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Marek Jan Chodakiewicz (born in 1962 in Warsaw, Poland) is Polish-American a political activist and historian specializing in East Central European history of the 19th and 20th century. Chodakiewicz lives in the Greater Washington, DC area.^[1]

Academic career

Marek Jan Chodakiewicz earned a B.A. degree from the San Francisco State University in 1988, a M.Phil. from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. with distinction from Columbia University in 2001. His Ph.D. thesis was entitled: Accommodation and Resistance: A Polish County Kraśnik during the Second World War and its Aftermath, 1939-1947. Between 2001 and 2003 Chodakiewicz was an assistant professor at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville as the holder of the Kościuszko Chair in Polish Studies of the Miller Center of Public Affairs. In 2003, Chodakiewicz was appointed Research Professor of History and in 2004 Professor of History at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC, where he teaches and conducts research on East Central Europe and Russia.^[2] His expert areas include History, Democracy Building, Communism, American Foreign Policy and International Relations. Since 2008, he has also held the Kościuszko Chair in Polish Studies at IWP. Chodakiewicz has also served as Adjunct Professor of International Relations at Patrick Henry College since 2008.^[3]

In 2003 Chodakiewicz received the Polish right-wing^[4] Józef Mackiewicz Literary Prize in Warsaw for his two-volume book of history entitled Ejszyszki.^[5] According to Chodakiewicz his work refutes Yaffa Eliach's allegations of a 1944 post-liberation pogrom in Eišiškės against Jews by the Polish Home Army as promoted in the american media and her book,^[6][7] as per Chodakiewicz Jewish bystanders were killed accidentally during an "anti-Soviet assault by the underground", and not in a pogrom. However, per Chodakiewicz "unfortunately, and quite typically, unlike the charges, the refutation received no publicity in the American media".^[8][9]

In April 2005, Chodakiewicz was appointed by President George W. Bush for a 5-year term to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Controversy erupted towards the end of his term over Chodakiewicz's claims in several publications that Polish nationalists who murdered Jews after the Holocaust, in events such as the Kielce pogrom, were not motivated by Antisemitism.^[10] Chodakiewicz appointment was criticized by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which noted publications by Chodakiewicz in far-right Polish publications.^[11] Historian Jan T. Gross said that "The guy is an ideologist of the radical right, I don't have any doubts that he's anti-Semitic."^[11][10][12] While Polish-Canadian historian Piotr Wróbel said that "he would never use a phrase or adjective that would clearly identify him as an anti-Semite", but "There is no doubt whatsoever that he doesn't like the Jews.".^[11] Chodakiewicz rejected the allegations as "baseless", and his term on the council ended in 2010.^[10]

Chodakiewicz specializes in East Central European history of the 19th and 20th century including the history of Poland, Habsburg and Romanov Empires, Jewish-Polish relations, environmental politics, intellectual conservative tradition, and extremist movements including Communism and Fascism. His special area of interest is World War II and its aftermath.^{[citation needed]}

Reviews

Reviewing The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, and After on the Jedwabne pogrom, Peter Stachura in a very positive review described the book as meticulous and well researched.^[13] In contrast, Joanna Michlic in her review writes that the book presents "intellectually and morally unacceptable interpretations", being part of a "ethno-nationalist historiography" trend that promotes "an image of Poland as only heroic, suffering, noble, and innocent".^[14] Piotr Wróbel in his review, says that Chodakiewicz's aim, as stated in the introduction, is to show Jan T. Gross is wrong. According Wróbel to "each of the chapters contains enough controversial material for a separate discussion", however he focuses on Chodakiewicz's analysis of Gross's work. Wróbel acknowledges that Chodakiewicz makes some good arguments, however they are "are overshadowed by numerous flaws" and the book lacks any sense of proportion. According the Wróbel, the book has a "visible political agenda" and is "difficult to read, unoriginal, irritating, and unconvincing".^[15]

Reviewing Intermarium: The Land between the Black and Baltic Seas, Karl A. Roider Jr. describes the main theme of the book as a struggle between the democratic Polish model and the Russian totalitarian model over the Intermarium which per Chodakiewicz's includes the Baltic States, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. While attempting to appeal to an American audience, the book demands the reader know quite a bit about Eastern European history. Much of the book focuses on the post-1989 Intermarium, describing a struggle between patriots and post-communist Russophiles. The Russophiles being described as "in cahoots with Western deconstructionists, feminists, environmentalists, gay rights advocates, nihilists, and postmodernists who are entrenched in American and Western European universities". According to Roider, "there are conspiracies everywhere in this book, but the author offers no names, no institutions, no objectives, and no strategies" other than undermining the Intermarium's return to the pre-1772 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Chodakiewicz calls for an alliance between the Eastern European countries to contain Russia, however according to Roider such a call is likely to fall on deaf ears as the United State's attention is focused elsewhere.^[16]

Criticism

Chodakiewicz's wrote a few books in response to works by Jan T. Gross. In 2017 His approach to the Holocaust has been criticized by Joanna Michlic a professor of Polish-Jewish history at Lehigh University as attempting to erase the "dark past" by showing only a "good past".^[17] Chodakiewicz's views on the attitudes of right-wing military units toward Jews in the wake of WWII in his 1997 book Tajne oblicze GL-AL i was called revisionist by Michlic. The book portrayed Communist military units as most involved in killing Jews, while right-wing militants were portrayed as more often sheltering Jews.^[18] According to Michlic, Chodakiewicz and fellow historians Tomasz Strzembosz and Bogdan Musiał treat the notion of Żydokomuna (Judeo-Communism) not as an antisemitic canard but rather an image rooted in historical reality, in which Jews were pro-Soviet and anti-Polish, basing their claims on primary wartime sources of various origins.^[19]

Chodakiewicz has been criticized for his reluctance to accept Polish responsibility for the Kielce pogrom.^[20] In particular, Chodakiewicz argues that Jewish-born Communist partisans and functionaries who killed Poles during Soviet occupation "contextualizes" if not justifies Polish violence against Jews. Comparing Chodakiewicz's writing to pseudo-scholarly screeds, Laurence Weinbaum writes that Chodakiewicz believes the scholars of antisemitism in Poland are advancing an anti-Western and anti-American agenda.^[21]

Chodakiewicz's work has been said to represent the "most extreme spectrum" in "contemporary mainstream ethnonationalist school of historical writing."^[22] Michael Fleming wrote that research of Andrzej Paczkowski has shown that the limited number of Jews that were part of the communist security apparatus, Chodakiewicz has been "promoting the stereotype" that such participation was much more commonplace.^[23] According to Michlic and Małgorzata Melchior, Chodakiewicz basis his view of modern Polish history on right-wing ethnonationalistic ideology originating in pre-1939 National Democracy movement and in conflict between ethnic Poles and Jews. In this, Chodakiewicz may have been the first post-communist historian who prioritizes conflict in relations between Poles and Jews and to use that conflict to justify anti-Jewish conflict in modern Poland.^[22]

Political activism

According to Hope not Hate, Chodakiewicz is a frequent commentator on right wing Polish media.^[10][24]

In July 2008, Chodakiewicz wrote that Barack Obama was once a Muslim, a radical, and associate of communists.^[11][25]

In 2014, Chodakiewicz spoke at a rally of the Ruch Narodowy party, saying "We want a Catholic Poland, not a Bolshevik one, not multicultural or gay!".^[10]

In July 2017, Chodakiewicz helped draft US President Donald Trump's speech delivered at Warsaw Uprising Monument, and traveled with the Presidential delegation.^[10][24][26]

In 2018, Chodakiewicz warned that the 50 year anniversary of March 1968 events would be used by American Jews to "launch another anti-Polish campaign of hatred". According to Chodakiewicz, contrary to popular view in the English speaking world viewing events through the prism of Antisemitism, March 1968 was a protest of Polish students against communist rule. Chodakiewicz suggested to counter the Jewish campaign by publicizing Pope John Paul II's accomplishments, explaining that a free and independent Poland is indispensable for peace and Europe, and finally by explaining that March 1968 was an anti-communist student rebellion while the purges were done by the communist party and not by Poles. According to Chodakiewicz, communists can not be Polish as communism is transnational.^{[27][28][29][30]}

Publications

• The Last Rising in the Eastern Borderlands: The Ejszyszki Epilogue in its Historical Context, 2002.
• Restytucja: The Problems of Property Restitution in Poland (1939-2001). 2003.
• Dr. C Witnesses Triumph of Feudalism in Moscow, 2004.
• The Warsaw Uprising, 1944: Perceptions and Reality, 2004.
• The Dialectics of Pain: The Interrogation Methods of the Communist Secret Police in Poland, 1944-1955, 2004
• Poland Divided: Spatial Differences in the June 2003 EU Accession Referendum, 2005.
• Review of Sowjetische Partisanen in Weißrußland, Sarmatian Review, April 2006

Books

• 1996 [1995]: Ciemnogród? O Prawicy i Lewicy [Hicksville? On the Right and Left] Ronin Publishers, ISBN 83-86445-00-9 Template:Pl icon.
• 1997: Zagrabiona pamięć: Wojna w Hiszpanii, 1936-39 [Expropriated Memory: War in Spain], wyd. Fronda, ISBN 83-907210-2-4 Template:Pl icon.
• 1997-1999: Co-editor: Tajne Oblicze: Dokumenty GL-AL i PPR, 1942-1945 [Secret Face: Documents of the Communist underground], 3 vols. Burchard Edition, ISBN 83-87654-03-5 Template:Pl icon.
• 1994, 1999: Narodowe Siły Zbrojne: „Ząb” przeciw dwu wrogom [National Armed Forces: „Ząb” against two enemies], wyd. WAMA, 2nd. ed. Fronda, ISBN 83-911097-1-2 Template:Pl icon.
• 2000: Żydzi i Polacy 1918-1955: Współistnienie, Zagłada, Komunizm [Jews and Poles 1918-1955: Coexistence, Holocaust, Communism], wyd. Fronda, ISBN 83-912541-8-6 Template:Pl icon.
• 2002: Editor: Ejszyszki. Kulisy zajść w Ejszyszkach: Epilog stosunków polsko-żydowskich na Kresach, 1944-45: Wspomnienia-dokumenty-publicystyka [Ejszyszki: The Background to events in Ejszyszki: The Epilogue of Polish-Jewish relations in the Borderlands], wyd. Fronda, ISBN 83-911063-3-0 Template:Pl icon.
• 2003: Co-editor: Spanish Carlism and Polish Nationalism: The Borderlands of Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Leopolis Press, ISBN 0-9679960-5-8.
• 2003: After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish Relations in the Wake of World War II, East European Monographs, ISBN 0-88033-511-4.
• 2003: Co-editor: Poland's Transformation: A Work in Progress, Leopolis Press, ISBN 0-9679960-2-3
• 2004: Co-editor: Ronald Reagan: Moja wizja Ameryki [My vision of America], Wydawnictwo Arwil, ISBN 83-919221-5-4 Template:Pl icon.
• 2004: Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939-1947, Lexington Books, ISBN 0-7391-0484-5.
• 2005: The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, After, Columbia University Press and East European Monographs, ISBN 0-88033-554-8.
• 2010: Co-editor, with Wojciech Jerzy Muszyński, Żeby Polska była polska: Antologia publicystyki konspiracyjnej podziemia narodowego 1939 – 1950 [So That Poland Remains Polish: An Anthology of the Polish Nationalist Underground Press] (Warsaw: IPN, 2010), ISBN 9788376292120.
• 2011: Co-editor, with Wojciech Jerzy Muszyński, Złote serca czy złote żniwa. Studia nad wojennymi losami Polaków i Żydów [Hearts of Gold or a Golden Harvest? Studies on the Wartime Fate of Poles and Jews] (Warsaw: The Facto, 2011), ISBN 9788361808053.
• 2012: Co-editor, with Wojciech Jerzy Muszynski and Pawel Styrna, Golden Harvest or Hearts of Gold? Studies on the Fate of Wartime Poles and Jews (Washington, DC: Leopolis Press), ISBN 0-9824888-1-5.
• 2012: Intermarium: The Land between the Black and Baltic Seas (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers), ISBN 978-1412847742.

Awards

• Richard Hofstadter Fellowship (1989-1994), Columbia University
• The Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland Research Grant (2001)
• 2003 Józef Mackiewicz Literary Award
• The Earhart Foundation Fellowship Research Grant (2004)

See also

• List of Poles

References

External links

• Marek Jan Chodakiewicz author page at Do Rzeczy magazine.
• After the Holocaust:Polish-Jewish Conflict in the Wake of World War II, The Sarmatian Review, January 2004 book review
• After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish Conflict in the Wake of World War II book review
• Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939-1947 book review
• Ordinary Terror: Communist and Nazi Occupation Policies in Jedwabne, 1939-1949 lecture
• The Massacre in Jedwabne, July 10, 1941: Before, During, After book review
• Whoever controls the past Discussion of Chodakiewicz' work in Haaretz.