There was only the sight of German units departing the city, riding down Lipowa Street, followed by Soviet troops who entered it— a sequence of events that might well have given the impression of a ceremonial march. This was how Białystok fell under Soviet control, a situation that remained until 27 June 1941, with the city once more being seized by the Germans
Tomasz Zan, co-founder of the Vilnius Philomath Society, is most often associated with his role as the spiritual leader of the prisoners imprisoned in “Konrad’s cell” from Part III of Mickiewicz’s “Forefathers’ Eve.” However, he was also a poet, a naturalist, and a
Almost exactly 80 years after the deportation of Polish soldiers, in the early morning hours of December 8, 2024, local residents discovered that the memorial complex dedicated to the victims of Camp No. 270 in Jogola had been vandalized and desecrated.
At only eighteen years of age, while still a student, Kazimierz Zieleniewski was exiled to Siberia during the January Uprising. Though he was supposed to spend the rest of his life there, he refused to be broken. On the contrary: he achieved great financial success, and his house in Tomsk became a focal point of Polish patriotic and cultural life.
Who was he really? A Pole? A Belarusian? An admirer of the simple Belarusian people and rural life or a khlopoman? Vincent “Vincuk” Dunin-Marcinkiewicz was probably a bit of each, which characterised many representatives of the borderland intelligentsia in the mid-19th century.
Soviet aggression against Poland, which began on the morning of September the 17th, 1939, came as a surprise for the authorities, the civilian population, the police, the army, and the Border Protection Corps. However, this was only a small taste of what the aggressor had in store for Poles in the coming months. A group of almost 22 thousand Polish citizens selected by the Soviets were to meet a special fate, being held in three special NKVD prisoner-of-war camps prisons in the occupied territories of Poland.
In 1725, Tsar Peter I sent the Danish sailor Vitus Bering to the far east in order to observe if there was a land connection between Asia and North America. His activity, acting under Russian orders, was associated with St. Petersburg’s growing interest in Alaska. Firstly, the focus was on research expeditions, and in the 80s the first Russian colonies were established there. However, it soon turned out that Alaska is an area that brings Russia more problems than profits. Insufficient financial resources and too little military involvement in the North Pacific area did not allow for much.
The year 1794 marked the decline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The state was already heavily reduced territorially after two partitions and equally greatly dependent on neighbouring states, above all Russia. Tsarist troops were stationed in the country, banks collapsed and prices rose. It seemed that the final decay of the state was only a matter of time. It was obvious that patriotic circles were not going to watch this calmly.
Igor Strojecki: The collection of photographs that Leon Barszczewski took between 1885 and 1909 is unique, and perhaps the only one of its kind in this part of Europe.
Igor Strojecki: Leon Barszczewski was a pioneer of Polish reportage photography in 19th century.
