Showing results by author "Andrew Kavchak" in All Categories

Dying Echoes: Memoirs of the War 1914-1920 by Stanisław Kawczak was first published in Poland in 1936 (Milknące Echa: Wspomnienia z Wojny 1914-1920). It tells the story and experiences of a young Polish conscript in the Austrian army who fought during WWI wearing the Austrian uniform against the Russian army on the Eastern Front and the Italian army on the Southern Front. Kawczak began his military career as a corporal, and was promoted to officer cadet, lieutenant, and finally captain. From the beginning of the war his heart was in the struggle for Polish independence and the defeat of ...

On 23 August 1939 Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty with a secret protocol that delineated their respective spheres of influence over the territory between them. On 1 September 1939 Nazi Germany launched WWII by invading Poland from the West. On 17 September the Soviet Union invaded from the East. Over 200,000 Polish soldiers were captured by the Red Army. About 15,000 military officers, policemen, and border guards were segregated and interned in three camps: Starobelsk, Kozelsk, and Ostashkov. On 5 March 1940 NKVD Chief Beria provided Stalin with a proposal ...

On 23 August 1939 Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty. As part of their agreement, secret protocols delineated their respective spheres of influence over the territory between them. On 1 September 1939 Nazi Germany launched the Second World War by invading Poland from the West. On 17 September the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the East. The two totalitarian powers split Poland between them. Approximately 250,000 Polish soldiers were captured by the Red Army. About 15,000 military officers, police officers and border guards were segregated and interned in ...

Adam was a boy who was affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Intellectual Disability Disorder (IDD). Despite his limitations, Adam’s parents did their best to have him engage in fun activities that would enhance his quality of life and enable him to acquire new skills. Adam had relatively good gross motor skills and learned to ride a bicycle, skate, and cross-country ski. However, his parents thought there were many activities he would never be able to do, including driving a car, playing team sports, and downhill skiing. Then one day Adam’s parents met a representative of the ...

Andrew Kavchak dreamt of being a "Paperback Writer" since he first heard the Beatles’ song on the radio back in the sixties. After spending years at his workstation drafting bureaucratic material, he retired from his career as a federal civil servant and finally had the time to adopt a new hobby. Between 2019 and 2024, Andrew wrote and self-published over twenty books using the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform. His books are available on Amazon’s websites. Most of the books were published under his name. He used pseudonyms for the others. The books are mostly non-fiction. Some of...

On September 5, 1945, just three days after the Japanese surrendered and WWII ended, Igor Gouzenko walked out of the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa and blew the lid off a Soviet spy ring that had penetrated the Canadian government. The espionage network also extended to the U.S. and the U.K. and included the first of the atom bomb spies to be exposed and caught. Igor Gouzenko’s defection woke up the Western allies to the nature and extent of Stalin’s covert activities against them. The repercussions were dramatic and affected national security and international relations for decades. Although...

The Soviet national hockey team began to dominate international hockey from its first appearance at the World Championships in 1954 when it won the gold medal. The World Championships and Olympics hockey tournaments were restricted to amateur players and Canadian professionals were ineligible to play. In 1969 Canada withdrew from international competition in a dispute over player eligibility with international hockey authorities. In September 1972 the Soviet national team played a series of eight games against a team of Canadian NHL professionals known as Team Canada. The “Summit Series...

Andrew Kavchak was 13 when his divorced parents sent him in 1976 from Montreal, Canada, to attend Westminster School in London, UK. Westminster is one of Britain’s oldest and most prestigious boarding schools. Closely linked to the Abbey, its origins go back almost 1000 years to a school run by Benedictine monks. Since the time of Henry VIII, Westminster has had a special relationship with the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Andrew’s parents expected him to spend his adolescence living at the school and then pursue his education at “Oxbridge”. Things did not turn out that way....

Parents of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have spent over two decades lobbying for the federal Government of Canada to get involved in the autism file. The federal Government routinely ignored the pleas for help. However, on May 10, 2022, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences provided the federal Government with a report on autism that is expected to be used as a reference upon which the Government will develop a first-ever National Autism Strategy. Will the Government develop and implement a National Autism Strategy that will be a meaningful one and have a ...

Michael Kavchak enjoyed playing games. One day his father decided to teach him how to play chess. Michael liked the game. They played it every day. It did not take long before Michael started challenging his dad at the chessboard. Michael’s father took him to observe a few scholastic chess tournaments to see if he would be interested in participating. The tournaments were run by the Chess’N Math Association, Canada’s national scholastic chess organization. Eventually, Michael expressed a desire to participate and compete. After competing in a few tournaments Michael demonstrated that ...

Andrzej (Andrew) Stanisław Kawczak was born in Poland in the mid-1920s. After the war, Andrzej studied and practiced law. However, he preferred to pursue an academic career in philosophy and obtained a doctorate from the University of Warsaw in 1960, specializing in logic. In 1960 he obtained a Ford Foundation scholarship to study at Columbia University in New York City. After twenty years of living under Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism, he and his wife opted to stay in the West. In 1961 he obtained a position as a professor of philosophy at Loyola College in Montreal. It was a position ...

Students who wish to learn about the Holocaust face a daunting task. Thousands of books have been written about the Holocaust since the end of World War II. Where to begin? A Guide to 75 Selected Holocaust History Books is a guide for students (both young and old) interested in learning about the Holocaust. The book begins with the author’s essay about his Holocaust education. The subsequent chapters provide an overview of the history of the Holocaust followed by a discussion of seventy-five selected books and their authors that shed some light on Holocaust history and key subjects ...

In September 1972 the Soviet national hockey team played a series of eight games against a team of Canadian NHL professionals known as Team Canada. The “Summit Series” was the first ever contest between the best hockey players of both countries and was intended to settle the question of who was better. The first four games were in Canada and the last four games were in Moscow. Many Canadian sportswriters predicted an easy Canadian victory in the series. However, the Soviets won the first game on September 2 by a score of 7-3. Team Canada had its hands full. By the fifth game, Team ...

When Andrew Kavchak’s younger son was diagnosed with autism, he expected that Canada’s public health insurance system would cover the cost of treatment. It didn’t. The medical and scientific communities have known since the 1980s that the application of Intensive Behaviour Intervention (IBI) treatment based on the principles of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is effective and evidence-based treatment for autism. Yet, in the province of Ontario and across the country, such autism treatment programs are most often administered by the departments of social services and not paid for by ...

Bullying among school-age children can take several forms. One common form involves making fun of another person’s name. Such bullying is familiar to members of minority or ethnic groups with family names that are a challenge for others to pronounce. Victims of taunting name-calling and corresponding humiliation may complain to a teacher hoping that they will teach the bully (or bullies) a lesson. But what can a student do when the teacher is the bully? This short story is based on a true story about how a new student at an exclusive private boys’ school never forgot the abuse he ...

This is a story about a father taking his disabled son on a walk to a Lebanese bakery to get a meat pie for his son and having an unexpected experience. On the way, the family’s history and experiences over the years raising their son with profound autism are recounted and provide the context that made the unexpected experience even more special. Lebanese Meat Pies and Santa Claus also provides an exposé of the challenges faced by parents of children who are severely affected by autism. Despite the lack of public resources and the consequent marginalization of the disabled in society, ...