Eminentoes/The General's Big Mouth
Mead, Gary
E M I N E N T O E S THE GENERAL'S BIG MOUTH When General Wojciech Jaruzelski spoke to the Polish nation on December 13, 1981, he promised that martial law would restore order to society and...
...But the edges have become very blurred indeed...
...He is someone who likes to enrage, who sees a trend and goes against it, whatever it is...
...In the early 1960s he managed to offend a close friend of Gomulka, who decreed that Urban should become a non-person...
...u Urban was born in the industrial city of Lodz in 1933, the son of upper-middle-class Jewish parents...
...On the other hand all those who were wrong cannot be considered reliable even if they had the most noble intentions...
...The only difference between the youthful carousing Urban and the corpulent dandy of today is that Urban is no longer at the mercy of the authorities—he is one of them, with his own direct telephone link to Jaruzelski...
...In a Warsaw cafe after Solidarity was formally legalized, he was overheard to say, "I can either be a swine or I can be stupid...
...His credibility intact, Urban is now an isolated figure within Polish journalism, accepted only by the few third-rate polemicists who litter the official press with poorly written distortions of the truth...
...Not only that...
...Urban concluded very early on in the struggle that Solidarity would never be permitted to survive intact and he was clearly not going to be caught on the wrong side this time around...
...But his inclination to be a maverick was not the only deciding factor...
...The only ripple on this otherwise stagnant pool is Jerzy Urban, the man whose task it is to explain and justify the actions of the regime to the world...
...He is no doubt the best man for the job...
...By 1955 he was co-editing an interesting weekly magazine, Po Prostu, which had been set up by a group of youthful socialists dissatisfied with the dilatory dismantling of Stalinist controls over social, political, and cultural life...
...A short step away from might is right, and then the slippery slope to Goebbels's clap-trap: "We're winning, therefore we must be correct...
...I personify this hatred...
...But in early 1981, Stanislaw Kania, the then Party leader, hired Urban as press spokesman to take advantage of his prodigious skills as a propagandist...
...Jan Rem became a familiar figure in the Polish press, particularly in the columns of the leading Party weekly, Polityka, where his vituperative style lashed out at any trendy notion...
...The only difference between the youthful carousing Urban and the corpulent dandy of today is that Urban is no longer at the mercy of the authorities—he is one of them, with his own direct telephone link to Jaruzelski...
...Therefore I am reliable as a journalist...
...For years Urban had craved the opportunity to pour scorn on all those he regarded as his inferiors, but as a journalist he could be dismissed as little more than an occasionally amusing eccentric...
...His credibility intact, Urban is now an isolated figure within Polish journalism, accepted only by the few third-rate polemicists who litter the official press with poorly written distortions of the truth...
...The Military Council of National Salvation (as the regime initially styled itself) was composed of Jaruzelski clones: enigmatic, colorless senior officers who shone only when TV lights glinted on their medals...
...A short step away from might is right, and then the slippery slope to Goebbels's clap-trap: "We're winning, therefore we must be correct...
...His penchant for grotesque practical jokes will have urged them on their way...
...Urban, who is addicted to the printed word and especially his own byline, responded by adopting yet another alias, "Jan Rem...
...Is he genuinely a supporter of Communism...
...It's a task he has taken to with relish, handling it with some sophistication and a large helping of sophistry...
...But even at that relatively early stage Urban's Jekyll and Hyde character was in evidence...
...This level of duplicity is deeply attractive to Urban, who revels in the aura of sinister connections in powerful places...
...i. here was little doubt which way Urban would jump when Solidarity arrived...
...Thinking it to be no more than an eccentric whim of Urban, the journalist handed over his pass...
...i. here was little doubt which way Urban would jump when Solidarity arrived...
...A month before the murder of Father Popieluszko last October, Jan Rem wrote in a highly pro-Jaruzelski literary weekly, Til i Teraz, that "seances of hatred are organized in Father Popieluszko's church...
...The dislike of my person, as a government spokesman, comes from people who hate the government and its policy," he has said...
...Fikus says that Urban is "very intelligent, very dangerous, and very cynical...
...Not only that...
...After a few years, the authorities forced it to close, seeing in it the seeds of dangerous ideological deviation...
...His credibility is based on his being "right," and that question-begging assumption means in turn that he is "reliable...
...On the other hand all those who were wrong cannot be considered reliable even if they had the most noble intentions...
...That, plus a life-long determination to be on the winning team, has elevated Jerzy Urban into the government ranks...
...The profoundly dangerous illogicality of this argument is apparent even to a philosophical novice: Urban said that Solidarity was counterrevolutionary, martial law was imposed only because that threat to the state existed, therefore Urban was right...
...of "Kampuchile" (a term coined by one of Poland's best journalists, Stefan Bratkowski) the civilian replacements for the Military Council have simply supervised the decline, and they haven't an ounce more charisma than their predecessors...
...As for the economy . . . One thing Jaruzelski never promised was that he would staff his regime with charismatic personalities, and he has not disappointed...
...Naturally, Urban does not accept that his servility toward the regime has destroyed his credibility...
...This delights him...
...The list of enemies is tediously long: the Catholic Church, Solidarity, Western journalists based in Poland, Western governments, numerous fellow journalists who attacked the regime from the start, even his own daughter (whom he described, following her marriage to a Solidarity official, as "that fat ugly girl...
...What sets the adrenalin spurting in Urban, certainly the most complex and perhaps the most intelligent member of the regime, is the opportunity for mischief, the chance that he may, with a few well-chosen words, irritate and offend his enemies...
...They can regain their credibility if they revalue their attitudes and draw conclusions from the defeat of their illusions and mistaken convictions...
...Credibility, you see, is a quality acquired through being on the winning side...
...27 tenure as press spokesman is the masochistic amusement he derives from being universally abhorred, rather as a fairground freak might take some comfort from the awed disgust he evokes in the curious...
...Most of his previous colleagues of any note have decided that Urban's notion of credibility is not to their taste, and along with resigning from their posts on officially backed publications have lost touch with Urban...
...Ur-ban's dalliance with Po Prostu was the first in a series of political errors which he has taken years to recover from...
...And I'm not going to be stupid...
...His adherence to socialism is caused by his fascination with its destructive power, not with its potential for helping people...
...Popieluszko is the organizer of sessions of political rabies...
...For years Urban had craved the opportunity to pour scorn on all those he regarded as his inferiors, but as a journalist he could be dismissed as little more than an occasionally amusing eccentric...
...Jan Rem is still with us, used by Urban when he wishes to demarcate between his official role as press spokesman and his own opinions...
...After a few years, the authorities forced it to close, seeing in it the seeds of dangerous ideological deviation...
...His co-editorship led to his fourth rejected application to join the Communist party...
...But in early 1981, Stanislaw Kania, the then Party leader, hired Urban as press spokesman to take advantage of his prodigious skills as a propagandist...
...What does it matter that Father Popieluszko inspires disgust if in today's educated Poland magicians of this kind continue to be effective . . . and if his black Masses are popular...
...His credibility is based on his being "right," and that question-begging assumption means in turn that he is "reliable...
...A month before the murder of Father Popieluszko last October, Jan Rem wrote in a highly pro-Jaruzelski literary weekly, Til i Teraz, that "seances of hatred are organized in Father Popieluszko's church...
...One famous incident involved a senior journalist from Polityka, who, having run out of cash one day in the office, asked Urban for the loan of a small sum...
...An earlier application had been denied after a public drinking session where he sang Nazi songs, an Urban-ism typical in its offense to common taste and decorum...
...How they all eluded the grasp of the Nazis is equally a closely kept secret...
...One famous incident involved a senior journalist from Polityka, who, having run out of cash one day in the office, asked Urban for the loan of a small sum...
...Almost four years later few can dispute that an order of sorts has indeed been imposed, even though as the Polish government press spokesman, Jerzy Urban, observed soon after the start of military rule it has merely "trapped the Devil inside a bottle...
...Most of his previous colleagues of any note have decided that Urban's notion of credibility is not to their taste, and along with resigning from their posts on officially backed publications have lost touch with Urban...
...If nothing else, the fact that the working class and intelligentsia flooded into the ranks of Solidarity was enough to guarantee Urban's implacable hatred for anything associated with the union...
...As he wrote in 1982 "I declare that I consider myself credible simply because I was right...
...As late as last year his parents were still alive, still in Lodz, but contact between Urban and them ceased some time ago, again for reasons difficult to discover...
...They can regain their credibility if they revalue their attitudes and draw conclusions from the defeat of their illusions and mistaken convictions...
...Urban readily agreed, on condition that he be given in return his colleague's pass into Polityka's offices...
...He took on the union with tremendous energy, launching insults against its leaders, ridiculing its efforts at reform, and always portraying it as a threat to the state...
...Naturally, Urban does not accept that his servility toward the regime has destroyed his credibility...
...27...
...Urban, who is addicted to the printed word and especially his own byline, responded by adopting yet another alias, "Jan Rem...
...What does it matter that Father Popieluszko inspires disgust if in today's educated Poland magicians of this kind continue to be effective . . . and if his black Masses are popular...
...And I'm not going to be stupid...
...Jan Rem became a familiar figure in the Polish press, particularly in the columns of the leading Party weekly, Polityka, where his vituperative style lashed out at any trendy notion...
...When Jaruzelski took control in the fall of 1981, Urban followed...
...Why he did so is shrouded in mystery, but his love of alter egos has persisted...
...In performing possibly the most testing job in the government, he has become the regime's most detested member...
...In 1954 he went off to Warsaw University to study journalism...
...As Poland elegantly slides into the status Gary Mead reports on Eastern Europe for the New Statesman...
...But even at that relatively early stage Urban's Jekyll and Hyde character was in evidence...
...In Polish terms that meant he officially ceased to exist...
...Therefore I am reliable as a journalist...
...Years later he was to reveal to a colleague who also had worked on Po Prostu that he had been employed by the Polish secret police to spy on the people associated with the magazine...
...How they all eluded the grasp of the Nazis is equally a closely kept secret...
...It arrived back through the mail a few days later, along with a letter purporting to come from an irate prostitute, complaining that she had not yet been paid for her favors...
...He took on the union with tremendous energy, launching insults against its leaders, ridiculing its efforts at reform, and always portraying it as a threat to the state...
...If nothing else, the fact that the working class and intelligentsia flooded into the ranks of Solidarity was enough to guarantee Urban's implacable hatred for anything associated with the union...
...What sets the adrenalin spurting in Urban, certainly the most complex and perhaps the most intelligent member of the regime, is the opportunity for mischief, the chance that he may, with a few well-chosen words, irritate and offend his enemies...
...In the early 1960s he managed to offend a close friend of Gomulka, who decreed that Urban should become a non-person...
...Is he genuinely a supporter of Communism...
...As late as last year his parents were still alive, still in Lodz, but contact between Urban and them ceased some time ago, again for reasons difficult to discover...
...Not according to Dariusz Ficus, who for many years was managing editor of Polityka and in 1968 collaborated on a book with Urban...
...He is someone who likes to enrage, who sees a trend and goes against it, whatever it is...
...Fikus says that Urban is "very intelligent, very dangerous, and very cynical...
...In a Warsaw cafe after Solidarity was formally legalized, he was overheard to say, "I can either be a swine or I can be stupid...
...Years later he was to reveal to a colleague who also had worked on Po Prostu that he had been employed by the Polish secret police to spy on the people associated with the magazine...
...The "journalistic kamikaze," as a former colleague called him, could no longer be so easily dismissed, now that he had sold his pen to the state...
...Urban, he concludes, despises Communism, "as he does any mass movement...
...At some point in his life Jerzy decided to adopt a different surname from that of his parents, which is Urbach...
...Since August 1981 he has acted as government press spokesman, holding regular (usually weekly) conferences for both Polish and foreign journalists, giving interviews, interpreting political developments for the media, and generally acting as PR man for the regime...
...Indeed, the most remarkable facet of Urban's 26 tenure as press spokesman is the masochistic amusement he derives from being universally abhorred, rather as a fairground freak might take some comfort from the awed disgust he evokes in the curious...
...Urban concluded very early on in the struggle that Solidarity would never be permitted to survive intact and he was clearly not going to be caught on the wrong side this time around...
...Popieluszko is the organizer of sessions of political rabies...
...The list of enemies is tediously long: the Catholic Church, Solidarity, Western journalists based in Poland, Western governments, numerous fellow journalists who attacked the regime from the start, even his own daughter (whom he described, following her marriage to a Solidarity official, as "that fat ugly girl...
...At the same time, Urban in his role as press spokesman was denigrating the Catholic Church as little more than a political provocateur...
...Credibility, you see, is a quality acquired through being on the winning side...
...Urban's career is a fascinating illustration of how calculated, unbridled ambition can transform a rather competent journalist into a Polish Minister...
...In 1954 he went off to Warsaw University to study journalism...
...His penchant for grotesque practical jokes will have urged them on their way...
...u Urban was born in the industrial city of Lodz in 1933, the son of upper-middle-class Jewish parents...
...At the same time, Urban in his role as press spokesman was denigrating the Catholic Church as little more than a political provocateur...
...Jan Rem is still with us, used by Urban when he wishes to demarcate between his official role as press spokesman and his own opinions...
...Urban readily agreed, on condition that he be given in return his colleague's pass into Polityka's offices...
...An earlier application had been denied after a public drinking session where he sang Nazi songs, an Urban-ism typical in its offense to common taste and decorum...
...The "journalistic kamikaze," as a former colleague called him, could no longer be so easily dismissed, now that he had sold his pen to the state...
...In Polish terms that meant he officially ceased to exist...
...But his inclination to be a maverick was not the only deciding factor...
...But the edges have become very blurred indeed...
...The profoundly dangerous illogicality of this argument is apparent even to a philosophical novice: Urban said that Solidarity was counterrevolutionary, martial law was imposed only because that threat to the state existed, therefore Urban was right...
...It arrived back through the mail a few days later, along with a letter purporting to come from an irate prostitute, complaining that she had not yet been paid for her favors...
...Amongst the present Polish leadership Urban stands out as a personality in his by Gary Mead own right, deeply unpleasant though that personality is...
...The tanks no longer rumble through Warsaw streets, and gas bombs rarely get lobbed into basements, but the opposition has turned inwards, rather than given up all hope...
...As he wrote in 1982 "I declare that I consider myself credible simply because I was right...
...Why he did so is shrouded in mystery, but his love of alter egos has persisted...
...E M I N E N T O E S THE GENERAL'S BIG MOUTH When General Wojciech Jaruzelski spoke to the Polish nation on December 13, 1981, he promised that martial law would restore order to society and repair the economy...
...This level of duplicity is deeply attractive to Urban, who revels in the aura of sinister connections in powerful places...
...His co-editorship led to his fourth rejected application to join the Communist party...
...Ur-ban's dalliance with Po Prostu was the first in a series of political errors which he has taken years to recover from...
...At some point in his life Jerzy decided to adopt a different surname from that of his parents, which is Urbach...
...It has become a dictatorship by shabby, pedantic officialdom, overseen by deadpan figures in identical suits...
...Thinking it to be no more than an eccentric whim of Urban, the journalist handed over his pass...
...When Jaruzelski took control in the fall of 1981, Urban followed...
...Not according to Dariusz Ficus, who for many years was managing editor of Polityka and in 1968 collaborated on a book with Urban...
...Urban, he concludes, despises Communism, "as he does any mass movement...
...His adherence to socialism is caused by his fascination with its destructive power, not with its potential for helping people...
...By 1955 he was co-editing an interesting weekly magazine, Po Prostu, which had been set up by a group of youthful socialists dissatisfied with the dilatory dismantling of Stalinist controls over social, political, and cultural life...
...But before he gained such power he encountered the wrath of at least one previous Party leader, Wladyslaw Gomulka...
...But before he gained such power he encountered the wrath of at least one previous Party leader, Wladyslaw Gomulka...
Vol. 18 • November 1985 • No. 11
