Subscribe to NEE
Text resize: A A
Change contrast
|
Subscribe to NEE

Category: History and Memory

The forgotten beginnings of US-China diplomatic relations

In the shadow of Cold War tensions, covert diplomatic talks took place in Warsaw from 1958 to 1970 between the United States and the People's Republic of China. These talks, today largely forgotten, laid the foundation for a rapprochement that would change the course of global politics in the 1970s.

The 1950s were an immensely complex decade for global geopolitics. Numerous African and Asian nations started to regain their independence, redefining the old colonial world order and thus weakening past colonial superpowers, such as the United Kingdom or France. Above all, however, the new world order was emerging, dominated by the duopoly of the United States and Soviet Union and a visible division of spheres of influence between them.

November 21, 2024 - Konrad Szatters

The 1863 uprising and the shared legacy of the Commonwealth

The January Uprising of 1863 was the last common struggle for the ideals of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Today, when no existential disputes exist between the independent nations of Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania and Belarus, the memory of 1863 should be a stepping stone to teaching the history of the Commonwealth as a common legacy.

Earlier this year, the presidents of Poland and Lithuania, accompanied by the leader of the Belarusian democratic opposition in exile, celebrated together in Vilnius the 161st anniversary of the January Uprising. This event was fought by the nobility and intelligentsia of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the years 1863-64 against Russian imperial rule.

June 22, 2024 - Wiktor Babiński

A man outside the system

Oleksandr Muzychko was a brigadier general of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, a personal bodyguard of its President Dzhokhar Dudayev and, above all, a Ukrainian. He went to more than one conflict zone across the post-Soviet states. Claiming that he had already “looked death in the eyes”, he was not afraid to go against the state system that had been built in Ukraine in the 20 years following independence. Murdered ten years ago, he remains in the memory of many.

This past winter Ukraine and the world commemorated the events that took place a decade ago. This was namely when Ukrainians rose up in peaceful protest in support of the country’s European integration. In November 2013, the EU and Ukraine were meant to sign an association agreement at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius. However, at the very last minute, Ukraine’s then president, Viktor Yanukovych, announced that he would not sign the document. Yanukovych’s decision was met with outrage and frustration in Ukrainian society, which saw European integration as a vision for a better future. If not for them, then at least for their children and grandchildren.

June 22, 2024 - Oleksii Lionchuk

The situation in Grodno was not calm. The rise of nationalism in the city became a reason for the pogrom

The second half of the 1930s saw a rise of antisemitic attitudes in Poland. This was caused by several factors among which was the unstable economic situation in the country and the aggressive antisemitism that began to dominate in neighbouring Nazi Germany. Violent events also took place in Poland. One of them was in Grodno in 1935.

June 2, 2024 - Ihar Melnikau

The Belarusians are celebrating their independence. Podlachia is rediscovering its history

March 25th, the date of the proclamation of the Belarusian Democratic Republic in 1918, has become a national holiday for all the Belarusians that still dream about a fully free and independent country. Not many know that the history of the republic is not just connected to the lands of today’s Belarus and Lithuania, but also Poland. The people, whom this history concerned, were often forced to forget it.

April 27, 2024 - Aneta Prymaka-Oniszk

The count fought for Poland his entire life. He remained faithful until the end

Colonel Konstanty Drucki-Lubecki was an aristocrat and an experiencend, talented soldier that defended Poland again in 1939. “It is a strange coincidence that I fought against the Germans and ended up in Soviet captivity”, he wrote in the POW camp. He was later murdered in the Katyń massacre.

April 13, 2024 - Ihar Melnikau

Bloody Spectre

The short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic remains a key example of the spread of communism after the Russian Revolution. Its leading figure was Béla Kun, a man whose complex identity would influence his politics throughout his life.

April 11, 2024 - Alex Gordon

Economic trouples in the Second Polish Republic were favourable for scammers. “Banksters” would appear in north-eastern Poland

One of the least studied aspects of the north-eastern voivodships during the Second People’s Republic is the activity of scammers. Their actions were often on hand for the people living in the Wilno, Nowogródek and Polesie voivodships of inter-war Poland.

March 2, 2024 - Ihar Melnikau

The fire on Freedom Square was not coincidental. A Soviet soldier is suspected

On January 4th 1946 an emergency session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus was held in Minsk. The head of the Byelorussian Communist Party Panteleimon Ponomarenko, the head of the NKGB Lavrentiy Tsanava and the NKVD People’s Commissary Sargiei Belchanka were joined by 13 other party members to discuss the fire in the capital’s state security building the previous day.

February 17, 2024 - Ihar Melnikau

The history of the Japanese consul who saved Belarusian Jews

One of the “Righteous among the Nations” is the Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara. At the beginning of the Second World War, he saved the lives of thousands of Polish Jewish citizens, among whom were people from present-day Belarus.

December 22, 2023 - Ihar Melnikau

The need for decolonisation

Decolonisation in Eastern Europe is different from other, especially western, decolonisation experiences. There is no one algorithm that would determine in which way a society or country would pursue the process of decolonisation. In Ukraine’s case, but also that of the whole region of Eastern Europe, the initial stage of decolonisation showed a return to the alternative centre – the West.

“We will regain Odesa and everything will be back in place! Monuments will get removed and street names changed,” reads a comment on the website of Russia’s state-owned information agency Ria Novosti. It was placed under an article describing the removal of the Catharine the Great monument in Odesa. In a nutshell, these two sentences present the discourse that has developed in Eastern Europe around the topic of decolonisation.

November 16, 2023 - Anton Saifullayeu

The red idol, or the destruction of the mind

The life of the socialist revolutionary György Lukács was full of contradictions. Revered and detested in equal measure by his supposed comrades in Moscow, the philosopher often grappled with both the rhetoric and reality of Marxism. This often involved his Jewish identity, which remained a difficult topic for Lukács throughout his life.

October 6, 2023 - Alex Gordon

Partners

Terms of Use | Cookie policy | Copyryight 2025 Kolegium Europy Wschodniej im. Jana Nowaka-Jeziorańskiego 31-153 Kraków
Agencja digital: hauerpower studio krakow.
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. View more
Cookies settings
Accept
Decline
Privacy & Cookie policy
Privacy & Cookies policy
Cookies list
Cookie name Active
Poniższa Polityka Prywatności – klauzule informacyjne dotyczące przetwarzania danych osobowych w związku z korzystaniem z serwisu internetowego https://neweasterneurope.eu/ lub usług dostępnych za jego pośrednictwem Polityka Prywatności zawiera informacje wymagane przez przepisy Rozporządzenia Parlamentu Europejskiego i Rady 2016/679 w sprawie ochrony osób fizycznych w związku z przetwarzaniem danych osobowych i w sprawie swobodnego przepływu takich danych oraz uchylenia dyrektywy 95/46/WE (RODO). Całość do przeczytania pod tym linkiem
Save settings
Cookies settings