Maciej Siekierski
Expertise: 

Maciej Siekierski

Senior Curator / Research Fellow
Biography: 

Maciej Siekierski is curator of the European Collections at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution.

A specialist on Poland and Eastern Europe, he has been a member of the staff since 1984, with principal responsibility for acquiring European archival materials.

He was named assistant curator of the Soviet and East European Collection in 1986, deputy curator in 1990, and curator of the East European Collection in 1992.

From 1991 to 1993, Siekierski directed Hoover Institution's Warsaw Office, overseeing the collection and shipment to Stanford of tons of publications and documents released by the revolutions and transition to democracy taking place in Eastern Europe.

Between 1995 and 2001, and since 2011, Siekierski, as curator of the European Collections, has been responsible for both East and West European acquisitions.

He is the compiler of Polish Independent Publications: Guide to the Collection in the Hoover Institution Archives (Hoover Institution Press, 1999). He edited Wiktor Sukiennicki's two-volume East Central Europe during World War I: From Foreign Domination to National Independence (East European Monographs, 1984). Siekierski's doctoral dissertation, "Landed Wealth in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: The Economic Affairs of Prince Nicholas Christopher Radziwill," was published by the Polish Academy of Science in Acta Baltico-Slavica, vols. 20–21, 1992–93. Together with Feliks Tych, he published I Saw the Angel of Death: Experiences of Polish Jews Deported to the USSR during World War II (Warsaw: Rosner, 2006). Siekierski's latest publication is the 19101920 memoirs of Helena Paderewska published both in the original English (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2015) and in Polish translation (Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 2015).

Siekierski is a member of the American Historical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, and the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America.

He was the recipient of fellowships from the International Research and Exchanges Board and the Kosciuszko Foundation.

In June 2001, Polish prime minister Jerzy Buzek honored Siekierski with the Laur Award for his work on the preservation of Polish historical records. In May 2013, he was recognized by the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture for his contributions to the restoration of Lithuanian cultural and archival heritage.

Siekierski received a BA degree in history and Russian with great distinction from San Jose State College in 1970. He received an MA in history in 1971, candidate in philosophy in 1975, and a PhD in history in 1984, all from the University of California, Berkeley. He holds an MLS degree from San Jose State University.

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Recent Commentary

Helena Paderewska's memoirs are now available from the Hoover Press
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Helena Paderewska: Memoirs, 1910–1920

by Maciej Siekierskivia Books by Hoover Fellows
Thursday, October 15, 2015

An international adventure for freedom.

“And Then Came the War . . .”

by Maciej Siekierskivia Hoover Digest
Monday, April 21, 2014

From the memoirs of Helena Paderewska, wife of the celebrated pianist, a scene of festivity and farewell in the summer of 1914.

“Communism Does Not Work”

by Maciej Siekierski, Jolanta Szabone Szubavia Hoover Digest
Wednesday, April 21, 2010

His innocently named “Pan-European Picnic” parted the Iron Curtain and helped end European communism. The papers of Hungarian reformer Imre Pozsgay are now open to scholars. By Maciej Siekierski and Jolanta Szabone Szuba.

Menachem Begin pictured in his secret-police mug shot

Agents of History

by Maciej Siekierski, Richard Sousavia Hoover Digest
Thursday, January 14, 2010

Secret police keep wonderful records. Researchers who study Lithuania can thank the KGB—and some hardworking archivists—for a priceless historical collection. By Maciej Siekierski and Richard Sousa.

Boleslaw Boreysza

Remembering "Bill" Boreysza

by Maciej Siekierskivia Hoover Digest
Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Warrior, Polish patriot—and remarkable Hoover librarian. An appreciation by Maciej Siekierski.

Father Stanislaw Jasinski, representative of the bishop of Krakow, prays over the mass graves

Exhuming Secrets

by Paul R. Gregory, Maciej Siekierskivia Hoover Digest
Friday, June 27, 2008

Moscow is still trying to hide what really happened in the 1940 Katyn massacre. Why the truth won’t stay buried. By Paul R. Gregory and Maciej Siekierski.

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History of a Friendship: Herbert Hoover and Poland

by Maciej Siekierskivia Hoover Digest
Saturday, October 30, 2004

Recalling the post-war relief efforts of the thirty-first president. By Maciej Siekierski.SIDEBAR to Remembering the Warsaw Uprising.

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Hoover’s Polish Collection

by Maciej Siekierskivia Hoover Digest
Saturday, October 30, 2004

The Hoover Institution Archives houses the largest repository of documents pertaining to twentieth-century Poland outside of Warsaw. An overview of the collection. By Maciej Siekierski.SIDEBAR to Remembering the Warsaw Uprising.

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Remembering the Warsaw Uprising

by Maciej Siekierskivia Hoover Digest
Saturday, October 30, 2004

Sixty years later, a look back at the longest and bloodiest urban insurgency of the Second World War. By Maciej Siekierski.SIDEBAR: History of a Friendship: Herbert Hoover and Poland
SIDEBAR: Hoover’s Polish Collection

Messages from a Lost World

by Elena Danielson, Zachary Baker, Maciej Siekierskivia Hoover Digest
Friday, January 30, 2004

A collection of thank-you letters from Polish children to Herbert Hoover following World War I offers a glimpse into a lost world of European Jewry. By Hoover Archives director Elena S. Danielson, Zachary Baker, and Maciej Siekierski.

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