The Congress of the American Polonia (Congress of Polish Americans) ( English Polish American Congress (PAC) , Polish. Kongres Polonii Amerykańskiej ) is an umbrella organization [1] created in June 1944 at the initiative of Polish emigration to the United States to "help and save Poland from the threat on the part of the USSR in view of the Red Army march through the territory of Poland. " [2] The statute declared the aim of the PAC to fight communism at home and take measures to restore the full sovereignty of Poland. In this matter, Congress sought the support of the US government, and at home supported the opposition. [3] [4]
History
During the founding congress in Buffalo , it was decided that the PAC would be headed by the president of the largest and richest (it was about financing activities) organization of Polish immigrants, which was the National Union of Poland ( Polish. Związek Narodowy Polski , English Polish National Alliance ( PNA) ) thus the first president of the PAC was PNA chairman Karol Rosemarek. The second was Alois Mazevsky, and the third (until March 22, 2005) was Edward Moskal. The PAC included more than 100 organizations of Polish immigrants in the United States, as well as many individuals. PAC is divided into Offices in the US states, of which the most numerous is in Illinois (President Christopher Kurchaba). The achievements of the PAC during its activities are: promoting recognition of the Katyn crime by the Soviet crime and genocide in the US Congress , a significant contribution to the admission of Poland to NATO, as well as numerous support actions from the time of Solidarity to the present day.
1948: The PAC successfully lobbies for the adoption by the US Congress of a special law signed by President Harry Truman that allowed 140,000 Polish refugees, war victims and veterans of the Polish armed forces in Western Europe to reside permanently in the United States.
1949: PAC supports the creation of the Free Europe radio station "as voices of truth for the peoples of Eastern Europe enslaved by communism" [5]
From left to right: Congressman Foster Furkolo, George Dondero, Tadeusz Machrovich, Commissioner Ray Madden, Alvin D'Conski, Daniel Flood, John Mitchell, Timothy Sheehan
1952: The Special Commission of the US Congress, strongly supported by the PAC, investigates the murder of more than 14,000 officers of the Polish army at the beginning of World War II in the Soviet Union.
The USSR strongly condemns this action, stating that Nazi Germany was guilty of murder. “After an exhaustive review, the Commission found that the Soviet regime and its secret police were responsible for this atrocity” [5] . The main investigator of the special commission of the US Congress was Roman Puchinski ( Eng. Roman Conrad Pucinski ), a Polish American, who, then, in 1958 was elected to the US House of Representatives. He was later elected vice president of the RAS.
The PAC is supporting a Republican platform that calls for the liberation of Eastern Europe from Soviet domination. Although many Polish Americans, who traditionally vote for the Democratic Party, switched to the support of Dwight Eisenhower , the Republican presidential candidate, Eisenhower, after the victory, abandoned the idea of liberation in favor of "restraining communism." The PAC was against the position of the United States and its allies, following a policy of deterrence, and not taking military action in support of the 1956 Hungarian uprising .
1957: After the collapse of the “pro-Stalinist regime in Poland in 1956 and replacing it with the seemingly reform-oriented communist regime of Wladyslaw Gomulka , the PAC supported the initiative of the US government to provide assistance to try to tear Gomulka away from Moscow. Until the end of the 60s, several hundred million dollars were spent on this, although the goals were not achieved. ” [5] At the same time, Polish emigration to the United States resumed, allowing thousands of families to reunite. The normalization of relations after 1957 also provided new opportunities for Polish Americans to visit their homeland and to restore personal contacts with relatives. “These renewed contacts strengthened both the resilience of the American Polonia and the Polish people’s thirst for freedom in their country” [5] .
Chairs of the American Polonia Congress
- Karol Rozmarek ( Eng. Karol Rozmarek) (since 1944)
- Alois Mazevsky ( English Alojzy Mazewski) (since 1968)
- Edward Moskal ( Eng. Edward Moskal) (since 1988)
- Virginia Sikora ( eng. Virginia Sikora)
- Franciszek Spula ( Franciszek Spula)
Links
- ↑ umbrella organization - umbrella organization [structure]. An institution that supports several other organizations working in a specific area; such an institution is a representative of the association (union) of these organizations and has its own name. ( English-Russian explanatory dictionary "Management and Labor Economics" )
- ↑ iTVP - Serwis informacyjny - Archiwum wiadomości
- ↑ Instytut Józefa Pilsudskiego w Ameryce - Archiwum - Kongres Polonii Amerykańskiej Neopr (Not available link) . The date of circulation is November 27, 2007. Archived May 10, 2008.
- ↑ Wprost 24 - Spula prezesem Kongresu Polonii Amerykańskiej
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Polish American Congress
Official site
- Polish American Congress (Official site of the organization "Congress of the American Polonia")