How Poland Challenged Communism in 1956 At 6:00 in the morning on June 28, 1956, workers walked out of the Cegielski engineering plant in Poznań, Poland, ignoring the sirens that signaled the start of the day. Under excessive quotas, poor… Read More
Captain Witold Pilecki was an intelligence officer, a cavalry officer, a gentleman, farmer, a community activist, a talented artist, a loving husband, and a doting father. Oxford’s M. R. D. Foot, a British historian and military intelligence officer, called him… Read More
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is proud to announce that Monika Jablonska, Senior Fellow in Polish Studies, has published a groundbreaking book on the enduring legacy of Saint John Paul II. Released under Angelico Press, A Pope for All… Read More
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Monika Jablonska as the 2022 VOC Senior Fellow in Polish Studies. Jablonska joins other VOC Scholars as part of our growing Polish Studies Program, created in… Read More
On November 19, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation hosted its 2021 Polish Studies Conference, “The End(s) of Communism: Paths to De-Communization in the Former Eastern Bloc.” The event brought together scholars, international affairs experts, and supporters from across the globe to discuss the peaceful collapse… Read More
Excerpt: This week marks two widely ignored, yet important, anniversaries. One hundred years ago, on Aug. 25, 1920, Vladimir Lenin’s invasion of Europe was defeated as the Battle of Warsaw came to a decisive end, a victory known in Poland as… Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On this day, 81 years ago, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a pact of non-aggression. “The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and nearly two years of cooperation between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II… Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today the world marks the 100th anniversary of the decisive Battle of Warsaw when the Polish people stopped Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik invasion of Europe. In a foreshadow of NATO, free governments in Europe—and even volunteer military units… Read More
Comedy, according to Sigmund Freud, allows people to express forbidden thoughts. Under communism, this naturally transgressive genre faces an additional hurdle—communist jokes are only funny if everyone gets them. The comedic filmmakers of communist Poland, such as Marek Piwowski and… Read More
Seventy-five years ago this week, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a pact of non-aggression and cooperation. The sinister 1939 pact (along with its secret provisions) between Hitler and Stalin and negotiated by Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and… Read More
