scholarly journals The Role of National Minorities in the Polish Armed Forces During the September 1939 Campaign

2019 ◽  
pp. 233-248
Author(s):  
Valerii Yarovyj ◽  
Yaroslava Dmytruk

The article covers the issues of participation in the September 1939 campaign of representatives of national minorities who served at that time in the Polish Army. Also made an attempt to unbiased consideration of the problem. The authors paid attention to the issue of the number of members of national minorities in the Polish Army on the eve of the Second World War, as well as analyzed the attitude of this category of soldiers to fulfilling their military duty, in particular, based on the memoirs of participants in the events of that time. Also raised is the issue of cases of desertion from Polish armed forces members of national minorities during the September campaign. Unfortunately, the exact number of national minority soldiers who participated in the September 1939 campaign is very difficult to determine, since many documents from the period of the September campaign were destroyed, while during the war a part of the them went to the German and Soviet archives, where most of them were lost. On the basis of preserved materials, one can only say that the attitude of representatives of national minorities – Ukrainians, Belarusians, Germans or Jews, dressed in Polish forms in September 1939 – is somewhat different. Often, they selflessly fought, but there were cases of desertion, however, for the sake of justice, it should be noted that the practice of desertion in the early days of the war was also inherent in representatives of Polish nationality. On the basis of the material under study, have made sufficiently substantiated generalizations and conclusions regarding key aspects related to the participation of representatives of national minorities who served in the Polish Army in the September 1939 campaign. It is irrefutable that from the very first days of the war ordinary soldiers who came from national minorities, as well as Ukrainian contract officers began to defend the Polish state, and until the end continued to bravely and courageously fight the enemy, often at the cost of their own lives.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Kochan ◽  
Vitalii Kotsur ◽  
Lesya Kovach ◽  
Yurii Nikolaets ◽  
Oleg Kalakura ◽  
...  

The book presents the results of research on the experience of formation, trends, problems and current challenges of scientific knowledge about the place and role of national minorities of Ukraine in the political processes of XX – XXI centuries, namely: a) early XX century, b) during the First World War, Ukrainian revolution and state formation, c) in the interwar period, d) during the Second World War, e) in the Ukrainian SSR 1945-1990, e) in modern Ukraine. The publication is designed for researches, lectures and graduate students.


1991 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Hall

Summary During the Second World War, the United States Armed Forces Institute (USAFI) provided language teaching manuals and dictionaries for military and civilian use. From 1 July 1943 through 30 June 1945, this work was concentrated at an office which was located at 165 Broadway, New York City, and which was headed by a group of young, vigorous, and well trained linguists. The author provides a list of the personnel of this group and describes their activities and their relations with other developments in linguistics at that time and thereafter. Emphasis is placed on the crucial rôle of the ‘165 Broadway’ group in the application of structural linguistic analysis to the teaching of foreign languages in the United States in following decades.


2020 ◽  
pp. 8-11
Author(s):  
S. Altunin

The article is devoted to the end of the Second World War. It examines the reasons for the USSR's entry into the war against Japan despite the previously signed Neutrality Pact, the terms of surrender, and also shows the decisive role of the Soviet Armed Forces in achieving victory over Japanese militarism.


Author(s):  
David Hardiman

Much of the recent surge in writing about the practice of nonviolent forms of resistance has focused on movements that occurred after the end of the Second World War, many of which have been extremely successful. Although the fact that such a method of civil resistance was developed in its modern form by Indians is acknowledged in this writing, there has not until now been an authoritative history of the role of Indians in the evolution of the phenomenon.The book argues that while nonviolence is associated above all with the towering figure of Mahatma Gandhi, 'passive resistance' was already being practiced as a form of civil protest by nationalists in British-ruled India, though there was no principled commitment to nonviolence as such. The emphasis was on efficacy, rather than the ethics of such protest. It was Gandhi, first in South Africa and then in India, who evolved a technique that he called 'satyagraha'. He envisaged this as primarily a moral stance, though it had a highly practical impact. From 1915 onwards, he sought to root his practice in terms of the concept of ahimsa, a Sanskrit term that he translated as ‘nonviolence’. His endeavors saw 'nonviolence' forged as both a new word in the English language, and as a new political concept. This book conveys in vivid detail exactly what such nonviolence entailed, and the formidable difficulties that the pioneers of such resistance encountered in the years 1905-19.


Author(s):  
Mark Edele

This chapter turns to the present and explains the implications of the current study for the ongoing debate about the Soviet Union in the Second World War and in particular about the role of loyalty and disloyalty in the Soviet war effort. It argues that this study strengthens those who argue for a middle position: the majority of Soviet citizens were neither unquestioningly loyal to the Stalinist regime nor convinced resisters. The majority, instead, saw their interests as distinct from both the German and the Soviet regime. Nevertheless, ideology remains important if we want to understand why in the Soviet Union more resisted or collaborated than elsewhere in Europe and Asia.


2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 1065-1082 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mila Dragojević

This article examines the role of the intergenerational memory of the Second World War (WWII) in identity formation and political mobilization. An existing explanation in the ethnic-conflict literature is that strategic political leaders play a crucial role in constructing and mobilizing ethnic identities. However, based on 114 open-ended interviews with individuals born in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia, conducted in Serbia during 2008–2011, nearly a third of the respondents make spontaneous references to WWII in their statements, usually drawing parallels between the cycle of violence in the 1990s and that in the 1940s. The question this article asks, then, is why some respondents make references to WWII spontaneously while others do not. It is argued that intergenerational narratives of past cycles of violence also constitute a process of identity formation, in addition to, or apart from, other processes of identity formation. The respondents mention WWII violence in the context of the 1990s events because they “recognize” elements, such as symbols, discourse or patterns of violence, similar to those in the intergenerational narratives and interpret them as warning signs. Hence, individuals who had previously been exposed to intergenerational narratives may be subsequently more susceptible to political mobilization efforts.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerzy Grzybowski

The books presents the life of archbishop brygadier general Sawa (Sowietow). The author explores its successive stages: young years during the First World War, priesthood in the Second Polish Republic, wanderings during the Second World War, service in Polish Armed Forces in the West (as the chief military chaplain of the Orthodox Church), and religious service among Polish citizens abroad after the Yalta Conference.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (S349) ◽  
pp. 248-255
Author(s):  
V. Zanini ◽  
M. Gargano ◽  
A. Gasperini

AbstractEven though Italy officially joined the IAU in 1921, Italian astronomers were involved in its birth as early as 1919, when Annibale Riccò, Director of the Astrophysical Observatory of Catania, proposed to the IAU Committee to hold its first General Assembly in Rome. This contribution will analyze the role played by Italian astronomers in the development of the IAU from its foundation to the Second World War. The recent project of reordering of the astronomical historical archives in Italy permits for the first time a more in-depth study of the relations between Italian astronomers and the international scientific community.


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