Official Blog of the Author

A Latvian edition of my book, Katyń, was launched in Riga last Thursday (April 7) before national media and an overflow audience at the Museum of the Occupation.  The kick-off was hosted by the Polish Embassy in Latvia and by my publisher Zvaigzne ABC.   Zvaigzne, which means Star in Latvian, it is the country’s largest book publisher.

(NOTE: See photos in my website’s gallery section under “Latvian Launch.”  A video clip of the event is being posted as well.)

Though it was much smaller and is often overlooked, Latvia had its own Katyń.  In 1941, 1100 Latvian army officers were arrested by the Soviets under the pretense of a training exercise.  Two hundred were shot and 560 were deported to Siberia.  Only 90 survived the war.  Stalin ordered the mass deportation of Latvians in 1941 and 1949.  Tensions on these issues linger still: a Russian language newspaper in Latvia wrote that the launch was “sponsored by Russophobes.”  In fact, my book is quite sympathetic to the Russian people and points out that they suffered most of all under Stalin.

The book launch took place one year to the day after the historic meeting in Katyn Forest between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.  I was the only American in the official delegation that accompanied Tusk.  I was invited to go back three days later on the presidential plane that crashed in early morning fog at Smolensk.  I declined the invitation because of responsibilities I had in organizing a 70^th anniversary observance of the Katyn Massacre on May 5 at the Library of Congress.

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Research on a novel I expect to finish later this year has taken me to the origins of the Amber Trail on the Baltic Coast of Poland near Gdansk.

Man has searched for amber since prehistoric times and the road to the greatest source began in Pruszcz where small amber caravans from Rome came each year in mid-summer.  The journey was perilous because once traders passed Carnuntum, a fortified Roman army camp on the Danube, they entered Barbaricum and the domain of fierce tribes who demanded tribute.  Traders traveled in groups of about ten using horse or ox carts.  There were no roads, but the last leg of the journey – from north of Krakow to the coast – followed the Vistula River by boat.  The overall journey was more than 2000 miles and took about six months.

To commemorate the trail and its history, a first century AD fort and settlement called Faktoria are being built in Pruszcz.  I visited the site and met the archaeologist in charge of the project.  Agnieszka Ruta is an expert in documenting settlement remains, particularly in urban areas.  It was exciting to see how her vision has taken shape on the ground: from the massive watchtower at the entrance to her sprawling fort, to the sharpened longs that form its palisades.  Huts inside replicate where amber-makers and blacksmiths would have worked and lived.  Tasks performed by blacksmiths were crucial to survival, according to Ruta; they made weapons for defense and the tools needed plant and grow crops. Read more