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Tag: history

The imperial mindest knows no borders

A conversation with Vitaliy Dribnytsia, a Ukrainian historian. Interviewer: Nikodem Szczygłowski

April 21, 2026 - Nikodem Szczygłowski Vitalii Dribnytsia

The return of the despot

The philosopher Karl Jaspers, writing in the aftermath of the Second World War in Germany, maintained that only a nation prepared to recognize its own guilt can recover from the moral and spiritual catastrophe of totalitarianism. The Germans slowly came to understand this after 1945. In Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the new authorities never acted on this realization.

April 20, 2026 - Jens Malling

A skipped century – notes on premature predictions

Many experts believe that the rise of countries like China are inevitable and must come at the expense of the power of the West. Despite this, history is full of similar predictions that did not turn out in ways thought by their authors.

April 13, 2026 - Leonid Luks

Poles and Ukrainians to write a textbook with German support

"If Poland and Ukraine fail to write a joint history textbook, there will be others who will take it upon themselves to do so. And they will not be those who support Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation". An interview with Marcin Wiatr. Interviewer: Aureliusz M. Pędziwol

April 9, 2026 - Aureliusz M. Pędziwol Marcin Wiatr

Prussia’s forgotten heritage

After the final partition of Poland in 1795, Prussia emerged not only as a territorial winner but also a multi-lingual state: Polish speakers constituted nearly half of its population and more than half of the kingdom’s territory consisted of newly annexed Polish lands. Yet this was also a missed political opportunity.

February 22, 2026 - Piotr Leszczyński

Is the past for sale?

In Poland, cultural heritage has increasingly become a site where memory, market logic and political power intersect. From urban regeneration projects and nostalgia tourism to digitally-branded cultural platforms and AI-generated public figures, the past is often packaged, optimized and sold.

February 22, 2026 - Giorgia Maurovich

Gdańsk’s heritage and reconstruction after the war

After the Second World War, Gdańsk was fully integrated into Poland. Subsequently, the population dynamic of the city changed – many German residents fled or were expelled, and were replaced by Poles, who came especially from areas lost to the Soviets in the former eastern lands. With new rulers and a new populace in place, a question arose – what to do about the ruined city?

September 26, 2025 - Błażej Kowacz

The end of the “Big Brother” myth in Armenia

The image of Russians as “protectors” and “saviours” has been deeply embedded in Armenian political mythology throughout the past two centuries. This mythology has been largely based on events connected to the rule of the Ottoman Empire, where Russia often positioned itself as the defender of the region’s Christian population. Armenia’s experience of the last 200 years shows that Russian imperial domination has been surprisingly resilient, having been able to reinvent itself in many ways.

May 5, 2025 - Mikayel Zolyan

Twenty-five years on, the Yeltsin Centre shows Russia’s danger

Although I have been to the Yeltsin Centre in Yekaterinburg many times for research, about half way through my last visit, I began to feel uneasy. Videos of the coup and parliament bombings touched a nerve. How quickly the situation changed then. Images of buildings around Pushkin Square in Moscow, near where I used to work, being smashed by vandals and cars alike. Such events feel unthinkable in Moscow today. In the Yeltsin Centre, I realized just how likely they could be.

Twenty-five years ago, as Boris Yeltsin resigned from his position as president of the Russian Federation, his wife and daughter were utterly relieved. The job had taken its toll in just about every way and the Yeltsins were excited to get their family life back. But Russia and the world were stunned. It came out of the blue. What next for Russia after the chaos? Nobody knew.

May 5, 2025 - James C. Pearce

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was far from being just “Poland”

A conversation with Tomas Venclova, Lithuanian philosopher and writer. Interviewer: Nikodem Szczyglowski

February 28, 2025 - Nikodem Szczygłowski Tomas Venclova

Oriental or local? Poland’s Tatar community

The Tatars of Poland remain one of the country’s most enduring ethnic minorities. Arriving in the area as early as the 14th century, this group has maintained its own distinctiveness while adapting to many wider Polish customs. This process has involved as much positive as negative developments.

Had you, 30 or 40 years ago, visited Kruszyniany, a village near the Belarusian border that is home to one of the two traditional Tatar settlements in Poland, you would have encountered the tranquil rhythm of community life centred around bayrams (a Turkic word for festivals or celebrations). In Muslim tradition, religious holidays are moments for families to gather in prayer at a mosque or a cemetery (mizar). To join their relatives in these celebrations, descendants of Tatars from all around Poland would flock to Kruszyniany. However, once the festivities were over, only a few Tatar families stayed in the village, enjoying its tranquillity and the slow pace of life.

February 28, 2025 - Michał Łyszczarz

Polish language and nation: a rather recent pairing

Standing fast by Poland’s national “master narrative”, the country’s schools teach that the Polish nation, defined as all the speakers of the Polish language, is a millennium old. Yet, this pairing of the Polish nation and language dates back only to the late 19th century.

In Polish popular opinion, the view that the Polish nation consists of all the speakers of the Polish language is not controversial. Hence, the Polish speech community is unreflectively equated with the Polish nation. In turn, all the territories where speakers of Polish reside compactly are deemed to rightfully constitute the Polish nation-state. 

February 28, 2025 - Tomasz Kamusella

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