History and People

Vladimir Lenin led the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. For the next 70 years the U.S. would spend billions of dollars and sacrifice the lives of thousands of young men to contain the USSR and communism.

Lenin wanted his system to dominate the world. He tried to push westward, but Polish forces turned him back in 1920. Then the Allies after World War II handed Poland to Stalin, Lenin's successor. But in the 1980s Poland again saved Europe from communism, this time led by a shipyard worker's peaceful opposition. How ironic, then, that Polish soil had once given Lenin refuge and solace, if only for a brief time.

Under the czar in Russia, Lenin was a known agitator and he was kept under surveillance by the authorities. So in 1907 he and his wife moved to Switzerland, then Paris, home to many Russian socialist exiles. These men plotted revolution, spread propaganda and bickered. Though he emerged as leader of the communist movement, Lenin had enough of the infighting, so he and Mrs. Lenin moved to Kraków in June 1912 to be closer to Russia.

Read more: Lenin in Poland

     Washington, D.C. // The intriguing question of "So just who was Thaddeus Kosciuszko anyway?" has now been definitively answered by author Alex Storozynski into the foreseeable future. He rediscovered the heroic and tragic story of a great Polish and American revolutionary patriot who bravely answered the clarion call to arms for freedoms' fight on two continents.

 Kosciuszko Book Generates Great Interest. Alex Storozynski (pictured above seated at right) is the author of a new book entitled "The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution." Storozynski is speaking to, and signing his book for, Zuzanna Falzmann - Washington Correspondent for Poland's POLSAT News TV.   

   Storozynski's book - The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and The Age of Revolution - unearths many previously unknown important details and historical facts that enlightens, and even delights, the reader delving into Kosciuszko's amazing life.

Read more: “The Peasant Prince” Author - Alex Storozynski - Arrives at Polish Embassy

    When Englishman Charles Lee was denied a military appointment by King George III in 1773, he left for America to seek adventure. Lee was not a stranger to the 13 colonies, having fought alongside Washington in the French and Indian War, and having accumulated vast land holdings in North America.

    When he arrived here, he immediately began courting and schmoozing the leaders of the independence movement, eager for action. Lee had always been an advocate for personal liberty and he greatly admired the American leaders and their ideas. When the Revolutionary War broke out, he became second in command to Washington. But the two men did not get along. Eventually, Lee was relieved of his command for insubordination, courtmartialed and released from duty in 1780.

Read more: Charles Lee of Britain, Poland & America

The territory of today's Baltic States - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - played an important role in the history of Poland. In the fourteenth century Poland and Lithuania united in a commonwealth, with Poland the dominant partner. Eventually, this extended Polish territory to the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. North of Lithuania along the Baltic lay a collection of principalities and duchies with names such as Esthonia, Livonia, Semigallia, Samogitia and Kurlandia.

Read more: Polish Courland