This virtual program is part of our Winter Speaker Series, and will be presented on Zoom. A Zoom link will be emailed to all current SCHS members before the program.

Anna Mazurkiewicz, historian and deputy dean at University of Gdańsk, Poland, will discuss her recent book “A Man in the Room Where It Happened: The Cold War Odyssey of William J. Tonesk.” Bill Tonesk was a Polish-American Schenectadian who served in the US Intelligence service (CIA) during the Cold War. Mazurkiewicz will unveil Tonesk’s role in some of the pivotal moments in US-Polish relations, uncovering a narrative of passionate love, risk, glamor, and secrecy.  She will also examine how support from Polish American organizations was instrumental in Tonesk’s success.