SR September 2017
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THE SARMATIAN REVIEW Vol. XXXVII, No. 3 __ _____________ September 2017 Contemporary Warsaw Architecture Photo by Edwin Dyga. September 2017 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW The Sarmatian Review (ISSN 1059- In this issue: 5872) is a triannual publication of the Polish Institute of Thank You Note. .2104 Houston. The journal deals with Polish, Central, and Eastern European affairs, and it explores their implications Sarmatian Review Data. .. 2105 for the United States. We specialize in the translation of Krzysztof Brzechczyn, Is Poland being flooded with documents. Sarmatian Review is indexed in the American xenophobia and racism? Statistics and myths . 2107 Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies, Peter Dale Scott, Miłosz, Eliot, and the Generative EBSCO, and P.A.I.S. International Database. From January Canon: Literature, the Past, and the Future . 2110 1998 on, files in PDF format are available at the Central SB, Poland in the Irish Nationalist Imagination: and Eastern European Online Library (www.ceeol.com). Anti-Colonialism within Europe (review) . 2120 Subscription price is $21.00 per year for individuals, SB, Czerwone pająki (Red Spiders) (review) . 2121 $28.00 for institutions and libraries ($28.00 for individuals, Ewa Thompson, The Demon in Democracy: $35.00 for libraries overseas, air mail). The views expressed by authors of articles do not necessarily represent Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies (rev.)2122 those of the Editors or of the Polish Institute of Houston. Edwin Dyga, Donald Trump’s Warsaw Speech and Articles are subject to editing. Unsolicited manuscripts and the Nihilism of Modern Sophisticates . 2125 other materials are not returned unless accompanied by a LETTERS . 2128 self-addressed and stamped envelope. Please submit your About the Authors . 2130 contribution electronically and, if requested, send a printout by air mail. Submissions and Letters to the Editor can be emailed to <[email protected]>, with an accompanying mailing return address. Other letters and subscription queries should be emailed to <[email protected]>. Subscription checks Thank You Note should be mailed to The Sarmatian Review, P. O. Box 79119, Houston, Texas 77279–9119. The Sarmatian Sarmatian Review and the Polish Institute of Review retains the copyright for all materials included in Houston are grateful to those readers who print and online issues. Copies for personal or educational support the journal over and above the price of use are permitted by section 107 and 108 of the U.S. subscription. Without them it would be difficult Copyright Law. Permission to redistribute, republish, or use SR materials in advertising or promotion must be submitted to continue publication. Donations to Sarmatian in writing to the Editor. Review and its publisher, the Polish Institute of Editor: Ewa Thompson (Rice University) ! Houston, are tax deductible. Here is the list of Associate Editors: Bogdan Czaykowski, 1932–2007 recent donors: (University of British Columbia), Rafał Kasprowski (McGill University), Tamara Trojanowska (University of Professor & Mrs. Ralph Frankowski; Toronto) Editorial Advisory Committee: Anna M. Cienciala, 1929– Professor Richard J. Hunter; Professor Joseph 2014 (University of Kansas), George Gasyna (University of A. Kotarba (Reflexive Research Company); Illinois-Urbana), Janusz A. Ihnatowicz (University of Saint Ms. Irena A. Szewiola; Mr. Kenneth W. Thomas-Houston), Bożena Karwowska (University of Walpuck. British Columbia), Joseph A. Kotarba (Texas State University), Marcus D. Leuchter, 1909–2008 (Holocaust Museum Houston), Witold J. Lukaszewski (Sam Houston State University), Theresa Kurk McGinley (North Harris College-Houston), Michael J. Mikoś (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Jan Rybicki (Jagiellonian University), Dariusz Skórczewski (Catholic University of Lublin), Piotr Wilczek (University of Warsaw and Embassy Our Facebook Page: of the Republic of Poland in Washington, DC)! Facebook.com/sarmatianreview Copy Editor: Cyndy Brown ! Web Pages: Jane Zhao (Rice University), Nadalia Liu (Rice University)! Web Address: <www.ruf.rice.edu/~sarmatia> Alternate Web Address: Central and East European Online Library <ceeol.com> under Periodicals United States Sarmatian Review Archival Web Address: http://scholarship.rice.edu/ handle/browse 2104 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW September 2017 Sarmatian Review Data Legacy of communism Estimated number of persons executed in prisons or who died in communist prisons in Soviet-occupied Poland between 1945–1959: 50.000. Among them, the number of partisans who continued to fight against the communist regime after the Second World War was over: 15.000. Source: Professor Krzysztof Szwagrzyk, Head of the Polish Institute of National Memory, as reported by <wpolityce.pl>, 25 January 2017 http://wpolityce.pl/historia/324688-prof-szwagrzyk-w-latach-40-i-50-w-polsce- zmarlo-zostalo-straconych-lub-zabitych-ok-50-tysiecy-ludzi?strona=1 accessed 11 February 2017. Reforestation of Poland Percentage of Polish territory covered by forests: 9.1 million hectares, or 31 percent of territory. Increase in forestation since 1995: 0.3 million hectares. Ownership of forested areas: 7.5 million hectares is owned by the state, 1.7million by private owners. Amount of forested area per citizen: 0.24 hectares (about half an acre) per person. Source: Main Statistical Office (GUS), as reported by <wpolityce.pl>, 21 March 2017 http://wpolityce.pl/gospodarka/332400-optymistyczne-dane-gus-coraz-wiecej-lasow-w-polsce-zajmuja-9-mln-ha- czyli-31-proc-powierzchni-kraju?strona=2. NATO members’ spending on defense NATO members that spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense: the UK, Poland, Greece, Estonia and the United States (out of 28 NATO members). US Defense Secretary James Mattis’s statement to those who do not pay: “Americans cannot care more for your children’s security than you do. No longer can the American taxpayer carry a disproportionate share of the defense of Western values.” Source: “Mattis threatens to ‘moderate’ NATO if allies don’t pay up,” New York Post, 15 Febraury 2017 <http://nypost.com/2017/02/15/mattis-threatens-to-moderate-nato-if-allies-dont-pay-up> accessed 15 Febraury 2017. Desirability of foreign passports Rankings of the United States and Poland in the Nomad Passport Index 2017: #35 and #34, respectively. The most desirable passports according to Nomad: Swedish, Belgian, and Italian. Criteria of ranking: “The amount of taxes a country levies on citizens who live abroad, along with the nation’s overall global reputation, civil and personal freedoms, and the ability to hold multiple passports simultaneously.” Source: Justin Bachman, “The Most Desirable Passports on Earth,” Bloomberg, 3 March 2017, http://finance.yahoo.com/news/most-desirable-passports-earth-don-080006049.html, accessed on the same day. Polish food exports in 2017 Percentage of food coming from Poland consumed in EU: 9 percent. Poland is the sixth-largest producer of food in the EU. Polish products as percentage of products consumed in EU: dairy products 8.2 percent; meat products 10.5 percent. Source: Artur Osiecki, “Polska żywność podbiła Europę, teraz czas na świat,” Rzeczpospolita, 11 June 2017 http://www.rp.pl/Debaty-ekonomiczne/306119950-Polska-zywnosc-podbila-Europe-teraz-czas-na-swiat.html#ap-1, accessed on the same day. Defamatory stereotypes Number of persons suspected of participating in car theft in Germany in 2016: 17,701. Among these, number of German citizens: 11,037, or 62 percent. Number of citizens of other countries, European and non-European: 6,664. Source: Lausitzer Rundschau, as reported by Rzeczpospolita, 18 March 2017, http://www.rp.pl/Przestepczosc/303189932-Kradziez-samochodow-w-Niemczech-Obalony-stereotyp-o- cudzoziemcach.html#ap-1, accessed on the same day. 2105 September 2017 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW Catholicism in Poland Percentage of Poles who define themselves as Catholics: 92 percent. Percentage of Poles who declare that they attend Mass weekly: 50 percent (a drop of 8 percent since 2005). Source: CBOS poll, as reported in Gość Niedzielny, 28 June 2017 http://gosc.pl/doc/4009288.Ilu-jest-w-Polsce- katolikow> accessed on the same day. SELECTION OF DATA FROM PREVIOUS ISSUES Financing of the far-left and neo-Marxist organizations in Poland Percentage of funding that Krytyka Polityczna, a neo-Marxist left-wing periodical, receives from abroad: 90 percent. Exact quote: “My organization employs several dozen people and the majority of donations––90 percent, and it has always been so––comes from abroad.” Source: Krytyka Polityczna editor Sławomir Sierakowski in a Radio TOK interview, as reported by portal <wpolityce.pl>, 24 November 2016, http://wpolityce.pl/polityka/316708-sierakowski-niechcacy-ujawnia-kto- finansuje-polska-lewice-90-proc-dotacji-dla-mojej-organizacji-pochodzi-z-zagranicy-kaczynski-moze-nam-skoczyc, accessed on the same day. Prices Gazprom charged its various European customers in 2013–2014: For 1000 cubed meters of gas, Poland paid 429 dollars in 2013 and 379 dollars in 2014; Hungary 418 dollars in 2013 and 338 dollars in 2014; Austria 402 dollars in 2013 and 329 in 2014; Slovakia 438 dollars in 2013 and 308 dollars in 2014; France 404 dollars in 2013 and 338 dollars in 2014; Germany 366 dollars in 2013 and 323 dollars in 2014. Average Gazprom prices for 2012: Poland 500 dollars per cubic meter of gas; Western Europe 440 dollars. Additional clauses in the agreement: Poland is obliged to pay for the agreed-on amount of gas even if she is unable to use it all; Poland