The uprising erupted August 1, 1944, and lasted 63 days. During the fierce uprising, the insurgents, many of whom were poorly-armed teenagers, organized the postal service. Some 250,000 civilians were killed in the revolt, which was waged in the hope of liberating the capital from the Nazis. The revolt was crushed, the survivors were deported to concentration camps and the city was razed.

The museum bought the collection of some 123 letters and postcards last month at an auction in Düsseldorf, Germany. It paid $280,000 for the mail, written by Warsaw residents and youthful insurgents during the revolt, and bearing unique uprising-era stamps. The museum made a public showing of the mail on March 19.

Warsaw (PMN)—Celebrations of the events of March 8, 1968, included a debate at the Warsaw University and a special ceremony at one of Warsaw’s train stations to remember those who were forced to emigrate from Poland 40 years ago.

Communist authorities in Poland banned the performance of "Dziady," a play by Adam Mickiewicz, in January, 1968, calling it anti-Russian and anti-socialist. Intellectual and student protests followed.

On March 8, 1968, a 1500-strong student demonstration at Warsaw University was attacked by the authorities, but the idea of mass protests spread, and other cities, including Krakow, Lublin, Gliwice, Wroclaw, Gdansk, Poznan and Lodz held their own rallies. The communists organized workers and militia to attack the protesters.

Later, the communists blamed the "revolt" on Zionists, which led to an anti-Jewish campaign resulting in the expulsion of about 20,000 Polish Jews, who lost their jobs and were forced to emigrate.

Marking the occasion, President Lech Kaczynski visited Warsaw University to pay tribute to participants of the demonstrations crushed by the communist militia. A number of exhibitions in the memory of March, 1968, were held across the country.

At a solemn ceremony, Kaczynski granted Polish citizenship to fourteen person expelled from the country in 1968, as a symbolic sign to those who would like to have their citizenship rights returned. According to present regulations, all they need to do is file a letter saying that they will accept Polish citizenship.

Former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski was quoted at the website of his Law and Justice (PiS) party that Poles should not be allowed to vote online because the internet attracts people who watch "pornography while sipping a bottle of beer."

Poland's election commission is considering proposals such as allowing people to vote online to boost turnout. Kaczynski and other leaders of his conservative party have said they wanted to rejuvenate their ranks and reach out to internet users after losing power last October, when younger voters flocked to their centre-right rivals. They, nevertheless, are willing to insult the voters they seek.

Although claiming to want votes via the Internet, Kaczynski added that internet users are "the easiest group to manipulate, to suggest who to vote for." Kaczynski, who does not have either a cell phone or a bank account, admits his party has not been successful in recent efforts to attract younger supporters.

In February, party officials caused chuckles among the fans of "The Matrix" franchise by comparing Kaczynski’s successor Donald Tusk to Neo, the movie’s hero pursued by evil Agent Smith and his look-alikes.

Kaczynski ruled Poland with his twin brother Lech, the President. Since leaving office he had unsuccessfully sought to retain his secret service agents because he feared being mistaken for his brother. A lifelong bachelor, he lives with his mother.

Warsaw (PMN)—Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on March 18, 2008, that Poland may hold a referendum on whether to ratify the Lisbon Treaty, the European Union’s proposed constitution, if the conservative opposition Law and Justice Party (PiS) blocks the ratification by parliament. He added, though, that the government will do all it can for the Lisbon Treaty to be ratified.

Tusk criticized Poland's President Lech Kaczynski for a TV address, saying that the president was "joining an anti-European argument." Kaczynski had said, "Not everything in the EU is good for Poland." Tusk countered that "The Lisbon Treaty offers real chances to strengthen Poland's position in the EU."

A Polish referendum on the treaty, which was signed last year aimed at streamlining EU decision making, could result in calls for such votes across the EU’s membership, slowing the charter’s approval and risk failure to be unanimously approved by all 27 members. Ireland is the only member state currently due to hold a public vote on the treaty.

The treaty needs a two-thirds majority to pass both houses of the Polish parliament, but ex-Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s PiS party has said the existing ratification bill does not guarantee Poland’s exemption from the treaty’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. It fears the charter could allow homosexual marriage in Poland and pave the way for Germans to sue Poles for property lost after World War II.

Tusk answered Kaczynski, saying, "Threatening Poles that the EU poses a danger on the part of homosexuals and Germans is foolish, indecent, contrary to our elementary interests and experiences and very harmful to Poland as regards its image."

Recent surveys show the vast majority of Poles are in favor of the treaty.

Warsaw and London (PMN)—A New Yorker and his male partner are challenging Polish President Lech Kaczynski to a meeting after becoming unwilling "poster boys" in a campaign against the European Union’s proposed charter of rights. Kaczynski showed images of Brendan Fay’s wedding to Thomas Moulton in a televised address to his nation on March 17, 2008, in which he gave warning that the Lisbon treaty’s proposed Charter of Fundamental Rights could legalize same-sex marriage in Poland.

The Polish leader screened a brief video clip of the men getting married in Canada in 2003 after the province of Ontario legalized gay marriage. He also showed their wedding certificate.

Fay, 49, a documentary filmmaker, and Moulton, 50, a pediatric oncologist, were shocked to find themselves caught up in the controversy when they were inundated with calls from the Polish media. "It came totally and utterly out of the blue. I was looking forward to a quiet Holy Week, to be honest," Fay told The Times of London. He accused Kaczynski, generally regarded as a homophobe, of "demeaning and insulting … in a way that dishonored the love and commitment of others like us around the world."

Fay sent a formal protest to the Polish Consul General in New York. "We are frustrated to hear that images from such a joyous day are used to spread intolerance … We would never have agreed to permit our photographs as part of a homophobic campaign," he wrote.

The Consul General agreed to meet the pair the following week. Fay also went on Polish television to stress that he and his partner were Catholics who met at Sunday Mass.

London (PMN)—In a The Times review by Christopher Clark of Adam Zamoyski’s new book, "Warsaw 1920: Lenin's Failed Conquest of Europe," the critic stated, "European history has a habit of forgetting Poland. This is unfortunate, because the Poles have more than once played a crucial role in shaping Europe’s fortunes."

Clark explained that In 1683, the Polish king Jan III Sobieski checked the Ottoman armies before the gates of Vienna, earning among the Turks the sobriquet "Lion of Lechistan". And in 1920, as Adam Zamoyski relates in his book, it was Poland that checked the westward expansion of Bolshevik Russia.

"Stalin never forgave the Poles for the bitter resistance of 1920, a fact that may help to account for the brutality of the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland in 1940, when army officers, priests, landowners, doctors, veterinary surgeons and other members of the national intelligentsia were subjected to a campaign of extermination," stated Clark.

Recounting the facts in Zamoyski’s book, the reviewer wrote, "Few of the commanders, Russian or Polish, who played a role in 1920 died peacefully in their beds - most were caught up in the machinery of terror. And even as they recalled the cavalry movements of the 17th century, the engagements of 1920 also anticipated a new world of mobile warfare, in which battles would be won by deep thrusts and pincer movements - not by horsemen, of course, but by a new generation of mobile armor."