How to be a Polish Jew and supporter of Zionism-revisionist after 1939? The thing about Jakub Perelman’s fate

Jakub Perelman, the author of memoirs, was born on 20 December 1902 in Warsaw. He was politically linked to the Zionist revisionists. This movement was created after the First World War thanks to the activity of Vladimir Jabotinsky. He was a poet, a soldier and a politician. Perelman’s memoirs concern his political activity, Polish-Jewish relations during the Second Polish Republic, events from the Second World War, and his views on life in People’s Poland. The last fragment of the memoir is related to Israel, where Perelman was in the early 1960s.

The insignificant trends of political thought. Contradictions and understatements

The main issue of this article are the insignificant trends of political thought and their contradictions and understatements. The article describes the following trends of political thought: anarchism, communism, nationalism, monarchism, transhumanism, primitivism, ruralism and also National anarchism, National Bolshevism and Slavophilism. These trends of political thought are characterized by internal contradictions and opposition to democracy.

Cooperation in competitive sport in the Eastern Bloc – an example of Polish-Romanian contacts (1948–1953)

The authors of the article carried out an analysis of sports contacts between Poland and Romania in the time of Stalinism by taking into account the ideological and organisational changes in both countries’ sport as well as sport rivalry. Of importance was also presenting the implementation of the Soviet model of physical culture in Poland and Romania coupled with difficulties and barriers to sports cooperation between Poland and Romania.

Kooperace ve vrcholovém sportu v zemích východního bloku na příkladu polsko-rumunských kontaktů (1948–1953)

Autor przedstawia genezę i analizuje symbolikę Memoriału Ofiar Komunizmu w Tallinie. Skupia się na założeniach koncepcyjnych przyjętych przez jego autorów, ale też bierze pod uwagę dokonywane później interpretacje przesłania monumentu. Przywołuje wydarzenia, do których odnosi się to miejsce pamięci. Opisuje okres sowieckiej okupacji Estonii i przedstawia bilans dokonywanych w tamtym czasie represji - masowych aresztowań, potajemnych egzekucji, deportacji ludności i brutalnej kolektywizacji rolnictwa. Tak zarysowany kontekst historyczny pozwala lepiej zrozumieć znaczenie opisywanego pomnika i jego miejsce na mapie pamięci współczesnej Estonii. Autor zwraca jednocześnie uwagę, że talliński pomnik stanowi istotny element nie tylko estońskiej, ale też - szerzej - europejskiej pamięci o ofiarach stalinizmu i komunizmu.

Jan Stachniuk (1905–1963) was genuine Polish philosopher and political activist. Stachniuk started his activity in ranks of the left-wing Piłsudskite youth movement but during 1930s he became an ideologue of the anti-Catholic ultra-nationalist far right group called Zadruga. Under Nazi occupation of Poland Zadruga movement was absorbed into left-nationalist Stronnictwo Zrywu Narodowego and after the World War II Stachniuk unsuccessfully tried to collaborate with new communist regime. His ideology was synthesis of pantheist neopaganism, extreme pan-Slavic nationalism and totalitarian (quasi-Stalinist) version of socialism but his last – and most mature – works proclaimed universalist ideal of human creativity.

The Problem of Degeneration in the Anarchist thought of Peter Kropotkin

Peter Kropotkin was one of the most theorists of anarchism, a respected scholar and a leading representative of the so-called Russian (Eastern) Darwinism. Merging political and scientific ambition by the “anarchist prince” underlaid his scientism and was an assumption for making a critical analysis of existing socio-economic reality in the light of its influence on the biological and moral condition of humankind. The Russian anarchist was convinced about the destructive influence of conditions produced by the state and capitalism which he found as the fundamental cause of human degeneration. In this context, Kropotkin’s political proposals may be seen as a try to overcome a progressing both biological and moral crisis of humankind. The aim of this article is to present the mentioned analysis and to demonstrate the influence and similarities of Kropotkin’s project to the so-called theory of degeneration that was popular in the second half of XIX century.

“Defending Your Own Convictions” – Community and Political Work of Adam Pleśnar (1935–2013) until 1977

The article is an attempt to scratch the biography of Adam Plesnar. The analysis was subjected to the activity of the protagonist until 1977. Plesnar was an active member of the Club of Young Catholics at the University of Wroclaw, co-founder of the Young Democrats (ZMD). Already in the sixties he was convicted for opposition activities. In the seventies he was an activist of Polish Esperanto Association. He participated in protests against changes in the Constitution of the PRL. Since 1977 belonged to the members of the Movement in Defense of the Rights of Man and Citizen (ROPCiO) and the leader of the Movement of Free Democrats (RWD), an activist of the Wroclaw opposition. Within the Movement sought to participation of the opposition in legitimate forms of political activity, including in the elections to the Sejm PRL, while remaining critical of the existing system.

Władysław Bieńkowski and his ideas in the interwar period

The paper describes the ideological evolution of Władysław Bieńkowski (1906–1991) in the interwar period – in the Polish People’s Republic, he was first a communist activist and then a dissident. The author reconstructs the process of radicalization of Bieńkowski as an intellectual who was not a member of the Communist Party of Poland, but who after the Second World War found himself among higher-ranking communist activists. The thesis of this paper is that the dichotomy between individual freedom and participation in the communist movement, which was characteristic of Bieńkowski in the period of the Polish People’s Republic, dates back to his prewar ideas. The paper also contributes to the discussion on the attitudes of the Polish intelligentsia towards communism.

Characteristics of an authoritarian unit (Erich Fromm), with authoritarian personality (Theodor Adorno), with hard personality (Hans Eysenck) and dogmatic (Milton Romeach) and common features for these theoretical constructs

This article addresses the subject of Erich Fromm, Theodor Adorno, Hans Eysenck and Milton Rokeache theory characterizing personality particularly susceptible to the influence of authoritarianism, personality that combat democracy. In its first part there is the characteristics of these personalities, specifically authoritarian units (Erich Fromm), with authoritarian personality, hard personality (Hans Eysenck) and dogmatic (Milton Rozeach). The second part of this article is trying to find common features for these theoretical constructs. Mostly, however, it is a criticism of erroneous (in my opinion) thinking when creating these theories. I noticed that the creators of the majority of them not only describe personality types particularly susceptible to the influence of authoritarianism, but above all they condemn them. In practice, this comes down to attacking the extreme right. However, attention should be paid to several important issues that negate this attitude. With authoritarianism, only the right can be identified. The division of the right/left is not very sharp. In turn, authoritarianism does not always mean a lack of humanitarianism, intolerance, and persecution. Most of the above theoretical constructs indicate, in my opinion, it is wrong that the political features of a person acquire under the influence of the environment, the environment. However, they are not somehow inherited, genetically conditioned. In addition, I think that only a certain, smaller part of society has specific political views. And only among them there is a group of people with authoritarian tendencies. This part of a society that has unspecified political views can be a business – related political option, even authoritarian, if this option provides its benefits. The assumption that the political actions of society result from the internal features of individuals is another point with which it is difficult to (me) agree. In fact, the effectiveness of the ruling team decides.

Controlled eroticization of the proletariat through pro-natal policies was an almost unnoticed facet of the programme of iconographic public works displayed in exceptional locations throughout the newly-built resorts along Romania’s Black Sea shore. Never previously studied on its own merits, this artistic programme of open-air sculptures that begun in the Romanian Popular Republic and continued in the Romanian Socialist Republic needs to be understood and contextualized, by way of interdisciplinary instruments, against a broader post-Eastern approach that goes beyond the established methodologies of art history.

This paper traces the dramatic fate of Maria Konstantinova, who oversaw the Studios for Chronicles and Documentaries from 1949 to 1951. Her short activity in the archive of Bulgarian cinematography is outlined on the basis of documents from her professional dossier. Some of these documents were required for her appointment while others to provide information about her professional activities, or they are statements of her punishment. She was persecuted for revealing a “state secret” and negligence, delayed delivery of the film “The Long Way of a Cigarette” (dubbed in Russian), and the resulting “delayed production of a copy for the USSR”. Furthermore, in anonymous and signed reports, Maria Konstantinova was accused of financial abuse, immoral behaviour, a “grossly corrupt bohemian past”, “lesbian relationships with girlfriends”, “drunkenness and playing poker with men, and especially with women”...

Analyses of communist repression in post-communist Romania focused on anticommunism and its totemic figures. Laws, institutions and people promote this perspective, transforming the suffering of the formerly politically persecuted into a patrimony meant to be preserved and passed on. On the official level, the anticommunist paradigm gained momentum in December 2006 when the communist regime was condemned as ‘criminal and illegitimate’. However, a majority of the population have not embraced the official approach to communism as the fallen regime still acts as a ‘millieu de memoire’ (as defined by Pierre Nora). My article deals with the main institutions and laws which aimed at promoting and transmitting the memory of repression in post-communist Romania. Analyzing the memory politics as regards the communist repression might provide fresh insight into the ongoing process of building a cultural memory through selection, reconstruction and adjusting figures, deeds, and memorial items.