Poland in South Africa

On 31 August, we solemnly celebrate the 40th anniversary of the signing of the August Agreements and the establishment of the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity”, which contributed to the collapse of communism and an end to the world’s cold war division.

Forty years ago, during the hot summer months of 1980, Europe was totally different from its today’s image. The continent had been divided by the Iron Curtain, which wasn’t only a metaphorical line of political division. Indeed, the line was dividing free and democratic countries and those deprived of their sovereignty and totally dependent on the Soviet empire. One of the countries who had been left after the war under the dependence of the communist power, was my homeland – Poland. Poland, who during the war lost about 6 millions of citizens, the half of them being the citizens with Jewish origins. It was a disaster after which it was unlikely that we could rise up.

On 15 August 2020 we solemnly celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw – a culminating point of the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1920) and one of the most decisive events in the history of Poland, Europe, and the world.

The Polish-Bolshevik war was a founding moment for modern Poland and a crucial moment for the entire Europe, even though the awareness of this may be insufficient. It was the real clashing point of two diverse civilizations. Poland’s political elite passed the test of maturity at the most critical moment.

Pope Benedict XV realized how grave the situation was: “It is not only Poland’s existence as a nation that is imperiled, but the entire Europe faces the atrocities of a new war.”

The Hungarian daily magazine "Magyar Hirlap" published an interview by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, which aroused great interest. We encourage you to read some excerpts from the interview.

The call for proposals in the "Polish Returns 2020. COVID-19 Edition" program is addressed to institutions planning to employ scientists whose research may be relevant for broadening knowledge and solving significant problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences, in particular representatives of broadly understood health and biomedical sciences.

The article by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, entitled "A clear path to a new model of globalization: time for European 5G realism" was published in the Daily Telegraph on July 16, 2020.

Each EU/Schengen country has introduced its own rules on crossing borders, including air traffic, during this pandemic.

This is not the first time that the President of Russia is attempting to revive the Stalinist vision of modern history. It was created in the communist era by combining selective interpretations of facts, half-truths and propaganda. An image alternative to reality was constructed. The totalitarian Soviet Union was presented as a country of good intentions, a defender of peace and the security of nations, a noble conqueror of the German Reich. This kind of false vision of history was imposed as binding not only in the USSR but also in other countries enslaved by Moscow following World War II. At that time, revealing the truth about the actual role of the USSR in the history of the continent, about enslaving the people of Central and Eastern Europe, about Soviet crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity, was threatened with severe repression. It is surprising that today, in a free world, the Russian President is trying to promote theses which are almost a literal copy of the propaganda dating back to the era of Stalin and Brezhnev. He does so, in an article appearing in The National Interest.