%0 Journal Article
%T Norbert Żaba – Polityka z oddali
%A Sowiński, Paweł
%J Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora
%V 2018 (XLIV)
%R 10.4467/25444972SMPP.18.026.9152
%N Vol. 168, issue 2
%P 203-228
%K cold war, political emigration, Polish-Swedish relations, Norbert Żaba, Jerzy Giedroyc, Adam Rudzki
%@ 2081-4488
%D 2018
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/smpp/article/norbert-zaba-polityka-z-oddali
%X 
	This 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”.