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Poland's War on Radio Free Europe

For the Soviet bloc, the struggle against foreign radio was one of the principal fronts in the Cold War. Poland was at the fore-front of this war, relentlessly conducting, since the early 1950s until the collapse of the Communism, political, propaganda and intelligence operations against Radio Free Europe, regarded as the most dangerous enemy among “centers of foreign ideological subversion.” Poland`s War on Radio Free Europe, 1950-1989 is the first book in English to use the unique documents of Communist foreign intelligence at length.

Date & Time

Monday
Feb. 2, 2015
4:00pm – 5:30pm ET

Location

6th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center
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Overview

For the Soviet bloc, the struggle against foreign radio was one of the principal fronts in the Cold War. Poland was at the fore-front of this war, relentlessly conducting, since the early 1950s until the collapse of the Communism, political, propaganda and intelligence operations against Radio Free Europe, regarded as the most dangerous enemy among “centers of foreign ideological subversion.” Poland's War on Radio Free Europe, 1950-1989 is the first book in English to use the unique documents of Communist foreign intelligence at length. It also employs personal interviews with the Radio Free Europe staff and collaborators and with Polish Communist party and security functionaries.

Paweł Machcewicz is a historian, professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw and director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk. He has taught at Warsaw University and the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and was a co-founder of the Institute of National Remembrance that took over the files of the Communist secret police in Poland.  His many books include Rebellious Satellite: Poland 1956 (2009) and recently published Poland`s War on Radio Free Europe, 1950-1989 (2014) in the Cold War Series of the Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Stanford University Press, in cooperation with European Network Remembrance and Solidarity (www.enrs.eu).

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Speaker

Paweł Machcewicz

Former Public Policy Scholar;
Professor, Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences
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Hosted By

History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more

Cold War International History Project

The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program.  Read more

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