Home view Andrew Nagorski
Andrew Nagorski, fot. Andrey Rudakov
Andrew Nagorski, photography by Andrey Rudakov

Andrew Nagorski was born in 1947 in Edinburg. His parents had moved there after the outbreak of the Second World War. One year later, the Nagorskis moved to the US, where Andrew’s father took up journalism and wrote about Poland and Europe, and then worked as a diplomat. The Nagorskis lived in such cities as Cairo and Seoul. Andrew Nagorski came back to the US to commence studying History at Amherst College. In 1968 he was also studying at the Jagiellonian University, where he met his future wife, Krystyna.

After graduation Andrew Nagorski became a history teacher in Wayland High School, near Boston. In the 1970s he began an internship and then he was employed as a journalist at “Newsweek”. In 1978 he became a “Newsweek” correspondent in Hong Kong. He was also the chief editor of the Asian region of “Newsweek International” and then he became the chief of the “Newsweek” bureau in Hong Kong. At the beginning of the 1980s he became the chief of the “Newsweek” Moscow bureau. In 1982, he was expelled from the Soviet Union for his journalist work criticizing the Kremlin’s policy. Afterwards he moved to Rome and Bonn, where he was the chief of Newsweek bureaus.

In 1988, Andrew Nagorski took a break from journalism to work as a consultant at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank promoting cooperation between countries and involvement of the US in international politics. At the beginning of the 1990s he came back to work for Newsweek. He moved to Warsaw where he worked at a branch office. In 1995, he came back to the Newsweek Moscow office. Between 1996 and 1999 he worked in Germany, describing and analysing the German reality after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Starting from 2000 Andrew Nagorski was the editor at „Newsweek International” and has been working on local versions of the magazine. At the time, „Newsweek Arabic”, „Newsweek Polska”, „Newsweek Russia” and „Newsweek Argentina” were created.

Between 2008–2014 Andrew Nagorski was the vice-president of the EastWest Institute, an international affairs think tank. He was also teaching foreign affairs journalism at Bard Colleges Center for Globalization and International Affairs. Andrew Nagorski is chairman of the board of the Polish-American Freedom Foundation, and a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and the Overseas Press Club.

In 2009, the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Radosław Sikorski, decorated Andrew Nagorski with the Bene Merito award for his work as a journalist back in the 1980s and informing the world about the “Solidarity” movement. In 2011, Andrew Nagorski received the Order of Polonia Restituta from the former Polish president, Bronisław Komorowski. In 2014, he received the „Lech Wałęsa Media Award” from one of the “Solidarity” leaders, Lech Wałęsa. For his newspaper reports he received three awards from Overseas Press Club.

Andrew Nagorski is the author of the following historical books and newspaper reports: „Reluctant Farewell: An American Reporter’s Candid Look Inside the Soviet Union”; „The Birth of Freedom: Shaping Lives and Societies in the New Eastern Europe”; „Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power”, „The Nazi Hunters” and a novel titled „Last Stop Vienna”.

Now Andrew Nagorski lives in St. Augustine, Florida. He still travels, writes and comments for such newspapers as: „The Washington Times”, „Politico”, „Reuters”, „The Wall Street Journal” or „The Huffington Post”.

 


Interviewed by Edi Pyrek in 2011.



interview excerpts
a.nagorski 1mini
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A path to the editor’s position
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a.nagorski 2mini
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Polish traditions and the knowledge about Poland
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a.nagorski 3mini
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Relation with the emigration
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a.nagorski 4mini
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Two identities and several languages
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a.nagorski 5mini
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Studies at the Jagiellonian University
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a.nagorski 5mini
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Emmigration guidelines
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