On November 19, 2024, the Dom Spotkań z Historią (History Meeting House) in Warsaw hosted an event dedicated to the historical publication titled Building the Republic of the Spirit: The History of the Fulbright Program in Poland from 1945 to 2020. The discussion featured the author, Dr. Oleksandr Avramchuk, along with Fulbright Program alumni historians: Prof. Jakub Tyszkiewicz and Dr. Anna Mazurkiewicz. The session was moderated by journalist Magdalena Rigamonti.
The conversation began by highlighting Senator J. William Fulbright’s personal experiences with educational exchange and the evolution of his social views, setting the stage for a broader discussion on the program’s development. The panelists outlined the socio-political landscape of the 1950s and 1960s, which facilitated the growth of Polish-American academic exchanges. They explored why Poland became the first country in the former Eastern Bloc to implement the program and mentioned other private initiatives, such as scholarships from the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Kosciuszko Foundation, that offered opportunities to study in the USA prior to the Fulbright Program’s inception. The role of the Polish diaspora in shaping Polish-American relations was also discussed, including initial, not always positive, reactions from the diaspora to the arrival of scholars from communist Poland.
One of the many topics addressed was the contribution of Fulbright scholars in establishing and strengthening English departments in Poland. The discussion also covered the unique aspects of participating in the Fulbright Program during the 1980s and the involvement of alumni in the post-communist transformation process. Dr. Anna Mazurkiewicz shared an anecdote from the book, recounted by former U.S. Ambassador to Poland, Nicholas Rey. Avramchuk writes: “A famous anecdote pertains to a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Cimoszewicz for NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana in 1997. Among the distinguished guests were Foreign Minister Dariusz Rosati, Finance Minister Grzegorz Kołodko, Warsaw Mayor Marcin Święcicki, and Prime Minister Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz. Rey looked around the table and asked Solana, ‘By any chance, are you also a Fulbright scholar?’ The surprised guest replied, ‘Not by chance, Mr. Ambassador. I had to work damn hard for it.'”
Building the Republic of the Spirit is written in an engaging and accessible style, as evidenced by the anecdote above, with an excellent Polish translation by Renata Kujawska-Matacz. The book is available for purchase through the PWN publishing house.
The publication was initiated and funded by the Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission as part of a special “history grant” program, for which the call for proposals was announced in early 2021.
We encourage you to view the photo gallery from the event.