Of all the Polish insurrections in the 19th century, the January Uprising is still an emotional topic. There are many reasons for this – not only was it the largest of the Polish uprisings, but also the most significant in terms of its long-term results. On the one hand, the January Uprising is very symbolic…
The Paderewski government included a number of politicians and experts whose reputation and skills were now crucial to continuing Józef Piłsudski’s strategy. The government was established on 16 January 1919 and quickly gained the support of the countries of the victorious Entente. by Wojciech Roszkowski Instead of cracking down on rightist opposition, Piłsudski began…
While writing biographies of great writers, we, often unconsciously, look for something unique, or characteristic about the individual path they pursued in their lives. This is probably due to a legacy of romanticism that we are not aware of. Thus we are facing some troubles looking at Jan Kochanowski in a different way. by Wojciech…
The Reformation proved that religion could divide not only nations but also families. The Łaski family offers a notable example with the story of its two most prominent members, who shared the same name. The elder Jan Łaski was born in 1456 and served as archbishop of Gniezno, primate of Poland, and chancellor. He was…
Frederick Augustus, the Duke of Saxony, calculated that Warsaw was well worth the price of a mass and converted to Catholicism in 1697. His wife, an ardent Lutheran, felt no temptation to put the Jagiellonian crown on her head and refused. The lonely nights of Duke Frederick Augustus on the Vistula River were made pleasant…
Politics and culture go their own ways. Fragmented Italy, plunged into feuds, gave the world the Renaissance. Spain suffered defeat after defeat in the 17th century, but was in its golden age in the field of literature and art. At the end of the reign of Jan III Sobieski, the Polish-Lithuanian state fell into utter…
