Poland
Ukraine must stand as a fortress of European freedom
It is 35 years since I was last in Warsaw and the city is unrecognisable. Back then it was grimy…
Portrait of the week: Angela Rayner resigns, Poland downs Russian drones and Israel bombs Qatar
Home The government shuddered when Angela Rayner resigned as housing secretary, deputy prime minister and deputy leader of the Labour…
The mixed legacy of Zbigniew Brzezinski, strategist of the Cold War
Successful initiatives during the Carter presidency regarding the USSR, China and Afghanistan were counterbalanced by a serious misreading of the situation in Iran
Can freedom of movement survive Europe’s migrant crisis?
Freedom of movement in the EU received another nail in its coffin yesterday after Poland became the latest European country…
Is Poland’s revival a mirage?
In 1988, when I was six months old, my British father and Polish mother took me to meet my family…
A war of words: circulating forbidden literature behind the Iron Curtain
For decades, the CIA smuggled works by George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, Czeslaw Milosz and many others into the Soviet bloc in a battle for hearts, minds and intellects
Poles are tiring of Donald Tusk
In December 2023, a new coalition government led by Donald Tusk – former Polish prime minister, former European Council president…
The good soldier Maczek – a war hero betrayed
After fighting for the Allies in Hungary, France, Belgium and Holland, Stanislaw Maczek finds himself stripped of his Polish citizenship as a result of the Yalta conference
The spy with the bullet-proof Rolls-Royce
Stationed in Paris from 1926 to 1940, the wealthy, debonair ‘Biffy’ Dunderdale, often seen as a model for James Bond, was also a supremely effective intelligence officer
The curious life of a foreign minister’s wife
The Polish constitution delineates no role for the foreign minister’s wife. In fact, the foreign minister’s wife is not mentioned…
Letters: what Biden and Ronaldo have in common
True conservatism Sir: Douglas Murray claims that the Conservative party ‘will need to have some people who are actually right-wing’…
Brexit has helped the EU
There was hardly an election poster to be seen on the roadside during a two-hour drive from London to the…
The pleasure of reliving foreign travel through food
Russian hand pies, Polish chlodnik, Turkish fruit compote and a Latvian trifle are among the many dishes recreated in Edinburgh by the globetrotting Caroline Eden
Agent Zo: the Polish blonde with nerves of steel
Clare Mulley celebrates the courage of Elzbieta Zawacka, who repeatedly risked her life in the second world war liaising between London and the Polish Resistance
The scandal unravelling Polish higher education
In February 2024, Poland’s Anti-Corruption Bureau opened an investigation into the ‘Collegium Humanum Warsaw Management University’, a ‘Private Management School’ opened…
Poland’s MBA scandal has exposed our credentialling culture
In February 2024, Poland’s Anti-Corruption Bureau opened an investigation into the ‘Collegium Humanum Warsaw Management University’, a ‘Private Management School’ opened…
A web of rivalries: The Extinction of Irena Rey, by Jennifer Croft, reviewed
Eight translators gather to work on a novel written by their heroine, Irena Rey. But when she goes missing in a nearby forest, relations between them begin to fray
‘The truth will make us free’: students on the march in post-war Europe
The radical Rudi Dutschke in 1960s Berlin and the angry Johnny Rotten in 1970s London are just two of the charismatic figures in this history of youth activism
Pole position
Warsaw’s battle with the EU over migrant quotas
Poland, 1968: the last pogrom
‘Are you Jewish?’ the officious-looking Dutch diplomat asked my dad. ‘Yes’, he said, realising at that very moment, everything had…
The forgotten history of Poland and Ukraine
Since the outbreak of war in February there has been an overwhelming focus on the historical links between Russia and…
The EU is trying to bring Hungary to heel
If there was a word in Euro-speak for ‘Move on, nothing to see here,’ the EU would undoubtedly have used…
Diary
‘Why the hell did you hire a lorry without a spare tyre?’ asked Rizvana. Fair question. Luckily we had just…
The Spectator’s Notes
I wish people would not say Vladimir Putin is mad. One understands him much better if one says he is…
Pole position
The war is redefining Poland’s place in the world
