For the past several years, our Happy Holidays from Around the World feature has helped you welcome cultural traditions from Washington's embassies into your homes. Based on that success, we're delighted to announce a companion project, Great Reads from Around the World, launching October 15.
Our team has been reaching out to ambassadors and their staffs for recommendations on books from prominent authors in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry from their countries. Some authors you may know, others will be new to you. Each will offer a window into a country through its classic or modern literature.
Learn more, and nominate a great read for inclusion, on our website.
Contact us with any questions.
“The House Un-American Activities Committee produced last night documentary evidence and testimony under oath that the Polish Embassy here has been a nest of spies.”
So begins an article in The Washington Post on April 24, 1949, which detailed the documents provided to the U.S. government by General Izyador Rudolf Modelski, described as a “former embassy official whose appointment backfired on Poland’s Communist regime.”
Unlike the birdhouse at the nearby Lithuanian Embassy, the “nest” wasn’t an architectural feature but an accusation that “at least two espionage networks” were operating out of the building at 2640 Sixteenth Street NW, one allegedly specializing in atomic secrets and the other allegedly “branching into Canada and Mexico.”
It was a decade after the controversial House committee was formed, ostensibly to to investigate Communist and fascist organizations that had become active during the Great Depression. Critics claimed the committee was a partisan tool aimed at discrediting the progressive New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which established the Civilians Conservation Corps, the Works Progress Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and a slew of other programs that rescued the country from the economic impact of the Great Depression, but also dramatically enlarged the federal government.
By 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee was notorious for its series of high-profile hearings that alleged an ambitious campaign in which Communists had infiltrated government schools, Hollywood, and most areas of life deemed to be particularly American. Future President Richard Nixon (“I am not a crook”) was a prominent member of the Committee. In October of that year, ten Hollywood screenwriters and directors refused to cooperate with the Committee’s interrogations, openly challenged the legitimacy of the Committee, and were jailed and blacklisted.
It was a period of such rampant fear-mongering and panic that it had its own name – The Red Scare - and along with classic artwork, a Steinway piano, and a heart encased in bronze, helped define the history of Washington’s oldest embassy.Read Nest of Spies on Diplomatica.
Diplomatica's Embassy Calendar is a curated list of events happening at, or organized by, embassies, cultural centers, ambassadors' residences, and other diplomatic properties in Washington, D.C., and online.
Monday, October 7, 6:30 - 8:30pm.
Discover bunraku, the art of Japanese Puppet Theatre, with a lecture and demonstration with the National Bunraku Theatre and Dr. Jyana Browne at the Japan Information & Culture Center.
Tuesday, October 8, 6:30 - 8:30pm. Celebrate
Hispanic Heritage Month with Munir Hachemi, Javier Adrada de la Torre, and Katie King in From Words to Worlds: A Unique Translation Slam at the Embassy of Spain's Spanish Cultural Center. (Learn more about the Spain Cultural Center in our Diplomatica profile, The Inside-Out Residence.)
Reader favorite and Diplomatica advisor Luis Angel will be returning for another quartet of tango lessons for absolute beginners at the Embassy of Uruquay in October. These popular classes sell out very quickly, so don't delay. (Learn more about the history of tango and Luis Angel in our Diplomatica profile, Born in a River.)
Monday, October 14, 2024, 7:00 - 9:00 PM Join the Embassy of Austria for theAtalante Quartett in concert at the Austrian Embassy. The musicians pay tribute to the great Austrian composer Anton Bruckner’s 200th birthday with their program “1824 – Bruckner’s Schubert.”
Friday, October 18, 5:30-8pm - Explore the complexity of US politics with the Caribbean mindset of freedom and democracy at the Embassy of Guyana.
Tuesday, October 22, 1pm-6:30pm - Join the Green Transition Initiative, Embassy of Sweden and the World Resources Institute for the Green Transition Summit at the House of Sweden. (Learn more about how the House of Sweden is a new model of diplomacy in our Diplomatica profile, As Diplomacy Changes, So Must Its Architecture.)
Do you have an event you'd like to have considered for Embassy Calendar? Please get in touch. Note: embassies cannot pay to have their event featured.
