituary for Poland, from 1939. Yikes. Not sure why anyone would write something like this, but here it is.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

I’m not a car person and this is unrelated to my usual content, but I found this at the attic and I need some answers. Can anyone explain how complicated was it to fix a Fiat 125p with this fuel repair kit? Screws and springs? What’s going on?

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

A reminder that war, any war, leaves traces far beyond our lifetimes. This gate stopped me in my tracks today. It still bears the marks of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, as if it just happened.

Metal gate bearing the marks of gunfire from the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Every Monday I dream of an office like this one 🥲 Two realities merging in plain sight.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

In my series “German things you didn’t know survived the war and are still in use by Poles” I want to give you a glimpse of an amazing research day I had some time ago. Let me take you on the most unexpected journey through artefacts that survived the 1945 border change. 🧵

An old shelf filled with animal specimens from pre-1945.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Talked with my grandpa on the phone and got the usual “back in my days… the winters were colder” kind of thing. The tricky part is, he was born in 1925 🥶 How can I compete with THAT?!

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Timeline cleanse with some shots from today’s beautiful day in the Karkonosze. I hope everyone can get a break from the news from time to time and enjoy a much-needed beauty breather ✨

A frosty deciduous tree against a backdrop of a cloudless, intensely blue sky.

A frosty window in a mountain lodge, with an unexpected contrast of a red flower. (As seen through a fogged-up camera lens.)

Snowed-in windows of a mountain lodge with beautiful icicles peeking at them from above. Higher up, white chimney smoke slowly rises into the blue sky.

A cross-country skiing path, among snowed-in trees.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

I took this picture last night, completely blown away, thinking this place looked like a portal to a different world. I realized this is how I spent my year - looking for the unexpected in the familiar. I hope next year brings you much of that too: surprising beauty in the everyday. Happy 2026!

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Temporal clashes in architecture - what do we think? I know, like nails on a chalkboard, they make us feel rather nauseous, but lately I’ve been drawn to them. That’s one of my faves, you’ve seen it before, the clash of German classical architecture and Polish 1970s. A cocktail like no other!

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

Merry Christmas! Here’s a single traditional dish that survived the family’s move from the Eastern Borderlands: śliżyki. I used to think that our 🎄dishes were all traditional, then I found out my grandma single-handedly designed our menu from scratch. Śliżyki then are like a whisper from their past.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Old and well-worn, but sturdy and lasting. They were around for more than eighty years, welcoming the footsteps of both German and Polish people. These small bridges between past and present always make my heart beat a lil’ bit faster. Come walk with me on the tiles of the ”Recovered Territories”.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Along with the German objects we found in our attic, there was this notebook, a remnant of a Polish settler. I don't know who Mania, its owner, was, but she must have lived in my house. So we are, in some way, connected.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

If cemeteries create a community of both the living and the dead, what happens when the living get displaced? Case in point: German cemeteries in the PL "Recovered Lands." All Saints' Day is a good day to reflect on what happens to memory in the absence of those who remember. 🧵(not an easy read)

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

Today, Lower Silesia celebrates 15 years as a voivodeship and, as they put it, 80 years of ‘postwar Lower Silesia.’ Whatever the occasion, just wanted to relaunch my posting with this photo from around 8 years ago. That’s exactly when my research started — and so did my layered love for the region.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Hiii there! It’s been a while. Just wanted to say I’ve been busy writing and putting my research out to public differently. Yesterday I had a pleasure to present a paper in my hometown, and next week I will take part in a debate in Warsaw. But if you miss some Lower Silesian posts, let me know!💛🖤

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

It’s always weirdly moving for me to depart or arrive at this train station. It’s where my grandparents and great-grandma got off exactly 80 years ago, to restart their lives in the shapeshifting postwar Poland. Seeing this sign, the first thing they must have seen, was especially eerie.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

How many dust particles are you away from Copernicus? Well. In this episode of “crazy traces in the attics”, let me present a hanger. It taught me about Moritz Leiser’s late 19th century department store in Toruń. Apparently, it was located in a building owned in the past by…Copernicus’ parents.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

Prewar tiles, layers and years of paint peeling off - of course I got excited.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

He did it! My awesome grandpa turned 100 today! He got congratulatory letters from the Polish Prime minister, Lower Silesian Voivode, a visit from the city Mayor, and he’s happy as a clam!

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Good morning from an early 20th century hike, I suppose. Yet another glitch in the space-time continuum.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Happy to report my hometown embraced its German past - at least on postcards.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Took a break from bluesky to clear my head but now, going through the archive left on my attic, I can’t help but share these stamps I found: the big ones from 1946 portray the WWII destruction of Warsaw, the small ones are commemorating the 1948 Exhibition of the Recovered Territories. Nerdy finds!

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Let’s normalize traveling out of Poland with a proper ring of kiełbasa! 🙏🏻

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Unrelated, but I simply need to say it: Polish Roztocze is a fantastic place 😍

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

My aunt texts me, a little alarmed: ”I thought the Germans came back!” Phew, there’s something to be said about movies being made in the formerly German lands. You think you’re putting a set design, but you’re reopening a troublesome timeline instead 😅

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

Me: *Goes to southeastern Poland to take a break, turn off her brain and not think about the Polish-German layers of history, formerly-German objects, etc.* Also me: * immediately finds a cutting board with the prewar image of Gleiwitz (Gliwice)* Can’t untrain the eye, can I.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

Everybody knows Polish pierogi🥟 🥟🥟 Have you ever heard of a buckwheat pieróg though? Popular around Lublin and Zamość, this dish is made of buckwheat groats, farmers cheese and potatoes, baked in a yeast-based dough. Typically served with kefir. Delish!

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

When the dress code is “business casual”. Poles:

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

I’m sure you’re familiar with the most famous Polish tongue twister - “W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie." But did you know that in the main square of Szczebrzeszyn, a giant, anthropomorphic longhorn beetle is actually buzzing in the reed? 🥲

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Just a few Polish windows in the summer for you.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

It’s the Warsaw bubble 🤷🏼‍♀️

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

If you haven’t had a chance yet, give this excellent investigative piece a read. As someone who writes non-fiction, I often struggle with how storytelling inevitably tends to fall into fiction at times, but as I see some authors out there love fiction more than fact. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

observer.co.uk

The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...

Penniless and homeless, the Winns found fame and fortune with the story of their 630-mile walk to salvation. We can reveal that the truth behind it is ve...

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

(An old woman, seeing a local drunk coming in to our bus stop, carrying a beer) -Ohhh, and so it goes, it started raining! (the local drunk) - yeah, it’s a good thing. Let it rain! But why does it have to rain now, when I’m coming out for a beer?! Poles. Happy and unhappy, all at the same time.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

On the topic of nostalgia drinks, I got to drink this today. Did it really taste like something I drank in my childhood? 90% yes. Never drank it during communism though so who knows. Glad to see the label says „no ration cards necessary.”

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

“Is the likelihood of nuclear war an obstacle to creative work?”

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

A big shoutout to @ceureviewofbooks.bsky.social, happy 2nd bday! 🎊 If you click on the link, in the highlights you will see my musings on Poland’s post-1945 border shifts and German expulsions as seen through @karolinarogalska.bsky.social awesome book “Ziemie”. Enjoy & 100 lat, CEURB!

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

To continue on the subject of nostalgia drinks, I have to give a loud shoutout to these two 1950s wonderful European attempts to compete with Coca-Cola: Yugoslavian (Slovene) Cockta and Czechoslovakian Kofola 🥰 Which one is your fave and what other nostalgia drinks I should try?

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

In unexpected trips down the memory lane that is not my own, I was given this Finnish drink with a phrase: “It was brought about for the 1952 Olympics but it tastes like my teenage years” 🙃 About to plunge in the sea of Finnish memories then, wish me luck.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Listen, it’s jagodzianka season in Poland and it’s important. People here take their bilberry buns very seriously, tirelessly searching for the perfect one around. Did I just throw my hat in the ring? Perhaps.

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

That’s cool. Does it mean I can now call on the National Museum in Poland to return the artifacts to the respective museums in the “Recovered Territories” so that the objects come back to their proper regions? Or is it still too early?

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

Today I was introduced to this German contraption: Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher 😳 just, why

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Agata Tumiłowicz-Mazur @agatumilowicz.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Śnieżka, the highest peak of the Giant Mountains, imagined in the future by the Germans at the beginning of the 20th century vs Śnieżka AD 2025, Polish long-weekend. Spot the differences. (Pics by GOPR. I am not a fan of crowds.)

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