Poland Soviet Union Russia

This book contains an overview of many publications by employees of the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw in the field of Eastern studies. We have selected texts on the recent history of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and communist rule, as well as contemporary Russia and Polish-Russian relations. By making these available to English-speaking readers, on the one hand, we want to present a small part, due to limited space, of the Eastern studies conducted by the Institute and, on the other, pay tribute to their distinguished representative, Richard Pipes. In 2019, according to the last will of this historian, scholar and sovietologist, who died on 18 May 2018, the Institute received his book collection of over three and a half thousand items, mainly concerning Russia and the Soviet Union. These are works of high scientific rank that the scholar collected for over half a century. Acquiring the book collection was the first step towards establishing the Professor Richard Pipes Laboratory. This was possible thanks to funding obtained by the Institute at the end of 2019 from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education as part of the Dialogue programme.

This book is the first to deal with the impact on the Jews of the area of the sovietization of Eastern Poland. Polish resentment at alleged Jewish collaboration with the Soviets between 1939 and 1941 affected the development of Polish-Jewish relations under Nazi rule and in the USSR. The role of these conflicts both in the Anders army and in the Communist-led Kosciuszko division and 1st Polish Army is investigated, as well as the part played by Jews in the communist-dominated regime in Poland after 1944.

Poland and Russia have a long relationship that encompasses centuries of mutual antagonism, war, and conquest. The twentieth century has been particularly intense, including world wars, revolution, massacres, national independence, and decades of communist rule—for both countries. Since the collapse of communism, historians in both countries have struggled to come to grips with this difficult legacy. This pioneering study, prepared by the semi-official Polish-Russian Group on Difficult Matters, is a comprehensive effort to document and fully disclose the major conflicts and interrelations between the two nations from 1918 to 2008, events that have often been avoided or presented with a strong political bias. This is the English translation of this major study, which has received acclaim for its Polish and Russian editions. The chapters offer parallel histories by prominent Polish and Russian scholars who recount each country’s version of the event in question. Among the topics discussed are the 1920 Polish-Russian war, the origins of World War II and the notorious Hitler-Stalin pact, the infamously shrouded Katyn massacre, the communization of Poland, Cold War relations, the Solidarity movement and martial law, and the renewed relations of contemporary Poland and Russia.

After crushing the Polish Uprising in 1863–1864, Russia established a new system of administration and control. Imperial Russian Rule in the Kingdom of Poland, 1864–1915 investigates in detail the imperial bureaucracy’s highly variable relationship with Polish society over the next half century. It portrays the personnel and policies of Russian domination and describes the numerous layers of conflict and cooperation between the Tsarist officialdom and the local population. Presenting case studies of both modes of conflict and cooperation, Malte Rolf replaces the old, unambiguous “freedom-loving Poles vs. oppressive Russians” narrative with a more nuanced account and does justice to the complexity and diversity of encounters among Poles, Jews, and Russians in this contested geopolitical space. At the same time, he highlights the process of “provincializing the center,” the process by which the erosion of imperial rule in the Polish Kingdom facilitated the demise of the Romanov dynasty itself.

Winner of the 2022 PIASA Anna M. Cienciala Award for the Best Edited Book in Polish StudiesThe majority of Poland’s prewar Jewish population who fled to the interior of the Soviet Union managed to survive World War II and the Holocaust. This collection of original essays tells the story of more than 200,000 Polish Jews who came to a foreign country as war refugees, forced laborers, or political prisoners. This diverse set of experiences is covered by historians, literary and memory scholars, and sociologists who specialize in the field of East European Jewish history and culture.