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Power Of The Powerless
''The Power of the Powerless'' () is an expansive political essay written in October 1978 by the Czech dramatist, political dissident, and later statesman, Václav Havel. The essay dissects the nature of communist regimes of the time, life within such a regime, and how by their very nature, such regimes can create dissidents of ordinary citizens. The essay goes on to discuss ideas and possible actions by loose communities of individuals linked by a common cause, such as human-rights petition Charter 77. Officially suppressed, the essay was circulated in samizdat form and translated into multiple languages. It became a manifesto for dissents in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and other communist regimes. The essay was translated into English by Paul Wilson and published in 1985 as part of a volume of essays edited by John Keane, entitled ''The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central-Eastern Europe''.Havel, Václav. 1985. The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Agai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Wilson (translator)
Paul Robert Wilson (born 3 July 1941) is a Canadian translator and writer. From 1967 to 1977 he lived in Czechoslovakia. From 1970 to 1972 he was the lead singer of The Plastic People of the Universe. Because of his association with the Prague underground he was expelled from Czechoslovakia in 1977. He is a major translator from Czech into English, particularly of Václav Havel's work. Education Wilson was born in Hamilton, Ontario on 3 July 1941. He studied English literature at Victoria College, a federated college of the University of Toronto, where he wrote his senior thesis on W. B. Yeats. In 1964 he began post-graduate studies in English at King's College London, specializing in "British left-wing literature of the twenties and thirties" with a focus on the work of George Orwell. While living in London Wilson became interested in Czech culture and politics and became acquainted with several Czechs, including his future wife, the photographer Helena Pospíšilová. He g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were aligned with the Soviet Union and existed during the Cold War (1947–1991). These states followed the ideology of Marxism–Leninism, in opposition to the Capitalism, capitalist Western Bloc. The Eastern Bloc was often called the "Second World", whereas the term "First World" referred to the Western Bloc and "Third World" referred to the Non-Aligned Movement, non-aligned countries that were mainly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America but notably also included former Tito–Stalin split, pre-1948 Soviet ally Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia, which was located in Europe. In Western Europe, the term Eastern Bloc generally referred to the USSR and Central and Eastern European countries in the Comecon (East Germany, Polish Peo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Live Not By Lies
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Soviet and Russian author and dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag prison system. He was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature". His non-fiction work ''The Gulag Archipelago'' "amounted to a head-on challenge to the Soviet state" and sold tens of millions of copies. Solzhenitsyn was born into a family that defied the Soviet anti-religious campaign in the 1920s and remained devout members of the Russian Orthodox Church. However, he initially lost his faith in Christianity, became an atheist, and embraced Marxism–Leninism. While serving as a captain in the Red Army during World War II, Solzhenitsyn was arrested by SMERSH and sentenced to eight years in the Gulag and then internal exile for criticizing Soviet leader Joseph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Soviet and Russian author and Soviet dissidents, dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag prison system. He was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature". His non-fiction work ''The Gulag Archipelago'' "amounted to a head-on challenge to the Soviet state" and sold tens of millions of copies. Solzhenitsyn was born into a family that defied the USSR anti-religious campaign (1921–1928), Soviet anti-religious campaign in the 1920s and remained devout members of the Russian Orthodox Church. However, he initially lost his faith in Christianity, became an atheist, and embraced Marxism–Leninism. While serving as a captain in the Red Army during World War II, Solzhenitsyn was arrested by SMERSH and sentenced to eight years in the Gulag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west. The territory has a varied landscape, diverse ecosystems, and a temperate climate. Poland is composed of Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 million people, and the List of European countries by area, fifth largest EU country by area, covering . The capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city is Warsaw; other major cities include Kraków, Wrocław, Łódź, Poznań, and Gdańsk. Prehistory and protohistory of Poland, Prehistoric human activity on Polish soil dates to the Lower Paleolithic, with continuous settlement since the end of the Last Gla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solidarity (Polish Trade Union)
Solidarity (, ), full name Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity" ( , abbreviated ''NSZZ „Solidarność”''), is a Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. Subsequently, it was the first independent trade union in a Warsaw Pact country to be recognised by the state. The union's membership peaked at 10 million in September 1981, representing one-third of the country's working-age population. In 1983 Solidarity's leader Lech Wałęsa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the union is widely recognized as having played a central role in the end of communist rule in Poland. This led to the appointment of the first noncommunist Prime Minister since the 1940s. In the 1980s, Solidarity was a broad anti-authoritarian social movement, using methods of civil resistance to advance the causes of workers' rights and social change. The Government attempted in the early 1980s to destroy the union through the imposition of mart ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zbigniew Bujak
Zbigniew Bujak (born 29 November 1954) is a former Polish activist and anti-Communist dissident. Biography Bujak was an electrician and foreman in 1980 at the Ursus Tractor Factory, Ursus tractor factory near Warsaw, Poland. He became engaged with trade union activists, and during the strike action, he organized strike committees at the Ursus factory. He became chairman of the Warsaw Solidarity (Polish trade union), Solidarity branch in September 1980 and was one of the few Solidarity leaders who escaped arrest in 1981 after martial law in Poland was declared to break Solidarity. He became one of the leaders of the Solidarity's underground movement, organizing underground committees including underground press and radio. He was finally arrested in 1986, becoming the last Solidarity leader to be captured. Soon afterwards, he was released in general amnesty, and participated in Polish Round Table Talks with the government in 1989. He was elected to the Sejm (Polish parliament) i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ursus Factory
Ursus SA (often stylized URSUS SA) was a Polish agricultural machinery manufacturer, headquartered in Lublin, Poland. The company was founded in Warsaw in 1893, and holds a prominent place in Polish tractor production history. It has also carried out some production of trolleybuses in a joint venture with the Ukrainian manufacturer Bogdan, and manufactures buses, coaches, and trolleybuses in a joint venture with Polish manufacturer AMZ Kutno under the name Ursus Bus. The name means 'bear' in Latin. History Early history The Ursus Factory was founded in 1893 on 15 Sienna Street, Warsaw, by three engineers and four businessmen. It was first named: ''Towarzystwo Udziałowe Specyalnej Fabryki Armatur'' (Company of a Special Factory of Fixture), later with an addition: ''i Motorów'' (and Motors). It began producing valves and pumps, intended first of all to Tsarist Russian market, as Poland had been partitioned by that time and most of its territory was annexed by Russ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Emperor's New Clothes
"The Emperor's New Clothes" ( ) is a literary folktale written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, about a vain emperor who gets exposed before his subjects. The tale has been translated into over 100 languages.Andersen 2005a 4 "The Emperor's New Clothes" was first published with "The Little Mermaid" in Copenhagen, Denmark, by C. A. Reitzel, on 7 April 1837, as the third and final installment of Andersen's '' Fairy Tales Told for Children''. The tale has been adapted to various media, and the story's title, the phrase "the Emperor has no clothes", and variations thereof have been adopted for use in numerous other works and as idioms. Plot The tale concerns an emperor who has an obsession with fancy new clothes, and spends lavishly on them, at the expense of state matters. One day, two con-men visit the emperor's capital. Posing as weavers, they offer to supply him with magnificent clothes that are invisible to those who are either incompetent or stupid. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motif (narrative)
A motif ( ) is any distinctive feature or idea that recurs across a story; often, it helps develop other narrative elements such as theme or mood. A narrative motif can be created through the use of imagery, structural components, language, and other elements throughout literature. The flute in Arthur Miller's play '' Death of a Salesman'' is a recurrent sound motif that conveys rural and idyllic notions. Another example from modern American literature is the green light found in the novel '' The Great Gatsby'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Narratives may include multiple motifs of varying types. In Shakespeare's play ''Macbeth'', he uses a variety of narrative elements to create many different motifs. Imagistic references to blood and water are continually repeated. The phrase "fair is foul, and foul is fair" is echoed at many points in the play, a combination that mixes the concepts of good and evil. The play also features the central motif of the washing of hands, on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Workers Of The World, Unite!
The political slogan "Workers of the world, unite!" is one of the rallying cries from ''The Communist Manifesto'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (, literally , but soon popularised in English language, English as "Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!"). A variation of this phrase ("Workers of all lands, unite") is also inscribed on Tomb of Karl Marx, Marx's tombstone. The essence of the slogan is that members of the working classes throughout the world should cooperate to defeat capitalism and achieve victory in the class conflict. Overview Five years before ''The Communist Manifesto'', this phrase appeared in the 1843 book ''The Workers' Union'' by Flora Tristan. The International Workingmen's Association, described by Engels as "the first international movement of the working class" was persuaded by Engels to change its motto from the League of the Just's "all men are brothers" to "working men of all countries, unite!". It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greengrocer
A greengrocer is a person who owns or operates a shop selling primarily produce, fruit and vegetables. The term may also be used to refer to a shop selling primarily produce. It is used predominantly in the United Kingdom and Australia. In the United States, the terms ''produce store'' or ''produce shop'' are used. By the 1940s, produce sales (measured in Tonnage#Non-maritime_usage_of_the_term_tonnage, tonnage) made at grocery stores had surpassed those made at produce stores. While once common in the United Kingdom and Australia, the increase in popularity of supermarkets caused greengrocer shops to become rarer, though they may still be found in smaller towns and villages. Today, greengrocers can also be found in street markets, malls, and supermarket produce departments. Greengrocers' apostrophe Because of its common misuse on greengrocers' signs (e.g ''apple's'', ''orange's'', or ''banana's''), an apostrophe used incorrectly to form a English plural, plural is known as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
