Wielka Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN (Great Universal Encyclopedia) is the largest Polish encyclopedia ever written. It was published between 1962 and 1970 by Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe (State Scientific Publishers, PWN) in Warsaw. The WEP contains about 82 thousand entries in thirteen volumes (including the Supplement). As is stated in the foreword, the encyclopedia is "based on rationalist and materialist assumptions" and reflects the worldview of the "socialist ideology".

About 2000 authors, 1000 reviewers, and almost 100 editors were supervised by the Scientific Board appointed by the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and the Ministry of Higher Education, and headed by professor Tadeusz Kotarbiński. The initiative to write the WEP was taken by PWN in July 1957 when it was decided that an 8-volume (lated expanded to 12 volumes) universal encyclopedia would be published. Preparations began in 1957 and the actual writing started in April 1959. It took 14 months to prepare the list of entries, about 16 month to write the first volume, and then about 9 months for each next volume. Right after the twelfth volume had been published, the work on the Supplement (about 5 thousand updated, revised or completely new articles) began.

Volumes

with dates of publishing:

1. A – Ble, 1962
2. Bli – Deo, 1963
3. Dep – Franc, 1964
4. Frang – Im, 1964
5. In – Kons, 1965
6. Kont – Mam, 1965
7. Man – Nomi, 1966
8. Nomo – Polsc, 1966
9. Polska – Robe, 1967; begins with an extensive 224-page long article about Poland, subdivided into 35 sections.
10. Robi – Step, 1967
11. Ster – Urz, 1968
12. Usa – Ż, 1969
13. Supplement, 1970

Controversy

Volume 8 includes an article entitled "Hitler's concentration camps" (Obozy koncentracyjne hitlerowskie) which caused much controversy. The major objections were that:

• it did not show that concentration camps were not the only tool of extermination used by the Nazis (along with penal camps, prisons, ghettos, labor camps, POW camps, etc.);
• it did not show the difference in the role of concentration camps prior to and after the German invasion on Poland;
• it distorted the image of the martyrdom of the Polish and other nations;
• it ignored the existence of German death camps localized outside Poland, ie. in Germany, Austria, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and other German-occupied countries.

As the result, the editorial team was "renewed" and a new, revised article, this time entitled "Hitler's camps" (Obozy hitlerowskie), was added as an inset to Volume 11, and later included in the Supplement.

Successor

As of early 2005, a new universal encyclopedia is being published by PWN. When completed, Wielka Encyklopedia PWN will surpass the WEP in size, with 140 thousand entries in 30 volumes. The first volume was published in 2001 and the last is due to appear by the end of 2005.