Poland's modern history

Flagging up the past

One of the great intellectuals of post-1989 Europe gives his verdict on what happened when the Berlin Wall fell and communism finally collapsed

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Do you mean back in those days the communist secret service officers didn't even have an allowance to offer Michnic a bier ?
And that coffee, - was it brewed from imported beans or from beans made in USSR ?


Adam Michnik then met with officers of the communist secret service for a coffee in a cafe na Rozdrożu and thanked them that they let him finish his studies in Poznań. Workers' Defence Committee was established by Antoni Macierewicz in 1976, later was invaded by the Trotskyists as Kuroń and Michnik.


Adam16 wrote: "I admire Michnik for not leaving a Poland and a have peacefull life somewhere else."

No clear what do you admire and why.

After being expelled from the university for his activities during 1968 Polish political crisis, Michnik was arrested and sentenced to three years imprisonment for “hooliganism”. In 1969, after his release under an amnesty he was forbidden to continue his studies which he evenually finished at the University of Poznań.

In 1976-77 Michnik actually lived in Paris but returned to Poland apparently attracted by the activity of Workers' Defence Committee (KOR). As one of the most active opposition activists from 1977 on, he co-edited underground newspapers such as „Biuletyn Informacyjny” and „Krytyka”. When martial law was declared in December 1981, he was interned and, when he refused to sign a ”loyalty oath” and agree to voluntarily leave the country, he was jailed and accused of an “attempt to overthrow socialism”. He was in jail without a verdict until 1984.

No much chance to have 'a peacefull life' somewhere else.

from Gdansk

Adam Michnik is certainly not totally stupid, on a good day he can even be very witty and entertaining. But only brainwashed imbeciles should read his verdict on Poland and Polish politics, in which he has been dabbling on various sides of various barricades since 1968, and probably much earlier. I mean Jerzy Urban also has a fairly good pen, but his opinions on Poland and Polish politics are totally worthless. Just as worthless as those of Jaruzelski and Kiszczak (the murderers of Polish hopes of self-redemption and of priests like Popiełuszko), whom Adam Michnik called "men of honour". Yeah, for all his charm, over the last 22 years, and even earlier, Michnik has proved time and again what he understands by the word "honour", himself of course being a "man of honour", too.


Exactly! I couldn't agree more. This reminded me about yet of another nasty character feature of the Poles: we the Poles will never get down to sleep as long as there's someone among us who is far better than the rest of us, we must destroy that person by hook or by crook and Michnik fell victim to this phenomenon. Another sin: antysemitism (oh yeah, I did notice your "(j)ewish" written with small print, it's our national specific peculiarity to detest our closest neighbours and the nation to which we have a very close affinity. Is not our history, partitions, diasporas, orthodox thinking, etc., very similar to the Jewish?).


Great example of so called "Polish Hell"... The more a man in Poland is succesfull and recognizable (especially abroad) the more critics he/she gets (including his family roots - especially jewish origin). I admire Michnik for not leaving a Poland and a have peacefull life somewhere else.


Philip Dick also wrote that Nazis, Japanese and Italians won WW2 (sic). By the way, please remember me to Zagłoba and Wołodyjowski, thanks.


All this reminds me about a couple of Soviet era jokes:

1. About Stalin's authority
Stalin was making a speech at the party's congress:
"Marx and Lenin stated that one plus one equals two, however, Trotsky and Bukhalin asserted that one plus one equals three. So who was right, Trotsky and Bukhalin or Marx and Lenin?
There can be no doubt that Marx and Lenin stated the truth! Therefore, Trotsky and Bukhalin are spies serving the imperialists ! What a pair of disgraceful traitors claiming that one plus one equals three!"

2. Are there any Soviet enemies?
At the 23th conference of the Soviet cоmmunist party, comrade Leonid was reading his report when he suddenly asked the audience:
"Are there any enemies among us?"
"Aye!" someone answered, "there is an enemy who is seated in seat #18, 4th column.
"That's amazing! Ho did you know?!"
"Because comrade Lenin once said that 'enemies never catnap', and I have found that he is the only one who doesn't feel sleepy in the meeting hall!"


Libertarianism is extremely prone to end up in complete anarchy, to which Polish society has always been biased. Stanisław Lem once remarked that whereas the Germans have natural tendency to fall victim to hysteria, in the same difficult social conditions the Poles would turn into anarchy. Libertarianism is one of those few terms that should be censored in Polish political jargon. All the '-isms', historical disputes, witch-hunts and so on should be stopped and everybody's attention given to some very urgent social readjustments of the country so as it could function properly in the XXI century. We're not in the discussion of today's problems, we are lost in yesterday, doing nothing to improve; David Czerny was one hundred percent right the way he depicted us in his famous installation at the beginning of Czech UE Presidency. Anarchy-prone, too much retrospective (down to the Middle Ages perhaps) and overindividualistic - these are the three main Polish sins; homework set by Czerny in his installation has not been done yet!

Jasiek w japonii

Both Bukhalin and Pol Pot are typical Jacobins, aren’t they? This guy doesn’t seem to understand the concept of the Nolan chart.

The most notable libertarian figure in Russia is Egor Gaidar. Only is it that his shock remedy was too hasty a plan to adopt to the economy while Mr Balcerowicz did very well in Poland to restore credibility of the zloty and thus the economy.

Some in here appear to be thinking of libertarianism as a sheer evil. No, in fact it is not. Only is it this stance requires some special socioeconomic conditions to be a right thought at both the right time and right place while a generally adoptable thought is moderatism instead. Mr Michnik, being a libertarian, obviously knows it, and hence he is no doubt a man of wisdom. In a way, he is a moderate in personal character while a libertarian in political stance. A great man indeed.

The Poles are lucky to have had those great people throughout the history, regardless of political stance, of whom I would always cite Rector Pawel Wlodkowic as the first of such Polish figures. But, the Polish society has often been wasting the wisdom!

Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On? is fully adoptable here. The Poles don’t need to escalate hate any more but conqure it.


Clausewitz11 wrote: 'Adam Michnik shares the same sense of libertarianism as Nikolai Bukharin and Pol Pot did'

Pol Pot a libertarian ? That's a new one ! How about another joke ?


Today's Poland has new problems and events from the 20th century are already very well described from different, manifold perspectives in history books. Get down to work, all you overnostalgic Poles!


"I belonged to the communists in the sixties. I will not conceal that we had something to do with trotskyism. I thought that communist Poland is my Poland." Adam Michnik to Daniel Cohn Bendit in 1988.

Jasiek w japonii

1. As Mr Michnik pursues personal freedom it is in a way natural that some misinterpret him as though he was a stubborn socialist or secret communist agent. As one could see on the Nolan chart both socialists and libertarians pursue personal freedom, and, obviously, he is not a Jacobin but an Edmund Burke.

2. Just because his brother may have been a Jacobin doesn’t mean he is a Jacobin.

3. By the way, a lot of people have chosen Jacobinism out of their pure goodwill. Only is it that Jacobins have static vies on economy, such that they often draw utterly unreal conclusions. Some, like Feliks Dzezinski from Poland, were so pure-minded that their strong senses of justice even adopted those unreal conclusions to the real world to often cause a horrible mess. One must distinguish their will from conclusions when he/she sees them, or he/she will also become either another Jacobin or a populist (i.e. a ‘Polish national pride’ supporter).

4. The political stance of libertarianism is based on the philosophy of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism also leads to neoclassical macroeconomics, which has been dominating mainstream economics for the last couple of decades only to eventually encourage the Wal☆Mart-style winner-takes-it-all form of free-market system and discourage capital accumulation within a catching-up economy like the Poland after 1989.

5. Libertarians like Mr Michnik can, however, remain powerful guardians of personal freedom as long as they are determined to stay away from macroeconomic policymaking, and this great Pole actually does so.


One may, or may not, agree with all interpretations or commentaries offered by any historian but Norman Davies is acknowledged as Britain's best known author for his "Europe: A History" and his "The Isles: A History". His definitive history of Poland, 'God's Playground' is unsurpassed as an English-language publication. And his 'Rising 44' is not just about Warsaw in 1944. There is a lot more there both before 1939 and after 1945.

He translated many verses and songs from Polish into English, for example, one which needs no expalnation and reads in Polish:
'Czekamy ciebie czerwona zarazo
Bys wybawila nas od czarnej smierci...'

In his translation:
'We're waiting for you, O scarlet plague
To save us all from the Black Death...'

Norman Davies is professor-emeritus of London University, a Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.


Copy the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) given by Clausewitz 11, sorry for omission.


Didomyk, copy this: into your internet browser and press 'enter'. After a split of a second you will see on your screen the very book which is meant, even in Polish translation. By the way, Standford's refusal to admit Davies does not necessarily mean that he isn't an excellent historian and writer, though I have some mixed feelings about his admiration for Poland when he is writing about its tragic and depressing history. Jan T. Gross makes sour reference to Davies's rather cheerful approach to the tragic Polish history by remarking in his "Neighbours" that Davies dubbed Poland as God's playground whereas this country better deserved a name of something opposite, like "A stomping ground of the devil"(p. 7). Noam Chomsky once said that when he was a young boy the very name of Poland functioned in his mind as synonymous to some terrible place from which one had to flee ("you always fled from Poland"). Michnik is neither oversensitive nor the only one when he is talking about these things. Things are not that rosy in Poland as many would wish them to be, and such matters like freedom, transparency of law, respect for human rights and tolerance are very much neglected or, at best, endangered. I'm grateful to Michnik that he is bold enough to say it out loud that all is not OK in Poland AD 2011.


Clauzewitz 11

By the way, that was a good joke but which Russian "historian", by the name of Nikolay Ivanov, did you mean ?

From Wikki:

Nikolay Ivanov (composer), movie music composer
Nikolay Ivanov (gymnast), Bulgarian acrobatic gymnast
Nikolay Ivanov (volleyball), Bulgarian volleyball player
Nikolay Iudovich Ivanov (1851–1919), Russian military commander and counter-revolutionary
Nikolai Petrovich Ivanov (born 1949), Soviet Russian Olympic rower
Nikolay Vasilyevich Ivanov (born 1980), Russian footballer
Nikolai Vladimirovich Ivanov (born 1964), Russian soccer referee



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