“Who was Thaddeus Kosciuszko and
Why Should We Remember Him
- Two Centuries after his Death”

From the CREECA website: October 15, 2017 marks the two hundredth anniversary of the death of Thaddeus Kosciuszko, the “hero of two continents” and a person called “the purest son of liberty” by his friend, Thomas Jefferson. Just who was Kosciuszko and what did he do in his life that deserves to be remembered, written about, and appreciated today – both in his native Poland and in his adopted country, the United States?

In his remarks Dr. Pienkos will address these two questions and invite comments from his audience and a conversation about Kosciuszko and what he represents today.

As background, the lecture attendees are encouraged to view “Memorializing Kosciuszko,” produced by Milwaukee Public Television in 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY7rSBGCxA8 

Polish government has designated 2017 as the year of Kościuszko on the 200th aniversary of his death.

About the speaker: Donald Pienkos is Professor Emeritus (Political Science) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. There he taught courses on Soviet and post-Soviet politics and foreign policy, and the politics of Eastern Europe from 1969 to 2013. Don completed his M.A., Ph.D, and Certificate in Russian Area Studies at the University of Wisconsin and earned his doctorate under the guidance of one of the University’s foremost scholars, Prof. John A. Armstrong. At UW-Milwaukee, Don was a founder of its Russian and East European Studies Committee in 1970 and its Polish Studies Committee in 1979. His many publications have focused on Poland and the Polish diaspora in America. In the 1990s he was engaged in Poland’s, the Czech Republic’s, and the Hungarian republic’s admission into the NATO Alliance. His work has been recognized on a number of occasions, most notably in 2010 when he received the Officer’s Cross of Service from the president of Poland.