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The idealised world of communism

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Pre-election battle
Jacek Kuroń Social activist
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Let me tell you an anecdote going back to the beginning of my activity. Just before the elections, Jerzy Wiatr who's currently a professor, a learned specialist in politics and the main theorist on communism in Poland, was then an activist of the WICI MIKOŁAJCZYKOWSKIE. I got in with Zygmunt Paź, who was later an officer of the secret police for many years. He made a huge impression on me, he was a member of ZWM during the occupation and had been held in a camp. So I got myself in with him and followed him with a bucket of glue while he pasted up 'threes'. Somewhere along the way, we came across Jerzy Wiatr who was pasting up 'fours' as that was the number PSL had in Żolibórz. They had prepared one number for the whole country for the List of the Front, that's what they called it, in the Democratic Block which included PPR, PPS, SD, whereas the PSL lists varied from one region to the next to make it harder to spread mutual propaganda and in Żolibórz they had the number four. So Wiatr was going around pasting up these 'fours' while we crept up on him, Paź kicked him up the backside, and I pasted a 'three' over his 'four'. Wiatr said, 'I protest against this unparliamentary form of pre-election contest.' 'You can fuck off with your protest', said Paź and we carried on. But Wiatr, who seemed to be such a loser, dodged and weaved so that he could come out in a spot where all the WICIARZE had their meeting place. So suddenly, we found ourselves in the very heart, in the heart of darkness. They lunged at us, and we started to run, Paź broke free and would have got away except that I kept tripping on the pot of glue I was carrying because I didn't just chuck it away. Paź came back for me and so they gave him a kicking, they gave both of us a kicking and ended by sticking the pot of glue on Paź's head. My dealings with Wiatr don't end there because after unification of the organisation, he became a very important person in the regional government of ZMP, the director of the department of propaganda. He was well educated and was already a first-year student of the Academy of Political Sciences. In my eyes, he was an extraordinary political authority. Nevertheless, during the election conference, I asked him if it was true that he used to paste up 'fours'. He said it was true and then he lost the elections. He lost the elections, but by then it wasn't a time when those elections were respected all that much. He was still the director of the department of propaganda, and I had just started, it was Stalin's 70th anniversary birthday, it was '51. And now, my father's arguments - because I was still quarrelling with him fiercely - his arguments made a lot of sense to me. At the time I was reading Plekhanov's The Development of the Monist View of History where he debates the issue of the cult of an individual which was practised by the nationalists, and so I came to the conclusion that all this propaganda that we were generating for Stalin that it's a cult of the individual and I went to Wiatr with this. We spent the whole night talking and I remember that he convinced me because if somebody wants to be talked around, he will be.

Tu taka anegdotka z samych początków mojej działalności. Jak tuż przed samymi wyborami obecny profesor, uczony politolog już główny, czołowy teoretyk komunizmu w Polsce – Jerzy Wiatr, był wtedy działaczem Wici Mikołajczykowskich. Ja się wprosiłem do takiego Zygmunta Pazia, który potem był funkcjonariuszem Służby Bezpieczeństwa, bardzo, lata całe. I on tam niesłychanie mi imponował, w czasie okupacji był ZWM-owcem, w obozie był. Otóż wprosiłem się, niosłem klej za nim, a on chodził i rozlepiał "trójki". Gdzieś tam żeśmy przydybali samotnego Jerzego Wiatra, który przylepiał "czwórki", bo taki numerek na Żoliborzu miało PSL, bo oni w całym kraju zrobili jeden numer dla listy Frontu, jak to się nazywało? Dla Bloku Demokratycznego, bo tam był PPR, PPS, SD, a listy PSL w różnych okręgach były inne, żeby utrudnić wspólną propagandę. Na Żoliborzu oni akurat "czwórki" mieli. No i szedł Wiatr, rozwieszał te "czwórki", myśmy do niego podchodzili, Paź go kopał w dupę, ja zaklejałem tę "trójkę" na "czwórkę". Wiatr mówił: "Ja protestuję przeciwko nieparlamentarnym formom walki przed wyborczej". "Ja ci, kurwa twoja mać, poprotestuję" – mówił Paź i tak żeśmy szli. Ale Wiatr zdawałoby się taki ofiara, tak cynkował, cynkował żeby wyjść na takie miejsce na trzeciej kolonii chyba, gdzie się wszyscy ci "wiciarze" zbierali. No i myśmy się nagle znaleźli w samym sercu, w samym tym jądrze ciemności. Runęli do nas, zaczęliśmy uciekać, Paź się wysforował, uciekłby tylko, że ten kubeł od kleju mnie się oczepiał o nogi, nie rzuciłem go po prostu. Paź wrócił po mnie, no i oni złapali Pazia, skopali mnie i jego, a jemu jeszcze ten kubeł z klejem włożyli na głowę. A z Wiatrem miałem potem jeszcze dalsze rachunki, bo po zjednoczeniu organizacji, on został bardzo ważną figurą w zarządzie dzielnicowym ZMP, kierownikiem wydziału propagandy. Człowiek kształcony, już wtedy był na pierwszym roku Akademii Nauk Politycznych. Dla mnie był niesłychanym autorytetem politycznym. Niemniej na konferencji wyborczej zapytałem go, czy to prawda, że rozklejał te "czwórki". On powiedział, że prawda i przepadł w wyborach. Przepadł w wyborach, ale to już... ale to nie był czas, w którym te wybory zanadto szanowano, on tym kierownikiem wydziału propagandy był dalej, a ja zacząłem akurat, to było 70-lecie urodzin Stalina, to był 1951 rok. I tu argumentacja mojego ojca, bo cały czas toczyłem z nim te zażarte spory, ta argumentacja mojego ojca do mnie docierała. Ja czytałem wtedy Plechanowa Przyczynek demonistycznego pojmowania dziejów, gdzie jest właśnie polemika z kultem jednostki, którą uprawiali narodnicy i ja doszedłem do wniosku, że ta cała propaganda, którą żeśmy robili, którą Stalina żeśmy robili to jest kult jednostki i poszedłem z tym do Wiatra. Całą noc żeśmy rozmawiali, pamiętam, przekonał mnie, no bo jak człowiek chce się dać przekonać, to się przekona.

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: Wici Mikołaczykowskie, ZWM, PSL, Żolibórz, List of the Front, Democratic Block, PPR, PPS, SD:ZMP, Academy of Political Sciences, Developement of the Monist View of History, Jerzy Wiatr, Zygmunt Paź, Georgi Plekhanor, Stalin

Duration: 3 minutes, 31 seconds

Date story recorded: 1987

Date story went live: 12 June 2008