December 1980: The Soviet invasion of Poland
Was Moscow really planning to invade Poland?

At the beginning of the winter of 1980, Warsaw Pact countries mobilized several divisions to take part in Soyuz-80 maneuvers scheduled on 8 December 1980. The White House was afraid that under the pretext of exercising, the Soviet army would enter Poland and break up Solidarity. Was Moscow really planning to invade Poland? by Tomasz...

Dr. A. Buława: November Night is "the second Warsaw Uprising"

On November Night, the lower classes of the Warsaw community joined the young cadets. According to Dr. Adam Buława, a historian from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, some historians even use the term “the second Warsaw Uprising”, as the first was the April 1794 insurrection.   Polish Press Agency: One of the historians...

The November Uprising: More Than a Romantic Rebellion
The outbreak of the November Uprising

One of the several classic ‘Polish insurgences’: armed, bloody and lost. Apart from the romantic legend around it, it is distinguished by the fact that the episode lasting a year was unusually effective in unsettling things as they were. After the lost uprising, two paths of development, possible before, were not available to the Poles...

Wanda Błeńska: a friend of lepers
(30 October 1911 – 27 November 2014)

Known and respected in Poland and abroad, she was called the Polish Mother Teresa. For more than 42 years she treated leprosy patients in Uganda, becoming one of the most eminent specialists in this field. She converted a rural leprosarium without any electricity into a modern medical centre. by Jan Hlebowicz   Even as a...

The Victors and the Polish Cause at the End of the Great War
106th anniversary of the Polish independence

When exactly 106 years ago, on 11 November 1918, the military operations ceased and the armistice ended the Great War the world was waiting for the accords of the peace conference which was to be held soon to determine the future of the world. A question remains: what did the main victorious powers offer Poland?...

The murder of Lwów professors
German unpunished crime (July 1941)

Among those murdered in Lwów by German troops in July 1941 were eminent mathematicians, pioneers of modern medicine, engineers, and university rectors. The murder of Polish scientists has become a symbol of fanaticism and hatred. by Piotr Abryszeński   The destruction of the Polish intelligentsia On 28 September 1939, the Third Reich and the Soviet...

Zbigniew Herbert: The Poet of Burning Verses
(29 October 1924 – 28 July 1998)

He was one of the most important Polish poets and writers of the 20th century, with his works translated into dozens of languages. His nonconformist stance during the totalitarian regime in the Polish People’s Republic became a point of reference for independent circles. Despite his outstanding artistic achievements and international recognition, he remained very private....

The Legend of Romuald Traugutt
(16 January 1826 – 5 August 1864)

For months, he fought fiercely to restore his homeland to the European map, but his heroic death cut short his efforts. His bravery and death became symbols of the January Uprising. by Piotr Bejrowski   On the night of April 10-11, 1864,  Romuald Traugutt, the leader of the January Uprising, was arrested by the Russian...

Wanda Rutkiewicz: the first lady of world Himalayan mountaineering
First woman to reach the summit of K2 and the first European woman to climb Mount Everest

Wanda Rutkiewicz was one of the best Himalayan climbers in history and a pioneer of all-female climbing in the world’s highest mountains. She climbed eight eight-thousanders. She always looked at Himalayan mountaineering through the prism of sport. She pushed her own limits, wanted to be the best every time, and never gave up on the...

Tolerance in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a ‘state without the stake’
Tradition of religious freedom in Poland

The Europe of stakes – this is the term that can be used to describe most of our continent in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Reformation took on many different faces, and the paths leading to what was most important for Europeans at the time, namely salvation, proved to be not only different and...

Hilary Koprowski: the man who overcame polio
The man that saved millions of lives

An effective polio vaccine, discovered in 1950, saved the health and lives of hundreds of thousands of children around the world. Born in 1916, the Polish doctor, virologist and immunologist Hilary Koprowski belonged to the elite “Pasteur club”, as the group of eminent vaccinologists working on new vaccines was called. by Piotr Bejrowski   Despite...
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Note addressed to the Governments of the United Nations by the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edward Raczyński, regarding German crimes in occupied Poland

80th anniversary of proclamation of the Note

The double attack on Poland by Nazi Germany and the USSR in September 1939 led to the effective dissolution of the Polish state. Although Poland lost its sovereignty, its legal authorities continued to function, organising the Polish armed forces in France and later in Great Britain. Under these circumstances, the primary aim of the Polish...
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General Maczek: Tenaciously, yet chivalrously

an interview with Jacques Wiacek

“Fight just like a Polish soldier has always done throughout history. Fight tenaciously, and yet chivalrously!” Thus, General Stanisław Maczek, the model of an indomitable soldier, encouraged his soldiers to fight. Jacques Wiacek, author of “Histoire de la 1re division blindée polonaise (1939-1945): L’odyssée du phénix”, first French-language monograph on the 1st Division of General...
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December 1980: The Soviet invasion of Poland

Was Moscow really planning to invade Poland?

At the beginning of the winter of 1980, Warsaw Pact countries mobilized several divisions to take part in Soyuz-80 maneuvers scheduled on 8 December 1980. The White House was afraid that under the pretext of exercising, the Soviet army would enter Poland and break up Solidarity. Was Moscow really planning to invade Poland? by Tomasz...
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Józef Beck. Biografia [Józef Beck. Biography]

review of the book by Marek Kornat and Mariusz Wołos

In historiography, he is usually shown as a politician and diplomat. He himself felt most of all a soldier who on Piłsudski’s orders assumed responsibility for Poland’s foreign policy. Unlike Piłsudski, Józef Beck lost the most important battle – for the historical memory of his countrymen. Will this book by Marek Kornat and Mariusz Wołos...

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The Battle of Warsaw 1920-2020

17 August 2020
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The Battle of Warsaw 1920-2020
The Second World War and its Consequences from the Perspective of 75 Years since its End. Panel 2
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Polishhistory is an online project of the Polish History Museum in Warsaw. It is primarily addressed to all those interested in Polish and Central European history. Our aim is to build a community consisting of those professionally involved in research and of those interested in the outcomes of research, essentially, all lovers of history. The...
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