READER’S CORNER, PART II: LOST WHITE TRIBES

Today I will write about a book which I’d wanted to read for quite a few years. I finally did it last year, so it’s time for a quick review. And it’s “Lost White Tribes” I’m talking about today, by Riccardo Orizio. My copy is in English, but this book has also been translated into Polish (if you prefer) and you can easily buy a copy online. However, I have no idea how good the translation is. And you can find my review in Polish here.

As you can imagine, one of these missing white tribes are the Poles. They are, of course, the descendants of Polish legionnaires who, on Napoleon’s orders, came to Haiti (then Saint-Domingue) in 1802-03 to help suppress the anti-French uprising of black people. The book also describes five other “white tribes” scattered around the world. I will briefly mention each chapter, and soon I will write a separate post about our legionnaires in Haiti.

The cover of Orizio’s book.

Mérida – city of culture.

It’s been quite a few years since my stay in Mexico, but I never had time to write about the rest of the trip. Some time ago, however, I decided to finish the account of my trip, if only for myself. My last post was about the ruins of Mayapan and the city of Campeche, you can read about it here. From Campeche I returned to Mérida, which is by far my favourite city in Mexico. Of course, I stayed with Cristina, whom I met through Couchsurfing, and who became my friend, my “Mexican sister” (she even came from Mexico for our wedding in Sweden).

Plaza Grande, in the evening.

Reader’s corner, Part I: Story of a Secret State

As I’ve been reading off-topic recently (Arsene Wenger’s autobiography and Tolkien’s The Fall of Gondolin), I decided to catch up a bit with the “compulsory reading” posts. Today a short review of “Secret state” by Jan Karski (Jan Kozielewski). My copy was published in 1999 by the “Twój Styl” publishing house and it is, hard to believe, the first edition of this book in Poland. The book was first published in the US, in 1944. Polish version is 344 pages long, of which approximately 30 pages contain photographs at the end of the book. In addition to the photos, in the Annex you will find an interview with Karski and several press articles written by the courier during the war. Book is divided into 33 chapters, and the action began in September 1939 and ended in the summer of 1943, when Karski went to the USA, where, inter alia, he was received by President Roosevelt. A year later, a book written at fast pace by Karski, “Story of a Secret State”, was published in the United States.

Cover of the Polish edition of the Secret State.

Sobieski’s campaign against Tatars

When it comes to the Polish-Turkish war of 1672-76, most people have heard of two events from that war. The first is, made famous by Sienkiewicz, the capture of Kamieniec Podolski by the Turks in August 1672 and the death of Jerzy Wołodyjowski, and the second event is the Battle of Chocim (11 November 1673), in which Sobieski led the Polish-Lithuanian troops and almost completely annihilated the Turkish army.

Battle of Chocim (1673). Painting by Andreas Stech and Ferdinand van Kessel

Today I will write about a slightly less known event, called in Polish “wyprawa na czambuły” – the Jan Sobieski’s campaign against Tatars. The tactic chosen by Sobieski brought enormous success to the Polish side, but let’s start from the beginning.

Mardi Gras in New Orleans

Mardi Gras is just around the corner, so let me write about New Orleans, which I had a pleasure of visiting a few years ago. The city itself is very interesting, but the visit during the carnival added flavour, some Creole flavour 😉

The Mississippi River and the Natchez steamship, which takes you up the river.

Gripsholm castle

As you probably already know, my wife grew up in a small town called Mariefred. Considering how small is this town, there are many “Polish traces” there. I wrote here about Polish submarines, interned in Sweden during the war, but now we’ll go back in time some 450 years.

View of Gripsholm Castle from the castle’s car park.

Surströmming Day

Looking at the subject of my daily blog posts on Facebook, it is easy to forget that my blog was supposed to be a travel blog, and the history was only a background. But life turned out differently 😉 It does not change the fact that travelling is still a very important part of my life (temporarily, thanks to my triplets, I only travel on the map), and food is an important part of these travels. In each country, you can find local culinary gems. In Sweden, such a “gem” is Surströmming, fermented herring. The third Thursday of August is traditionally the Day of Fermented Herring (Swedish: Surströmmingspremiären), when the season starts, which lasts roughly till the first half of September. I tried this herring as well.

Surströmming tin and the landscape of the west coast of Sweden.

Deportations of Poles to Siberia in the 16th-20th centuries

Exactly 80 years ago, deportations of Poles to Siberia began. Probably all Poles know about this fact, I myself mentioned those deportations here. I have also mentioned the fate of some of the children who survived Siberia here. But I decided today to tell you about Polish connections with Siberia, which began as early as the 16th century, which is why I present, with tiny changes, my speech, which I gave at the Kresy-Siberia Foundation Conference in Warsaw last September.

Few people know lyrics of the Siberian March, the anthem of the Sybiraks (Poles exiled to Siberia by Russians) – the text of this song, however, begins with the Bar Confederation, and Poles started arriving in Siberia a little earlier. Therefore, the 16th century will be my starting date and the end will be 1939, but not because President Putin stated that there was no Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, but because of the common knowledge of the subject of deportation of Poles during World War II.

“Cossacks led by Yermak conquer Siberia” – a painting by Vasily Surikov painted in 1895.

FB group

To those of you who think I’ve left the project behind, don’t worry – I haven’t. I’ve become quite active on my FB page, posting pretty much every day interesting information about Poles around the world. Please join me here: http://www.facebook.com/Polish-Traces-Around-the-World-245003998939055/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saint Lucy’s Day

13 December is a special day in Sweden. On this day Saint Lucy’s Day is celebrated (Sankta Lucia) and is accompanied by specific celebrations.

Saint Lucy’s Day concert