Solidarity, Arthur Rachwald concludes, was the weight that tipped the scales toward democracy as Poland balanced precariously between democracy and Marxist-Leninst totalitarianism. An international event, that appearance in Poland of Solidarity--the first independent and self-governing labor union in the Soviet bloc--met strong reactions in the East and West. Moscow perceived Solidarity as the most destablizing challenge to its imperial order in Eastern Europe since Titoism in 1948. Professor Rachwald's timely book details the extraordinary events that led to the June 1989 semifree elections, which placed the government of Poland in the hands of a Solidarity-led coalition, and culminated in the self-dissolution of the Polish Communist party. Using documents and reports in Polish, Russian, and English, Arthur Rachwald compares U.S. Soviet, and Polish authorities' reactions to events in Poland during the 1980s as well as analyzes U.S.-Polish relations and their effect on the Polish government's domestic and foreign policies. The author gives careful attention to the complex relations among the political players, particularly the communist authorities and the Roman Catholic church. Exploring one of the most critical political developments of our time, he discusses the pivotal position, politically and geographically, that Poland occupies in Eastern Europe.

This volume contains papers on truth, logic, semantics, and history of logic and philosophy. These papers are dedicated to Jan Wolenski to honor his 60th birthday. Jan Wolenski is professor of philosophy at the Department of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland. He is likely to be the most well-known Polish philosopher of this time, best known for his work on the history of the philosophy and logic of the Lvov-Warsaw School.

The heart-breaking story of Joseph Tenenbaum who visited Poland in 1945 after the end of the Second World War in search of his Jewish relatives. “I can only report fragments of what I saw and heard or read during my two and a half months abroad. But these fragments seem to me to be not only of moment to Jews. Despite all the investigating commissions and international committees on behalf of Jewry, the world knows little enough of the depths of human degradation or the great surges of spirit and individual flashes of heroic greatness that have been revealed. There is a clash of two worlds, a clash that has not ceased with the death of Hitler in the gasoline flames in the cellars of the German chancellery. The sparks from the body-burning stakes at the Janowska camp in Lwow, of the ovens at Majdanek, Treblinka and Belzec, and the flames of the chimneys at Birkenau, Sobibor, Oranienburg and Mauthausen, have seared the human soul and scarred the human conscience. We cannot avoid facing the truth simply by ignoring it or driving it underground. The sanity of man, his very soul, requires a thorough catharsis which can come only through frank discussion, through revealing the naked evil in all its deformity and horror. We must think through all the implications, past and present, and realize their full dimensions. Only thus can sanity and moral strength be preserved for future generations. In short, while this book aims at giving a frank presentation of facts and conditions, it is hoped that it may offer a modest educational contribution towards a better world.”—From the Author’s Introduction

The early 1980s brought dramatic changes in East-West relations. The decade began with the death of Yugoslavia's Tito, the birth of Poland's Solidarity trade union, and the U.S. election of Ronald Reagan as president. These key developments, together with the growing financial insolvency of the Soviet bloc and shifts in power in the Kremlin—culminating in the election of Mikhail Gorbachev as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985—signalled the end of an era. Since then, U.S. relations with Europe have charted a new course, influenced especially by the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the expansion of NATO, and the growing strength of the European Union. This volume analyzes U.S. relations with Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Russia, Poland, and Ukraine, and examines the new role for NATO in the post-Cold War world and the evolving dynamics in the U.S.-EU partnership. Through their assessment of mutual perceptions, evolving interests, and clashing agendas, the contributors offer a fresh and thoughtful exploration of the relationship between the United States and the major European states.

In this new collection of essays, Adam Michnik—one of Europe’s leading dissidents—traces the post-cold-war transformation of Eastern Europe. He writes again in opposition, this time to post-communist elites and European Union bureaucrats. Composed of history, memoir, and political critique, In Search of Lost Meaning shines a spotlight on the changes in Poland and the Eastern Bloc in the post-1989 years. Michnik asks what mistakes were made and what we can learn from climactic events in Poland’s past, in its literature, and the histories of Central and Eastern Europe. He calls attention to pivotal moments in which central figures like Lech Walesa and political movements like Solidarity came into being, how these movements attempted to uproot the past, and how subsequent events have ultimately challenged Poland’s enduring ethical legacy of morality and liberalism. Reflecting on the most recent efforts to grapple with Poland’s Jewish history and residual guilt, this profoundly important book throws light not only on recent events, but also on the thinking of one of their most important protagonists.

Guides readers through the complexities of genealogical research in Europe, and includes up-to-date information on church, state, and provincial archives.

Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese consul in Kovno, Lithuania, honored in 1984 by Yad Vashem as a “Righteous Among the Nations,” issued transit visas to thousands of Jewsin 1940, saving them from almost certain death in Nazi-occupied Europe. From extensive archival research and interviews — of survivors, fellow students in Harbin, China, diplomats who knew Sugihara and family members —, Hillel Levine reconstructs the fascinating story of this diplomat, spy and Russia expert who singlehandedly built a “conspiracy of goodness.” “Mr. Levine dug deep into wartime archives and traveled all over the world in search of Sugihara’s friends and relatives, and surviving eyewitnesses of his extraordinary acts ... [researched] Japanese culture, folklore, diplomacy, imperialism and attitudes toward Jews and the West ... In Search of Sugihara finally inspires you to believe that in a time of great evil a good man threw caution to the winds and acted out of simple humanity.” — Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times “This remarkable biography is, in the author’s words, a study of the ‘banality of good.’ Honored in Israel and Japan, yet still largely unknown in the West, Japanese diplomat and spy Chiune Sugihara, with this book, joins the ranks of Raoul Wallenberg, Oskar Schindler and other rescuers of Jews escaping Nazi persecution ... In Levine’s compelling analysis, Sugihara’s rescue effort was motivated by love of life and a strong sense of justice, not by any special relationship to Jews or driving obsession — an ordinary man turned extraordinary hero.” — Publishers Weekly “On the basis of considerable research, including interviews with survivors, friends, and relatives, official records, and Sugihara’s scant memoirs, Levine presents the available facts ... Sugihara’s story is ultimately a fascinating addition to Holocaust literature and a valuable historical footnote.” — Kirkus Reviews “One of a handful of landmark books in our desperately needed process of just beginning to explore the strange mystery of human goodness.” — M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled “Sugihara is unique because he demonstrated that every individual is empowered to resist tyranny and that one can act in accordance to the dictates of a higher moral authority that advocates justice, humanity, and compassion to all mankind. Hillel Levine is to be commended for bringing attention to this unsung hero of the Holocaust and for telling us, with historical depth and literary eloquence, of the unknown dimensions of this incredible story.” — Tom Lantos, US Congress “This is history as it was, and history as it might have been. Hillel Levine has relentlessly uncovered one of the most thrilling and unknown stories of World War II and the Holocaust. He has shown what one courageous diplomat in one small country did to make a real difference in those darkest of times. He has also given us the account of an improbable but genuine hero whose name should be inscribed with the other great figures of the resistance.” — Harvey Cox, Thomas Professor of Divinity, Harvard University

In Search of Singularity introduces a new “compairative” methodology that seeks to understand how the interplay of paired texts creates meaning in new, transcultural contexts. Bringing the worlds of contemporary Polish and Chinese poetry since 1989 into conversation with one another, Joanna Krenz applies the concept of singularity to draw out resonances and intersections between these two discourses and shows how they have responded to intertwined historical and political trajectories and a new reality beyond the human. Drawing on developments such as AI poetry and ecopoetry, Krenz makes the case for a fresh approach to comparative poetry studies that takes into account new forms of poetic expression and probes into alternative grammars of understanding.

Richard Wagner has arguably the greatest and most long-term influence on wider European culture of all nineteenth-century composers. And yet, among the copious English-language literature examining Wagner's works, influence, and character, research into the composer’s impact and role in Russia and Eastern European countries, and perceptions of him from within those countries, is noticeably sparse. Wagner in Russia, Poland and the Czech Lands aims to redress imbalance and stimulate further research in this rich area. The eight essays are divided in three parts - one each on Russia, the Czech lands and Poland - and cover a wide historical span, from the composer’s first contacts with and appearances in these regions, through to his later reception in the Communist era. The contributing authors examine his influences in a wide range of areas such as music, literary and epistolary heritage, politics, and the cultural histories of Russia, the Czech lands, and Poland, in an attempt to establish Wagner’s place in a part of Europe not commonly addressed in studies of the composer.

In this provocative and insightful book, Joanna Beata Michlic interrogates the myth of the Jew as Poland's foremost internal "threatening other," harmful to Poland, its people, and to all aspects of its national life. This is the first attempt to chart new theoretical directions in the study of Polish-Jewish relations in the wake of the controversy over Jan Gross's book Neighbors. Michlic analyzes the nature and impact of anti-Jewish prejudices on modern Polish society and culture, tracing the history of the concept of the Jew as the threatening other and its role in the formation and development of modern Polish national identity based on the matrix of exclusivist ethnic nationalism.