Tyranny to Freedom
Diary of a Former Stalinist
Description:... The author's own father was a victim of Stalinism. But this did not prevent the young Ludwik from becoming a dedicated Stalinist and a communist party member in Poland. Tyranny to Freedom: Diary of a Former Stalinist is based on decades of diaries, written in Poland, France and the United States. How did a committed communist react to important political events, such as Stalin's death, revelations of the 20th Congress in the USSR, and the Hungarian uprising? Why did Kowalski return to Poland in 1963, instead of "choosing freedom" in the west? And why did he go public with his anti-communist feelings, after retiring in 2004? Through diary entries, spanning from 1946 and 2008, Tyranny to Freedom is a fascinating story of one man's struggle with finding a political identity and the resulting consequences of a euphoric dream turning into a nightmarish reality of murder and terror. Born in 1931 in Poland, Ludwik Kowalski spent his childhood, up to age 15, in the Soviet Union. His education was completed in Poland and in France. After returning to Poland in 1963 with a French doctorate in Nuclear Physics, he was invited to a scientific conference in the United States, and became a research associate at Columbia University. After retiring in 2004, Kowalski wrote Hell On Earth: Brutality And Violence Under The Stalinist Regime, a short and easy-to-read book for those Americans who know very little about crimes committed under red banners of proletarian dictatorship. Royalties will be donated to a Montclair State University scholarship fund.
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