IGU Regional Conference, Kraków, Poland 18-22 August 2014 IGU 2014 Book of Abstracts IGU2014 – 0680 14th Congress of the International Geographical Union in Warsaw, 1934, and its significance for the development of Polish geography Jackowski A., Bilska-Wodecka E. Jagiellonian University, Institute of Geography and Spatial Management In 1931, the IGU Congress in Paris decided to accept the offer by the Polish government to host the 14th Congress in Warsaw in 1934. This was also when Eugeniusz Romer, the most eminent Polish cartographer, was elected Vice-President of the Union. The 14th Congress was the IGU’s first congress in a Slavic country. For the first time since the end of the Great War, a German delegation also arrived. The President of Poland, Ignacy Moscicki, opened the main event and accompanying exhibitions. There were 693 participants from 44 countries, including approximately 350 Poles. The participants had a choice of 12 regional and thematic trips. The event, held in Warsaw on 21-31 August, had the patronage of the President Ignacy Moscicki and of Marshal Jozef Pilsudski. A number of side events accompanied the Congress, including an international exhibition of contemporary cartography, a retrospective display of Polish cartography organised by the National Library, and two other cartographic exhibitions. The Organising Committee was chaired by Eugeniusz Romer, with Antoni Sujkowski (Chairman of the Polish Geographical Society) as the Deputy-Chairman, Stanislaw Pawlowski (Poznan University) as the Secretary and with Jerzy Loth (Warsaw School of Economics) and Stanislaw Lencewicz (Warsaw University) as Treasurers. Other members of the Committee included Jerzy Smolenski (Jagiellonian University), Mieczyslaw Limanowski (Stefan Batory University of Vilnius), August Zierhoffer (Jan Kazimierz University of Lviv) and Jerzy Lewakowski (Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny). The Congress proceedings were published during 1935–1938 as four volumes of Comptes Rendus du Congres International de Géographie. Poland had its special publication released at the time of the Congress, a double volume edited by A. Patkowski entitled Ruch regionalistyczny w Europie (The Regionalist Movement in Europe), including papers by S. Pawlowski Regionalizm geograficzny i jego rozwoj w Polsce (Geographical Regionalism and its Development in Poland) and by W. Ormicki Regionalizm gospodarczy w Polsce (Economic Regionalism in Poland). It was also a Polish initiative to organise the International Cartographic Exhibition during the Congress. This was the first event of its type in the world with 35 countries exhibiting 2500 items, all of which remained in Poland afterwards. The Polish section was particularly rich. The participants unanimously supported the idea of establishing a Towarzystwo im. Joachima Lelewela (Joachim Lelewel Society) specialising in the history of geography. The Congress provided an excellent opportunity to promote Poland. Each participant received numerous publications about Poland in foreign languages, and also nearly all the geographical publications published during five years prior to the Congress. The “Polish Day” was a highlight of the Congress, when eminent scholars, including geographers, geologists, IGU Regional Conference, Kraków, Poland 18-22 August 2014 historians and ethnologists, gave lectures. The greatest impression was made by the presentation by E. Romer “Podstawowe zagadnienia geografii ekonomicznej w Polsce” (Fundamental Issues of Economic Geography in Poland). .