Forewords

World War II ended 75 years ago. In Europe, Nazi Germany was defeated, extermination camps were liberated and the victors created a new world order. 75 years have passed, yet, there is still no consensus about the assessment of these developments. Members of the Institute of Central European Studies at the National University of Public Service address the plurality of the memory of 1945.

The war between Poland and the Bolsheviks of Russia, which is one of the most important military conflicts in our region, culminated 100 years ago. Three of the papers in this issue bring attention to Józef Piłsudski’s ideas about Central European cooperation, reconstruct his plans to create a system of alliances that would be able to contain Bolshevik Russia, and assess what was realized of these.