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Irena Maryniak
is a writer and translator living in London. She is the author of Spirit of the Totem (Modern Humanities Research Association, 1995), a survey of mythological and religious ideas in Russian fiction published in the two decades leading up to the collapse of the Soviet Union. She has written and translated numerous articles on culture and society in Russia and eastern Europe. In the 1980s and 1990s, she worked for Cambridge University Press and taught Russian literature at the Universities of London and Wales. Between 1996 and 2004, she was based in Budapest, Hungary, as Eastern Europe Editor of Index on Censorship.
Eurozine Articles
The edge of the volcano
Forced labour is widespread in Europe. But until policy makers recognize the need to manage the demand for migrant workers, there will continue to be a market for those prepared to risk exploitation. [more]
The Polish plumber and the image game
The Polish plumber is a cliché throughout Europe, which even the Polish tourist board has made use of. However, in the UK the joke veils a growing resentment towards workers from the new EU states. [more]
Cities of migration
How do outsiders negotiate the new urban space in which they arrive? How do they make it their own? [more]
And now for something completely different?
Polish journalists are adept at self-censorship. Not that they would call it that; more a question of not washing dirty linen in Euro-waters and keeping up the self-image. [more]
Aids in Russia
Ignorance, exclusion and denial
The Russian government remains quiet on the country's Aids epidemic. [more]
Forging the social contract
The rule of law is no substitute for the bonds of friendship. [more]
Goodbye Solidarity
... and Welcome to Poland's New Breed Democrats
Irena Maryniak describes Poland's new breed of democrats as europhobic, catholic-backed, warm and xenophobic, glowing from their unexpected triumph at the polls. [more]