Lech Borkowski My comment on Dana Zatopkova obituary, The Times, March 28 2020. Earlier comments indicate lack of understanding of what Communism is and the extremely important role played by sportsmen and sportswomen as functionaries of Communist regimes. Communism, like Nazism, is a program of ruthless elimination of people classified as the Other. Who belongs to that … Read more
Book review. Comments on The Human Factor: Gorbachev, Reagan and Thatcher and the End of the Cold War by Archie Brown review by Dominic Sandbrook, March 22 2020. Ah, the Clueless and the Mythmakers, in other words Russian and East European Centre, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. John Paul II was Communist collaborator. John … Read more
Comment on The Times article We can’t ignore Turkey’s war on free speech by Hannah Lucinda Smith, March 18, 2020. While I personally cannot add anything to the picture of the freedom of speech or human rights in Turkey, I would like to provide some information on violations of these rights in the European Union, … Read more
Article Putin grabs rule for life in ‘biggest con of the century’ in The Times by Marc Bennetts, March 15 2020. Here is my comment. All quiet on the Eastern Front? This article, like many others of this type, simply tells the story as the Russian power machine wants it to be told. All the … Read more
My comment on the obituary of the former First Secretary of the Communist party in Poland, Stanislaw Kania, Polish leader who saw off the threat of a Soviet invasion – obituary, The Telegraph, 10 March 2020. Lech Borkowski 11 Mar 2020 7:55AM This text is full of nonsense. The Solidarity trade union was created … Read more
One more comment on Marc Bennetts’ article Stalin’s death liberated us, say activists in The Times, March 6 2020. Two other ones were posted earlier. The Times remained silent on the 75th anniversary of the Yalta agreement of February 1945. At the end of WWII leaders of United States and Britain went out of their way … Read more
Two short comments about misleading article classification scheme of The Times, prompted by the recent text Not such a savage: how we got Genghis Khan all wrong by Mark Bridge. The first part is half-joking. The keywords for article classification at the bottom of the text say ‘science, Europe, Germany’. Mongolia was apparently a Land … Read more
My two comments published today, following Marc Bennetts’ article Stalin’s death liberated us, say activists in The Times, March 6 2020. Note the profound difference between the treatment of Nazi and Communist genocides on the pages of The Times. This includes readers’ comments. I am Polish. My parents were held in Communist concentration camps in … Read more
Comment about Tom Parfitt’s article in The Times, The family that tells Russia’s story from Stalin to Putin, dated March 2, 2020, although made available on March 1. The millions of victims of Communism are now being killed for the second time. Today they are eliminated from the pages of The Times. The focus is … Read more
Ben MacIntyre’s piece in The Times, February 29 2020, Putin’s spies are pulp fiction characters. Here is my comment. In 1968, at about the same time as the Soviet series, similar story was filmed and released as series on Polish Communist tv. It is about an agent of Polish Communist underground infiltrating the war-time Abwehr, … Read more
On February 23, 2020, The Sunday Times published an article by Andrew Holgate Holocaust novelists blur Nazi fact and fiction in bestsellers. Here is my comment. Quote from the article: In one of the novel’s most important scenes, the number he tattoos on the arm of his future wife is seen by several critics as … Read more
Hugh Tomlinson writes in The Times, February 21 2020, about cheating in Indian schools in the article Testing times for India’s school exam cheats. My comment is about falsifications at a university in Poland. In Poland, where I was employed at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, everything, not just exam results is subject to … Read more
The Times published the article Mark Zuckerberg wanted Facebook users to make ‘dark profiles’ on others by Jacqui Goddard, February 15, 2020. Around 2006 the Facebook’s owner mulled the idea of letting third persons create profiles of those who have not opened a Facebook account yet. Here are my comments. Creating ‘dark profiles’ on others? … Read more
The article The film that shows we’re all parasites now by David Aaronovitch in The Times, February 12 2020. My comment 13 February I came to the UK in June 2016, couple of days before the Brexit referendum, looking for a job that would pay our family bills and mortgage on a flat in Poland. … Read more
Two comments after The Times’ article Vladimir Putin to bolster his rule with fake political parties by Marc Bennetts, January 27 2020. Lech Borkowski 27 January Oh dear, oh dear, this is not news, this is old history, starting with the Operation Trust in the 1920s, when the Soviets ran fake underground movement. Fake miniature … Read more
Comment following the article China’s struggle to contain the Coronavirus has exploded the myth of prosperity without liberty in The Telegraph, February 7 2020. Lech Borkowski 7 Feb 2020 10:24PM Communist states developed advanced methods of control, some of these methods are more easily noticeable, some other ones less so. They are the original big … Read more
A short comment on controversy described in David Crossland’s article Critics pan Berlin film festival for giving ‘reactionary’ Jeremy Irons a starring role in The Times, January 22 2020. Lech Borkowski 22 January This outrage occurs in Germany, whose current long-time leader was a voluntary member of a totalitarian, Communist organisation: Freie Deutsche Jugend, the … Read more
Second comment on the article The Volunteer: Jack Fairweather’s Auschwitz spy thriller wins Costa prize, by David Sanderson, The Times, January 29 2020. I should add that the first book presenting Witold Pilecki’s role was Fighting Auschwitz: the Resistance in the Concentration Camp by Józef Garlinski (1913-2005), Polish officer who was also imprisoned in Auschwitz. … Read more
Comment on the article The Volunteer: Jack Fairweather’s Auschwitz spy thriller wins Costa prize, by David Sanderson, The Times, January 29 2020. Polish version: Polski test lakmusowy ma wynik czerwony. 29 January 2020 Five years ago, Pilecki’s son and daughter have not been invited by the Polish authorities to the 70 anniversary of the liquidation … Read more
My comment following the review of tv documentary Belsen: Our Story, review: a devastating and dignified oral history of Holocaust horrors, by Michael Hogan, The Telegraph, January 28, 2020 —— Lech Borkowski 28 Jan 2020 11:33PM Great documentary. I made the following note in 2014: “The last century, beginning with World War I, has seen … Read more