In the very last episode of Stories of The Eastern West as you knew it, we’re taking you to Estonia, 1989. A group of people there made 2 million others hold hands and create a human chain of unprecedented size and significance.

The Baltic countries had a truly turbulent 20th century. They went from regaining their independence to losing it to the USSR and becoming subject to a ruthless policy of Russification. Unsurprisingly, they needed something big to jump on the bandwagon of the 1989 peaceful revolutions that liberated several countries from the USSR’s influence.

What they came up with was a human chain linking Tallinn with Riga and Vilnius. This huge event is something hard to wrap one’s head around nowadays when we think about the scanty means of communication the organisers had.

Our producer Wojciech went to Estonia and got a chance to talk to several people who co-organised or participated in the event. How was it at all possible? Why wasn’t it thwarted by the communist regime? How do people remember such a defining moment in their lives over 30 years later?

Further listening

• KAIE / our episode from our mini-series The Final Curtain about ‘The Singing Revolution’ that Adam mentions in the show

Further reading

• The Longest Unbroken Human Chain In History / an article on estonianworld.com
• All the human chains in one place / an article on wikipedia.org

Further watching

• The Inimitable Baltic Way / a Lithuanian documentary

Thanks

• Ivi Gubinska, Reet Villig, Eve Sildnik, Andres Tarand and Lukas Hioo for taking the time to discuss this incredible event with us.
• Keiu Telve and Maia-Liisa Anton for connecting us with Baltic Way participants and their thoughtful discussions about the meaning of the event.

Credits

Written & produced by Wojciech Oleksiak
Edited by Adam Zulawski & Nitzan Reisner
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak

Get to know Piotr Szkopiak, a London-based film and TV director who’s spent a good portion of his life pondering the nature of his identity.

Piotr Szkopiak was born in the United Kingdom but into a Polish family. As he grew up, he learned that his parents and neighbours were all World War II prisoners of war who had escaped the USSR but couldn't go back to Poland after the war ended. His mother told him how she had travelled from the depths of the Soviet Union through Persia and southern Europe to the UK, and how after the war this is the place that she had to learn to call home.

But first and foremost, his parents talked to him in Polish, signed him up for a Polish weekend school, and raised him as a person with a double identity: Polish and British. This in-betweenness has been something that strongly influenced his life and he reflects on it all in an interview he gave to Karolina Jackowiak, who on behalf of the Poles in South London organisation, was working on the Local Heroes Archive oral history project. We, at SFTEW, liked the story so much that we decided to turn it into one of our episodes.

Click here to get the transcript

Like our show? Sign up for our newsletter!

• ORPHANS // the SFTEW episode we mention in the podcast: how 700 Polish children made an unlikely journey from the depths of Siberia to the New Zealand countryside.
• BEAR // an even more unlikely tale from us at SFTEW: the bear who fought in World War II alongside Anders’ Army.

• Artists In Arms // the incredible odyssey of Anders’ Army, told through a multimedia guide from Culture.pl
• Soldiers, Artists: The Exhibitions of Anders’ Army // on Culture.pl
• Piotr Szkopiak // Piotr's IMDB profile
• Cultivating Polish Folk Dance in 1970s South London // another story from the Local Heroes Archive project
• Memories of South London’s Polish Music Scene // another story from the Local Heroes Archive project
• Poles in South London // the community’s official website

Piotr Szkopiak // for letting us turn his story into a podcast episode.

Poles in South London // especially Marta Sordyl and Łukasz Wołągiewicz from the organisation, for reaching out and offering this incredible story to us.

Written & produced by Wojciech Oleksiak
Edited by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak

Nicolaus Copernicus, born in 1473, was the orphaned son of a copper merchant in Toruń. Thanks to his bishop uncle, he obtained a first class education at the Kraków Academy and then in Italy, where he became an avid observer of the night sky – even though he was supposed to be preparing for a church career.

His day job as a church canon, diplomat and doctor in Frombork – when he wasn't defending castles against the Teutonic Knights – meant that it took him over 30 years to finish his book 'On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres' in which he presented an Earth-shattering new idea – that maybe it wasn't actually at the centre of the universe as everyone believed, but in fact revolved around the Sun.

Although it would take another century until Galileo was able to prove Copernicus right inarguably using the later invention of the telescope, Copernicus's book, published in 1543 in Nuremberg, would mark the beginning of a very real revolution in science and our understanding of the universe.

Listen to the episode to find out how he came to this unexpected conclusion, and what happened next.

Click here to get the transcript

Like our show? Sign up for our newsletter!

• Copernicus: Revelations about the Renaissance Man // on Culture.pl
• Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God – Jan Matejko // on Culture.pl
• A Quiz About Copernicus: More Than a Great Astronomer! // on Culture.pl

• Copernicus, by Jan Matejko // video by Waldemar Januszczak on YouTube.com

• Nicolaus Copernicus Museum // in Frombork, Northern Poland

Małgorzata Czupajło // Educator at the Nicolaus Copernicus Museum in Frombork.

Dava Sobel // Science history writer and author of A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos.

Prof. Karl Galle // Science historian at the American University in Cairo, currently working on a book delving into Copernicus's life in Warmia, including his roles as a church administrator, diplomat, cartographer and doctor.

Lastly, a special thank you to the Nicolaus Copernicus Museum in Frombork for their help in making this episode possible.

Written & produced by Piotr Wołodźko
Edited by Wojciech Oleksiak & Adam Zulawski
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak

Vera Chytilová was the most important woman director of the Czechoslovak New Wave – although she remains relatively unknown outside of Central Europe. As the first female student of the prestigious FAMU film school in Prague, she had to fight in order to do things her own way. During the creative explosion of the Czechoslovak New Wave, she made her most well known film ‘Daisies’ (1966) – a surrealist pop-art comedy, about two young women who set their minds on creating humorous destruction around them. The 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of her country stopped Chytilová’s promising career dead in its tracks, but unlike Miloś Forman (‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest’, 1975) and others, she refused to emigrate, despite the huge personal cost. After seven years of professional exile, she was allowed to return to filmmaking in the late 1970s, once again finding critical success. After the privatisation of the Czech film industry in the 1990s, she was one of the first to adapt with ‘The Inheritance’ (1992) – a scathing satire on the effect free-for-all capitalism was having on her fellow citizens. Having never compromised on her beliefs, she remained a moral authority in her country until her death in 2014, and continues to inspire those lucky enough to come across her films for the first time. Listen to the episode to hear her fascinating story.

Click here to get the transcript

Like our show? Sign up for our newsletter!

• Vera Chytilova Dies at 85; Made Daring Films in Czech New Wave // on nytimes.com
• "It's still revolutionary' : Věra Chytilová’s Daisies comes sixth in BBC poll of films by women // on Czech Radio.cz
• The Cinematic Gems of the Czechoslovak New Wave // on Hyperallergic.com
• Poles Conquer Czech Cinema // on Culture.pl
• The Most Powerful Films From Beyond the Iron Curtain // on Culture.pl

• Naughty Young People: Chytilová, Kučera, Krumbachova (2012) // documentary at Vimeo.com

Tereza Kučerova // set designer and visual artist, for talking to us about her mother, and her childhood memories of the dramatic events of 1968.

Anička Hanáková // for helping translate our conversation and sharing her own memories of her grandmother.

Dr. Michal Bregant // director of the National Film Archive in Prague, for sharing his experience of working with Chytilová in the 1980s.

Professor Jan Bernard // for talking about his former teaching colleague at at FAMU.

Dr. Jindřiška Bláhová // Assistant Film Studies Professor at Charles University, for sharing her knowledge of Chytilová's life and work.

Jakub Felcman // filmmaker and former student of Chytilová at FAMU, for talking to us about the Czech director as a teacher and mentor.

Lastly, a special thanks to Barbora Lochmanová from the Czech Film Center and Jitka Rohanova from the Polish Institute in Prague for their help in making the episode possible.

Written & produced by Piotr Wołodźko
Edited by Wojciech Oleksiak & Adam Zulawski
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak

Stanisław Lem was a science-fiction writer whose works, abilities and quirky sense of humor convinced Phillip K. Dick that he was too brilliant to exist and must have actually been a committee of people! Indeed his rare gift for blending philosophy with technology and action made him an instantaneously recognisable voice in the European sci-fi world and elevated him to the heights of popularity and critical acclaim.

But Lem’s life was far from a textbook success story. Throughout his life, he struggled with traumatic wartime memories, distorted identities, and the communist system. But somehow, he was able to turn all the hardships and obstacles into elements of the incredible universes he created in his novels.

In this episode, our hosts Nitzan and Adam will try to unravel some of the most confusing mysteries surrounding Lem: why did he choose to abandon his pre-war identity? How on Earth did he foresee the Internet in the 1960s? Is it true that he learned English from a dictionary in a week?

Like our show? Get our newsletter!

• Stanisław Lem // bio on Culture.pl
• Stanisław Lem: Did the Holocaust Shape His Sci-Fi World? // on Culture.pl
• 13 Things Lem Predicted About The Future We Live In // on Culture.pl
• Phillip K. Dick: Stanisław Lem is a Communist Committee // on Culture.pl
• Lem Vs. Tarkovsky: The Fight Over ‘Solaris’ // on Culture.pl
• The Many Masks & Faces of Stanisław Lem // on Culture.pl
• Humorous Horrors: How Lem Taught His Nephew to Write Flawlessly // on Culture.pl
• 8 Science Fiction Films Adapted from Lem // on Culture.pl

• The Adventures of the Blindworm: An Orthographic Short Story by Stanisław Lem // on Culture.pl

Agnieszka Gajewska // professor of literary studies, author of ‘Holocaust and the Stars: The Past in the Prose of Stanisław Lem’ (available in English from November 2021) and ‘Hasło: Feminizm’.

Wojciech Orliński // a Polish journalist, writer, and blogger, author of the best-selling Lem biography ‘Lem: Życie Nie z tej Ziemi’ (Lem: A Life Out of This World). You can enjoy his incredible sense of humour on his blog (which he writes in Polish).

Wiktor Jaźniewicz // Belarus’s premier ‘lemologist’, and owner of a ‘lemologic cabinet’ that you can see for yourself here.

Written & produced by Wojciech Oleksiak
Edited by Adam Zulawski
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak

This year we have more great stories for you! There's going to be a bit of sci-fi, a pinch of socialist realism, a good portion of astronomy, and some old-fashioned moving testimonies from a region that never sleeps!

Stay tuned: the first episode drops September 7th!

Like our show? Get our newsletter!

In 1967, Marian Marzyński was a popular TV show host and filmmaker in Poland. But then a seemingly faraway military clash sparked an unexpected conflict within the Polish communist party that led its Jewish members to be accused of anti-Polish sentiments. The conflict developed into an anti-Semitic campaign that affected all of Polish Jewish society and led to the emigration of the majority of the remaining Polish Jews, whose numbers had already been dwindled due to the Holocaust. Emigrating away from an authoritarian regime, Marian was able to process the events around him by filming them from his perspective, something he was previously unable to do. He continues to film his personal stories today.

Like our show? Sign up for our newsletter!

[00:11] 1968: a year of global unrest
[02:08] Escape from the ghetto
[03:17] Never forget to lie
[07:13] The war is over. Jewish identity after the war
[08:22] Marian becomes a journalist
[10:28] Internationalism vs. nationalism
[10:46] The Six-Day War
[12:08] Censoring 'Dziady' in the National Theatre
[12:39] The mechanisms of hostility
[14:55] Marian decides to leave
[16:16] First stop: Denmark
[17:29] Marian films emigration
[18:38] Who were we?
[19:45] What is emigration?
[20:13] Film-making after emigration
[21:30] Moving to the USA
[23:06] Humour
[24:12] Marian’s returns to Poland
[25:40] The inner child

• Marian’s website
• Interview with Marian Marzyński about his film 'Shtetl' // on PBS.org

• Life on Marz // Marian Marzyński's film on Vimeo.com
• Skibet/Hatikvah // Marian Marzyński's film on Vimeo.com
• Jewish Blues // Marian Marzyński's film on Vimeo.com
• Shtetl // Marian Marzyński's film on Vimeo.com

Written & produced by Monika Proba
Edited by Wojtek Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski & Nitzan Reisner
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak