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An essay about the role of anticommunist resistence in Czechoslovakia.
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An essay about the role of anticommunist resistence in Czechoslovakia.
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Review of: Novotný Vojtěch "Maximální křesťanství, Adolf Kajpr SJ a list Katolík" Karolinum, Prague 2012, 444 pages by: Vojtěch Vlček
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Review of: Vlček Vojtěch "Totalitám navzdory" Karmelitánské nakladatelství, Kostelní Vydří 2011, 516 pages by: Petr Mallota
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Review of: Cenckiewicz Sławomir "Długie ramię Moskwy. Wywiad wojskovy Polski Ludowej 1943–1991 (wprowadzenie do syntezy)" Zysk i S-ka Publishing House, Poznań 2011, 534 pages by: Petr Blažek
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Review of: Jindra Martin "Z milosti trpět pro Krista. Životní příběh faráře Církve československé (husitské) Václava Mikuleckého" Blahoslav ve spolupráci s náboženskou obcí CČSH v Praze 1 – Staré Město, Prague 2011, 379 pages by: František Konvalinka
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This study looks at the life of František Bořek-Dohalský from Dohalice, a member of the aristocratic Bořek-Dohalský family from Dohalice, who deviates considerably from commonly held notions about the nobility in modern Czech history as well as from the ranks of the aristocracy itself. Despite the abolition of privileges and the noble status in 1918, the Dohalský family positively accepted the establishment of an independent Czechoslovak state in the autumn of 1918. They identified with its ideals and became part of the governing civilian elite. František entered the service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and worked as a diplomat at the embassies in London and Vienna. In Austria, he was caught off balance by the advent of fascism and the subsequent anschluss with Nazi Germany. In September 1939, he signed the so-called “National Declaration of the Czech Nobility” in which he aligned himself with opposition to the occupying power and declared full allegiance to Czech customs and aspirations along with approximately 80 other aristocrats. He joined the anti-Nazi resistance together with his two brothers – Zdeněk, a journalist with the Lidové noviny newspaper, and Antonín, St. Vitus’ canon and archbishop’s chancellor (whom this article also devotes attention to). He was imprisoned for his democratic convictions and spent three years at Dachau concentration camp. Both his siblings, however, did not survive the war. Antonín perished in Auschwitz in September 1942, and Zdeněk was executed in Terezín’s Small Fortress (Malá pevnost) in February 1945. After being released from captivity, František Bořek-Dohalský returned to diplomacy and became Czechoslovakia’s ambassador in Vienna. Naturally, as a result of the communist putsch in February 1948 and the establishment of a communist monopoly of power, his work for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs soon came to an end (although it also ended because of his poor health). The impact of communist persecution also weighed very heavily on the life of František’s son Jiří, who was a clerk in the Office of the President of the Republic. He was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment in a politically motivated trial. František did not live long enough to hear the verdict imposed on his son. He died in Prague on 3 January 1951. The fate of František-Bořek Dohalský and his family illustrates a unique union between a noble family and democratic ideals. The members of this family also did not hesitate to lay down their lives for these ideals during periods of totalitarian rule.
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Report from the exhibition named "Since then I believe in fate ..."
More...Kronika zbrodni; Oczekiwanie; Przeżycie; Ocalenie; Wykonanie; Obserwacja; Zatarcie
Podwileńskie Ponary stają się miejscem systemowej eksterminacji mieszkańców Wileńszczyzny - Żydów, ale i Polaków. Ich śmierć z litewskich rąk na zawsze zmienia społeczny obraz tego regionu.
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For the Republic of Chechoslovakia, a state without access to the sea, a natural way to get to the Baltic Sea was the Oder and Szczecin (Stettin). Between the two World Wars in the 20th century the country on the Wlatava (German: Moldau), in spite of receiving its own duty-free zone in the Szczecin port and in spite of its own river barges according to the treaty of Versailles, did not take the full advantage of the Oder route. A series of events caused that Prague directed its trade and transit expansion towards the ports of the North Sea, especially Hamburg, and the Mediterranean Sea. The second world war brought about some political and economic changes in the situation of Poland and Checkoslovakia. As a result of the territorial changes a part of the German territories, including most of the course of the Oder, became Polish. Any potential border conflict between the two countries was prevented by signing the treaty of friendship and mutual assistance on March 10th, 1947, and on July 4th of the same year – a convention of economic cooperation. An important part of the latter was the chapter concerning the transit arrangements, thanks to which Czechoslovakia was conceded a duty-free zone in the Szczecin port and a privileged position in the navigation on the Oder; the convention entitled the Czechoslovakian merchant shipping to use the Polish seaports on the same conditions the Polish ships had. A consequence of the transit arrangements was an agreement between Czechoslovakia and Poland concerning the lease of a part of the Szczecin port concluded on July 15th, 1949. By virtue of that agreement Czechoslovakia received a wharf 300 metres long and 100 metres wide for its own use. May 12th, 1948 saw the creation of the Czechoslovakian Oder Navigation (Company) to run the navigation on the Oder River by the Czechoslovakian barges; its headquarters were in Wrocław with a branch in Szczecin. On the other hand, at the end of the 1940s the Czechoslovakian freight forwarding passing through the Polish ports was monopolised by the PLC ‘Spedrapid’ in Gdynia (with branches in Gdańsk and Szczecin); its capital and management were partly Polish and partly Czechoslovakian. After a few years of using its own wharf in the Szczecin port and operating the shipping company on the Oder (both of which turned out to be extremely unprofitable) Czechoslovakia gave them up. A new agreement between Poland and Czechoslovakia was concluded on January 13th, 1956; it put an end to the foreign area in the port of Szczecin and to the shipping company on the Oder. Surprisingly, the liquidation of the two agencies did not result in a decrease of transit turnover but just the reverse: caused its increase. In the subsequent decades Szczecin played an important role in the Czechoslovakian foreign trade. In 1958 Szczecin became the biggest transit port for our southern neighbour overtaking Hamburg. The Szczecin shipowner – the Polish Steamship Company – was one of the leading carriers in the Czechoslovakian exports and imports. Czechoslovakia purchased products of the Polish shipyards, whence a part of its ships came. A significant part of the officers of the Czechoslovakian Shipping Company (Československá námořní plavba) had been prepared by the Maritime Academy in Szczecin. Yet, the attempts to cooperate more closely undertaken in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s failed.
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Since the beginning of the 19th century the evolution of economic relations and complicated political factors on the Polish territories forced – and at the same time – enabled part of the female landowners to engage in business activities. Actually, even in ancient times female landowners happened to run country estates (the so called female farmsteads), but at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, together with industrial and civilisational changes, the role of women in running country farms acquired a new quality. Female landowners became official administrators of country estates responsible for their financial situation. The author deals with questions concerning the participation and contribution of female landowners both in the development of their own estates and the economic life of the Kingdom of Poland as a whole at the turn of the centuries. The questions asked in the text of the article, among other things, about the agricultural branches – not only the traditional ones but the less typical ones as well – preferred by female landowners permit noticing the rise in aspirations of women who started expressing their opinions in the press and professional journals on economic matters; on the other hand, their struggle with the market was not always successful. Female landowners – representatives of the Polish elites – looked for inspiration in the European models. The knowledge and skills they acquired they implemented into their own economic activities, and at the same time they shared their experience with others in social forums. Female landowners more and more frequently appeared arm in arm with men as their economic partners who had equal rights and who undertook attempts – based on their financial independence – of self-reliant economic activities that sometimes failed and sometimes succeeded. Their financial independence resulted from slow changes in the mentality typical of the social group they came from.
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The discourse on the social engineering as an instrument of shaping modern societies gained strength at the end of the 19th century. In further deliberations the attention is paid to the question of how the connection between politics and science – restricted to the relation between geopolitics, bio-politics and ethnic cleansing – functioned after WW1 and WW2, and particularly how it affected the international order.
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Fotoreportaż. Wiejski fotograf na Ponidziu zapisuje w kadrach bliski mu świat. Uratowana spuścizna Mieczysława Pragnącego.
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From the 18th century on Arabian Nights has been influencing European imaginary, especially culture and literature. It created European vision of the Orient as well. In the 20th century popular culture gave high recognisability to many elements of Arabian Nights (such as characters: Sindbad, Aladdin or magical artefacts: a flying carpet, magic lamp). Scheherazade as an allegory for narrative art became the most important figure for scholars studying the book. The paper shows how two contemporary book cycles make intertextual links to Arabian Nights. Orphan’s Tale by Catherynne M. Valente, Harun and the Sea of stories and Luka and the fire of Life by Salman Rushdie rewrite the elements of Arabian Nights, such as characters, artefacts and linguistic allusion to the Orient. However, the narration in the works by both writers is completely different: Valente recreated a sophisticated device of narration known from the book, whereas Rushdie gave his novels a simple, linear composition. Scheherazade’s gift to spin story out of a life is needed for different aims. For Rushdie telling fairy tales is useful in writing about life of literature itself, for Valente it is important for creating an alternative to the patriarchal vision of the world.
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W małym mieście II Rzeczpospolitej jak w soczewce skupiają się napięcia społeczne tego czasu. Polacy i Żydzi żyja tuż obok siebie, ale w obcych światach.
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Few authors of the 20th century have had such a remarkable influence on the literature of other writers as Jorge Luis Borges. The impact of his works can be appreciated in all important national literature; many writers have recognized his expertise and influence, some of them openly imitating him. In this respect, literature written in Serbo- Croatian is a special case, with a huge reception of his literature. The Borges “wave” arrived late to Yugoslavia, but with increased strength, and from the 1970s on the Argentinean author has remained one of the favorite writers among young readers. Local writers quickly absorbed all the aesthetic and conceptual developments of the author of Ficciones, even giving birth to a new trend called “Borgesian prose” which has given the world such remarkable authors as Milorad Pavić. Although not considered strictly a borgesist, Danilo Kiš, one of the internationally best known Serbian authors, deserves special attention. Much of his work is marked in many ways by Borgesian stylistic and thematic influences. Numerous intertextualities make some of his texts a genuine dialogue with the Argentinean master. However, the high quality, originality and diversity of Kiš’s work distinguish the Serbian author from the rest of the Balkan Borges’ followers. The present paper reviews the influences, references, allusions, appropriations and other inter-textual links to Borges’ literature that can be found in works by Kiš, from his first novels, where the influence is more subdued, through numerous references in A tomb for Boris Davidovich, to the already clearly Borgesian stories of The Encyclopaedia of the Dead.
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The text recalls the topic of the social and cultural initiatives after 1989, organized on the borderland of Poland and the Czech Republic, which the inhabitants of border regions from Poland and the Czech Republic are engaged in and the main organizational centres of the integration events are the Czech Cieszyn and Nowa Ruda. The neighbours do together among others the theatre events (The Theatre Festival “Without borders”), fi lm events (Film review “The Cinema with no borders”), religious events (The Polish and the Czech Days of Christian culture), which tighten the border contacts and strengthen the relations between the nations. The major group of organizers of the key events come from the oppositional organization the Polish and the Czech Solidarity which was created at the beginning of the 80’s of XX C. and which functions today as Polish-Czech-Slovak Solidarity.
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This article presents the concept of Social State (Państwo Społeczne) forged by Wacław Makowski one of the contributors of The April Constitution of 1935. Makowski was a critic of both liberal and socialist type of state. He claimed that the former type is based on selfishness of the individuals that causes social conflicts, while the latter results in loss of a human individuality. As an alternative the concept of Social State was designed to incorporate advantages of these both systems while avoiding their drawbacks. Makowski believed activity of individuals conferred with certain degree of freedoms underpins the social development. The personal freedom of an individual as per this concept should be limited by freedom of another individual and the common good. In the event of a conflict of interest between the one of individual and the community the latter would supersede the former. The state whose form depends of the current demands of society had not only to settle disputes and to harmonize the activities of individuals and various associations but also actively pursue the goal of common good. However state activities should not replace the individual activity but rather support it. According to Makowski Social State would allow to reach the third goal of a French Revolution slogan – fraternity. He believed that liberal state sought to bring into life the principles of equality and freedom, bypassing the requirement of human cooperation, which contemporarily were regarded as obsolete and not fitting to reality
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The problem of the history of ideas (unrestricted progress) in the Solaris written by Stanislaw Lem and in most known film adaptations directed by Andrei Tarkovsky (1972) and Steven Soderbergh (2002). Utopia as a camouflage of dystopia. Imperfection of human nature and metaphysical optimism. Utopian thinking in trans- and post-humanism. Possibility (?) of total communication (Lem’s novel) and the image of impenetrable mystery (Tarkovsky’s movie). Inevitability of defeat (Lem) and the image of salvation (Soderbergh).
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