The decision to present selected research problems of poverty in this article through the lens of Professor Jerzy Topolski’s views was primarily motivated by the conviction that, despite the passage of several decades and changes in certain concepts and attitudes towards research in this field, many of his postulates have not lost their relevance and may still inspire not only historians but also researchers from other social science disciplines.The article consists of four parts, two of which, directly relating to the categories of poverty and destitution and the methods of their study, are based on the Professor’s position presented in a lecture delivered in 1991 and published a year later (Topolski, 1992). In the remaining sections, edited on the basis of other works by the Professor, selected theoretical and methodological guidelines and postulates are signaled, which, although no longer directed specifically at poverty researchers, are worth considering from the perspective of their studies.In the first part, against the backdrop of conceptual dilemmas clearly visible in the literature of the subject, the Professor’s stance on treating poverty and destitution as theoretical categories and the boundaries between them resulting from the relationship between needs and the possibilities of meeting them are presented.The second part of the study contains the Professor’s postulates regarding the necessity of moving away from descriptive accounts of poverty and subordinating the narrative to the pursuit of regularities, as well as the role of explanatory and theoretical questions in such proceedings. The third part presents the so-called directive of integral explanation, that is, combining the so-called objective side of the historical process (the effects of human actions) with its subjective side (the actions themselves). The subject of the fourth part is the need to transcend disciplinary boundaries, that is, the interdisciplinary integration of research, of which the Professor was a passionate advocate.

Several reasons led to the proposal to include in this 43rd volume of Studia Historiae Oeconomicae, dedicated to presenting research on various aspects and faces of poverty, its causes and consequences, a review article presenting the position in this field of the late Professor Jerzy Topolski.

Firstly, despite the passage of several decades and changes in some attitudes towards poverty research and ways of overcoming it, most of Topolski’s views formulated in the second half of the twentieth century have not lost their relevance and may continue to inspire not only historians but also researchers from other disciplines.

Secondly, although within Professor Topolski’s extremely plentiful body of published work – comprising more than 1,100 items published in Poland and many other countries – the subject of poverty did not constitute the main focus of his research, the position he presented in his 1991 paper entitled “Nędza, ubóstwo, dostatek jako kategorie teoretyczne w badaniu historycznym i ich wartość eksplanacyjna” [Destitution, poverty, affluence as theoretical categories in historical research and their explanatory value] (Topolski, 1992) has been drawn upon not only by historians (Kuklo, 2020), but also by researchers from other social science disciplines, particularly sociology (including: Tarkowska, 2000; Kanasz, 2015; Kolasa-Nowak, 2001; 2009; 2021; Ćwikła, 2006; Sosnowska, 2004; Kończal and Wawrzyniak, 2011), even though, compared to many of the Professor’s flagship works, the aforementioned paper might be regarded as a minor contribution.

Thirdly, it is also significant that Professor Jerzy Topolski himself, an advocate of disseminating the research achievements of Polish scholarship, was instrumental in launching this journal, which, through numerous publications in foreign languages, has for over 50 years provided a forum for dialogue with the global scholarly community – not only for economic and social historians, but also for researchers from other disciplines. The Professor was not only an initiator, but also a long-term co-editor of Studia Historiae Oeconomicae. He was often among the contributors, and in 1998, following his death, volume 23 of SHO was dedicated to him (Janicki, 2025; Janicki and Graban, 2019). For these reasons, the author considered it appropriate and interesting, in this volume of SHO presenting studies resulting from last year’s conference entitled “Poverty through the ages – causes, faces, consequences,” organized by the Department of Economic History of the Faculty of History at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, to include the voice of Professor Topolski from over 30 years ago and to look at the issue of poverty through the lens of his views presented in the aforementioned paper, delivered during the session “Destitution and affluence in Polish lands from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century,” organized in 1991 by the Institute of Material Culture History of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

The arguments cited above determined the shape and scope of this review article.