1.
Warsaw
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Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It stands on the Vistula River in east-central Poland, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.750 million residents within a metropolitan area of 3.101 million residents. The city limits cover 516.9 square kilometres, while the area covers 6,100.43 square kilometres. Once described as Paris of the East, Warsaw was believed to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world until World War II. On 9 November 1939, the city was awarded Polands highest military decoration for heroism, Warsaw is one of Europe’s most dynamic metropolitan cities. In 2012 the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Warsaw as the 32nd most liveable city in the world, in 2017 the city came 4th in the “Business-friendly” category and 8th in the “Human capital and life style”. It was also ranked as one of the most liveable cities in Central, Warsaw is considered an Alpha– global city, a major international tourist destination and a significant cultural, political and economic hub. The city is a significant centre of research and development, BPO, ITO, the Warsaw Stock Exchange is the largest and most important in Central and Eastern Europe. Frontex, the European Union agency for external security, has its headquarters in Warsaw. Together with Frankfurt, London and Paris, Warsaw is also one of the cities with the highest number of skyscrapers in the European Union, the city is the seat of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and the University of Warsaw. The historic city-centre of Warsaw with its picturesque Old Town in 1980 was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, buildings represent examples of nearly every European architectural style and historical period. Warsaw provides many examples of architecture from the gothic, renaissance, baroque, neoclassical and modern periods, furthermore, the city is positioning itself as Europes chic cultural capital with thriving art and club scenes and renowned restaurants. Folk etymology attributes the city name to a fisherman, Wars, according to legend, Sawa was a mermaid living in the Vistula River with whom Wars fell in love. In actuality, Warsz was a 12th/13th-century nobleman who owned a village located at the site of Mariensztat neighbourhood. See also the Vršovci family which had escaped to Poland, the official city name in full is miasto stołeczne Warszawa. A native or resident of Warsaw is known as a Varsovian – in Polish warszawiak, warszawianin, warszawianka, warszawiacy, other names for Warsaw include Varsovia and Varsóvia, Varsovie, Varsavia, Warschau, װאַרשע /Varshe, Варшава /Varšava /Varshava, Varšuva, Varsó. The first fortified settlements on the site of todays Warsaw were located in Bródno, after Jazdów was raided by nearby clans and dukes, a new similar settlement was established on the site of a small fishing village called Warszowa
2.
Congress Poland
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Thus effectively it was little more than a puppet state of the Russian Empire. The autonomy was curtailed following uprisings in 1830–31 and 1863, as the country became governed by namestniks. Thus from the start, Polish autonomy remained little more than fiction, the territory of the Kingdom of Poland roughly corresponds to the Kalisz Region and the Lublin, Łódź, Masovian, Podlaskie and Holy Cross Voivodeships of Poland. Although the official name of the state was the Kingdom of Poland, in order to distinguish it from other Kingdoms of Poland, it was sometimes referred to as Congress Poland. The Kingdom of Poland was created out of the Duchy of Warsaw, the creation of the Kingdom created a partition of Polish lands in which the state was divided among Russia, Austria and Prussia. The Congress was important enough in the creation of the state to cause the new country to be named for it, the Kingdom lost its status as a sovereign state in 1831 and the administrative divisions were reorganized. It was sufficiently distinct that its name remained in official Russian use, originally, the Kingdom had an area of roughly 128,500 km2 and a population of approximately 3.3 million. Its population reached 6.1 million by 1870 and 10 million by 1900, most of the ethnic Poles in the Russian Empire lived in the Congress Kingdom, although some areas outside it also contained a Polish majority. The Kingdom of Poland largely re-emerged as a result of the efforts of Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, the Kingdom of Poland was one of the few contemporary constitutional monarchies in Europe, with the Emperor of Russia serving as the Polish King. His title as chief of Poland in Russian, was Tsar, similar to usage in the fully integrated states within the Empire, theoretically the Polish Kingdom in its 1815 form was a semi-autonomous state in personal union with Russia through the rule of the Russian Emperor. Poland also had traditions and the Polish nobility deeply valued personal freedom. In reality, the Kings had absolute power and the title of Autocrat. All opposition to the Emperor of Russia was suppressed and the law was disregarded at will by Russian officials, however, in time the situation changed and he granted the viceroy, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, almost dictatorial powers. Very soon after Congress of Vienna resolutions were signed, Russia ceased to respect them, in 1819, Alexander I abolished freedom of the press and introduced preventory censorship. Resistance to Russian control began in the 1820s, beginning in 1825, the sessions of the Sejm were held in secret. Nicholas rule promoted the idea of Official Nationality, consisting of Orthodoxy, Autocracy, in relation to Poles, those ideas meant assimilation, turning them into loyal Orthodox Russians. All of this led to discontent and resistance among the Polish population, in January 1831, the Sejm deposed Nicholas I as King of Poland in response to his repeated curtailing of its constitutional rights. Nicholas reacted by sending Russian troops into Poland, resulting in the November Uprising, following an 11-month military campaign, the Kingdom of Poland lost its semi-independence and was integrated much more closely with the Russian Empire
3.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
4.
Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts
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The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, or the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, is a public institution of higher learning located in downtown Kraków, Poland. It is the oldest Polish fine-arts academy, established in 1818, ASP is a state-run university that offers 5- and 6-year Masters degree programs. As of 2007, the Academys faculty comprised 94 professors and assistant professors as well as 147 Ph. D. s, the Academy of Fine Arts was originally a subdivision of the Jagiellonian Universitys Department of Literature and was initially called School of Drawing and Painting. ASP received the status of an independent institution of learning in 1873 as the School of Fine Arts. The main building based on a design by architect Maciej Moraczewski was erected in todays Matejko Square in 1879. In 1893–95 its principal was a broadly educated Władysław Łuszczkiewicz who also served as conservator of monuments in the city. Following the death of Jan Matejko in 1893, the next ASP President elected in 1895 was Julian Fałat, who remained at his post until 1909. On the 100th anniversary of its founding, in 1979, the Academy was named for Jan Matejko, its founder and first president, in 2008 the Academy joined Icograda and became that organizations first educational member in Poland
5.
Insatiability
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Insatiability is a novel by the Polish writer, dramatist, philosopher, painter and photographer, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. Nienasycenie was written in 1927 and first published in 1930 and it is his third novel, considered by many to be his best. It consists of two parts, Przebudzenie and Obłęd, the utopian story takes place in the future, around 2000. After a battle, Poland is overrun by the army of the last, the nation becomes enslaved to a fictional Chinese leader Murti Bing. His emissaries give everyone a special pill called DAVAMESK B2 which takes away their ability to think, east and West become one, in faceless misery fuelled by sexual instincts. Life was rocking back and forth on a crest like a seesaw, — Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz Genezip Kapen - The protagonist of the story. Zip is nineteen and has graduated from school. They dont have a strong relationship, but make peace on his deathbed. Zips father is also the reason for his entry into the army, Princess Irina Vsevolodovna di Ticonderoga - Putricides Tenzer - A composer and friend of Princess di Ticonderoga. Tenzer specializes in atonal and unstructured music, and is also a critic of art. He is a hunchback and has a leg because of a bone disease. He is married with two children, but is unfaithful and often flirts with the Princess. His wife is a woman that he had married when he was young for some money. To be born a hunchback in Poland is bad luck, to be born an artist in addition the worst luck of all, sturfan Abnol - An ex-lover of the princess. Abnol is a novelist and eventually becomes involved with Zips sister. Prince Basil Ostrogski - Another ex-lover of the Princess and he is a neo-Catholic, but only a practicing one. Afanasol Benz - An old friend of Prince Basils and he used to be rich, but after he lost his estate in Russia he took up logic. Benz created his own form of logic which he could derive from a single axiom, erasmus Kotzmolochowicz - The legendary quartermaster general of the Polish Army
6.
Helena Modjeska
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Helena Modjeska, whose actual Polish surname was Modrzejewska, was a renowned actress who specialized in Shakespearean and tragic roles. Helena Modjeska was born in Kraków, Poland, on October 12,1840 and her name was recorded at birth as Jadwiga Benda, but she was later baptized Helena Opid, being given her godfather’s surname. The question of her origins is a complicated one, Modjeska’s mother was Józefa Benda, the widow of a prosperous Kraków merchant, Szymon Benda. In her autobiography, Modjeska claimed that her father was a musician named Michael Opid, while it is true that the Benda family did employ a music teacher named Michal Opid, who later stood as Helena’s godfather, Opid was not the father of Józefa Benda’s two youngest children. There is evidence to suggest that Helena and her older brother Adolf were the results of an affair between Józefa and Prince Władysław Sanguszko, a wealthy and influential Polish nobleman. Also glossed over in Modjeskas autobiography were the details concerning her first marriage, to her former guardian, Gustave was an actor and the director of a second-rate provincial theater troupe. The date of Modjeska’s marriage to Gustave is uncertain and she discovered many years later that they had never been legally married, as he was still married to his first wife when they wed. Together the couple had two children, a son Rudolf, and a daughter Marylka, who died in infancy, Gustaw Zimajer used the stage name Gustaw Modrzejewski. It was the version of this name that Modjeska adopted when she made her stage debut in 1861 as Helena Modrzejewska. Later, when acting abroad, she used a version of her name. In her early Polish acting career, Modrzejewska played at Bochnia, Nowy Sącz, Przemyśl, Rzeszów, in 1862 she appeared for the first time in Lwów, playing in her first Romantic drama, as Skierka in Juliusz Słowackis Balladyna. From 1863 she appeared at Stanisławów and Czerniowce, in plays by Słowacki, in 1865 Zimajer tried to get her a contract with Viennese theaters, but the plan came to naught due to her poor knowledge of the German language. Later that year Helena left Zimajer, taking their son Rudolf, once there she accepted a four-year theatrical engagement. In 1868 she began appearing in Warsaw, during her eight years there and her brothers Józef and Feliks Benda were also well regarded actors in Poland. An incident illustrates the circumstances under which Polish society then labored, at one of Modrzejewskas Warsaw performances, seventeen secondary-school pupils presented her with a bouquet of flowers tied with a ribbon in the red-and-white Polish national colors. The pupils were accused by the Russian Imperial authorities of conducting a patriotic demonstration and they were expelled from their school and banned from admission to any other school. One of the pupils, Ignacy Neufeld, subsequently shot himself, on September 12,1868, Modjeska married a Polish nobleman, Karol Bożenta Chłapowski. Best known in America as Count Bozenta, he was not a count and his family belonged to the untitled landed gentry
7.
Juliusz Kossak
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Juliusz Fortunat Kossak was a Polish historical painter and master illustrator who specialized in battle scenes, military portraits and horses. He was the progenitor of a family that spanned four generations, father of painter Wojciech Kossak. Juliusz Kossak grew up in Lwów during the partitions of Poland. He obtained a degree in law at the Lwów University encouraged by his mother, at the same time he studied painting with Jan Maszkowski and Piotr Michałowski. Beginning in 1844 Kossak worked on commissions for the aristocracy in Małopolska, Podolia. He married Zofia Gałczyńska in 1855 and together left for Paris where they spent five years. His sons were there, the twin brothers, Wojciech and Tadeusz. The family came to Warsaw in 1860 where Kossak obtained a position as the head illustrator and they moved to Munich for a year and in 1868 settled in Kraków blessed with five children already. Kossak bought an estate there, known as Kossakówka, famed for artistic and literary salon frequented by Adam Asnyk, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Stanisław Witkiewicz, Józef Chełmoński. Juliusz Kossak lived and worked till the end of his life. In 1880 he was awarded the Cross of Order of Merit by Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria–Hungary for his achievements as an artist. Kossak exhibited his work on Polish soil and abroad since 1854 and his preferred medium was watercolour, both in smaller and larger formats. He was the precursor of a Polish school of battle-scene painting and he was the author of over a dozen panoramic paintings depicting Polish cavalry in battle and on military actions against foreign invaders. Kossak produced also a series of portraits in oil for Polish noble families including Fredro, Gniewosz, Tyszkiewicz, Lipski and his rustic and pastoral scenes included horse fairs, country weddings, winter hunting excursions, mythological scenes and horse stables. He also produces a series of illustrations of Polish epic literature such as Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz, novels of Henryk Sienkiewicz, works by Wincenty Pol, Jan Chryzostom Pasek and he designed various honorary medals for Kraków foundries. Maciej Masłowski, Juliusz Kossak, Warsaw 1984, ed. „Auriga” - Wydawnictwa Artystyczne i Filmowe ISBN 83-221-0294-1
8.
Poles
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The Poles are a nation and West Slavic ethnic group native to Poland who share a common ancestry, culture, history and are native speakers of the Polish language. The population of Poles in Poland is estimated at 37,394,000 out of a population of 38,538,000. Polands population inhabits several historic regions, including Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Mazovia, Silesia, Pomerania, Kuyavia, Warmia, Masuria, a wide-ranging Polish diaspora exists throughout Europe, the Americas and in Australasia. Today the largest urban concentration of Poles is the Katowice urban agglomeration of 2.7 million inhabitants, Poland was also for centuries a refuge for many Jews from all over Europe, a large number emigrated in the twentieth century to Israel. Several prominent Israeli statesmen were born in Poland, including Israels founder David Ben-Gurion, former President of Israel Shimon Peres, the Slavic people have been in the territory of modern Poland for over 1500 years. In the 9th and 10th centuries the tribes gave rise to developed regions along the upper Vistula, the last tribal undertaking resulted in the 10th century in a lasting political structure and state, Poland, one of the West Slavic nations. After 1945 the so-called autochthonous or aboriginal school of Polish prehistory received official backing in Poland, Polish people are the sixth largest national group in the European Union. Estimates vary depending on source, though available data suggest a number of around 60 million people worldwide. There are almost 38 million Poles in Poland alone, there are also Polish minorities in the surrounding countries including Germany, and indigenous minorities in the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus. There are some smaller indigenous minorities in nearby countries such as Moldova, the term Polonia is usually used in Poland to refer to people of Polish origin who live outside Polish borders, officially estimated at around 10 to 20 million. There is a notable Polish diaspora in the United States, Brazil, France has a historic relationship with Poland and has a relatively large Polish-descendant population. Poles have lived in France since the 18th century, in the early 20th century, over a million Polish people settled in France, mostly during world wars, among them Polish émigrés fleeing either Nazi occupation or later Soviet rule. In the United States, a significant number of Polish immigrants settled in Chicago, Ohio, Detroit, New York City, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, the highest concentration of Polish Americans in a single New England municipality is in New Britain, Connecticut. The majority of Polish Canadians have arrived in Canada since World War II, the number of Polish immigrants increased between 1945 and 1970, and again after the end of Communism in Poland in 1989. In Brazil the majority of Polish immigrants settled in Paraná State, smaller, but significant numbers settled in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Espírito Santo and São Paulo. The city of Curitiba has the second largest Polish diaspora in the world and Polish music, dishes and it is estimated that over half a million Polish people have come to work in the United Kingdom from Poland. Since 2011, Poles have been able to work throughout the EU and not just in the United Kingdom, Ireland. The Polish community in Norway has increased substantially and has grown to a number of 120,000
9.
History of philosophy in Poland
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The history of philosophy in Poland parallels the evolution of philosophy in Europe in general. Polish philosophy drew upon the broader currents of European philosophy, the period of Messianism, between the November 1830 and January 1863 Uprisings, reflected European Romantic and Idealist trends, as well as a Polish yearning for political resurrection. It was a period of maximalist metaphysical systems, the collapse of the January 1863 Uprising prompted an agonizing reappraisal of Polands situation. Poles gave up their practice of measuring their resources by their aspirations. The twentieth century brought a new quickening to Polish philosophy, there was growing interest in western philosophical currents. Rigorously trained Polish philosophers made substantial contributions to specialized fields—to psychology, the history of philosophy, the theory of knowledge, jan Łukasiewicz gained world fame with his concept of many-valued logic and his Polish notation. Alfred Tarskis work in truth theory won him world renown, the phenomenologist Roman Ingarden did influential work in esthetics and in a Husserl-style metaphysics, his student Karol Wojtyła acquired a unique influence on the world stage as Pope John Paul II. History of philosophy Polish philosophers List of Poles Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Historia filozofii,3 vols, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Zarys dziejów filozofii w Polsce, Historia nauki polskiej w monografiach, XXXII, Kraków, Polska Akademia Umiejętności,1948. This monograph draws from pertinent sections in earlier editions of the authors Historia filozofii, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Outline of the History of Philosophy in Poland, translated from the Polish by Christopher Kasparek, The Polish Review, vol. Angus Armitage, The World of Copernicus, New York, Mentor Books,1951, joseph Kasparek, The Constitutions of Poland and of the United States, Kinships and Genealogy, Miami, American Institute of Polish Culture,1980. Edward Pieścikowski, Bolesław Prus, 2nd edition, Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe,1985, kazimierz Kuratowski, A Half Century of Polish Mathematics, Remembrances and Reflections, Oxford, Pergamon Press,1973, ISBN 0-08-023046-6. Leszek Kołakowski, Positivist Philosophy from Hume to the Vienna Circle, francesco Coniglione, Nel segno della scienza. La filosofia polacca del Novecento, Milano, FrancoAngeli,1996, encyklopedia Polski, Kraków, Wydawnictwo Ryszard Kluszczyński,1996. Dr. Skowroński, Contemporary Polish Philosophy Polish Philosophy Page Return to top of page
10.
Second Polish Republic
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The Second Polish Republic, also known as the Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland, refers to the country of Poland between the First and Second World Wars. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland and it had access to the Baltic Sea via a short strip of coastline either side of the city of Gdynia. Between March and August 1939, Poland also shared a border with the then-Hungarian governorate of Subcarpathia, the Second Republic was significantly different in territory to the current Polish state. It included substantially more territory in the east and less in the west, the Second Republics land area was 388,634 km2, making it, in October 1938, the sixth largest country in Europe. After the annexation of Zaolzie, this grew to 389,720 km2, according to the 1921 census, the number of inhabitants was 27.2 million. By 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, almost a third of population came from minority groups,13. 9% Ukrainians, 10% Jews,3. 1% Belarusians,2. 3% Germans and 3. 4% Czechs, Lithuanians and Russians. At the same time, a significant number of ethnic Poles lived outside the country borders, Poland maintained a slow but steady level of economic development. By 1939, the Republic had become one of Europes major powers, the victorious Allies of World War I confirmed the rebirth of Poland in the Treaty of Versailles of June 1919. It was one of the stories of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Poland solidified its independence in a series of wars fought by the newly formed Polish Army from 1918 to 1921. The extent of the half of the interwar territory of Poland was settled diplomatically in 1922. In the course of World War I, Germany gradually gained overall dominance on the Eastern Front as the Imperial Russian Army fell back, German and Austro-Hungarian armies seized the Russian-ruled part of what became Poland. In a failed attempt to resolve the Polish question as quickly as possible, Berlin set up a German puppet state on 5 November 1916, with a governing Provisional Council of State, the Council administered the country under German auspices, pending the election of a king. A month before Germany surrendered on 11 November 1918 and the war ended, the Regency Council had dissolved the Council of State, with the notable exception of the Marxist-oriented Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, most Polish political parties supported this move. On 23 October the Regency Council appointed a new government under Józef Świeżyński, in 1918–1919, over 100 workers councils sprang up on Polish territories, on 5 November 1918, in Lublin, the first Soviet of Delegates was established. On 6 November socialists proclaimed the Republic of Tarnobrzeg at Tarnobrzeg in Austrian Galicia, the same day the Socialist, Ignacy Daszyński, set up a Provisional Peoples Government of the Republic of Poland in Lublin. On Sunday,10 November at 7 a. m, Józef Piłsudski, newly freed from 16 months in a German prison in Magdeburg, returned by train to Warsaw. Piłsudski, together with Colonel Kazimierz Sosnkowski, was greeted at Warsaws railway station by Regent Zdzisław Lubomirski, next day, due to his popularity and support from most political parties, the Regency Council appointed Piłsudski as Commander in Chief of the Polish Armed Forces
11.
Samogitia
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Samogitia or Žemaitija is one of the five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. Žemaitija is located in northwestern Lithuania, Žemaitija has a long and distinct cultural history, reflected in the existence of the Samogitian dialect. Ruthenian sources mentioned the region as жемотьская земля, samotska semla, this rise to its Polish form, Żmudź. In Latin texts, the name is written as Samogitia, Samogetia etc. The area has long known to its residents and to other Lithuanians exclusively as Žemaitija. The region is known in English as Lower Lithuania or, in reference to its Yiddish names. The largest city is Šiauliai, or Klaipėda if the latter is considered in the region, telšiai is the capital, although Medininkai was once the capital of the Duchy of Samogitia. Samogitian has northern and southern subdialects, after World War II, the territory of the western subdialect was resettled mainly by northern and southern Žemaičiai and by other Lithuanians. Samogitian has an intonation similar to that of the Latvian language. Žemaitija is one of the most ethnically homogeneous regions of the country, during the first part of 19th century, Žemaitija was a major center of Lithuanian culture. The local religion is predominantly Roman Catholic, although there are significant Lutheran minorities in the south, the modern concept of dialectological Žemaitija appeared only by the end of 19th century. The territory of ancient Samogitia was much larger than current ethnographic or dialectological Žemaitija and embraced all of central, the very term Samogitians is a Latinized form of the ancient Lithuanian name for the regions lowlanders, who dwelt in Central Lithuanias lowlands. The original subethnic Samogitia, i. e. the Central Lithuanias flat burial grounds culture, was formed as early as the 5th-6th centuries, before that, it was inhabited by southern Semigallians and southern Curonians. The western part of historical Žemaitija became ethnically Lithuanian between the 13th and 16th centuries, the primal eastern boundary of historical Samogitia was the Šventoji River since the end of the 13th century. Because during the 13th through 16th centuries the Teutonic Order and the Livonian Order bordered Žemaitija, as such, Samogitian territory was offered to these orders, or exchanged in peace treaties, a number of times. Lithuania would then regain Žemaitija during subsequent conflicts, for more than two hundred years, old Samogitia played a central role in Lithuania’s wars against the crusading order of the Teutonic Knights. Invasions started in Lithuania in 1229, combined military forces undertook numerous campaigns against Samogitians and Lithuanians. Saule, Skuodas, Durbe, Lievarde are just a few of the battles took place
12.
Lithuania
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Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in Northern Europe. One of the three Baltic states, it is situated along the shore of the Baltic Sea, to the east of Sweden. It is bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, Lithuania has an estimated population of 2.9 million people as of 2015, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. The official language, Lithuanian, along with Latvian, is one of two living languages in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. For centuries, the shores of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s, the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, the King of Lithuania, and the first unified Lithuanian state, with the Lublin Union of 1569, Lithuania and Poland formed a voluntary two-state union, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighboring countries systematically dismantled it from 1772–95, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuanias territory. As World War I neared its end, Lithuanias Act of Independence was signed on 16 February 1918, in the midst of the Second World War, Lithuania was first occupied by the Soviet Union and then by Nazi Germany. As World War II neared its end and the Germans retreated, Lithuania is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, a full member of the Eurozone, Schengen Agreement and NATO. It is also a member of the Nordic Investment Bank, the United Nations Human Development Index lists Lithuania as a very high human development country. Lithuania has been among the fastest growing economies in the European Union and is ranked 21st in the world in the Ease of Doing Business Index, the first people settled in the territory of Lithuania after the last glacial period in the 10th millennium BC. Over a millennium, the Indo-Europeans, who arrived in the 3rd – 2nd millennium BC, mixed with the local population, the first written mention of Lithuania is found in a medieval German manuscript, the Annals of Quedlinburg, in an entry dated 9 March 1009. Initially inhabited by fragmented Baltic tribes, in the 1230s the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, after his assassination in 1263, pagan Lithuania was a target of the Christian crusades of the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order. Despite the devastating century-long struggle with the Orders, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded rapidly, by the end of the 14th century, Lithuania was one of the largest countries in Europe and included present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia. The geopolitical situation between the west and the east determined the multicultural and multi-confessional character of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the ruling elite practised religious tolerance and Chancery Slavonic language was used as an auxiliary language to the Latin for official documents. In 1385, the Grand Duke Jogaila accepted Polands offer to become its king, Jogaila embarked on gradual Christianization of Lithuania and established a personal union between Poland and Lithuania. It implied that Lithuania, the fiercely independent land, was one of the last pagan areas of Europe to adopt Christianity, after two civil wars, Vytautas the Great became the Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1392. During his reign, Lithuania reached the peak of its expansion, centralization of the state began
13.
Zakopane
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Zakopane is a town in the extreme south of Poland. It lies in the part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998 it was in Nowy Sącz Province, and it had a population of about 28,000 as of 2005. Zakopane is a center of Góral culture and is known informally as the capital of Poland. It is a destination for mountaineering, skiing, and qualified tourism. Zakopane is located in southernmost Poland near the border with Slovakia and it lies in a valley between the Tatra Mountains and Gubałówka Hill. It can be reached by train or by bus from district capital Kraków, Zakopane has an elevation of 800-1,000 meters above sea level. The town is centered at the junction of Krupówki and Kościuszko Streets, the earliest documents mentioning Zakopane date to the 17th century, describing a glade called Zakopisko. In 1676 it was a village of 43 inhabitants, Zakopane became a center for the regions mining and metallurgy industries, in the 19th century, it was the largest center for metallurgy in Galicia. It expanded during the 19th century as the climate attracted more inhabitants, by 1889 it had developed from a small village into a climatic health resort of 3,000 inhabitants. Rail service to Zakopane began October 1,1899, the ski jump on Wielka Krokiew was opened in 1925. The cable car to Kasprowy Wierch was completed in 1936, the funicular connected Zakopane and the top of Gubałówka in 1938. In March 1940, representatives of the Soviet NKVD and the Nazi Gestapo met for one week in Zakopanes Villa Tadeusz, throughout World War II, Zakopane served as an underground staging point between Poland and Hungary. From 1942 to 1943,1,000 prisoners from the German Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp were set to work in a stone quarry, the Zakopane Style of Architecture is an architectural mode inspired by the regional art of Poland’s highland region known as Podhale. Drawing on the motifs and traditions in the buildings of the Carpathian Mountains, the Tatras are a popular destination among hikers, skiers, ski-tourers and climbers. There is a network of marked hiking trails in the Tatras. Most of these trails are overcrowded, especially in the summer season, the High Tatras offer excellent opportunities for climbing. In summer, lightning and snow are both potential hazards for climbers, and the weather can change quickly, thunderstorms are common in the afternoons
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Homeschooling
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Homeschooling, also known as home education, is the education of children inside the home. Home education is conducted by a parent or tutor. Many families that start out with a formal structure at home often switch to less formal ways of imparting education outside of school. Homeschooling is the commonly used in North America, whereas home education is more commonly used in the United Kingdom, elsewhere in Europe. Before the introduction of school attendance laws, most childhood education was imparted by the family or community. In several countries homeschooling, in the sense, is considered to be an alternative to attending public or private schools and is a legal option for parents. In other nations, homeschooling is considered illegal or restricted to conditions, as noted in the Homeschooling international status. According to the US National Household Education Surveys, about three percent of all children in the US were homeschooled in the 2011 and 2012 school year, and as of 2016, there are about 2.3 million home-schooled students in the United States. The studies found that of children,83 percent were White,5 percent were Black,7 percent were Hispanic. For much of history and in cultures, enlisting professional teachers was an option available only to the elite social classes. Thus, until recently, the vast majority of people, especially during early childhood, were educated by family members, family friends. The earliest public schools in modern Western culture were established in the early 16th century in the German states of Gotha and Thuringia. However, even in the 18th century, the majority of people in Europe lacked formal schooling, meaning they were homeschooled, tutored, in the middle colonies, the educational situation varied when comparing New York with New England until the 1850s. Formal schooling in a classroom setting has been the most common means of schooling throughout the world, especially in developed countries, since the early-, native Americans, who traditionally used homeschooling and apprenticeship, vigorously resisted compulsory education in the United States. Rushdoony was frequently called as a witness by the Home School Legal Defense Association in court cases. During this time, American educational professionals Raymond and Dorothy Moore began to research the academic validity of the rapidly growing Early Childhood Education movement. This research included independent studies by researchers and a review of over 8,000 studies bearing on early childhood education. They asserted that formal schooling before ages 8–12 not only lacked the anticipated effectiveness, the Moores published their view that formal schooling was damaging young children academically, socially, mentally, and even physiologically
15.
Karol Szymanowski
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Karol Maciej Szymanowski was a Polish composer and pianist, the most celebrated Polish composer of the early 20th century. He is considered a member of the late 19th-/early 20th-century modernist movement Young Poland. The early works show the influence of the late Romantic German school as well as the works of Alexander Scriabin, as exemplified by his Étude Op.4 No.3. Later, he developed an impressionistic and partially atonal style, represented by works as the Third Symphony. His third period was influenced by the music of the Polish Górale people, including the ballet Harnasie, the Fourth Symphony. King Roger, composed between 1918-1924, remains the most popular opera by Szymanowski, Szymanowski was born into the Korwin-Szymanowski family, members of the wealthy land-owning Polish gentry class, in the village of Tymoszówka, then in the Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire. He studied music privately with his father before enrolling at the Gustav Neuhaus Elisavetgrad School of Music in 1892, from 1901 he attended the State Conservatory in Warsaw, of which he was later director from 1926 until retiring in 1930. Since musical opportunities in Russian-occupied Poland were quite limited, he travelled throughout Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, being lame in one knee made him unsuitable for military service in World War I. In 1918, Szymanowski completed the manuscript of a novel, Efebos. His travels, especially those to the Mediterranean area, provided him with new experience, after his return he raved about Sicily, especially Taormina. There, he said, I saw a few young men bathing who could be models for Antinous, I couldnt take my eyes off them. Now he was a confirmed homosexual and he told me all this with burning eyes. Szymanowski settled in Warsaw in 1919, in 1926 he accepted the position of Director of the Warsaw Conservatory though he had little administrative experience. He became seriously ill in 1928 and temporarily lost his post and he was diagnosed with an acute form of tuberculosis, and in 1929 traveled to Davos, Switzerland, for medical treatment. Szymanowski resumed his position at the Conservatory in 1930, but the school was closed two years later by a ministerial decision and he moved to Villa Atma in Zakopane where he composed fervently. In 1936 Szymanowski received more treatment at a sanatorium in Grasse and he died at a sanatorium in Lausanne on 29 March 1937. His body was brought back to Poland by his sister Stanisława and laid to rest at Skałka in Kraków, Szymanowskis long correspondence with the pianist Jan Smeterlin, who was a significant champion of his piano works, was published in 1969. Szymanowski was influenced by the music of Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, Max Reger, Alexander Scriabin and the impressionism of Claude Debussy and he also drew much influence from his countryman Frédéric Chopin and from Polish folk music
16.
Zofia Romer
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Zofia Romer, née Zofia Dembowska was a Polish painter. She was born in 1885 in Estonia to well-known physician Tadeusz Dembowski and she grew up in Lithuania and Poland studying under various painters. As a young woman she was linked with Bronisław Malinowski. In Lithuania, she studied painting first under Trutniev in Vilnius and subsequently under Roth and Holoszy in Krakow, Poland and Munich, in 1903 and 1904, she continued her studies in Paris with the well known portrait painter Jacques-Émile Blanche and the historical painter Luc-Olivier Merson. She completed her formal artistic education back in Krakow with Józef Siedlecki at the Baraniecki Museum, in 1911 she married Eugeniusz Romer, a wealthy and influential Polish landowner in Lithuania. Mrs. Romer played a significant role in the heritage of Lithuania. During a prolific artistic career spanning almost 70 years and encompassing a variety of media, she produced about 5000 works, from 1943 onward she earned her living as a portrait painter. She had 5 children Zofia, Roch Edward, Eugenia, Andrzej Tadeusz and her youngest son Andrzej devoted his later life to preserving his mothers legacy, artistic achievements and publishing the memoirs of both of his parents. Only Zofias youngest grandchild, Marisha Helena Romer, still lives in Europe with her family, in 1992 a catalogue of her known work was published in connection with a multiple museums exhibition of her work. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum National Museum, Warsaw,1992
17.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
18.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
19.
Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
20.
Russian Revolution
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The Russian Revolution was a pair of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the eventual rise of the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire collapsed with the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, in the second revolution that October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a communist state. The February Revolution was a revolution focused around Petrograd, then capital of Russia, in the chaos, members of the Imperial parliament assumed control of the country, forming the Russian Provisional Government. The army leadership felt they did not have the means to suppress the revolution, the February Revolution took place in the context of heavy military setbacks during the First World War, which left much of the Russian Army in a state of mutiny. During this chaotic period there were frequent mutinies, protests and many strikes, when the Provisional Government chose to continue fighting the war with Germany, the Bolsheviks and other socialist factions campaigned for stopping the conflict. The Bolsheviks turned workers militias under their control into the Red Guards over which they exerted substantial control, the Bolsheviks appointed themselves as leaders of various government ministries and seized control of the countryside, establishing the Cheka to quash dissent. To end Russia’s participation in the First World War, the Bolshevik leaders signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918, soon after, civil war erupted among the Reds, the Whites, the independence movements and the non-Bolshevik socialists. It continued for years, during which the Bolsheviks defeated both the Whites and all rival socialists. In this way, the Revolution paved the way for the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922, the Russian Revolution of 1905 was said to be a major factor to the February Revolutions of 1917. The events of Bloody Sunday triggered a line of protests, a council of workers called the St. Petersburg Soviet was created in all this chaos, and the beginning of a communist political protest had begun. World War I prompted a Russian outcry directed at Tsar Nicholas II and it was another major factor contributing to the retaliation of the Russian Communists against their royal opponents. However, the problems were merely administrative, and not industrial as Germany was producing great amounts of munitions whilst constantly fighting on two major battlefronts, the war also developed a weariness in the city, owing to a lack of food in response to the disruption of agriculture. Food scarcity had become a problem in Russia, but the cause of this did not lie in any failure of the harvests. As a result, they tended to hoard their grain and to revert to subsistence farming, thus the cities were constantly short of food. At the same time rising prices led to demands for wages in the factories. The outcome of all this, however, was a criticism of the government rather than any war-weariness. The original fever of excitement, which had caused the name of St. Heavy losses during the war also strengthened thoughts that Tsar Nicholas II was unfit to rule, the Liberals were now better placed to voice their complaints, since they were participating more fully through a variety of voluntary organizations
21.
Political commissar
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The political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organization, and committed to the civilian control of the military. Historically, the commissaire politique first appeared in the French Revolution, guarding it against anti-Revolutionary thought, in the communist government established by the October Revolution, the political commissar remained in the Red Army until 1942. In the Red Army and the Soviet Army, the political commissar existed, by name, only during the 1918–24, 1937–40, in the periods of the Red Armys history when political officers were militarily subordinate to unit commanders, the position of political commissar did not exist. The political supervision of the Russian military was effected by the political commissar, revolutionary Military Councils were established at army-, front-, fleet-, and flotilla-level, comprising at least three members — commander and two political workers. The political workers were denominated members of the RVS, not commissars, in 1919, the title politruk was assigned to political officers at company level. Despite being official political commissars, they were not addressed as commissar, beginning in 1925, the politico-military doctrinal course towards edinonachalie was established, and the political commissar, as a military institution, was gradually abolished. Earlier, in 1924, the RVSs were renamed as Military Councils, such high-level political officers were known as ChVS, on 10 May 1937 the political commissar was reinstated to the Red Army, and Military Councils were created. These events derived from the purges that began in the Soviet armed forces. Again, in August 1940, the political commissars was abolished, yet the Military Councils continued throughout the German-Soviet War, below army level, the edinonachalie system was restored. In July 1941, consequent to the Red Army’s defeats at war’s start, the commissar had an influential role as a second commander within the military units during this time. Their ranks and insignia generally paralleled those of officers, when this proved less-than-effective, General Konev asked Stalin to subordinate the political officer to commanding officers, the commissars work was refocused to morale-related functions. The term commissar itself was abolished in August 1942, and at the company- and regiment-level. Though no longer known by the original title, political officers were retained by all the Soviet armed forces. Soviet Army, Soviet Navy, Soviet Air Force, Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces, et al, the position of political commissar also exists in the Peoples Liberation Army of China. Usually, the political commissar is a military officer, although this position has been used to give civilian party officials some experience with the military. The political commissar was head of a party cell within the military, however, today the political commissar is largely responsible for administrative tasks such as public relations and counseling, and mainly serves as second-in-command. The position of political commissar also exists in the Republic of China Army of the Republic of China, opposed to this was Sun Li-jen, who was educated at the American Virginia Military Institute. Chiang Ching-kuo then arrested Sun Li-jen, charging him of conspiring with the American CIA of plotting to overthrow Chiang Kaishek, Sun was placed under house arrest in 1955
22.
Absurdism
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In philosophy, the Absurd refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any. In this context absurd does not mean logically impossible, but rather humanly impossible, the universe and the human mind do not each separately cause the Absurd, but rather, the Absurd arises by the contradictory nature of the two existing simultaneously. As a philosophy, absurdism furthermore explores the nature of the Absurd and how individuals, once becoming conscious of the Absurd. The absurdist philosopher Albert Camus stated that individuals should embrace the absurd condition of existence while also defiantly continuing to explore. Absurdism shares some concepts, and a common template, with existentialism and nihilism. The aftermath of World War II provided the environment that stimulated absurdist views and allowed for their popular development. In absurdist philosophy, the Absurd arises out of the fundamental disharmony between the search for meaning and the meaninglessness of the universe. As beings looking for meaning in a world, humans have three ways of resolving the dilemma. Kierkegaard and Camus describe the solutions in their works, The Sickness Unto Death and The Myth of Sisyphus, respectively, Suicide, both Kierkegaard and Camus dismiss the viability of this option. Camus states that it does not counter the Absurd, rather, the act of ending ones existence only becomes more absurd. Religious, spiritual, or abstract belief in a transcendent realm, being, or idea, a solution in which one believes in the existence of a reality that is beyond the Absurd, and, as such, has meaning. Kierkegaard stated that a belief in anything beyond the Absurd requires an irrational but perhaps necessary religious acceptance in such an intangible, however, Camus regarded this solution, and others, as philosophical suicide. Acceptance of the Absurd, a solution in which one accepts the Absurd, Kierkegaard, on the other hand, regarded this solution as demoniac madness, He rages most of all at the thought that eternity might get it into its head to take his misery from him. The three schools of thought diverge from there, existentialists have generally advocated the individuals construction of his or her own meaning in life as well as the free will of the individual. Nihilists, on the contrary, contend that it is futile to seek or to affirm meaning where none can be found. Absurdists following Camus also devalue or outright reject free will, encouraging merely that the individual live defiantly and authentically in spite of the tension of the Absurd. Camuss own understanding of the world, and every vision he had for its progress, however, a century before Camus, the 19th century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote extensively about the absurdity of the world. In his journals, Kierkegaard writes about the absurd, Here is another example of the Absurd from his writings, Kierkegaard says, Kierkegaard provides an example in one of his works, Fear and Trembling
23.
Translation
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Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. While interpreting—the facilitating of oral or sign-language communication between users of different languages—antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature, there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh into Southwest Asian languages of the second millennium BCE. Translators always risk inappropriate spill-over of source-language idiom and usage into the target-language translation, on the other hand, spill-overs have imported useful source-language calques and loanwords that have enriched the target languages. Indeed, translators have helped substantially to shape the languages into which they have translated, because of the laboriousness of translation, since the 1940s engineers have sought to automate translation or to mechanically aid the human translator. The rise of the Internet has fostered a world-wide market for services and has facilitated language localization. Translation studies systematically study the theory and practice of translation, the English word translation derives from the Latin word translatio, which comes from trans, across + ferre, to carry or to bring. Thus translatio is a carrying across or a bringing across, in this case, the Germanic languages and some Slavic languages have calqued their words for the concept of translation on translatio. The Romance languages and the remaining Slavic languages have derived their words for the concept of translation from an alternative Latin word, traductio, the Ancient Greek term for translation, μετάφρασις, has supplied English with metaphrase — as contrasted with paraphrase. Metaphrase corresponds, in one of the more recent terminologies, to formal equivalence, nevertheless, metaphrase and paraphrase may be useful as ideal concepts that mark the extremes in the spectrum of possible approaches to translation. Discussions of the theory and practice of translation reach back into antiquity, the ancient Greeks distinguished between metaphrase and paraphrase. Literally graceful, it were an injury to the author that they should be changed, Dryden cautioned, however, against the license of imitation, i. e. of adapted translation, When a painter copies from the life. He has no privilege to alter features and lineaments, despite occasional theoretical diversity, the actual practice of translation has hardly changed since antiquity. The grammatical differences between languages and free-word-order languages have been no impediment in this regard. The particular syntax characteristics of a source language are adjusted to the syntactic requirements of the target language. When a target language has lacked terms that are found in a language, translators have borrowed those terms. However, due to shifts in ecological niches of words, an etymology is sometimes misleading as a guide to current meaning in one or the other language. For example, the English actual should not be confused with the cognate French actuel, the Polish aktualny, the Swedish aktuell, the translators role as a bridge for carrying across values between cultures has been discussed at least since Terence, the 2nd-century-BCE Roman adapter of Greek comedies. The translators role is, however, by no means a passive, mechanical one, the main ground seems to be the concept of parallel creation found in critics such as Cicero
24.
Expressionism
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Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, Expressionist artists sought to express the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical reality. Expressionism was developed as an avant-garde style before the First World War and it remained popular during the Weimar Republic, particularly in Berlin. The style extended to a range of the arts, including expressionist architecture, painting, literature, theatre, dance, film. The term is sometimes suggestive of angst, in a general sense, painters such as Matthias Grünewald and El Greco are sometimes termed expressionist, though in practice the term is applied mainly to 20th-century works. The Expressionist emphasis on individual perspective has been characterized as a reaction to positivism, though an alternate view is that the term was coined by the Czech art historian Antonin Matějček in 1910, as the opposite of impressionism, An Expressionist wishes, above all, to express himself. Immediate perception and builds on more complex psychic structures, in 1905, a group of four German artists, led by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, formed Die Brücke in the city of Dresden. This was arguably the founding organization for the German Expressionist movement, a few years later, in 1911, a like-minded group of young artists formed Der Blaue Reiter in Munich. The name came from Wassily Kandinskys Der Blaue Reiter painting of 1903, among their members were Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Paul Klee, and Auguste Macke. However, the term Expressionism did not firmly establish itself until 1913, though mainly a German artistic movement initially and most predominant in painting, poetry and the theatre between 1910–30, most precursors of the movement were not German. Expressionism is notoriously difficult to define, in part because it overlapped with other major isms of the modernist period, with Futurism, Vorticism, Cubism, Surrealism, more explicitly, that the expressionists rejected the ideology of realism. The term refers to a style in which the artist seeks to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions. It is arguable that all artists are expressive but there are examples of art production in Europe from the 15th century onward which emphasize extreme emotion. Expressionism has been likened to Baroque by critics such as art historian Michel Ragon, according to Alberto Arbasino, a difference between the two is that Expressionism doesnt shun the violently unpleasant effect, while Baroque does. Expressionism throws some terrific fuck yous, Baroque doesnt, brazil, Anita Malfatti, Cândido Portinari, Di Cavalcanti, Iberê Camargo and Lasar Segall. Estonia, Konrad Mägi, Eduard Wiiralt Finland, Tyko Sallinen, Alvar Cawén, Juho Mäkelä, there were a number of groups of expressionist painters, including Der Blaue Reiter and Die Brücke. Der Blaue Reiter was based in Munich and Die Brücke was based originally in Dresden, Die Brücke was active for a longer period than Der Blaue Reiter, which was only together for a year. The Expressionists had many influences, among them Edvard Munch, Vincent van Gogh and they were also aware of the work being done by the Fauves in Paris, who influenced Expressionisms tendency toward arbitrary colours and jarring compositions
25.
Polish Academy of Literature
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The Polish Academy of Literature was one of the most important state institutions of literary life in the Second Polish Republic, operating between 1933–1939 with the headquarters in Warsaw. It was founded by the decree of the Council of Ministers of the Republic, the Academy was the highest opinion-forming authority in the country, in charge of all aspects of promoting and honoring the most outstanding contemporary achievements of Polish literature. It resulted in staggering levels of illiteracy on Polish lands, as noted by Stefan Żeromski in 1923, PAL was called forth to reinforce the historic standards of quality, exalt the honor of Polands literary tradition and explore the intricacies of her heritage. It was proposed for the first time by Żeromski in 1920 already, the structure of the Academy was modeled on the corresponding French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. It consisted of 15 members chosen for life, seven of whom were selected by the Minister of Religion, the remaining eight were proposed by the members of the first group. Notably, socialist writer and Freemason, Andrzej Strug declined the offer, the Academy awarded two highest national honors for contribution to the development of Polish literature, the Gold and the Silver Laurel. Another prize, also regarded, was the Young Writers Award. The honorary members included also the Academys main promotors, President of Poland Ignacy Mościcki, the composition changed after the death Choynowski and Leśmian and after the withdrawal from PAL by Rzymowski accused of plagiarism, and by Rostworowski protesting against the change of government. The new members were appointed, including writers Ferdynand Goetel, Kornel Makuszyński, Jan Lorentowicz. The Academy ceased to exist following the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, in 1947 following World War II, in the Soviet-controlled Peoples Republic of Poland, there was a discussion among some communist writers about whether to reinstate the Academy. But to start it afresh – that leads to trouble
26.
Peyote
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Lophophora williamsii /loʊˈfɒfərə wɪlˈjæmsiaɪ/ or peyote is a small, spineless cactus with psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline. The English common name comes from the like-spelled Spanish name. Other sources translate the Nahuatl word as Divine Messenger, Native North Americans are likely to have used peyote, often for spiritual purposes, for at least 5,500 years. Peyote is native to Mexico and southwestern Texas and it is found primarily in the Chihuahuan Desert and in the states of Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosí among scrub, especially where there is limestone. Peyote has a history of ritualistic and medicinal use by indigenous Americans. It flowers from March through May, and sometimes as late as September, the flowers are pink, with thigmotactic anthers. The various species of the genus Lophophora grow low to the ground and they form groups with numerous. The blue-green, yellow-green or sometimes reddish green shoots are mostly flattened spheres with sunken shoot tips and they can reach heights of from 2 to 7 centimeters and diameters of 4 to 12 centimeters. There are often significant, vertical ribs consisting of low and rounded or hump-like bumps, from the cusp areoles arises a tuft of soft, yellowish or whitish woolly hairs. Flowers are pink or white to yellowish, sometimes reddish. They open during the day, are from 1 to 2.4 centimeters long, the cactus produces flowers sporadically, these are followed by small edible pink fruit. The club-shaped to elongated, fleshy fruits are bare and more or less rosy colored, at maturity, they are brownish-white and dry. The fruits do not burst open on their own and they are between 1.5 and 2 centimeters long and they contain black, pear-shaped seeds that are 1 to 1.5 mm long and 1 mm wide. The seeds require hot and humid conditions to germinate, Peyote contains a large spectrum of phenethylamine alkaloids. The mescaline content of Lophophora williamsii is about 0. 4% fresh, cultivated specimens grow considerably faster, sometimes taking less than three years to go from seedling to mature flowering adult. More rapid growth can be achieved by grafting peyote onto mature San Pedro root stock, the top of the cactus that grows above ground, also referred to as the crown, consists of disc-shaped buttons that are cut above the roots and sometimes dried. When done properly, the top of the root will form a callus, when poor harvesting techniques are used, however, the entire plant dies. Currently in South Texas, peyote grows naturally but has been over-harvested, the buttons are generally chewed, or boiled in water to produce a psychoactive tea
27.
Bruno Schulz
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Bruno Schulz was a Polish Jewish writer, fine artist, literary critic and art teacher. He is regarded as one of the great Polish-language prose stylists of the 20th century, in 1938, he was awarded the Polish Academy of Literatures prestigious Golden Laurel award. Several of Schulzs works were lost in the Holocaust, including stories from the early 1940s and his final. Schulz was shot and killed by a German Nazi in 1942 while walking back home toward Drohobycz Ghetto with a loaf of bread, Schulz was born in Drohobych, Austrian Galicia, historically part of the Kingdom of Poland before the three partitions, and today part of Ukraine. After World War One, Drohobycz became part of the Lwów Voivodeship, Bruno Schulz was the son of cloth merchant Jakub Schulz and Henrietta née Kuhmerker. At a very early age, he developed an interest in the arts and he attended school in Drohobych from 1902 to 1910, after which he studied architecture at Lviv Polytechnic. His studies were interrupted by illness in 1911 but he resumed them in 1913 after two years of convalescence, in 1917 he briefly studied architecture in Vienna. At the end of World War I, when he was 26, Schulz taught drawing in a Polish school from 1924 to 1941. His employment kept him in his hometown, although he disliked the teaching and he drew inspiration from specific local and ethnic sources, looking inward and close to home rather than to the world at large. His writings avoided explicit mention of events of the time period. Schulz was discouraged by influential colleagues from publishing his first short stories and she encouraged Schulz to have them published as short fiction. They were published as The Cinnamon Shops in 1934, in English-speaking countries, it is most often referred to as The Street of Crocodiles, a title derived from one of its chapters. The Cinnamon Shops was followed three years later by Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, the original publications were illustrated by Schulz, in later editions of his works, however, these illustrations were often left out or poorly reproduced. In 1936 he helped his fiancée, Józefina Szelińska, translate Franz Kafkas The Trial into Polish, in 1938, he was awarded the Polish Academy of Literatures prestigious Golden Laurel award. In 1939, after the Nazi and Soviet invasion of Poland in World War II, at the time, Schulz was known to have been working on a novel called The Messiah, but no trace of the manuscript survived his death. A Nazi Gestapo officer, Felix Landau, however, admired Schulzs artwork, shortly after completing the work in 1942, Schulz was walking home through the Aryan quarter with a loaf of bread, when another Gestapo officer, Karl Günther. Shot and killed him in revenge for Landaus having killed Günthers own personal Jew, subsequently, Schulzs mural was painted over and forgotten – only to be rediscovered in 2001. A collection of Schulzs letters was published in Polish in 1975, entitled The Book of Letters, as well as a number of critical essays that Schulz wrote for various newspapers
28.
Invasion of Poland
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The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty. German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west the morning after the Gleiwitz incident, as the Wehrmacht advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Polish–German border to more established lines of defence to the east. After the mid-September Polish defeat in the Battle of the Bzura, Polish forces then withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and awaited expected support and relief from France and the United Kingdom. While those two countries had pacts with Poland and had declared war on Germany on 3 September, in the end their aid to Poland was very limited. The Soviet Red Armys invasion of Eastern Poland on 17 September, in accordance with a protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Facing a second front, the Polish government concluded the defence of the Romanian Bridgehead was no longer feasible, on 6 October, following the Polish defeat at the Battle of Kock, German and Soviet forces gained full control over Poland. The success of the invasion marked the end of the Second Polish Republic, the Soviet Union incorporated its newly acquired areas into its constituent Belarusian and Ukrainian republics, and immediately started a campaign of sovietization. In the aftermath of the invasion, a collective of underground resistance formed the Polish Underground State within the territory of the former Polish state. Many of the exiles that managed to escape Poland subsequently joined the Polish Armed Forces in the West. On 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party, under its leader Adolf Hitler, as part of this long-term policy, Hitler at first pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland, trying to improve opinion in Germany, culminating in the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934. Earlier, Hitlers foreign policy worked to weaken ties between Poland and France, and attempted to manoeuvre Poland into the Anti-Comintern Pact, forming a front against the Soviet Union. The Poles feared that their independence would eventually be threatened altogether, the so-called Polish Corridor constituted land long disputed by Poland and Germany, and inhabited by a Polish majority. The Corridor had become a part of Poland after the Treaty of Versailles, many Germans also wanted the city of Danzig and its environs to be reincorporated into Germany. Danzig was a city with a German majority. It had been separated from Germany after Versailles and made into the nominally independent Free City of Danzig, the series of border violations, which are unbearable to a great power, prove that the Poles no longer are willing to respect the German frontier. Poland participated with Germany in the partition of Czechoslovakia that followed the Munich Agreement and it coerced Czechoslovakia to surrender the region of Český Těšín by issuing an ultimatum to that effect on 30 September 1938, which was accepted by Czechoslovakia on 1 October. This region had a Polish majority and had been disputed between Czechoslovakia and Poland in the aftermath of World War I, the Polish annexation of Slovak territory later served as the justification for the Slovak state to join the German invasion. Poland rejected this proposal, fearing that after accepting these demands, it would become subject to the will of Germany
29.
Kresy
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Administratively, the territory of Kresy was composed of voivodeships of Lwów, Nowogródek, Polesie, Stanisławów, Tarnopol, Wilno, Wołyń, and the Białystok. Today, these territories are divided between Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, and south-eastern Lithuania, with major cities as Lviv, Vilnius. Following the failure of German Operation Barbarossa, the Soviet gains were ratified by the Western Allies at the Tehran conference, the Yalta conference, when the Soviet Union broke up, the former Kresy remained a significant part of the former Soviet republics as they gained independence. Education was not compulsory in the Russian Empire, the Polish word kresy is the plural form of the word kres. According to Zbigniew Gołąb, it is a borrowing from German word Kreis. Samuel Linde in his Dictionary of the Polish Language gives a different etymology of the term, according to him, kresy meant the borderline between Poland and the Crimean Khanate, in the area of the lower Dnieper. The word kresy was probably used for the first time in literature by Wincenty Pol in his poems Mohort, Pol claimed that it was the line from the Dniester to the Dnieper River, the Tatar borderland. At the beginning of the 20th century, the meaning of the term expanded to include the lands of the eastern provinces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the Second Polish Republic, the borderlands were equated with the land to the east of Curzon line, Polish expansion eastwards dates back to the earliest days of Poland. In 1018, King Bolesław I Chrobry invaded Kievan Rus, capturing Kiev, in 1340, Red Ruthenia came under Polish control, which opened these lands for Polish colonization and polonization. After the Union of Lublin of 1569, more Polish settlers moved to the borderlands of the vast Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Most of them came from the Polish provinces of Mazovia and Lesser Poland and they gradually moved eastwards, inhabiting sparsely populated areas, dominated by local peoples. Furthermore, the classes of the Kresy accepted Polish culture and language. The year 1772 marked the first partition of the Commonwealth, by 1795, the whole eastern half of the country was annexed by the Russian Empire, and these lands came to be called the Stolen Lands. Even though Poles were in the minority in areas, the Stolen Lands were important part of Polish culture, with such colleges as Wilno University. The years 1918–1921 were especially turbulent for the Kresy, as it was the time of the rebirth of the Polish state, at that time, Poland was fighting three wars to establish its eastern borders, with Ukraine, the Soviet Union, and Lithuania. This area later formed the provinces of the Second Polish Republic. The Polish government carried out a policy of Polonization in these territories
30.
Soviet invasion of Poland
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The Soviet invasion of Poland was a Soviet military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939. On that morning,16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west, the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland was secretly agreed in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, signed on 23 August 1939. The Red Army, which outnumbered the Polish defenders, achieved its targets by using strategic. Some 230,000 Polish prisoners of war had been captured, the campaign of mass persecution in the newly acquired areas began immediately. In November 1939 the Soviet government ostensibly annexed the entire Polish territory under its control, the Soviet campaign of ethnic cleansing began with the wave of arrests and summary executions of officers, policemen and priests. Soviet forces occupied eastern Poland until the summer of 1941, when they were out by the invading German army in the course of Operation Barbarossa. The area was under Nazi occupation until the Red Army reconquered it again in the summer of 1944, the Soviet Union enclosed most of the annexed territories into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. After the end of World War II in Europe, the USSR signed a new border agreement with the Polish communists on 16 August 1945. The USSR played a double game secretly engaging in talks with Germany. The terms were rejected, thus giving Josef Stalin a free hand in pursuing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Adolf Hitler, the non-aggression pact contained a secret protocol dividing Northern and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence in the event of war. One week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, German forces invaded Poland from the west, north, Polish forces gradually withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and awaited the French and British support and relief that they were expecting. On 17 September 1939 the Soviet Red Army invaded the Kresy regions in accordance with the secret protocol, at the opening of hostilities several Polish cities including Dubno, Łuck and Włodzimierz Wołyński let the Red Army in peacefully, convinced that it was marching on to fight the Germans. General Juliusz Rómmel of the Polish Army issued an order to treat them like an ally before it was too late. The result of the Paris Peace Conference did little to decrease the territorial ambitions of parties in the region, the border skirmishes of 1919 progressively escalated into the Polish–Soviet War in 1920. Following the Polish victory at the Battle of Warsaw, the Soviets sued for peace, the parties signed the formal peace treaty, the Peace of Riga, on 18 March 1921, dividing the disputed territories between Poland and Soviet Russia. In the aftermath of the agreement, Soviet leaders largely abandoned the cause of international revolution. The Conference of Ambassadors and the community recognized Polands eastern frontiers in 1923. Germany marched into Prague on 15 March 1939, in mid-April, the Soviet Union, Britain and France began trading diplomatic suggestions regarding a political and military agreement to counter potential further German aggression
31.
The Captive Mind
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The Captive Mind is a 1953 work of nonfiction by Polish writer, academic and Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz, published in the English translation originally by Secker and Warburg. The work was written in Polish soon after the author received political asylum in Paris following his break with Polands Communist government. It draws upon his experiences as a writer during World War II. The book attempts to both the intellectual allure of Stalinism and the temptation of collaboration with the Stalinist regime among intellectuals in post-war Central. Miłosz describes the book as having been written under great inner conflict, the four chapters at the heart of the book then follow, each a portrayal of four different gifted Polish men who capitulated, in some fashion, to the demands of the Communist state. They are identified only as Alpha, the Moralist, Beta, The Disappointed Lover, Gamma, the Slave of History, and Delta, the Troubadour. However, each of the four portraits is easily identifiable, Alpha is Jerzy Andrzejewski, Beta is Tadeusz Borowski, Gamma is Jerzy Putrament and Delta is Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński. The book elaborates the idea of enslavement through consciousness in the penultimate chapter and its list of chapters includes,1. Gamma, the Slave of History,7, the Captive Mind was an immediate success which was to bring its author international renown. While banned in Poland, it circulated underground there, Miłosz being among those whose name could not be mentioned even in order to denounce. The book is described by historian Norman Davies as a study which totally discredited the cultural and psychological machinery of Communism. In that the book represents the view of an insider and draws on analysis, it has been compared to Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler. Miłosz has said of the book It was considered by anti-communists as suspect because I didnt attack strongly enough the communists, I tried to understand the processes and they didnt like that. And it also created the idea, particularly in the West and this was a misunderstanding because my poetry was unknown. I have never been a writer and I worked hard to destroy this image of myself
32.
Tadeusz Kantor
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Tadeusz Kantor was a Polish painter, assemblage artist, set designer and theatre director. Kantor is renowned for his theatrical performances in Poland and abroad. Kantor was born to Marian Kantor-Mirski and Helena Berger and his mother was related to composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki, through her German father. Born in Wielopole Skrzyńskie, Galicia, Kantor graduated from the Cracow Academy in 1939, after the war, he became known for his avant-garde work in stage design including designs for Saint Joan and Measure for Measure. Specific examples of changes to standard theatre were stages that extended out into the audience. Disenchanted with the growing institutionalization of avant-garde, in 1955 he with a group of artists formed a new theatre ensemble called Cricot 2. In the 1960s, Cricot 2 gave performances in theatres in Poland and abroad. His interest was mainly with the absurdists and Polish writer and playwright Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, stage productions of Witkacys plays The Cuttlefish and The Water Hen were regarded as his best achievements during this time. A1972 performance of The Water Hen was described as the least-publicised, Dead Class was the most famous of his theatre pieces of the 1970s. A TV-Movie of the production was made in 1977, directed by Andrzej Wajda, in the play, Kantor himself played the role of a teacher who presided over a class of apparently dead characters who are confronted by mannequins which represented their younger selves. He had begun experimenting with the juxtaposition of mannequins and live actors in the 1950s and his later works of the 1980s were very personal reflections. As in Dead Class, he would represent himself on stage. A Journey Through Other Spaces, Essays and Manifestos, 1944-1990, publisher, University of California Press,1993. ISBN 0-07-256257-9 Tadeusz Kantor at culture. pl Cricoteka The Centre For the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor Kantors gallery at malarze
33.
Polish People's Republic
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The Polish Peoples Republic covers the history of Poland under Communist control between 1952 and 1990. The name was defined by the Constitution of 1952 which was based on the 1936 Soviet Constitution, between 1947 and 1952, the name of the Polish state was the Republic of Poland, in accordance with the temporary Constitution of 1947. The Soviet Union had much influence over internal and external affairs, and Red Army forces were stationed in Poland. In 1945, Soviet generals and advisors formed 80% of the cadre of the Polish Armed Forces. The Polish United Workers Party became the dominant political party, officially making the country a Communist state, at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, Stalin was able to present his western allies, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, with a fait accompli in Poland. His armed forces were in occupation of the country, and his agents, the USSR was in the process of incorporating the lands in eastern Poland which it had occupied between 1939 and 1941. In compensation, the USSR awarded Poland German territories in Pomerania, Silesia and these awards were confirmed at the Tripartite Conference of Berlin, otherwise known as the Potsdam Conference in August 1945 after the end of the war in Europe. Stalin was determined that Polands new government would become his tool towards making Poland a Soviet puppet state controlled by the communists. He had severed relations with the Polish government-in-exile in London in 1943, the communists held a majority of key posts in this new government, and with Soviet support they soon gained almost total control of the country, rigging all elections. This important victory would be their last, however, as the communists, tightening their grip on power, many of their opponents decided to leave the country, and others were put on staged trials and sentenced to many years of imprisonment or execution. In June 1946 the Three Times Yes referendum was held on a number of issues—abolition of the Senate of Poland, land reform, the communist-controlled Interior Ministry issued results showing that all three questions passed overwhelmingly. Years later, however, evidence was uncovered showing that the referendum had been tainted by massive fraud, Gomułka then took advantage of a split in the Polish Socialist Party. One faction, which included Prime Minister Edward Osóbka-Morawski, wanted to join forces with the Peasant Party, another faction, led by Józef Cyrankiewicz, argued that the Socialists should support the Communists in carrying through a socialist program, while opposing the imposition of one-party rule. Pre-war political hostilities continued to influence events, and Mikołajczyk would not agree to form a front with the Socialists. The Communists played on these divisions by dismissing Osóbka-Morawski and making Cyrankiewicz Prime Minister, between the referendum and the January 1947 general elections, the opposition was subjected to persecution. Only the candidates of the pro-government Democratic Bloc were allowed to campaign completely unmolested, meanwhile, several opposition candidates were prevented from campaigning at all. Mikołajczyks Polish Peoples Party in particular suffered persecution, it had opposed the abolition of the Senate as a test of strength against the government, although it supported the other two questions, the Communist-dominated government branded the PSL traitors. This massive oppression was overseen by Gomułka and the provisional president, the official results of the election showed the Democratic Bloc with 80.1 percent of the vote
34.
Ann Crumb
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Ann Crumb is an American actress and singer. The daughter of composer George Crumb and sister of composer David Crumb, Crumb has toured in the title role of Evita and appeared in numerous regional theatre productions staged by the Guthrie, Coconut Grove Playhouse, and Tennessee Repertory Theatre, among others. Her television credits include the daytime soaps As the World Turns, The Guiding Light, and Another World, and she presently is in pre-production for a mini-series entitled The Road to Saint Lazarre in which she will portray famed spy Mata Hari. Crumbs recordings include A Broadway Diva Swings, a version of Nine with Jonathan Pryce and Elaine Paige. Her upcoming jazz CD is entitled Goodbye Mr. Jones, in her personal life, Ann is intensely committed to the cause of animal rescue and adoption. In December,2009, she co-ordinated a “doglift” of over 50 dogs, all slated for euthanasia at shelters in the Midwest, official website Ann Crumb at the Internet Broadway Database Ann Crumb at the Internet Movie Database
35.
Brad Mays
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Brad Mays is an independent filmmaker and stage director, living and working in Los Angeles, California. During the early 1970s, Brad Mays became involved in the arts during a professional internship at the McCarter Theater in Princeton. Upon completion of theatre studies at Towson University, Mays was formally hired by the Baltimore Theatre Project. In 1982, Mays moved to New York City, where he began working off-Broadway and, ultimately, produced and directed his first independent feature film, Stage Fright. In 2006, Mays filmed the documentary feature SING*ularity, which explores the cutting-edge training of singers at the world-renowned OperaWorks program in Southern California. Mays 2008 motion picture romantic comedy The Watermelon premiered at the San Diego Film Festival, written by Michael Hemmingson, The Watermelon was produced by Lorenda Starfelt at LightSong Films in North Hollywood, and was conceived as a Fairy Tale for grown-ups. The film stars Will Beinbrink, Kiersten Morgan, Elyse Ashton, Julia Aks, Mike Ivy, the Watermelon was released by Celebrity Video Distribution, a Los Angeles distribution company dedicated to serving the independent film community. It was subsequently awarded a 2010 California Film Awards Diamond Award, in multiple Blog-Radio interviews, the director expressed dissatisfaction with the project, revealing that he had not been allowed to complete shooting in the manner originally agreed to. In June 2012, Mays comedy short The Donut Shop received the Peoples Choice Award at the San Francisco Black Film Festival, the following year, Mays feature documentary I Grew Up in Princeton had its premiere showing in Princeton, New Jersey. On March 17,2016, Mays premiered the self-described bleak little comedy about falling in hate, Road Rage, at The Garden theater in Princeton, the two embark on a road trip into the deep South, with disastrous consequences. The film can be seen as an expression of Mays continuing yearning for his hometown, as well as for the loss of his wife, Lorenda. “I was able to out the deceased wife’s character to a degree that would have been otherwise impossible. “For instance, Lori had always wanted to be an opera singer. I was able to fulfill that dream for her in the movie, and tie it in with the narrative in a way that I find very satisfying. ”Ironically, the films star Adam Roth also succumbed to cancer in the final stages of production, necessitating extensive rewrites and additional shooting. Roth, an extremely popular guitarist/composer in New Yorks hard rock scene, grew up in Princeton, “Even back then the word ‘genius’ was tossed around. Brad Mays has directed for the stage, primarily in Baltimore, New York and his first New York production was an evening of one-act plays, written by Linda Chambers and performed at the Cubiculo Theatre, Joan, Stones, and Requiem. All three pieces dealt with themes of personal spirituality, Requiem, the longest play of the evening, was a fictionalized drama about the death of Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands, and performed during the Saint Patricks Day holiday in 1982. Mays Off-Broadway presentation of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewiczs The Water Hen, was videotaped by the Lincoln Centers Billy Rose Theatre Collection for inclusion in their permanent archive
36.
Dwight Schultz
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William Dwight Schultz is an American actor and voice artist. He is also known in animation as the mad scientist Dr. Animo in the Ben 10 series, Chef Mung Daal in the childrens cartoon Chowder. Schultz was born in Baltimore, Maryland of German descent, and is a Roman Catholic and he attended Calvert Hall College High School and Towson University. Schultzs breakthrough role was the character of Captain Howling Mad Murdock on The A-Team, Schultz has also appeared in films including The Fan, and starred in Fat Man and Little Boy, as J. Robert Oppenheimer. In the early 1990s, he had a role as Lieutenant Reginald Barclay in Star Trek. Schultz reprised the role in Star Trek, Voyager and the film Star Trek, Schultz played a dramatic change of pace role in the 1992 television film Child Of Rage, starring opposite Mel Harris as a compassionate couple who adopt a troubled girl who has been sexually abused. He hosted a talk radio podcast called Howling Mad Radio. Schultz has also guest hosted for Michael Savage on The Savage Nation, Jerry Doyle on The Jerry Doyle Show, Schultz married actress Wendy Fulton in 1983. They have one daughter, Ava, who serves in the Marines, Schultz is a conservative and in 2012 began regular appearances on The Glazov Gang, an internet political talk show hosted by Jamie Glazov, the managing editor of FrontPage Magazine. He also posts political commentaries and podcasts on his official fansite
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