The 2025 “Eastern Review” Awards Ceremony

On 28 March, the University of Warsaw hosted the award ceremony for the 33rd edition of the “Eastern Review” Awards. The authors of the best academic books on Eastern European topics were honoured. A special distinction from the quarterly “Eastern Review” and the Aleksander Gieysztor Award were also presented. 

Honours in 2025

The winner of the “Eastern Review” Special Award for his lifetime of research, work and academic output was Prof. Krzysztof Pietkiewicz. The recipient of the award is a professor emeritus at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, having been associated with the Department of Eastern European History at the University’s Institute of History for almost his entire professional career. His research interests include the history of Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the history of Russia and the USSR, Russian culture, research into documents and the Cyrillic script and the history of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Professor Pietkiewicz is the author of numerous publications, including 12 books and textbooks, as well as several dozen articles.

Among those honoured by “Eastern Review” were also: Dr Michał Pszczółkowski (category “Polish Works”), Prof. Vitalii Mykhailovskyi (category “Foreign Works”), Adam Hlebowicz (category “History of Poles in the East”), Piotr Gursztyn and Alice Lugen (category: “Popularisation of Eastern Issues”).

The Aleksander Gieysztor Award was also presented, honouring individuals and institutions that have made outstanding contributions to Eastern European affairs – in the fields of academic research, organisational work and the promotion of Poland abroad. This year’s recipient was the Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery.

About the “Eastern Review” Award

This prestigious international award, presented since 1994 by the academic quarterly “Eastern Review”, honours the authors of the best academic books on Eastern European topics. The award winners include scholars from various fields of study: history, law, political science and ethnology, from countries such as Belarus, France, Germany, Lithuania, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine and the USA.

The decision to award the prizes was made by a jury comprising: Dorota Janiszewska-Jakubiak, Dr Łukasz Kamiński, Robert Kostro, Prof. Jan Malicki, Prof. Wojciech Materski, Prof. Lech Mróz, Prof. Małgorzata Omilanowska-Kiljańczyk, Prof. Andrzej Rachuba, ICC Director Agata Wąsowska-Pawlik and Prof. Leszek Zasztowt.






Photo: Anna Zdunek/courtesy of the University of Warsaw’s Centre for Eastern European Studies