Paweł Sowiński
Wolność i Solidarność, nr 8, 2015, pp. 77-93
Paweł Sowiński
Wolność i Solidarność, nr 3, 2012, pp. 86-100
Paweł Sowiński
Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora, Vol. 1 (183), 2022 (XLVIII), pp. 109-135
https://doi.org/10.4467/25444972SMPP.21.046.14466The article depicts the efforts by the Polish emigre in the Western world to give support to the Polish pro-democratic movement under the communist dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s. The focus of the text is only one yet important initiative, namely, Aid Poland Fund (Fundusz Pomocy Krajowi). In 1976–1990, the London-based Fund raised more than 280 thousand British pounds – circa 850 thousand British pounds in today’s money – for a Polish opposition. The Fund was a major unit in transnational advocacy networks to foster a democratic transition in Poland before 1989. The scholarship draws from the Cold War historiography that emphasize the actions undertaken to unify the European continent. The author heavily stresses the role of the Fund’s intermediaries on the way to Poland but also places them in the larger context of international politics.
Paweł Sowiński
Wolność i Solidarność, nr 4, 2012, pp. 208-213
Paweł Sowiński
Wolność i Solidarność, nr 6, 2013, pp. 192-212
Paweł Sowiński
Wolność i Solidarność, nr 10, 2017, pp. 62-81
https://doi.org/10.4467/25434942WS.17.004.13117This article contributes to the history of the biggest Polish underground publishing project during the communist period. Sowinski argues that NOW-a publishers, though attacked by the police, was not destroyed. One of the main reason for this was the resilience of the grassroot activists energised by external support from Polish émigré circles in the West. Author also seeks causes of NOW-a success as underground book producer in the strategy of limited police harassment of the late stage of communist dictatorship. After martial law had been lifted in 1983 the Polish authority avoided to take major operations against opposition, i.e. massive crackdowns and imprisonments. Instead, the regime developed more subtle methods of policing the illicit book circulation. However, what constantly hampered the police effort to penetrate the NOW-a network was a lack of solid intelligence. The article offers a deep insight into the police investigation, agents reports as well as provides with fresh statistic on independent publishing and the police counterattacks.
Paweł Sowiński
Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora, Vol. 168, issue 2, 2018 (XLIV), pp. 203-228
https://doi.org/10.4467/25444972SMPP.18.026.9152This is a bibliographical study on Norbert Żaba, Stockholm-based Polish exile in Sweden after 1945 and distributor of emigre literature to visitors from Poland. As this literature was considered subversive and banned by the Polish government, Żaba’s activity took the form of smuggling books through the so-called Iron Curtain. Sowinski argues that Żaba was a prime example of “activists beyond borders” (Keck & Sikkink, 1998). During the Cold War these middle men contributed to the process of undermining the communist regimes in Eastern Europe by reinforcing and co-creating the underground book scene. Żaba could be seen, then, as a soft agent in the process of regaining freedom in Poland and in the dynamics of 1989. The scholarship includes problems such as tactics of the smugglers, leadership, inner clashes, group identity, motivations and emotions of political diaspora members, media and “politics from afar”.