Talk:Leszek Kołakowski

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'fascist/marxist/deconstructionist thinking' - are they indistinguishable? 213.202.182.58

Citizenship

He is in the category British people of Polish descent. Did he hold British citizenship? If not, the cat should not be on this article. Correct & improve (talk) 23:29, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

Don't delete the cat but do find the citation. Given that we know he lived and worked in Oxford for 40 years he would be a default naturalized British citizen, by law. It only takes 5 years of residence to become a citizen, and up until 2004 I think the rule was 10 years. Besides Kolakowski was a dissident from Poland, so it is likely he was stripped of Polish citizenship and would have needed a British passport to travel between the UK and US. But that is a tangential point - passport ownership is not the legal definition of citizenship.Chumchum7 (talk) 10:41, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

St. George Medal?

Surely we're talking about a George Medal (GM) ? Whoever added 'St. George Medal' (there is no such thing) please double-check and correct.Chumchum7 (talk) 10:41, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

I've worked it out - its the Medal świętego Jerzego from Poland, not a St. George of England medal. Maybe we should use the Polish term instead, as the English translation suggest its an English award.Chumchum7 (talk) 12:44, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

A fundamental question, Leszek KoLakowski or Leszek KoI(upper capital)akowski??

His name is (all upper capitals) LESZEK KOLAKOWSKI or (all upper capitals) LESZEK KOIAKOWSKI? or both are correct? I searched for 4 English books, and its front pages all are KOLAKOWSKI.

K M (talk) 22:56, 20 March 2014 (UTC)

I am Polish, and am in a position to assure you that his name is Leszek Kołakowski (the third letter in the surname is a crossed "l"; when the name is written in all capitals, this of course becomes a crossed "L"). It is not uncommon to drop Polish diacritical marks from proper names when writing in other languages: this was especially common in the olden days, when printed or typewritten text had to use a fixed set of characters. That is why you can find a normal "l" or "L" on some book covers, in various references etc. However, the correct version of the name has the crossed "l" (which is actually pronounced quite differently: not as "l", but as "w" in "way").

(Feliks 18:18, 21 March 2014 (UTC)} — Preceding unsigned comment added by FeliksK (talk • contribs)

That's excellent!! 32 alphabets? That's interesting, and no one say anything and tell us anything about this in Hong Kong. You may need to add some of your content into the article, haha. So, do you need to ask the publisher change a bit on the letter of those books? And also the library searching system....... Ok, that's good, I'm comfortable to further add content from BBC..... (but sadly they use the l and L only, they don't like cross in that name, but ok on their union jack flag....)

K M (talk) 00:22, 23 March 2014 (UTC)

Another question, just curious, how can you know this entry of Talk page? I suppose no one will answer me forever. K M (talk) 11:05, 23 March 2014 (UTC)

Addition

The article has no background on Kołakowski's early time as a communist, but then this sentence was recently added, "As an armed communist, Kołakowski along with the Russian NKVD and Polish KBW he confiscated from the Polish farmers their property. Those farmers who opposed were either imprisoned or killed." The current source for this assertion is a youtube video in Polish. Per WP:V & WP:DUE, if one infers in the Wikipedia article that Kołakowski was killing other Poles with the NKVD, what secondary written sources are there concerning this? How do other secondary sources describe Kołakowski's early time as a communist? Why doesn't this assertion show up in the Polish version of Kołakowski's Wikipedia bio? Evenrød (talk) 19:57, 17 April 2014 (UTC)

Yes there does seem to be a few gaps in his CV. For not only is there no or little background on Kołakowski's early time as a 'communist', but no reason is put forward as to why the giving a public lecture at Warsaw University led to his expulsion from the Polish United Workers Party?

92.16.147.133 (talk) 20:17, 17 August 2014 (UTC)

Kolakowski didn't go to school, because of the German occupation?

The biography section states, "Owing to the German occupation of Poland (1939-1945) in World War II, he did not go to school but read books and took occasional private lessons..." If he was born on 11. October 1927, then he was not quite 12 when the Germans invaded. Assuming that Polish schools took children at age 5 or 6, as most schools in contemporary countries did, if Kolakowski didn't attend school, it had nothing to do with the German invasion, until September 1939. Can anyone offer a clarification of this detail? Did his family hold him out of school? Or, did he attend the same classes or grades as any other Polish child of his age would have, but once the Germans invaded, he couldn't complete his education? Because otherwise, this makes no sense. Best regardsTheBaron0530 (talk) 15:44, 21 February 2017 (UTC)theBaron0530

According to German Wikipedia, he went to the Catholic Skorupka school in Lodz --GinoBartali (talk) 12:34, 26 April 2017 (UTC)