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What Potop.org is

Potop.org covers the war between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden in 1655–1660, Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel The Deluge (Potop), published in book form in 1886¹², and Jerzy Hoffman's film, whose first part was released in 1974³. The pages are available in Polish and English.

Dates, figures and quotations have source references. We attribute conflicting accounts to their authors and mark gaps in the evidence. Footnotes let you check where an account comes from.

Three layers: history, novel, film

Each page identifies whether it describes historical events, Sienkiewicz’s story or Hoffman’s adaptation.

• History – what we know from period sources and from the work of historians.
• Novel – what Sienkiewicz wrote. The Deluge is a literary work built on history, but it is not a historical source.
• Film – what Hoffman showed. The film compresses and changes both the history and the novel.

Historical figures and characters in the novel have separate pages. Prior Augustyn Kordecki has a page in the "People" section and a separate page as a character in the novel. On the comparison pages, in the "History · novel · film" section, the three layers stand side by side in three columns: what the sources say, what Sienkiewicz wrote and what Hoffman showed. The first such page is Jasna Góra: history, novel, film.

Labels on the texts

Some paragraphs are set in a box with a label. The label tells you how certain the information is, or which layer it belongs to.

• Fact – established beyond reasonable doubt, usually by several independent sources.
• Documented – based on a specific, checkable source, with no conflicting accounts.
• Estimate – an approximate figure, not an exact count; we say whose estimate it is.
• Disputed – reputable sources give different figures or different accounts of events; we show all of them.
• Traditional account – the information rests on a single later or partisan account that nothing independent confirms.
• Legend – a story that grew up around the events and has no support in period sources.
• Literary fiction – Sienkiewicz's invention; it exists in the novel, not in history.
• Film dramatization – a change or addition made by the film-makers.
• Unknown / insufficiently documented – this cannot be established from the sources we have reached.

Characters in the novel have their own labels:

• Historical figure – a person who really lived and appears in the novel as himself or herself.
• Historical figure, fictionalized – a real person to whom the novel gives invented words and scenes, like Father Kordecki.
• Inspired by a historical figure – a character whose starting point was a real person but whose story is the writer's own, like Andrzej Kmicic.
• Character composed of several real figures – a character built from traits of several real people.
• Fictional character – a character invented by the writer, with no known prototype.
• Unknown – we do not know whether the character had a prototype.

Events are labelled in a similar way: documented, disputed, resting on a traditional account, legendary, or unknown.

How we rank sources

Every source has its own card in the "Sources" section and one of five levels:

1. Primary source – a period document, account or chronicle, and also the text of the novel itself.
2. Academic study – a monograph or a peer-reviewed article.
3. Institution – material from a museum, archive, library or other institution.
4. Reference work – a biographical dictionary, encyclopaedia, catalogue or database.
5. General website – a web page with no stronger status.

The level does not decide what is true. A period account can be partisan, and a century-old monograph can be out of date in its details, so with such sources we say whose judgement it is. Books we know only from a catalogue are listed, but we base no facts on them. The footnote after a sentence leads to the source card and, where possible, gives the page, volume or chapter.

Editorial responsibility and AI assistance

Potop.org is responsible for publication. Send corrections and questions to info@potop.org. AI tools assist with drafting, translation and illustrations. References point to the materials supporting an account; AI-generated text is not itself a source.

“Page updated” records a change to that page’s content or presentation. It is not the date of an original document or an independent review by a historian. Original publication dates are omitted for older pages when no record is available.

How to report an error

If you find a mistake, a missing source or a source that contradicts what we write, email info@potop.org. Give the address of the page, the sentence your note concerns and, if possible, the source you rely on. We check every correction against the source before we change the text.

Rights to texts and images

The texts on this site are protected by copyright (© Potop.org) unless marked otherwise. Quotations and images keep the legal status of their sources. Quotations from The Deluge come from the public-domain text published by Wolne Lektury¹. Historical paintings and maps identify their creator, provenance and legal status. AI-generated visualisations are clearly labeled and are not historical sources.

What you can explore

The history of the war follows its causes, the invasion and the years after the Peace of Oliva. The siege of Jasna Góra has a detailed account, as do many other events in the timeline. The People and Places sections let you follow the participants and settings of those events. Separate pages explore the novel, the film and the ways both works present history.

Notes

1. Henryk Sienkiewicz, Potop, Fundacja Nowoczesna Polska (Wolne Lektury), 2009–2010
2. Henryk Sienkiewicz, Potop: powieść historyczna, Warszawa: [s.n.] (druk. Noskowski), 1886
3. Potop, Łódź: Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna i Teatralna im. Leona Schillera w Łodzi (filmpolski.pl)