Anna M. Cienciala, professor emerita of history and Russian and East European studies at the University of Kansas, died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on December 24. She was 85 years old.
A native of what is now Gdansk, Poland, much of her scholarship was focused on the suffering of the Polish people during World War II. In 2008, Dr. Cienciala was the co-editor of Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment (Yale University Press).
She joined the faculty at the University of Kansas in 1965 and continued to serve on the faculty there until her retirement in 2002. After retirement she remained active at the university participating in online educational programs.
Professor Cienciala was a graduate of the University of Liverpool in England. She earned a master’s degree at McGill University in Montreal and a Ph.D. at Indiana University in Bloomington.