2022 is the anniversary year for the Section of Alumni of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in Poland. 100 years ago, a former student of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Stanislaw Grzymalowski, together with Wojciech Swientoslawski and Anton Romanowski, gathered the graduates of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute of different years in the "Circle of Alumni of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" at the Polish Polytechnic Society. After the revival of the Circle which had fallen to decay due to the historical cataclysms of the middle of the 20th century, the Section of Alumni of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in Poland at the Polish Main Technical Organization was created on its basis, and it still works in close rapport with with the National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute". Today's story is about one of its founders and long-term head, Stanislaw Grzymalowski.
Stanislaw Grzymalowski was born in Moscow on October 20, 1893. He graduated from the gymnasium in Odesa, and in 1912 he became a student of the mechanical department of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. While studying, he participated in the public life of the Polish academic youth of Kyiv. He became an activist of the conspiratorial connection of Polish youth and the student organization "Polonia", managed Polish student organizations, was among leaders of the Polish Scouts in Ukraine, headed the Fraternal Assistance of Polish Students of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. During the First World War, he worked in structures that provided assistance to Polish refugees who were in Kyiv. The war and exhausting public work became an obstacle to studying at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. So, at the end of 1918, he left for Warsaw. He received a diploma in mechanical engineering at the Warsaw University of Technology in 1922. The same year, he created the Circle of Alumni of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute at the Polish Polytechnic Society together with Wojciech Swientoslawski and Anton Romanowski. Anton Romanowski was elected the head of the Circle.
After the Second World War, he was the director of the association in the field of manufacturing industry, later he worked in the Central Design Bureau. He taught at the Warsaw University of Technology and the Main School of Agriculture.
In 1957, the prominent Polish scientist, a graduate and former lecturer of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, a former rector of the Warsaw University of Technology and a Minister of Education of Poland in the 30s of the 20th century, Wojciech Swientoslawski, revived the work of the Circle of Alumni of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Since then, this association has received the status of a Section at the Main Technical Organization. Stanislaw Grzymalowski was elected its head. And in May 1958, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, he gathered 30 graduates of the pre-war years for a solemn meeting in Warsaw. More than 100 people took part in such a meeting in May 1959.
In June 1961, Stanislaw Grzymalowski organized the first post-war visit of graduates to alma mater. Since that time, the delegation of the Section has participated in the end of the academic year celebrations at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute every year in June.
In 1962, Stanislaw Grzymalowski announced a contest of literary works about Kyiv. At that time, he received 73 works. They were evaluated by the outstanding Polish writer Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz, who also graduated from the gymnasium and received a higher education in Kyiv. Volodymyr Bartoshevych won the first prize for his memoir "That Ancient Kyiv", and his humorous drawings decorated this edition.
In September 1966, Stanislaw Grzymalowski convened a congress of Alumni of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in Warsaw. The meeting was attended by the rector of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Oleksandr Plyhunov, who was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
After retirement in 1960, Stanislaw Grzymalowski began writing the monograph "Polish Academic Youth in Kyiv 1834–1918". He finished it in 1965. However, attempts to publish the book were unsuccessful, so it remained in typescript for quite a long time. Unfortunately, the 3rd chapter was not preserved in it. Later, it was replaced with a text prepared by Yanina Swientoslawska-Zholkiewska based on S. Grzymalowski’s materials. The work was published in volume II of the collection "Memories from Kyiv" for 1988 (this is an almanac published by the Section for many years in a row).
Stanislaw Grzymalowski died in Warsaw on October 1, 1968. In the memory of the graduates of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, he remained as an active person, obsessed with his work, who fully devoted himself to public activities among his colleagues, peers and those young people who had just returned from studying in Kyiv. He was an example of extraordinary great passion, inexhaustible energy and selfless benevolence.