Wielka Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN


The Wielka Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN was, until 2005, the largest Polish encyclopedia ever written. It was published between 1962 and 1970 by Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe in Warsaw. The WEP contains about 82,000 entries, 12,000 illustrations, 200 color and 650 black-and-white inserted illustrations, and 120 color maps in thirteen volumes. Many entries are signed, and many contain bibliographic material. The encyclopedia shows severe censorship. As is stated in the foreword, the encyclopedia is "based on rationalist and materialist assumptions" and reflects the worldview of the "socialist ideology".
About 2000 authors, 1000 reviewers, and almost 100 editors were supervised by the Scientific Board appointed by the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Higher Education, and headed by Professor Tadeusz Kotarbiński. The initiative to write the WEP was taken by PWN in July 1957 when it was decided that an 8-volume universal encyclopedia would be published. Preparations began in 1957 and the actual writing started in April 1959. It took 14 months to prepare the list of entries, about 16 months to write the first volume, and then about 9 months for each next volume. Right after the twelfth volume had been published, the work on the Supplement began.

Volumes

with dates of publishing:
  1. A - Ble, 1962
  2. Bli - Deo, 1963
  3. Dep - Franc, 1964
  4. Frang - Im, 1964
  5. In - Kons, 1965
  6. Kont - Mam, 1965
  7. Man - Nomi, 1966
  8. Nomo - Polsc, 1966
  9. Polska - Robe, 1967; begins with an extensive 224-page long article about Poland, subdivided into 35 sections.
  10. Robi - Step, 1967
  11. Ster - Urz, 1968
  12. Usa - Ż, 1969
  13. Supplement, 1970

    Controversy

Volume 8 includes an article entitled "Hitlerite concentration camps" which caused much controversy. The major objections were that:
As the result, the editorial team was "renewed" and a new, revised article, this time entitled "Hitlerite camps", was added as an inset to Volume 11, and later included in the Supplement.