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Beata Bruggeman-Sekowska On the 13th of January victims of the Soviet military aggression of 1991 are commemorated. The candle, as symbol of the memory, today is lit across Lithuania and by the Lithuanian communities abroad. On 13 January 1991 armoured Soviet forces drove through peaceful crowd which gathered to protect the symbol of Lithuania’s […]
Publications
Review of: Raymond Aron, The Opium of the Intellectuals (1st publication in French, 1955) Patrick van Schie Nowhere in Western Europe have intellectuals been so fascinated by communism and the Soviet Union as in France. It was therefore appropriate that 65 years ago – in 1955, in the midst of the Cold War – […]
By Agata Szostkowska The tallest building in Poland, the eighth tallest building in the European Union and in a Top-20 in Europe. There has been no more foreground building constructed in Poland after 1945 than the Palace of Culture and Science – or to give it its full title: “the Palace of Culture and Science […]
On September 28 the Montesquieu Institute published an analysis by Beata Bruggeman-Sekowska. She expresses her concerns about some similarities between actions taken by the ruling party in Poland and totalitarian communist tactics. She stresses that Poland faces various issues and is on the crossroads again. Polish déjà vu Beata Bruggeman-Sękowska 40 years ago Poland […]
Beata Bruggeman-Sękowska On September 17 about 1 million troops of the Red Army crossed the eastern borders of Poland starting the red invasion of Poland. It was sixteen days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west. The invasion ended on 6 October 1939 with the two-way division and annexation of the entire Second […]
Patrick van Schie Eighty years ago, at the end of 1940, Darkness at noon was published, translated from German. The writer, Arthur Koestler, was an old communist who had lost his illusions due to the Great Terror (1936-1938) in the Soviet Union. He wrote this off between 1938 and 1940, in a novel in […]
Beata Bruggeman-Sekowska When the Polish government under Edward Gierek introduced new food price increases in the summer of 1980 and Poland faced big international debt and shortages of supplies, a wave of labor unrest was stirred in the country. In July a series of strikes started in Lublin and on 14 August 1980 a […]
Beata Bruggeman-Sekowska In the early hours of Aug. 21, 1968 the Warsaw Pact countries following the Soviet orders invaded Czechoslovakia in order to bring to an end the Prague Spring reform movement. The Prague Spring movement intended to end Soviet totalitarian system. The invasion led to the appointment of Moscow-affiliated leaders and the return […]
How the Poles saved Europe from the Red Army a century ago Patrick van Schie In Western Europe it is perhaps one of the least known battles of the twentieth century, yet one of the most important turning points: the battle of Warsaw in August 1920. Unexpectedly, the young republic of Poland defeated […]
Beata Bruggeman-Sekowska In the Slovenian town of Bled you can visit a very interesting villa which serves now as a luxury hotel but it used to be a luxurious summer residence of communist President Josip Broz Tito. President Tito maintained a lavish lifestyle. Besides the Summer Residence in Bled he stayed in Belgrade, capital of […]
Beata Bruggeman-Sekowska Today Latvia celebrates the 30th anniversary of the restoration of its Independence. On 4 May 1990, the parliament in Riga decided that Latvia would break away from the Soviet Union and restore its independence, restore the inter-war Latvian state, re-instituting the Constitution of Latvia of 1922. Latvia had been part of the Soviet […]
Beata Bruggeman-Sekowska April 9 marks in Georgia tragedy also referred to as Tbilisi Massacre, Tbilisi tragedy. Many Georgians gathered in Tbilisi on April 9th, 1989 during an anti-Soviet demonstration, as the culmination of weeks of demonstrations, protesting against separatism in the Georgian Black Sea region of Abkhazia and in support of Georgian independence, secession from the […]
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