Rozważania autorów opierają się na tezie, zgodnie z którą współczesny kapitalizm oparty jest na kondycji ponowoczesności z kulturowego punktu widzenia. Postmodernizm ukształtował się w tym samym czasie co kapitalizm konsumpcyjny. Wewnętrzna sprzeczność neoliberalnego kapitalizmu polega na zbyt dużej podaży w stosunku do popytu. Rozwiązaniem problemu stała się kultura konsumencka oparta na postmodernistycznych podstawach. Konsumpcja jest utożsamiana przez zwolenników neoliberalnego kapitalizmu z wolnością wyboru, kształtowaniem własnej tożsamości i równością konsumentów. Socjologia odnosi się krytycznie do tego dyskursu wskazując, że konsumpcja stanowi podstawę dla rozwoju współczesnego kapitalizmu. W związku z tym postmodernizm należy uważać za prąd kulturowy wspierający właścicieli kapitału a nie wolność i kreatywność jednostki. Konsumenci podlegają manipulacji w celu zachęcenia ich do praktykowania kultury konsumenckiej. W ten sposób czas wolny staje się czasem konsumpcji a jednostka realizuje się jako konsument, co nie przynosi jednak trwałego zadowolenia. Przepracowani ludzie kupują coraz więcej nietrwałych i podlegających częstym zmianom produktów. Konsumpcja jest wyznacznikiem samooceny jednostki oraz jej statusu społecznego, dlatego ludzie współzawodniczą między sobą poprzez wzmożoną konsumpcję. W rezultacie pogarsza się jakość relacji międzyludzkich co skutkuje pogorszeniem stanu psychicznego społeczeństw państw kapitalistycznych. Zakres artykułu obejmuje także współczesny kryzys gospodarczy i finansowy od 2008 r. Konsumpcja na kredyt zapoczątkowała współczesny kryzys gospodarczy i finansowy poprzez niewypłacalność relatywnie ubogich Amerykanów zachęconych do zaciągania kredytów hipotecznych. Autorzy dochodzą do wniosku, że w obecnej kryzysowej sytuacji możliwości konsumpcyjne będą ograniczone a w związku z tym sens życia człowieka nie może się ograniczać do konsumpcji a ludzie powinni być świadomi skali manipulacji jakiej podlegają. Słowa kluczowe: czas wolny, konsumpcjonizm, kapitalizm konsumpcyjny, postmodernizm, świątynie konsumpcji, kryzys zadłużenia.

The authors' considerations are based on the hypothesis that contemporary capitalism is not the recreation of 19 th century free market capitalism but an ideological system supporting mainly the interests of multinational companies. The neoliberal agenda is based also on cultural foundations and peoples' economic choices are influenced by cultural factors. The overarching logic of neoliberal capitalism boils down to profit maximization and consumption. When this logic was internalized by people, they became unconscious followers of the rules imposed upon them by capital owners. According to neoliberal ideology, corporate culture should to be applied to every domain of personal and social life. Interpersonal relations and marriage have become commodified as well. As a result, the state of mental health of the population has worsened and people have failed to achieve lasting satisfaction. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate from sociological point of view in what way neoliberal values pervade numerous domains of both social and personal life bringing about negative consequences.

International Responsibility of the Soviet Union for its Illegal Actions against Poland between 1939 and 1945SummaryThe author of the paper comes to a conclusion that many actions concerning Poland taken by the Soviet Union during The Second World War constituted an abuse of power. The Soviet U nion invaded Poland and illegally occupied its Eastern territories until 1945. As a result of the aggression, hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers and citizens were killed or persecuted.At the end of The Second W orld W ar decisions concerning Poland were taken at inter-Allied conferences w ithout Poland’s participation. The Great Powers decided to deprive Poland of its Eastern territories against the will of the Polish Government-in-exile, which was legal at that time. W hat is more, Poland was not a signatory of the Jalta and Potsdam agreements. Therefore, the decisions referring to Polish Eastern border should be invalidAs far as the problem of a new Polish government is concerned, it is necessary to stress that according to international law a change of a government in a particular state should take place w ithout any external interference. Nevertheless, the Soviet U nion decided to create a new government for Poland to replace the legal government-in-exile. As a consequence, the Provisional Government of National Unity was created., It consisted mostly of communists who were dependent on the Soviet Union. Many o f them were Soviet spies. They were able to gain power only as a result of the Soviet military intervention in Poland. The government did not represent Polish society and was created against its will. The Soviet U nion did not have the right to impose this sort of government on Poland.The problem of reconciliation between Poland and Russia is also approached in the paper. During the Second World War Polish state and its citizens suffered great losses. Neither the Soviet U nion nor Russia has ever assumed responsibility for the Soviet U nion’s illegal actions against Poland and its citizens between 1939 and 1945. In such circumstances any sort of reconciliation cannot take place.

THE LEGALITY OF THE YALTA AND POTSDAM LEGAL ORDER FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW Summary The Yalta and Potsdam agreements of 1945 created the so-called “new peaceful order” in Europe. The agreements contained three sorts of provisions. The provisions concerning solely the Great Three were legal. The clauses referring to the WW II aggressors were legal as well. However, the provisions referring to third countries which were not aggressors were null and void. Smaller states were forced to confirm the decisions of the Great Three. The problem is that only an aggressor can be forced to sign a treaty. In other cases the use of force causes invalidity of the treaty. In consequence, the Axis powers were punished lawfully whereas Poland lost its eastern territories unlawfully. Finland and Romania were qualified as aggressors, but in fact the Soviet Union acquired their territories first in 1940 as a result of an aggression and the threat of force. Every attempt at opposing the will of the Great Three was quashed. For instance, Polish government-in-exile was deprived of its effectiveness as it opposed the clauses mandating the loss of Polish Eastern territories. The Great Three were in breach of law in case of several provisions. They were not able to fully adhere to international law as one of the aggressors (the Soviet Union) participated in the creation of the post-war legal order. Therefore, the justice was nor fully served as the Soviet Union was not punished for its aggressions of 1939-1940. The consequences of the partially unlawful decisions of the Great Three linger even today causing international tensions particularly in Central and Eastern Europe.

This paper claims that the assessment of the eastern EU enlargement depends on the adopted theoretical perspective. The practitioners of critical approaches in sociology claim that mainstream approaches to European integration suffer from neglect. Critical thinkers provide an alternative account of European integration claiming that it can be conceptualized as enforcement mechanism for the spread of neoliberal capitalism. The eastern EU enlargement should be analyzed on the basis of world-systems theory and post-colonial theory. From this point of view, the post-communist political, social and economic transformations based on the neoliberal economic theory have produced mixed results. Specifically, economic neoliberalism is a flawed economic theory that demonstrated its weakness in the post-2008 period. Transnational capital exploited EU spaces to force a neoliberal agenda on the candidate states by way of conditionality. Narrow sectoral interests took precedence over economic rationality and social policy goals. Hence, the relative failure of post-communist transformations in such domains as: EU cohesion policy, unstable democracies, or demography undermining future economic growth prospects. Moreover, the multidimensional crisis initiated by forcing the neoliberal agenda on the candidate states has initiated adverse social and political developments on EU-wide scale in such domains as antiimmigration backlash and the ascendancy of far-right political parties.