Welcome to CR’s Summer 2013 issue!

Poland is wherever Polish people are… India, the Canadian Rockies, or the Wianki festival in Washington DC.

A Farewell to Poland in the Rockies

PitR, as it is affectionately called, leaves many great memories and a far flung network. A toast to Tony Muszynski, who created it: Sto lat!

Cosmopolitan Review is Back!

With a fresh and lively look, new writers, lots of reviews and book news, plus great features, CR blends topics light and serious, old and new, all of them focusing – or merely touching upon – something Polish, but not necessarily from a Polish perspective.

Bill Johnston: Educator Extraordinaire

A tsunami of honours fell upon Bill Johnston in 2012. CR surfs on that giant wave with a few observations of its own, along with some from Tamara Trojanowska and from students who will never forget him.

The Death of Captain Pilecki and Dealing with the Communist Past

Poland’s magnificent non-violent revolution altered the course of history. Justice demands that this history be not forgotten.

Our Stories, Our Voices

Stories are like literary genetics, essential to one’s identity. But how does a storyteller rise above competing voices, break through non-stop background noise, and seduce an audience? Justine Jablonska looks at the issues and offers some possibilities.

Nowhere Places: Mining the Polish Experience

…there’s a symmetry between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the French-English multicultural country I’ve grown up in… and it seems fitting that Polish and Canadian troops often fought side by side in WWII. That’s a good place to start rebuilding a sense of who I am, says Andrew Borkowski.

Why This Silence?

The photo was unmistakably me, in Nehru shirt and bell bottoms, a cigarette dangling rakishly in my right hand… on the front page of Czechoslovakia’s Socialist Union of Youth newspaper.

Yes, Mr. President! *

(*President Poland, of course.)

Isabelle Sokolnicka’s optimism may be contagious…
all the more reason to read on.

Why Speak Polish?

It’s easy to say which nation has the fastest trains (France) or the largest number of prime ministers who’ve probably been eaten by sharks (Australia), but it’s impossible to know which country has the best writers, let alone the best poets. Even so, if cash money were on the line, you’d find few critics willing to bet against Poland.
– David Orr,
The New York Times,
July 29, 2007

Isabelle Sokolnicka concurs, and thinks the language may have something to do with it.

Spelling or Pronunciation?

If you can’t say it, and you can’t spell it, can you remember it?

Mathematics and Polish National Identity

In 1918, the noted Polish mathematician, Zygmunt Janiszewski argued that Poland’s existence would continue through the ideas of talented Polish mathematicians. Joseph Pomianowski agrees, noting that Janiszewski’s Fundamenta Mathematicae contributed both to mathematics and to the revival of Polish national culture.

Three Dity Dailies Finally Learn Some Basic History – and Geography

Yes, those WWII death camps really were Germany’s camps, whether in Germany itself or in countries Nazi Germany occupied. If there were a “Teacher of the Year” award, it would certainly go to KF’s president, Alex Storozynski.