During his life and also after his death, Piotr Skarga divided the opinions of Poles. For some he was “the main troublemaker of the Republic of Poland,” and for others he was a prophet of “the misery after the partitions,” who by all means tried to save the sinking ship – Poland. by Jan Hlebowicz…
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the heart of the continent was one of the largest and most diverse European countries of the early modern age (16th-18th centuries), including the territories belonging nowadays to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine, as well as scraps of Russia and Estonia. The Commonwealth was created as a result of the…
There have been few wars in the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth so short and so full of sensational twists and turns. by Michał Wasiucionek The story of the short but bloody Khotyn War (1620–1621) was full of dramatic twists and turns: from the unexpected and overwhelming defeat of the Crown army at Țuțora…
“Do you know what a Polish sandwich looks like? Two slices of bread and a ration card for the meat in between.” That was how Hungarians used to joke around in the 1980s. However, Poles did not feel like laughing at the time. To buy sugar, cigarettes, shoes, petrol and many other goods they needed…
This September marks the forty-sixth anniversary of the creation of the Workers’ Defence Committee, the first open opposition organisation in communist-ruled Poland since the post-war era. by Jan Olaszek The Workers’ Defence Committee (Polish acronym ‘KOR’) was founded in September 1976 but, in order to tell its story, we need to go back a…
There is no point in discussing Poland’s responsibility for the outbreak of World War II. Those who make this claim are fully aware of the fact that it in no way corresponds with reality. Unfortunately, this is because a lie has long served as a tool of Russian historical policy. by Marek Kornat Insulting…
