The International Caucasus Conference for Young Scholars named after Prof. Tadeusz Świętochowski of the Caucasus and Central Asia Specialization Centre for East European Studies University of Warsaw (formerly the Caucasus Seminar Conference), has traditionally been held every year since 2001. The naming of the Conference after Prof. Tadeusz Świętochowski (2017) was a tribute to the memory of an outstanding figure in the field of Caucasology. It has also become an example for other circles and the scientific world in which he lived and worked.
Professor Tadeusz Świętochowski (1932–2017) was one of the most eminent scholars of modern Azerbaijan and the history of the Middle East, author of many books and monographs. Professor Emeritus of Monmouth University. Doctor honoris causa Khazar University and Baku State University. He has lectured at Eastern European Studies as a Permanent Visiting Professor and Senior Specialist under the Fulbright programme. Born in France on 28 April 1932, he was the son of the pre-war Polish diplomat Stanislaw Świętochowski (1899-1940), who was imprisoned after 17 September and probably murdered in Butyrki Prison in Moscow. He spent the last years of his life between New York and Warsaw, where he made his second home after years of exile. In 2016, he managed to regain his Polish citizenship, which had been taken away from him during the communist era. He was a tireless researcher of Caucasian affairs, always open to dialogue and ready to help his students. He died on 15 February 2017 in New York. On 27 February, he was buried in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. Since 2017, the conference has been named the Tadeusz Świętochowski Caucasology Session for Young Researchers.
Dr David Kolbaia, Head of the Caucasus Specialization
at the Centre for East European Studies UW