Category: History

MAY 6, 2022 – Across my many conversations with Russians aboard the train, I endeavored to find consensus about one subject or another, such as national self-perception, for example, and impression of the United States, and most sensitive at the time—attitudes about the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. One person’s opinion is only a data point, …

APRIL 27, 2022 – As I wrote in my letter home, “The aesthetic shortcomings of my accommodations, though, were compensated a thousandfold by the beauty of Leningrad itself . . . The gilded dome of the imposing St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the tall, narrow gold spire of Peter and Paul Fortress, and the striking gold tower-spire …

APRIL 19, 2022 – It was in Krakow—at the youth hostel where I stayed—where I experienced the most memorable theater poster-based “class” (see 4/12/22 post). One of the other guests, Jerzy, was a young artist from Lublin. He spoke slow but understandable English and our conversation attracted the attention of six Polish students at the …

APRIL 18, 2022 – From Gdansk I traveled to Warsaw, then to Krakow. This former capital of the Nazi’s General Government during WW II had largely avoided the crushing destruction that had befallen Gdansk and Warsaw. In Krakow, therefore, “old” meant “original”—not, “reconstructed after the war”—and in many places, “original” meant the 14th century (St. …

APRIL 17, 2022 – It was a Sunday in Gdansk, and from my contacts the day before I’d learned about the dedication of a memorial at Stutthof, a Nazi concentration camp 21 miles east of Gdansk. I learned what bus route would take me there, and hiked to the bus stop a short distance to …

APRIL 16, 2022 – (Cont.) The procession led to a dark red brick, two-story abbey. I followed the leaders right to the front stoop and watched them disappear into the building. And there on the concrete steps I stood, an improbable observer—a 26-year-old, Protestant “amerikánsky”—in the company of three Polish Catholic nuns. I turned my …

APRIL 14, 2022 – South of Gdansk, the train passed within sight of Malbork Castle—the largest in the world. Completed in 1405, according to my guidebook, the structure was built by the Teutonic Order of Knights (think “German Crusaders”). The Poles had laid siege to the castle in 1410 after one of history’s turning points, …

APRIL 12, 2022 – Most of my time in Warsaw was spent in Stare Miasto (“Old Town”). This appellation, however, was misleading. In WW II, German bombing had obliterated it. In an inspirational demonstration of resilience after the war, Poland had assigned top priority to the painstaking reconstruction of Stare Miasto—so masterfully executed that until …

APRIL 11, 2022 – My next stop was Warsaw. If it wasn’t the birthplace of the Solidarity Movement, it was a cauldron of history and the vortex of current political protest. I covered much of the city on foot, including stops at various shops, bookstores, and a music store where, for next to nothing, I …

APRIL 6, 2022 – Well after suppertime, I boarded a train in Malmö for the hour-long trip to Ystad at the very southern tip of Sweden. There I boarded a Polish ferry bound for Świnoujście across the Baltic—formerly the German city of “Stettin” before the westward re-arrangement of Polish borders after WW II. Nearly all …