To the Polish people. Manifesto of the Movement for Defence of Human and Citizen’s Rights

A wave of protests swept over Poland in June 1976 after the announcement of an increase in groceries’ prices. The authorities eventually resigned from price changes but introduced repression against the protesting workers. This met with a quick response from the intelligentsia, who organised financial and legal support for the repressed and soon started forming…


Halina Konopacka: Miss Olympia

In 1928, at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam, Halina Konopacka won the first gold medal in the history of Polish sport. In the 1920s, no woman in the world could throw the discus further than she did. A versatile sportswoman, she won the “Przegląd Sportowy” poll twice for the best sportsman in Poland (1927 and…


Leopold Tyrmand: an original writer and master of self-aggrandizement

Leopold Tyrmand was one of the most interesting figures of post-war Poland’s artistic milieu. Despite the oppression of the communist regime, he had his own way of opposing the system. by Piotr Bejrowski Tyrmand’s biographers aptly point out that he opposed communism not only ideologically, but also aesthetically. He wanted to maintain the continuity of…


The Peace Treaty of Riga: A Stop-gap for Russian Expansion

The peace concluded between the Republic of Poland, of the one part, and Soviet Russia and Ukraine, of the other part, brought political order to the territories between the Baltic and Black Seas for 18 and a half years. Eventually, Hitler’s ally Moscow declared it ‘null and void’. by Wojciech Stanisławski   Who knows, maybe…


Manifesto of the Polish Democratic Society

The Polish Democratic Society (Towarzystwo Demokratyczne Polskie, TDP), which announced the Poitiers Manifesto, was one of the most important political organizations of the Polish émigré community. It was made up mostly of November insurgents who left the country to escape repressions after the uprising’s fall in 1831. The TDP was a radically democratic and republican…


My name was Czesława Kwoka

Look at the photo carefully. The face of a Polish girl dressed in the camp’s striped uniform is symbolic of Nazi policy towards children whose lives were considered unnecessary. by Piotr Abryszeński   The German Generalplan Ost was created on the basis of the assumption that  a “living space” (“Lebensraum”) in the territories of Central…


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