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Stalinism at the teacher training college
Jacek Kuroń Social activist
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Poszedłem pracować na WSP gdzie, jakie to śmieszne, zobaczyłem stalinizm w całym wymiarze i po dziś dzień się zastanawiam, dlaczego tam dopiero zobaczyłem ten stalinizm. Myślę jednak, że on był nie jednakowy. Znaczy myślę sobie, że jest to jak zawsze i jak wszędzie, niezależnie od systemu, o wszystkim decydują ludzie. I to na pewno znaczy tyle, że człowieka nic z odpowiedzialności nie zwalnia, że on się po ludzku zachowuje, że on się tak zachowuje, jak się zachowuje, ponosi za to całą odpowiedzialność i może się w każdych warunkach zachowywać. Ja sobie myślę, że jednak takiego stalinizmu, jaki był na Wyższej Szkole Pedagogicznej, ja z takim nigdy przedtem nie miałem do czynienia, mimo że byłem w tym aparacie i działałem, i aktywizowałem, i w ogóle.

I started working at the teacher training college where, it's funny really, I saw Stalinism in all its completeness, and to this day, I wonder why I only saw it there. I think, though, that it wasn't uniform. It's like this with everything and everywhere, no matter what system we live in, people decide about everything. What this means is that nothing absolves us from responsibility. If a person is behaving decently, or whatever way he's behaving, he takes full responsibility for this and can behave in all circumstances. But I think that the kind of Stalinism that existed at the teacher training college was a kind that I'd never come across before even though I was a member of the governing body and was active and mobilised others to be active, too.

The late Polish activist, Jacek Kuroń (1934-2004), had an influential but turbulent political career, helping transform the political landscape of Poland. He was expelled from the communist party, arrested and incarcerated. He was also instrumental in setting up the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR) and later became a Minister of Labour and Social Policy.

Listeners: Marcel Łoziński Jacek Petrycki

Film director Marcel Łoziński was born in Paris in 1940. He graduated from the Film Directing Department of the National School of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź in 1971. In 1994, he was nominated for an American Academy Award and a European Film Academy Award for the documentary, 89 mm from Europe. Since 1995, he has been a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Art and Science awarding Oscars. He lectured at the FEMIS film school and the School of Polish Culture of Warsaw University. He ran documentary film workshops in Marseilles. Marcel Łoziński currently lectures at Andrzej Wajda’s Master School for Film Directors. He also runs the Dragon Forum, a European documentary film workshop.

Cinematographer Jacek Petrycki was born in Poznań, Poland in 1948. He has worked extensively in Poland and throughout the world. His credits include, for Agniezka Holland, Provincial Actors (1979), Europe, Europe (1990), Shot in the Heart (2001) and Julie Walking Home (2002), for Krysztof Kieslowski numerous short films including Camera Buff (1980) and No End (1985). Other credits include Journey to the Sun (1998), directed by Jesim Ustaoglu, which won the Golden Camera 300 award at the International Film Camera Festival, Shooters (2000) and The Valley (1999), both directed by Dan Reed, Unforgiving (1993) and Betrayed (1995) by Clive Gordon both of which won the BAFTA for best factual photography. Jacek Petrycki is also a teacher and a filmmaker.

Tags: Teacher Training College

Duration: 1 minute

Date story recorded: 1987

Date story went live: 12 June 2008