Culture and science in Polish–Belgian relations from the 1940s to the 1970s in the light of the latest archival research

Abstract

The article presents the results of preliminary research on cultural and scientific relations between Poland and Belgium, heavily conditioned by the ongoing struggle between the Eastern Bloc and the West, from the 1940s to the 1970s. As the survey shows, cultural and scientific exchange between the two countries was very limited in the period of Stalinism but flourished in the 1970s. The analysis was based on sources from the Archives of Modern Records and the Archives of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw as well as the Archives of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brussels.