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Davies, Norman
4 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
Did Lech Walesa work for the secret service?
Two historians who work for Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) have accused the former freedom fighter and Polish president Lech Walesa of having collaborated with the communist secret services. Norman Davies, the British historian and expert on Poland, defends Walesa in a commentary: "Those who are once again attacking Lech Walesa's good name must not realise how they are damaging Poland's reputation abroad in doing so. People in the West, in particular, are not aware of the complex nuances of Polish politics. For this reason I hold the view that attacks against Lech Walesa are a deeply unpatriotic act. ... As far as I am aware, Walesa himself admitted to moments of weakness in his autobiography. And anyone who can remember those times knows that no one - not even Walesa - was 100 percent clean. This is because in the system of the time everyone was subject to certain restrictions and was again and again left defenceless against the totalitarian state. To attack someone because he suffered moments of weakness in such a system is very unfair."
» full article (external link, Polish)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » History, » Poland
Norman Davies on references to God in the EU constitution
The Polish government wants a statement on Christianity to be included in the preamble to the European constitution. In an interview with Katarzyna Janowska and Piotr Mucharski, British historian and Poland expert Norman Davies rejects this idea. "To talk of a Christian Europe is to talk in terms of stereotypes. What does Christian mean? I expect Poles use the term to refer to the Latin civilisation. It seems to me that the Poles are forgetting that the Orthodox Church is also Christian. Is Greece part of Europe? And is it Catholic? ... Moreover, the Christian religion never had a monopoly and still doesn't have one. Islam has been a presence on the European continent since the 8th century. There are European countries that are predominantly Muslim. Jews have lived here for 2,000 years. Therefore we should be a little more subtle when we reflect on Europe's roots."
» full article (external link, Polish)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Constitution, » Religion, » History, » Weltanschauung, » Poland, » Europe
All available articles from » Katarzyna Janowska, » Piotr Mucharski
Norman Davis on Soviet Union's war crimes
The newspaper reports that around 70 families are to take Russia to the European Court of Human Rights for the massacre of Polish officers and civilians in Katyn during the Second World War. In a guest commentary British historian Norman Davies accuses the West, in particular, of having forgotten the war crimes committed in Eastern Europe on the orders of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. "The world doesn't want to remember and accept that not only the Nazis committed atrocious crimes during the war, but also the Soviets. Politicians from Great Britain and the US are mainly to blame for this attitude. Their countries didn't fight against the Soviet Union. Stalin was their ally. The West still doesn't understand what happened back then."
» more information (external link, Polish)
More from the press review on the subject » History, » Global
Norman Davies on national pride
According to a study published by the US NORC institute, Poles have a comparatively weak sense of national pride. Of the 33 countries investigated in the study, Poland ranked a joint 28th along with Slovakia. In an interview led by Piotr Semka, British historian and Poland expert Norman Davies attributes this to the fact that the country was under foreign rule for so long. "It's natural that nations that lost control over their own fate and the power to influence their own position in the world for over half a century – and this was the case with all states dominated by the Soviet Union – do not have a stable identity. Nations that are firmly 'anchored' in history, like the French or the British, have a self-image that allows them to observe themselves without complexes and with criticism. The Poles, on the other hand, are either too critical of themselves or they place too much emphasis on their own contribution to world history."
» more information (external link, Polish)
More from the press review on the subject » Society, » Poland
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