Poland in the Rockies invites eminent historians, as well as writers, journalists, filmmakers and other professionals with a specialised interest in Poland. An understanding of the past is essential for an understanding of contemporary social, political and economic developments, including Poland’s relations and mutual perceptions with other nations.
History also provides a framework for understanding a nation’s culture, including the many cross-cultural influences that contributed to the formation of the modern nation.
Poland’s unique historical position in Europe as a tolerant multi-ethnic state and its early development of democratic institutions, including the first constitution in Europe, have been credited with Poland’s survival and restoration as a democracy in the face of first, the partitions, and later, the genocidal attack by Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, and finally a half-century of communism imposed by Moscow. Poland’s present day foreign policy, with its emphasis on restoring peaceful and respectful relations with the nations that once were an intrinsic part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and its disciplined effort to establish good relations with all its neighbouring countries, has won the country both respect and influence.