Sons of Poland

Polish professors publish with a putin-loving russian papermiller, when caught they accuse their critics of being russian agents who conspired against Poland. Patriotism is a complicated issue!

Papermill rabbit, hounded by russian agents

You might remember Grzegorz Krolczyk, the rapacious papermill rabbit of the Opole University of Polytechnic (or Opole Polytechnic). If not read, here:

Krolczyk used to be Vice-Rector for Research at Opole Polytechnic, when my article was published, he also has been just appointed by the Polish government as President of the national Council for Higher Education, Science and Innovation. Krolczyk now lost both offices.

Prior to that, in April 2024, two papers by Krolczyk got retracted: Wang et al 2022 and Qi et al 2022, both in Elsevier’s Journal of Energy Storage – they were part of 100%-papermill special issue by Masoud Afrand, Nader Karimi, Mohammad Arjmand and Cong Qi. The reasons for the retractions were: author email addresses “associated with multiple researcher accounts“, peer reviewers “closely linked to the Guest Editor, Masoud Afrand“, and citations added during peer review, where references to Karimi’s papers increased from zero “to 6 papers in the revised version“.

Krolczyk’s path to success, and the cause of his fall, was his collaboration with several papermill fraudsters – primarily Zhixiong Li from China and Munish Kumar Gupta from India, whom the Vice-Rector installed as professors at his Opole Polytechnic. Both men are co-authors on these retracted papers, and they earned more retractions since.

Now, the papermill fraudster Gupta must have at some point introduced Krolczyk to a certain russian named Danil Pimenov, who despite having only a MSc degree, is a senior lecturer at the University of Chelyabinsk. Pimenov is, because of his papermilling, ranked among the top 10 Russian scientists in the field of engineering and technology. Gupta has 40 common publications with Pimenov, and Krolczyk now has 18 papers with this russian.

Gupta and Pimenov share a retraction, right after their paper was published in July 2022. Elsevier decided not to reveal the reasons:

Danil Yu Pimenov , Munish Kumar Gupta , Mozammel Mia , Leonardo Rosa Ribeiro Da Silva , Alisson Rocha Machado , Vitor Baldin , Italo Tomaz , Mehmet Erdi Korkmaz , Aqib M. Khan Machining of hard-to-cut materials: A review and future prospects Journal of Materials Processing Technology (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2022.117722

An earlier joint paper by Gupta and Pimenov (Lyu et al 2021) was flagged for referencing dodgy papes – “‘citation magnets”, i.e. biomarkers for potential citation shenanigans.“

We don’t know when and how Gupta first met his russian friend, but this Polish professor boasts to have done “distance work” at Pimenov’s university in Chelyabinsk just before joining Opole Polytechnic in 2021:

Importantly, Pimenov is not just a papermiller, but also a proud rascist Z-patriot. I once made screenshots from his russian-language posts in VKontakte, where he celebrates putin, the Chechen butcher ramzan kadyrov, russian empire and russian nuclear weapons, and of course Pimenov fully supports the “special military operation” against Ukraine:

Soon after I published this in August 2024 Shorts, Pimenov deleted the rascist propaganda posts, his later posts on VKontakte are still sufficiently patriotic but at least not openly endorsing towards war criminals. But for Krolczyk and certain other Polish professors. Pimenov is a “good russian” and a true friend of Poland. It is me whom they publicly accuse of being a russian secret service agent. Maybe because Pimenov is really one?

The local Polish newspaper Opolska picked up on my Krolczyk reporting, and the Vice-Rector of Opole Polytechnic went into full attack mode against Schneider the Enemy of Poland:

“In response, Professor Grzegorz Korolczyk said that this publication “is part of a hybrid attack on Polish scientists and the subject of proceedings conducted by the Internal Security Agency.“

Narrator: there never was any investigation by the Internal Security Agency. Krolczyk’s superior and rector of the Opole Polytechnic, Marcin Lorenc, posted a reply to Opolska reporting. It read exactly in the style of the russian propaganda:

“…common disinformation, hate, fake news, various types of attacks by foreign intelligence services, and internet troll farms […] hybrid attacks from the East most often take place in Poland […] Special services in many countries also create false personas of scientists […] We do not agree and strongly condemn hate, fake news and post-truth. Today such a situation happened to prof. Grzegorz Królczyk, it could happen to any of us tomorrow.”

Much of Lorenc’ rant was targetted against the Polish emeritus professor and research integrity activist Marek Wronski, whom Lorenc slandered as plagiarist and as agent of the russian secret service GRU. Also, Lorenc revealed that Leonid Schneider does not exist:

“Dr. Leonid Schneider introduces himself as “an independent journalist of Ukrainian Jewish origin who lives in Germany.” Dr. Schneider uses an address on the Gmail platform for correspondence, and the content of the messages he sent to the management of our university seem to be written by bots: the style and language are far from the standards of official correspondence, the content is full of insults.
[…] Looking through his profiles, you may wonder if such a person even exists?”

In August 2024, Krolczyk felt totally confident and had his secretary interview him. The result was published on 10 August 2024 on Opole Polytechnic website and is a very long diatribe against all his critics and an announcement to sue the newspaper Opolska. He presented himself as a “victim to a massive attack” and of a foreign conspiracy against Poland.

Without naming him, Krolczyk defended his collaboration with the rascist ork Pimenov:

“I would like to emphasize that science does not recognize borders, and I have joint research and review work with scientists from several dozen countries, e.g. from China, the USA, Ukraine, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Russia, and Belarus. This is scientific cooperation, but not at any cost. For example, my co-authors know my view on the war caused by Russia. I was the initiator of breaking off institutional contacts with Russian universities and removing Russian scientists from the scientific committees of conferences organized by the Opole University of Technology.”

That is actually a shameless lie. In reality, Krolczyk continues publishing with Pimenov, here is their most recent:

Danil Yu. Pimenov , Leonardo Rosa Ribeiro Da Silva , Alisson Rocha Machado , Pedro Henrique Pires França , Giuseppe Pintaude , Deepak Rajendra Unune , Mustafa Kuntoğlu , Grzegorz M. Krolczyk A comprehensive review of machinability of difficult-to-machine alloys with advanced lubricating and cooling techniques Tribology International (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.triboint.2024.109677

In total, Krolczyk has 18 common papers with Pimenov, five of them published after russia started its full-scale attack on Ukraine of 24 February 2022.

Here is one such paper, with a revealing keyword of “milling”, resubmitted to the journal by Pimenov, Krolczyk and Gupta in June 2022:

Danil Yu. Pimenov , Munish Kumar Gupta , Leonardo R.R. Da Silva , Maitri Kiran , Navneet Khanna , Grzegorz M. Krolczyk Application of measurement systems in tool condition monitoring of Milling: A review of measurement science approach Measurement (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.measurement.2022.111503 

But it was me whom Krolczyk sees as a russian agent and a danger to the national security of his dear Poland:

“I still have doubts whether this person exists at all, i.e. whether he is actually the person he claims to be.
Please note that people around him graduated from Moscow universities. We are dealing with a Ukrainian of Jewish origin living in Germany who signs his name in Cyrillic and attacks scientists from Central Europe. Such information cannot be ignored.”

A few days after this unhinged interview with himself, on 14 August 2024, our Polish patriot had to step down as Chairman of the National Council for Innovation in Higher Education and Science, retrospectively even (read August 2024 Shorts).

With his university under fire, Lorenc (who just began with papermilling himself) sued Opolska, and demanded financial damage and removal of all articles about Krolczyk (read August 2024 Shorts). He and his Polytechnic eventually lost, the Opolska articles are all online.

On 29 January 2025, Krolczyk stepped down as Vice-Rector for Research, one day before he was about to be sacked on the recommendation of the Conference of Rectors of Polish Academic Schools (read January 2025 Shorts). As our hounded rabbit explained, he resigned to protect his 3 children from russian blackmail. This was his resignation letter, also covered by Forum Academickie and by Opolska:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Over the past few months, you have witnessed unprecedented attacks on me, members of my research team and the entire community of the Opole University of Technology. I have been accused of participating in the so-called publication factories (papermills) […]

Such a situation has never occurred in my professional work. Unfortunately, I have been presented as a highly unethical person, although I have not been provided with any evidence of this. The case was invented and publicized by people associated with the blog “For Better Science” with undefined funding, whose goal is to attack scientists who hold important positions at their universities. Then, this false information, unsupported by any evidence, was repeated by the weekly “Opolska” dozens of times.  The aim of the attack was not only to destroy my good name and scientific achievements, but also the prestige and reputation of the Opole University of Technology.[…]

It is also worth noting that the content posted on the blog “For Better Science” is not based on facts, is not verified in any way by Polish journalists.  […] I myself received a message with blackmail that if I deposit 500,000 euros into a bitcoin account and provide the password, all attacks on me will be stopped, and that this group will also reveal and destroy the scientific and social reputation of anyone I point to. […]

Ladies and Gentlemen, in light of the described events characterized by hate speech, […] with my three children in mind, I have decided to resign from the position of Vice-Rector for Science and Development. I will fight for my good name in court: I have filed a lawsuit against the journalists of “Opolska”. […]

With respect

Grzegorz Królczyk”

Yet Krolczyk is certainly not the only Polish professor who goes to bed with the papermilling rascist ork Pimenov.

Pan Tadeusz and company

Recently, a Polish academic contacted me with an analysis of Pimenov’s papers, which features Polish coauthors. It was also published on ScienceWatch.pl. as part of an article by Joanna Gruba from 18 August 2024, on which this reporting of mine is based.

Pimenov’s heydays were the years 2021 with 82 publications and 2022 with 46. After that, he slowed down, maybe he ran out of money, or maybe the bank transfers from russia became difficult what with sanctions. In 2023 Pimenov had just 8 papers, in 2024 only 4 (according to Google Scholar). 2025 is slightly better, with 4 papers already and 5 month to go.

Gupta is surely Pimenov’s closest associate in Poland, with 40 common papers, but Pimenov’s most loyal Polish-born friend is surprisingly not Krolczyk! Not even in third place!

The leader is Tadeusz Mikolajczyk, who is a (retired?) professor at Bydgoszcz University of Technology and who published almost as much as Gupta with Pimenov: 38 papers. Mikolajczyk’s extremely close collaboration with the rascist ork started already in 2015. At some point Krolczyk, Gupta and their papermill associate in Bangladesh, Mozammel Mia joined, see Mikolajczyk et al 2018 and Mikolajczyk et al 2019. The year 2018 was also when Krolczyk (with Gupta and Mia) first published with Pimenov separately (e.g., Mia et al 2018), leading to almost 20 common papers by Krolczyk and Pimonov today, including with the now defunct predatory publisher Imperial Open (Singh et al 2021).

And here are two most recent Pimenov papers with Mikolajczyk, from 2024 and 2023. Their coauthors include Pimenov’s closest papermill associates, Mustafa Kuntoglu from Turkey and Khaled Giasin, senior lecturer at the University of Portsmouth in UK.

• Danil Yu. Pimenov , Leonardo R. R. Da Silva , Ali Ercetin , Oğuzhan Der , Tadeusz Mikolajczyk , Khaled Giasin State-of-the-art review of applications of image processing techniques for tool condition monitoring on conventional machining processes The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2024) doi: 10.1007/s00170-023-12679-1 
• Tadeusz Mikołajczyk , Hubert Latos , Zygmunt Szczepaniak , Tomasz Paczkowski , Danil Yu. Pimenov , Khaled Giasin , Mustafa Kuntoğlu Theoretical and experimental research of edge inclination angle effect on minimum uncut chip thickness in oblique cutting of C45 steel The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2023) doi: 10.1007/s00170-022-10605-5 

The second paper features several more Polish patriots in bed with a rascist papermill ork. Next to Mikolajczyk, we have 3 other Bydgoszcz Polytechnic faculty members: professor Hubert Latos (5 common papers with Pimenov), and professor Tomasz Paczkowski (6 common papers), plus some Zygmunt Szczepaniak.

In 2021, Mikolajczyk, Pimenov and Gupta jointly edited a Special Issue at MDPI. It has 26 published papers, 20 of them were authored by Pimenov, of these 7 had Gupta as coauthor, and of these 4 had Mikolajczyk as coauthor. Perfectly normal for MDPI. Krolczyk contributed one paper to that Special Issue, with Giasin and several Poles from Gdansk Polytechnic:

Daniel Chuchala , Michal Dobrzynski , Danil Yurievich Pimenov , Kazimierz A. Orlowski , Grzegorz Krolczyk , Khaled Giasin Surface Roughness Evaluation in Thin EN AW-6086-T6 Alloy Plates after Face Milling Process with Different Strategies Materials (2021) doi: 10.3390/ma14113036 

Three papers in that Special Issue were authored by Pimenov together with his second-closest Polish friend – Szymon Wojciechowski from Poznan Polytechnic, who published 24 papers with that ork, and in July 2024 was appointed full professor by the order of the Polish President. You see, papermilling with rascists is officially in Poland’s national interests!

But I hear red-white-blooded Polish nationalists scream: shut up you bloodthirsty Ukrainian Jew! In 2021 russia was still a friend of Poland! Nothing wrong with publishing with Pimenov! Well, for starters, russia started its war against Ukraine already in 2014, and second, more to the point, even after February 2022 the Polish professors Krolczyk, Mikolajczyk and Wojciechowski happily continued papermilling with a rascist who publicly professed his love for putin, kadyrov and the “special military operation”.

Here is a nice paper, from September 2022, authored by Pimenov with the Polish professors Wojciechowski and Gupta, plus Kuntoglu and Mia:

Danil Yu Pimenov , Mozammel Mia , Munish K. Gupta , Álisson R. Machado, Giuseppe Pintaude , Deepak Rajendra Unune , Navneet Khanna , Aqib Mashood Khan , Ítalo Tomaz, Szymon Wojciechowski , Mustafa Kuntoğlu Resource saving by optimization and machining environments for sustainable manufacturing: A review and future prospects Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2022.112660

“The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reported that polyaromatic rings in mineral oil-based cutting fluids cause skin cancer [231].“

(231) Balasubramanian M. Prediction of optimum weld pool geometry of PCTIG welded titanium alloy using statistical design. Eng Sci Technol Int J 2016;19:15–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jestch.2015.06.001.

As a PubPeer user commented, “Cancer is not mentioned a single time in the above reference“, but what can you expect from cheap papermills, especially since someone named Balasubramanian paid to be cited.

More recent, from 2023. Here we have Pimenov, Wojciechowski, Kuntoglu, Gupta and the freshly appointed Polish professor Vishal Santosh Sharma, who used to be Krolczyk’s mentor and was recruited to Opole Polytechnic in summer 2024 (read August 2024 Shorts):

Danil Yu Pimenov , Andres Bustillo , Szymon Wojciechowski , Vishal S. Sharma , Munish K. Gupta , Mustafa Kuntoğlu Artificial intelligence systems for tool condition monitoring in machining: analysis and critical review Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing (2023) doi: 10.1007/s10845-022-01923-2 

Returning to Pan Tadeusz (“Russia! My Home!“) – he must have introduced several Polish colleagues to his dear rascist friend Pimenov. The following paper from 2019 shows the Mikolajczyk and Pimenov with Sharma, Mia and Gupta, and two other Poles from Koszalin University of Technology: Wojciech Kaplonek and Krzysztof Nadolny. The latter is Head of Department and was celebrated by his university in 2020 as “among the 2% of the most influential scientists in the world” and has 17 papers with Pimenov. Kaplonek published 18 times with the ork, and it could have been many more, had not this Koszalin University professor died in January 2021.

Munish Kumar Gupta , Mozammel Mia , Catalin I. Pruncu , Wojciech Kapłonek , Krzysztof Nadolny , Karali Patra , Tadeusz Mikolajczyk , Daniil Yu. Pimenov , Murat Sarikaya , Vishal S. Sharma Parametric optimization and process capability analysis for machining of nickel-based superalloy The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2019) doi: 10.1007/s00170-019-03453-3 

That Gupta et al 2016 paper was retracted in March 2023, “as similar images have been used in various articles in multiple journals claiming varying conditions“. But the equally fraudulent Gupta et al 2019 paper was merely corrected in November 2022 to replace the duplicated Figure 7 and to add a reference to the retracted Gupta et al 2016 study. Probably because that one has many white men on it, including the Romanian Catalin Iulian Pruncu, currently a fellow at University of Birmingham in UK.

Here a paper by Pruncu and Krolczyk, note that they corrected it two years after publication to add a reference to their dear ork friend, Pimenov:

Chander Prakash , Sunpreet Singh , Animesh Basak , Grzegorz Królczyk , Alokesh Pramanik , Luciano Lamberti , Catalin I. Pruncu Processing of Ti50Nb50−xHAx composites by rapid microwave sintering technique for biomedical applications Journal of Materials Research and Technology (2020) doi: 10.1016/j.jmrt.2019.10.051 

This reference was added in the Corrigendum, and incidentally this same paper was also cited in two GYNECOLOGY studies from India, Shalini & Butta 2024 (on topic of menstruation) and Rasotra & Shanthakumar (on topic of vaginismus), incidentally together with papers by other russian papermillers, the Trukhanov brothers:

Chander Prakash, Sunpreet Singh, Catalin Iulian Pruncu, Vinod Mishra, Grzegorz Królczyk, Danil Yurievich Pimenov, and Alokesh Pramanik “Surface modification of Ti-6Al-4V alloy by electrical discharge coating process using partially sintered Ti-Nb electrode” Materials (2019), doi: 10.3390/ma12071006

Returning to the Prakash et al 2020 paper, it should have been retracted, but Elsevier sees it differently:

The Figure 8, and not just it, reappeared in another paper by Krolczyk and Chander Prakash, their coauthor is the mega-papermiller Seeram Ramakrishna:

Chander Prakash , Sunpreet Singh , Seeram Ramakrishna , Grzegorz Królczyk, Chi H. Le Microwave sintering of porous Ti–Nb-HA composite with high strength and enhanced bioactivity for implant applications Journal of Alloys and Compounds (2020) doi: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2020.153774 

I don’t think Polish patriots stopped publishing with the rascist ork because of some troubled conscience, these people are unable to feel guilt.

The above mentioned Portsmouth lecturer Giasin however continues working with Pimenov, probably because it is in Britain’s national interests. Here they are, plus some usual Brazilians, on a freshly published papermill product, Da Silva et al 2025. Also, allow me to post these two papers by Pimenov and Giasin, even if not related to Poland. They appeared in the same MDPI journal, in the same year, and nobody noticed the shared figure:

• Rakesh Chaudhari, Parth Prajapati, Sakshum Khanna , Jay Vora , Vivek K. Patel , Danil Yurievich Pimenov, Khaled Giasin Multi-Response Optimization of AlO Nanopowder-Mixed Wire Electrical Discharge Machining Process Parameters of Nitinol Shape Memory Alloy Materials (2022) doi: 10.3390/ma15062018 
• Rakesh Chaudhari , Yug Shah , Sakshum Khanna , Vivek K. Patel , Jay Vora , Danil Yurievich Pimenov , Khaled Giasin Experimental Investigations and Effect of Nano-Powder-Mixed EDM Variables on Performance Measures of Nitinol SMA Materials (2022) doi: 10.3390/ma15207392 

The biggest users of Pimenov’s russian hospitality are Gupta (40 papers), Mikołajczyk (38 papers), Wojciechowski (24 papers), Królczyk (18 papers), the late Kapłonek (18 papers) and Nadolny (17 papers), However, 35 other Polish academics also published with Pimenov. On a smaller scale, between 1 and 6 publications each. The leading universities are Bydgoszcz University of Technology (12 people), Koszalin University of Technology (11 people), as well as Opole University of Technology, University of Zielona Góra, and Gdańsk University of Technology with 4 people each.

One of these one-off users is Jozef Gawlik, former Rector of the Cracow University of Technology and former member of the national Council of Scientific Excellence, which processes applications for the title of a professor. As it happens, it was Gawlik who approved Krolczyk’s professorship application in 2020. And look, Krolczyk paid him back, here a paper of theirs with Pimenov, Gupta and Krolczyk’s Turkish associate Mehmet Korkmaz:

Munish Kumar Gupta , Hamza El Etri , Mehmet Erdi Korkmaz , Nimel Sworna Ross , Grzegorz M. Krolczyk , Józef Gawlik , Nafiz Yaşar , Danil Yu Pimenov Tribological and surface morphological characteristics of titanium alloys: a review Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering (2022) doi: 10.1007/s43452-022-00392-x 

“It is confusing that five of the six references mentioned in this fragment ([39 – 43]) are mostly unrelated to titanium alloys, the main topic of the current paper. Instead, these references all share the same author, M Korkmaz.“

Dillenia retusa

22 papers were published by Polish authors with Pimenov between 2022 and 2024, after russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started on 24 February 2022. At least none were published in 2025, but this is only due to reporting by Opolska and Forum Academickie which caused a national scandal.

This trash by Pimenov and Giasin was published in June 2022 and look how many Polish patriots are on it:

Tadeusz Mikolajczyk , Emilia Mikołajewska , Hayder F. N. Al-Shuka , Tomasz Malinowski , Adam Kłodowski , Danil Yurievich Pimenov , Tomasz Paczkowski , Fuwen Hu , Khaled Giasin , Dariusz Mikołajewski , Marek Macko Recent Advances in Bipedal Walking Robots: Review of Gait, Drive, Sensors and Control Systems Sensors (2022) doi: 10.3390/s22124440 

Next to Mikolajczyk’s polytechnic colleagues Tomasz Malinowski and the above mentioned Tomasz Paczkowski, we have scholars from the neighbouring Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz: the Vice-Rector for Development and Cooperation, Marek Macko, and the Head of Department Dariusz Mikolajewski with his wife Emilia Mikolajewska, plus another Pole abroad – Adam Klodowski, professor at LUT in Finland.

Another on-off user – what drove Krzysztof Adamczuk of University of Zielona Góra to join forces with a rascist ork? The paper was submitted to MDPI in July 2022:

Ramandeep Singh Sidhu , Raman Kumar , Ranvijay Kumar , Pankaj Goel , Sehijpal Singh , Danil Yurievich Pimenov , Khaled Giasin , Krzysztof Adamczuk Joining of Dissimilar Al and Mg Metal Alloys by Friction Stir Welding Materials (2022) doi: 10.3390/ma15175901 

I will contact Giasin’s British university about his papermilling with a rascist fraudster, and report on their reaction. As for Poland, the ScienceWatch article from 18 August 2024 ended with:

“In condemning the publication practices of paper mills, we must ask the part of the academic community involved: where does the publishing boundaries lie, as mandated by the Code of Ethics for Researchers and the Law on Higher Education and Science? We are interested in the Ministry of Science and Higher Education’s reaction and its acceptance of individuals with such moral backbone to hold any positions, thus setting a disastrous example in their communities.”

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PS:

You might be confused about Polish patriots who claim to hate russia and simultaneously defend Pimenov and accuse me (of all people!) of being a russian agent.

Well, that’s because the word “pro-russian” has for nationalist Poles the same meaning as the word “fascist” has for russians. These words mean not what you think they mean, but simply: “people I hate“.

In the fascist russia of today, “fascists” are Ukrainians, LGBTQ, dissidents, western politicians who support Ukraine, human rights activists etc. But putin and other actual fascists are national heroes fighting “fascism”.

Poland historically suffered a lot from Germany and russia, so those have a bad reputation. This is why, “pro-German” and “pro-russian” are slurs thrown by supporters of the catholic-xenophobic PiS party and the putin-loving fascist party Konfederacja against their perceived enemies. Polish nationalists do not really want Poland to be free, they would happily welcome the return of russian rule as long as Poland becomes ethnically pure, catholic, and free from immigrants, Jews, LGBTQ people and abortions. Thus, it is the Greens, liberals, LGBTQ, feminists, and democrats in general who are “pro-russian” because they are the enemy. But actual russian fascists like putin and his ilk are admired, not even secretely.

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