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<b>How did you become interested in writing about interbellum Poland?</b>
The Second World War marks an enormous disjuncture in European history interbellum period was a fascinating age of experiments and this is particularly true in the case of Polandextremes. The Polish state recreated after World War II was in many ways totally different from radical right and radical left had not yet discredited themselves with the one which preceded it. <i>'''In contrast to its forbearcrimes of Nazism and Stalinism, and the new Poland was ethnically homogenous: it had no Jews, no Ukrainianspolitical horizon appeared to be wide open for all kinds of potential solutions to political, no Belarusianssocial, and no Germanseconomic problems. It had lost its aristocracyAdvocates of democracy, its political eliteauthoritarianism, and a good part of its intelligentsia. When I was growing up a drearyliberalism, gray and different world; a colorful and exotic worldsocialism, full of different peoplescommunism, ideasnationalism, perspectivesfascism, and possibilitiesother ideologies all vied for power in the multitude of small states created by the collapse empires following World War I. This early interest In Poland this debate played out very differently than in neighboring countries, especially Germany and the antebellum period has stayed with me until nowUSSR, and I wanted to understand why this was the case.'''</i>
[[File:Brykczynski-Paul-2016-g.jpg|thumbnail|250px|Paul Brykczanski]]