Vladimir Krajina

Vladimir Krajina PDF Author: Jan Drabek
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781553801474
Category : Botanists
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Literary Nonfiction. Biography. In 1939 the botanist Vladimir Krajina joined the Czech Resistance and quickly became one of its leaders. Incredible escapes from the Gestapo followed while some 20,000 radio messages were sent by his group to London, among them those about the pending invasion of the Balkans and of the Soviet Union. As the strongest anti-Communist Party's general secretary he escaped from the country on skis after the Communist takeover. Personally thanked for his wartime effort by Winston Churchill, Krajina came to the University of British Columbia where as a professor of botany he battled the forest barons and their practice of clear-cutting and slash burning. He then turned his attention to saving pristine areas of the province, earning the title of father of the Ecological Reserve Program, since replicated throughout Canada. As a Companion of the Order of Canada, he returned triumphantly to Prague in 1990 to receive the Order of the White Lion, the highest Czechoslovak award, from President Vaclav Havel. Krajina died peacefully in Vancouver in 1992 as one of those happy individuals who had achieved practically everything they had set out to do in life.

Vladimir Krajina

Vladimir Krajina PDF Author: Jan Drabek
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781553801474
Category : Botanists
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Literary Nonfiction. Biography. In 1939 the botanist Vladimir Krajina joined the Czech Resistance and quickly became one of its leaders. Incredible escapes from the Gestapo followed while some 20,000 radio messages were sent by his group to London, among them those about the pending invasion of the Balkans and of the Soviet Union. As the strongest anti-Communist Party's general secretary he escaped from the country on skis after the Communist takeover. Personally thanked for his wartime effort by Winston Churchill, Krajina came to the University of British Columbia where as a professor of botany he battled the forest barons and their practice of clear-cutting and slash burning. He then turned his attention to saving pristine areas of the province, earning the title of father of the Ecological Reserve Program, since replicated throughout Canada. As a Companion of the Order of Canada, he returned triumphantly to Prague in 1990 to receive the Order of the White Lion, the highest Czechoslovak award, from President Vaclav Havel. Krajina died peacefully in Vancouver in 1992 as one of those happy individuals who had achieved practically everything they had set out to do in life.

The Hurricane Pilot Who Became a Gestapo Agent

The Hurricane Pilot Who Became a Gestapo Agent PDF Author: M J Morgan
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1399035630
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
Tucked away in the archives of the Museum for Transport and Technology in Berlin is an old photograph of a Hawker Hurricane on public display. The image must have been taken before the night of 23/24 November 1943, when the museum and the greater part of its collection – including the Hurricane – were destroyed in a RAF bombing raid. The aircraft in the photograph bore a squadron commander’s pennant under the cockpit, had broken propellor blades and carried the squadron markings PA-A on its fuselage, as well as the serial number W9147. Intrigued by what he had seen, the picture launched the author on an investigation that uncovered an incredible story of wartime treachery and betrayal. That tale concerns one man in particular – Augustin Přeučil. Also known to his family and friends as Gustav Přeučil, it was Augustin who had been the Hurricane’s last RAF pilot. A 26-year-old aviator from Czechoslovakia, on first appearances Přeučil had fled his homeland after Nazi Germany took control and created the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia – part of Hitler’s Greater Germany. Having initially traveled to Poland, he then escaped to France and, from there, ultimately reached Britain, where he joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve. Augustin Přeučil seemed to be just like many of the men who had arrived in the UK to continue the fight against Hitler. He appeared to be settled and even married an English girl in July 1941. But on 18 September of that year, he was posted missing, believed killed, while undertaking a training flight off the coast of Sunderland and Hartlepool. Přeučil’s body was never recovered and nothing more was heard of him. His young wife received a war widow’s pension; he was just another sad statistic of the war. However, Augustin Přeučil was far from dead. Having landed the ‘stolen’ Hurricane near Bastogne in Belgium, he was treated by local people as a downed Allied pilot, sheltered and then passed into the care of the local Resistance group. Přeučil repaid their trust by handing himself into the Gestapo – and revealing all he knew. The Gestapo’s response was swift and brutal. For Přeučil, this marked the start of a new career as an undercover agent for the Gestapo, principally in Czechoslovakia. As the author reveals, how he ended up serving Hitler’s Third Reich and betraying his homeland, his adopted country and a new wife, is a story that while strange is completely true. It is also one that ended with his death. Found guilty of High Treason, Přeučil was hanged by the Czech authorities in April 1947.

The Birds of British Columbia

The Birds of British Columbia PDF Author: Robert Wayne Campbell
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774806184
Category : Birds
Languages : en
Pages : 542

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Book Description
This is the first volume in a 4-volume set, which is the culmination of two decades of research and writing. For the first time, the natural history, migration patterns, habitat requirements, reproductive biology, and distribution of the province's birdlife are combined in one publication. This is a reprint of the original volume published in 1990 by the Royal British Columbia Museum and the Canadian Wildlife Service. No changes or updates in content have been made from the original edition.

Passion and Persistence

Passion and Persistence PDF Author: Diane Pinch
Publisher: Harbour Publishing
ISBN: 1550178822
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Social unrest, political activism, worry about human impact on this earth—sound familiar? In 1969, British Columbians were facing concerns that are still making headlines today. At the end of a decade of changing technological and political landscapes associated with draft dodgers, hippie flower power and the rise of the counterculture, a group of serious-minded citizens created Sierra Club BC to protect and preserve wild places in the province. From that moment, Sierra Club BC played an important role in many of the environmental issues in the province, from the protection of the Nitinat Triangle and the West Coast Trail in 1972; to the 1993 War in the Woods, the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history; to a twenty-year campaign that culminated in protection of the Great Bear Rainforest; to the ongoing opposition to the Site C Dam and the Trans Mountain pipeline. In fifty years, the club has helped to convince governments on both sides of the political spectrum to protect 15 per cent of BC’s land base and just over 3 percent of BC’s marine areas from development. Still active today, Sierra Club BC has thousands of members, volunteers and supporters, all working to protect the province’s wild areas and confront climate change. Diane Pinch’s non-fiction homage to Sierra Club BC provides an overview of the lasting impact the group has had, not only in BC, but in all of Canada. Replete with first-hand accounts, maps and photos, the book is a heartfelt in-depth look at environmentalism in Western Canada through the years, from the perspective of one of the most influential groups in operation. Sierra Club BC’s philosophy of “passion and persistence” and commitment to science-based evidence and peaceful activism have given the club its incredible staying power.

On the Edge of the Cold War

On the Edge of the Cold War PDF Author: Igor Lukes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199939144
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
In 1945, both the U.S. State Department and U.S. Intelligence saw Czechoslovakia as the master key to the balance of power in Europe and as a chessboard for the power-game between East and West. Washington believed that the political scene in Prague was the best available indicator of whether the United States would be able to coexist with Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union. In this book, Igor Lukes illuminates the end of World War II and the early stages of the Cold War in Prague, showing why the United States failed to prevent Czechoslovakia from being absorbed into the Soviet bloc. He draws on documents from archives in the United States and the Czech Republic, on the testimonies of high ranking officers who served in the U.S. Embassy from 1945 to 1948, and on unpublished manuscripts, diaries, and memoirs. Exploiting this wealth of evidence, Lukes paints a critical portrait of Ambassador Laurence Steinhardt. He shows that Steinhardt's groundless optimism caused Washington to ignore clear signs that democracy in Czechoslovakia was in trouble. Although U.S. Intelligence officials who served in Prague were committed to the mission of gathering information and protecting democracy, they were defeated by the Czech and Soviet clandestine services that proved to be more shrewd, innovative, and eager to win. Indeed, Lukes reveals that a key American officer may have been turned by the Russians. For all these reasons, when the Communists moved to impose their dictatorship, the U.S. Embassy and its CIA section were unprepared and powerless. The fall of Czechoslovakia in 1948 helped deepen Cold War tensions for decades to come. Vividly written and filled with colorful portraits of the key participants, On the Edge of the Cold War offers an authoritative account of this key foreign policy debacle.

European and British Commonwealth Series

European and British Commonwealth Series PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 550

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Book Description


Interwoven Wild

Interwoven Wild PDF Author: Don Gayton
Publisher: Thistledown Press
ISBN: 1897235356
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Interwoven Wild: An Ecologist Loose In the Garden begins with an intimate look at Don Gayton in his BC garden with his dog Spud. Striking a series of premises - the first one being that gardening is essentially an irrational act - he logically and humorously begins to unravel the work and rituals of gardening. Engaging the reader with real gardening experiences, Gayton takes us on the microscopic steps of a gardening season and his interest in ecological succession. While commenting on the inter-reliance of species, types of soil, why weeds invade, how foreign planets appear, insects, disease and frost, he also speculates on gardeners -- their needs to landscape, to purchase specialized tools, to use chemicals, to emotionally bond with trees, shrubs, flowers and vegetables. The "back story" of Interwoven Wild is much more universal. In it Gayton uses his experiences as a working field ecologist to place the garden in the larger context of our present natural world. By interlocking artists such as Monet and Caravaggio; writers such as Walt Whitman, Thoreau, Emily Dickenson, and Ann Dowden; park designer Frederick Law Olmstead, and landscape architect Christopher Alexander, Gayton reminds us that the garden has long held sway in the creative consciousness. His brief excursions into history, whether tracing the apple back to Kazakhstan, explaining how the tulip made its way from Turkey to Holland, or how the industrialist Baylock's introduction of a smuggled Asian cherry tree destroyed the BC cherry orchids fascinate as well as instruct. For Gayton, the garden is a primordial human urge -- a gift, celebration, and revelation buried in human psyche, marked in our collective mythologies --a kind of magical glue binding world culture, science and economics.

The Real Thing

The Real Thing PDF Author: Briony Penn
Publisher: Rocky Mountain Books Ltd
ISBN: 1771600705
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 640

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Book Description
A biography of Canadian biologist, educator, and conservationist Ian McTaggart-Cowan.

Talk and Log

Talk and Log PDF Author: Jeremy Wilson
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774806680
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
For more than three decades, the fate of British Columbia’s old-growth forests has been a major source of political strife. While more than 5 million hectares of wood were being clearcut, the BC wilderness movement and forest industry supporters clashed, as they continue to do, both pressing their arguments in a variety of forums, ranging from television studios and logging road blockades to royal commission hearings and cabinet ministers’ offices. The resulting record of conflict confirms American historian Paul Hirt’s characterization of forest policy as "party an ideological issue, partly biological, partly economic, partly technical, and wholly political." Talk and Log is a comprehensive account of the rise and impact of the BC wilderness movement between 1965 and 1996. Jeremy Wilson examines the evolution of the movement’s approaches, evaluates the forest industry’s counterstrategies, and analyzes the patterns and trends underlying shifts in provincial government forest, environment, and parks policies. He describes the "war in the woods" triggered by environmentalists’ efforts to preserve areas such as South Moresby and the Carmanah Valley, and considers the complex forces that pushed the government to expand the protected areas system. Wilson’s perceptive analysis of Social Credit’s failed policies of the 1980s is followed by an assessment of the Harcourt NDP government’s reform iniatives, including the Commission on Resources and Environment (CORE) and the Forest Practices Code. Talk and Log is based on a variety of sources, including government documents, environmental group briefs, and interviews with several dozen politicians, government officials, environmentalists, and forest industry leaders. This book deftly illuminates the forces behind controversies that have divided British Columbians and drawn the attention of people around the world. It is also a thought-provoking examination of issues likely to dominate political debates in BC for decades to come.

East Central European Migrations During the Cold War

East Central European Migrations During the Cold War PDF Author: Anna Mazurkiewicz
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110610639
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 478

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Book Description
"An extremely useful and much needed survey. Over eleven chapters, authors from eight countries cover the complex history of migration from the perspective of Central and Eastern Europe between 1945 and 1993. Following in the footsteps of Klaus Bade’s Encyclopedia of European Migrations, the authors make extensive use of sources in national languages, while providing an extensive overview of population movements in the region between the Baltic, Black, and Adriatic Seas. The individual chapters shed light on phenomena overlooked in other volumes, including individual state reactions to various migratory phenomenon, and the political, economic, and ideological consequences of human movement. The chapters of this volume are uniform not only in their informative nature, but also in suggesting new pathways for in-depth research." Adam Walaszek, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland "Eastern Europe is an emblematic space of mobility and its Cold War history cannot be told without considering migration from and into the countries of the region. This volume comes at a timely moment and provides a uniquely comprehensive account, full with useful information for further research. It will be a must-read both for migration studies scholars and for area specialists." Ulf Brunnbauer, Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg, Germany "The Handbook is a gift to students of migration on three counts. It gathers the expertise of scholars fluent in the languages – and familiar with the archives – of Eastern and Central Europe. Thus it brings the multi-layered and complex histories of movement beyond the flat descriptor of "Soviet bloc" or Eastern European migrations. The Handbook is both rich and lucid, presenting in-depth materials on the European twentieth-century, on one hand, and organizing each chapter in a similar way, offering the reader transparently comparable histories. From Estonia south to Albania, and from the USSR west to the GDR, each chapter elucidates a complex migration history distinguished by national politics, ethnic composition, and economics – moving from the cataclysmic impacts of World War II to the international migrations and politics of Cold War movement, as well as the politics of Cold War emigrants themselves. Each chapter ends with an epilogue on post-1989 international migrations and a valuable addendum on published and archival sources. Finally, the Handbook models the kind of high quality work produced by international scholarly cooperation at its best." Leslie Page Moch, Michigan State University Table of contents Introduction (Anna Mazurkiewicz) Albania (Agata Domachowska) Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (Pauli Heikkilä) Bulgaria (Detelina Dineva) Czechoslovakia (Michael Cude and Ellen Paul) Germany (Bethany Hicks) Hungary (Katalin Kádár Lynn) Poland (Sławomir Łukasiewicz) Romania (Beatrice Scutaru) Ukraine (Anna Fiń) USSR (Alexey Antoshin) Yugoslavia (Brigitte Le Normand)