The modern Polish nation was ultimately forged out of a union between former Poland-Lithuania’s nobility and Slavophone Catholic peasants. This process of creating ethnic Poles was anything but easy, with antisemitism often used as a means of overcoming the estate chasm between nobles and peasantry.

As the most powerful state on the EU and NATO’s Eastern Flank, Poland has been cast in the role of a new regional power in recent months. The country will now allegedly be able to shape developments in Eastern Europe and even farther into the East. However, Warsaw will face a serious challenge to live up to its geopolitical ambitions if it does not rethink its own Orientalism.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has highlighted the growing influence of Poland in regional affairs. Indeed, some have even suggested that the country is quickly becoming a power in its own right. Various issues will decide whether or not such a prediction comes true.

Poland has proven to be one of Ukraine’s most steadfast allies in recent years and especially since Russia’s invasion in February. Despite this, the two countries have not always been so close. Understandings of their shared history could now prove crucial to the future of this new alliance.

A review of Przegrane Zwycięstwo. Wojna Polsko-Bolszewicka 1918–1920. (Lost Victory. The Polish-Bolshevik War of 1918-1920). By: Andrzej Chawlba. Publisher: Wydawnictwo Czarne, Wołowiec, Poland, 2020.

The United Arab Emirates and Poland-Lithuania compared and why sunshine and newspapers do not mix.

The oldest piece of evidence of Jewish material culture in Wrocław goes back as early as 1203. Jewish life flourished there until it was brutally destroyed by the Holocaust. It was reduced further by post-war emigration and the infamous March of 1968 which pushed the majority of Jewish residents out of Poland. Some of them returned after 1989 and are now reviving the Jewish community. Thus, you can hear Jewish prayers in Wrocław today.

Wrocław is an extraordinary city. Its uniqueness lies not only in its charm, vitality and openness, but its extraordinary history, which is part of the history of Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria. It is also the capital of Silesia, a region where the European East and West meet, diffusing, enriching and inspiring one another. It is also a city where the memory of previous identities was often erased – as it did not serve the new nationalist, exclusiveness, which would doom the city’s past for centuries of silence and falsehood. Such was the case in Germany during the time of Bismarck and even more during the period of communist Poland.