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The dissolution of KOR

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My views on Yalta
Jacek Kuroń Social activist
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I only turn my attention to Yalta when I'm asked about it because essentially, it's about the attitude towards the West. The truth is that they gave us to the Soviet Union, they presented us to them, they used us to pay for the cost of the war but it was the great powers who were settling the accounts in order, as they saw it, to establish eternal peace here on earth - some peace. There is no peace and we can see just how peaceful things are. They therefore gave what the Soviet Union had taken for itself anyway and these words aren't mine. By this, the western governments betrayed their own principles, but they were the ones who did this, not I. Personally, I believe that others can only help us as far as we help ourselves. I have this Polish attitude of an activist, and that is why I don't like to talk about it.

Ja Jałtą zajmuję się tylko wtedy, kiedy mnie o nią pytają, dlatego że jest to sprawa stosunku do Zachodu przecież w ostatecznym rachunku. Prawda jest taka, że dali nas Związkowi, podarowali nas Związkowi Radzieckiemu, zapłacili nami w kosztach za wojnę, ale w rozliczeniu kosztów wielkich mocarstw i dlatego, jak im się wydawało, by ustanowić wieczny pokój na ziemi, taki spokój. Spokoju nie ma, a spokojnie wiadomo jak jest. Natomiast dali to, co Związek Radziecki sam sobie wziął, i słowa nie są wcale moje, i tym samym rządy państw zachodnich sprzeniewierzyły się sobie, ale to one się sprzeniewierzyły, nie ja. Ja oczywiście wierzę, że tyle nam mogą inni pomóc, ile my sobie sami pomożemy. I jestem... mam taki nadwiślański światopogląd aktywistyczny i dlatego nie lubię o tym mówić.

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: Yalta, Soviet Union, West

Duration: 1 minute, 5 seconds

Date story recorded: 1987

Date story went live: 12 June 2008