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* On-the-ground account of the opening campaign of World War II * Told from the perspective of the Germans who conquered Poland * Based on letters, diaries, official documents, histories, and newspapers At dawn on September 1, 1939, the Germans launched their land, air, and sea assault on Poland, sparking the great conflagration of World War II and shocking the world with the speed and ferocity of their blitzkrieg. With thundering panzers and screaming dive-bombers, they crushed the vital port...

Until recently, there has been little concrete evidence linking the American Federation of Labor (AFL) to the U.S. government's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In this book, based upon recently opened archival collections, the author investigates this controversial and complicated early Cold War relationship. Contrary to arguments that the AFL's international activities were entirely controlled by the U.S. government to the detriment of the independent intern...

Orthodox Readings of Augustine examines the theological engagement with the preeminent Latin theologian Augustine of Hippo in the Orthodox context. Augustine was not widely read in the East until many centuries after his death. However, following his re-introduction in the thirteenth century, the Latin Church Father served as an ecumenical figure, offering Latin and Byzantine theologians a thinker with whom they could bridge linguistic, cultural, and confessional divides. Contributors: Lewis Ayr...

Radio and Television Broadcasting in Eastern Europe was first published in 1974.The importance of knowing as much as possible about radio and television broadcasting in foreign countries can hardly be overemphasized, since the political and social directions and impact of the mass media are critical factors to be considered in any assessment or understanding of a nation's strengths and weaknesses. This comprehensive study of broadcasting in the socialist countries of East Europe is, therefore, o...

This text presents the transcripts of the documentary The Golden Apple: 23 hours of interviews with Bosnian and Croatian concentration camp survivors, militiamen, university students, intellectuals and refugees. These in-depth interviews offer an alternative view of the Yugoslav conflict.

One of Eastern Europe's most important writers, Croatian journalist and novelist Drakulic takes readers into the violent and bitter maelstrom that is the Yugoslavian conflict. In a series of brilliant and poignant personal essays, she describes how ordinary people respond to this gruesome situation.

For more than 40 years Eastern European culture came under the sway of Soviet rule. What is the legacy of this period for cultural attitudes to the environment and the contemporary battle to confront climate change? This is the first in-depth study of the legacy of the Soviet era on attitudes to the environment in countries such as Poland, Hungary and Ukraine. Exploring responses in literature, culture and film to political projects such as the collectivisation of agricultural land, the expansi...

Finland was the only nation with an elected and democratic government to fight on the German side in WWII. Despite being small, poorly armed and made up of conscripts, the Finnish army was probably the most effective fighting force at the time, managing with practically no outside help to keep the mighty Red Army at bay for more than three months during the Winter War of 1939-40. In 1944, the devastating Soviet mass attack against the Finnish army involved the largest artillery assault of the e...

Hungary's national soccer team, winner of the gold medal in the 1952 Olympic Games, was undefeated between 1950 and 1954. In addition to providing a unique chapter in the history of soccer, it was the proudest achievement of the postwar Communist era. The Hungarian team's defeat by West Germany in the final match of the 1954 World Cup unleashed nationwide demonstrations which were early signs of the anti-Communist Revolution of 1956. Handler has based his work on Hungarian sources including inte...

This volume covers the period from the 16th century until the mid-19th century when industrialization, urbanization, and the defeat of the last great insurrection combined to create the modern Polish nation. Its focus is on the development of democratic thought in Poland and its application in Polish law and in 19th-century Polish democratic movements in exile.

Memoirs of Jewish life in the east European shtetl often recall the hekdesh (town poorhouse) and its residents: beggars, madmen and madwomen, disabled people, and poor orphans. Stepchildren of the Shtetl tells the story of these marginalized figures from the dawn of modernity to the eve of the Holocaust. Combining archival research with analysis of literary, cultural, and religious texts, Natan M. Meir recovers the lived experience of Jewish society's outcasts and reveals the central role that...

An account of the friendship between two women who were political prisoners in Ravensbrueck concentration camp. It is a portrait of Milena Jesenska, whose stand against the Nazis made her a prisoner at the death camp in 1939. There she befriended Margarete Buber-Neumann, the author of this book. "Milena" is also a portrait of the long-vanished world of Vienna and Prague and of writers and artists like Franz Kafka, Hermann Broch, Willy Haas, Jaroslav Hasek and Carel Kapeck. Margarete Buber-Neuman...

Moldova is a new nation-state with a long history. Despite only recently gaining independence, following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Moldova's roots stretch all the way back to the Principality of Moldavia, established in 1359. After centuries toiling under Ottoman control, and latterly Russian Imperial rule, the Moldovans briefly tasted independence in the early twentieth century, before being annexed by the Soviet Union. In recent times, the Transnistrian Dispute has once again threa...

This hitherto unpublished first-hand witness account, written in 1968-9, tells the story of a privileged Polish woman whose life was torn apart by the outbreak of the Second World War and Soviet occupation. The account has been translated into English from the original Polish and interwoven with letters and depositions, and is supplemented with commentary and notes for invaluable historical context. Irena Protassewicz’s vivid account begins with the Russian Revolution, followed by a rare insi...

This book describes in detail the camouflage and markings of the day fighters used by the Polish Air Force from 1939 to 1947. Aircraft of Polish, French, British, American, Soviet and German origin are shown. The writing team includes the well-known quartet of distinguished Polish aviation historians: Kopanski, Belcarz, Gretzyngier and Matusiak. The illustrators are Artur Juszczak, Karolina Holda, Robert Gretzyngier and Robert Grudzien. This profusely illustrated book includes many historical ph...

The Polish Air Force was a major user of Sukhoi's heavyweight fighter-bombers for more than 30 years. Starting with delivery of the Su-7BM in 1964, with the -BKL variant following from 1966 and eight 2-seat Su-7Us from 1969, the Poles then operated the swing-wing Su-20 from 1974 to 1997. This new volume in the Polish Wings series describes and illustrates all these Polish Sukhois, with full details of all the airframes and their fates, detailed description of color schemes and markings, as well...

Die Lage der deutschen Bevolkerung im Konigsberger Gebiet in den Nachkriegsjahren war trostlos. Lediglich ein kleiner Teil uberlebte die Zeit bis zur Deportation in die sowjetische Besatzungszone Deutschlands. In deutschen Erinnerungsbanden zu diesem Thema regieren die Begriffe Hunger, Kalte und Tod. Eine differenzierte, wissenschaftliche Darstellung gab es bisher nicht. In dieser Arbeit wurde eine Rekonstruktion der Ereignisse mittels deutscher und russischer Quellen sowie anhand von Archivmate...