The main message of Sukiennicki’s biography is intellectual independence won even at the price of marginalisation and isolation, fidelity to the belief that research can show the truth about the world, says Professor Sławomir Łukasiewicz. polishhistory.pl: Wiktor Sukiennicki is a figure of great merit for Sovietology and the understanding of the functioning of the…
polishhistory: In the spring of 1940, the Soviet secret police committed an unprecedented crime by secretly murdering nearly 22,000 Polish citizens. What place does this tragedy occupy in Polish national memory? Professor Tadeusz Wolsza: The Katyń massacre permanently, painfully, and deeply entered into our national history. Each subsequent anniversary is accompanied by new editions of…
On 1 March 1951, following a show trial at Mokotów prison in Warsaw, seven members of the WiN independence movement (IV Zarządu Głównego Zrzeszenia – Wolność i Niezawisłość) were shot. The anniversary of this crime has been commemorated since 2011 as the National Memorial Day of the Cursed Soldiers. Tomasz Wiścicki interviews Dr. Tomasz Łabuszewski,…
“I believe this 75th anniversary is particularly important. We do not know whether in five years, on the 80th anniversary, we will still be able to invite such a large group of survivors. The second issue that characterizes this anniversary is the condition of our society”, states Piotr Cywiński, Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum….
Poland turned out to be a beneficiary of the Versailles Treaty. It was among the victorious powers after the First World War and participated in peace negotiations, which was a kind of miracle of resurrection – says Dr. Piotr Szlanta, a historian from the University of Warsaw. One hundred years ago, on 28 June 1919…
In Kolyma or in other camps, Poles learned from NKVD officers that the purpose of their work was not punishment but “death”. All the prisoners who managed to survive emphasized that Kolyma was not a punishment, but a process of dying over time, says Sebastian Warlikowski, editor of the collection of memoirs “Nie tylko Kołyma….
