That time Poland was wearing a short skirt
The year wouldn’t go past without Vladimir Putin managing to again eschew any role in starting the Second World War and instead blaming Poland for getting invaded: Speaking at a …
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The Man in the High Kolkhoz
If you have Netflix (no chill necessary), there is a Polish series available, in fact the first Polish Netflix production ever, called “1983”. Yes, there is an element of play …
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Where were you when the walls came crashing down
It was a Thursday. I couldn’t remember but just checked it, thanks to the magic of the Internet – something that certainly did not exist in its current omnipresent form …
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Which witch is which?
An interesting Halloween-inspired graphic from “The Economist”* that sheds a lot of light on the history of European witch hunts: The key take-aways in my book: 1) Contrary to the …
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Before there was Trump, there was Joe McCarthy
I’ve been reading M Stanton Evans’s excellent and scholarly “Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies” (published some 12 years ago) …
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The Fourth Partition
It’s 2019, so over the next few years we will commemorate a number of 80th anniversaries connected with the Second World War. British people will be reminded of their darkest …
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Unapologetic
How long must societies face penance for past sins? Individuals have it easy – there are either statutes of limitation or you die; either way, it’s over. Human societies, on …
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The two “what if”s of September 1939
Eighty years ago, Germany invaded Poland from the west, the north and the south, starting World War Two. Seventeen days later. the Soviet Union invaded from the east, completing the …
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Russia tries to normalise Ribbentrop-Molotov
The other day the world (mostly Eastern Europe and a few history buffs) remembered to 80th anniversary of the signing in Moscow of the infamous Ribbentrop-Molotov non-aggression pact between the …
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One such day
Seventy-five years ago, late afternoon on 1 August 1944, the biggest single act of resistance in the Nazi occupied Europe commenced in Warsaw. The Uprising was to last two month, …
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Happy 400 years of Solidarity, America!
Aurelia Pucinski, a justice of the Illinois Appellate Court, remembers a little know incident of the early American history, whose anniversary we are celebrating today: Original records of the Jamestown …
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What Trotsky’s granddaughter said
In one of those cruel strokes of fate, all of Leon Trotsky’s four children predeceased him, even if many would not feel any compassion for one of the fathers of …
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Monte Cassino, great-grandfather and a bear
On May 18, the day Australia goes to the polls, on the other side of the world we will be commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of the bloodiest …
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White Knight Vs Black Knight: SJWs invade medieval Europe
Once in a while – actually, nowadays, on a daily basis – you read something that actually makes you dumber (hat tip: JK). This is one of these things: Each …
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Anzac Day Repost: Grandfather’s Bridge
Note: I have originally published this long post two and a half ago, and since then it has become one of my and my readers’ favourite TDC stories. I have reposted …
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Was Polish American revolutionary hero a heroine?
Pulaski Day, when the Polish-American community celebrates their Polish-Americaness annually and named after a Polish general who had died at Savannah in 1779, might have to be soon renamed Pulaska …
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Saying sorry to the Aztecs
Mexico’s new socialist president, having solved all the economic and social issues that plague his semi-failed narcostate, is now in the business of re-litigating the past: Spain’s government has refused a …
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Polish Ripper
They always find ways to blame the migrant: Jack the Ripper who stalked London more than 130 years ago was a demon barber with a taste for human flesh, according …
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Weimar without Nazis
Repeat after me: America today is not like Germany in the 1930s. The Republicans are not Nazis. Trump is not Hitler. To say, as so many otherwise seemingly intelligent and …
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A View from the High Castle
December 1942. The Imperial Japanese Army, having cleared the Allied resistance across Papua New Guinea, invades the Australian mainland. Japanese armies land in Darwin, Cairns and Townsville. There is a …
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