Poland: Intellectuals vs. the Party A Report on the Kolakowski Case
Raina, P. K.
Dr. P. K. Raina is an Indian historian who worked at the University of Warsaw's Institute for Contemporary History on a fellowship from the Polish Ministry of Higher Education. His book on...
...but the election is a farce...
...He talked only about the ZMS (Association of Socialist Youth...
...And so our political system is ridden with incompetence and bureaucracy...
...He himself had nothing against the resolutions, he said, but under the circumstances he could not permit further debate...
...A thin man entered the hall, a man with a long pale face and hair dithcuit to comb, wearing his habitual trenchcoat...
...There was extreme tension in the hall, and complete silence...
...hence, there is no confrontation between those who have power and those who do not...
...The collegium of the faculty of philosophy, however, unanimously voted a resolution against the decision of the Central Committee...
...never before did it have to defend its bureaucratic position with so much rhetoric, demagogy, and cynicism...
...under socialism it is always active...
...Phi-lo-so-phy...
...He gave a detailed account of the miserable life the peasants led...
...A Letter to the Party Through its student collaborators the Ministry of the Interior spread the news that the two assistant professors worked with "Western imperialists" and wanted to destroy the Polish state...
...The students asked the Rector for an explanation...
...Discussions should be held without fear...
...They felt that their position and honor were under attack and that their livelihood was threatened...
...Kociolek treated his former teachers with a cynical lack of respect, and the whole of his intellectual audience with cutting sarcasm...
...The state, the Party, and society all have become victims of this stagnation...
...Laughter...
...On November 15, 1966, at 5:00 P.M., the Party organization of the University met...
...but he is not an enemy of the Party...
...The students are selected by the Minister of the Interior upon recommendation by the Party, which thus tries to control the thought of all future philosophers...
...The students are forbidden to demonstrate and are allowed to have discussions only at gatherings previously authorized by the Rector...
...Modzelewski's doctrine advocates the overthrow of the existing system...
...Men who found a place to sit had women on their knees, who, in turn, supported other women on their laps...
...Zakrzewska, professor of the law faculty: This is the first meeting of the University Party organization in two years...
...Other speakers included Morawski, dean of the faculty of philosophy, very pro-Kolakowski...
...They shared the students' feelings...
...After all, the university professors were the only people who made the Party feel afraid...
...Youth is always radical and lively...
...There may be a group of students who want to cause trouble...
...The Chairman asked Kolakowski to say a last word...
...Schaff is jealous of them...
...The censorship is terribly severe, and the consequences for the intellectuals are deadly...
...Therefore, they wrote a long letter to the Party organization at the University in which they criticized the orthodox doctrine of Marxism and made the following criticisms: (1)The Party is almighty...
...Myzner, the dean of the faculty of journalism: I was a Social Democrat...
...Why has the Polish Press Law of 1938 not yet been changed?* The • This law, passed by the prewar Sanacja government, provided for a strict controlof the press and an arbitrary censorship...
...Students and faculty at the University of Warsaw can roughly be divided into two groups: one group of orthodox Marxists, which consists of about 5-10 per cent of the University population—and the majority group of liberal Marxists which can be subdivided into one very active group and another that is passive and seems to be indifferent to politics...
...Censorship, Expulsions, Demonstrations The liberal Marxists played a leading role in the Polish October Revolution of 1956...
...But we cannot judge them when they are nonexistent, as in the Stalinist period, when there existed only pseudo-rights and pseudo-laws...
...today we can say that such and such rights in this country are limited and such and such laws are arbitrarily abused by the state...
...Kolakowski then spoke of the liquidation of Beria, the East Berlin uprising, the Hungarian Revolution and Soviet intervention, and of the abuse of the rights won in 1956: Under those circumstances, the Polish nation could not become united except through change: the Revolution of 1956 gave Poland back its sovereignty—in economic planning, in the right to have its own administration, in freedom of criticism, etc...
...Translated by I. A. LANGNAS...
...Abroad, he gave the impression of being a liberal, but here in Poland he is— especially in his seminars—an autocrat...
...Kolakowski collaborated with Kotarbinski,* in drafting a document entitled "An Opinion on the Problem of the Idea of Information...
...Election to the Parliament and provincial assemblies is a fraud because there is only a single list, proposed by the Party leadership...
...The students proved reasonable...
...He again condemned Kolakowski's liberalism and accused him of having had several conversations with Cardinal Wyszynski...
...The government which was not really elected, becomes too sure of itself...
...The Party decided to dissolve the faculty of philosophy, which it feared...
...And we must tell the people everything...
...they must be freed...
...December 12, 1966: Adam Schaff against the Liberals On December 12, 1966, the Party members of Warsaw University were called to another meeting, this time to elect a new Executive Committee...
...after each new revolution, it needs several generations...
...It has no independent factions or groups with separate policies...
...This explosion, to be sure, was heard only by those who were there on November 15, 1966...
...The immediate consequence was Kolakowski's expulsion from the Party...
...I feel personally insulted by them...
...It would be absurd to maintain that there was no free discussion in the Party...
...they were put on the Party's blacklist...
...respect in the country...
...Kolakowski, I said, was a great thinker and moralist, and I loved him not only for his ideas but as a man...
...The very fact that this code exists is proof that legality is disregarded...
...They are cowards," said another...
...Someone said: "Why doesn't anybody defend the Party...
...His reputation among the University intellectuals is correspondingly low...
...The November 15 session was of historic importance: for the first time the members came not to listen to a Party leader but to tell him what they thought—with new candor and courage...
...This is a pity...
...they will now think that they have to pay for their doubts...
...Poland's road to socialism had begun...
...It is alarming news that secret organizations exist in certain institutions of higher learning...
...Consequently, they were expelled from the Party and the University...
...Denunciations and "political crimes" go together, and their result is repression...
...So they remain silent, live in constant fear and insecurity, and suffer...
...These intellectuals have a most negative view of Communism in its present form and find it abominable...
...Party unity is the supreme goal, discipline the supreme law in the life of the Party...
...The Party would not tolerate "sectarianism," intellectual or otherwise...
...Mme...
...it lacks confidence...
...The liberal Marxists of the active sub-group, however, are brave and fearless...
...Nonsense," answered the audience...
...Moreover, several students who had organized a meeting received a sharp warning...
...No one complained...
...Here is one of them," said a third, pointing to an orthodox member of the Youth Association...
...The Party was talking about how well-off the peasants were...
...They openly oppose the Party...
...Kolakowski claimed to be a socialist...
...In capitalist countries youth adapts itself to the existing conditions...
...they print political pamphlets...
...Twenty years are not enough for a new system to influence a society...
...Kolakowski wants to introduce the bourgeois-liberal system in Poland...
...Fifteen speakers took part in the discussion...
...Ear-splitting applause...
...It was the most open discussion in the 22 years since the restoration of Poland...
...Most of those questioned were defeated by this fear...
...Kliszko briefly explained the international situation: Vietnam, attacks on China—the usual cliches of no interest to anyone...
...Modzelewski's ideas are spreading...
...Only two, maybe three, professors remained true to their conscience...
...Kolakowski's views are directed against the Party...
...He was a graduate of the University who cooperated closely with the Ministry of the Interior in their effort to destroy the intellectuals—Stanislaw Kociolek, First Secretary of the Warsaw Party Committee...
...He was pale and nervous...
...a thin man with a bold heart, an iron will, a powerful intellect...
...There were a few exceptions: the Rector, and members of the Executive Committee of the Union of Polish Students (ZSP) and the Association of Socialist Youth (ZMS) . The latter are known throughout the University as careerists and opportunists...
...The Rector forbade all discussion on the subject...
...Their methods are not illegal: they talk at seminars, party meetings, and university discussion groups...
...He offers, as an alternative, another party: Social Democracy...
...The initiative now lay with the professors...
...that's hardly a surprise...
...Applause.] Kolakowski is a great representative of socialist thinking...
...The difference between the Party's thinking and Kolakowski's lies in the attitude toward socialist and proletarian democracy...
...It is known that he had been dressed down by Kliszko on a number of previous occasions...
...Morawski used philosophical terminology and so much French that Kliszko could not understand the speech and praised it—amid laughter from the audience...
...but their protests were ignored...
...At about the same time, two assistant professors of the faculty of political science wrote a letter to the Central Committee, saying they were puzzled by the political development of the country and especially by the curtailment of the freedom of speech and the severe penalty exacted for holding divergent political opinions...
...But Polish intellectuals were free to criticize Marxism, Stalinism, and their own political system for only a year...
...At 6:15 there were calls for silence...
...It is doubtful whether Schaff, who had originally represented the liberal wing in the Central Committee, spoke from conviction...
...But youth is skeptical...
...They disapproved of this all too direct intervention by the Party in matters under the jurisdiction of the University...
...The University must become the center of political thinking...
...Never before had the Party leadership been so violently challenged by the intellectuals...
...Six others were expelled for "indecent behavior," as Rector Turski explained, meaning that they had spoken in the discussion on the resolution for freeing Kuron and Modzelewski and carried placards...
...they have not lived through the period before 1956 and so have no standard of comparison...
...The freeing of Kuron and Modzelewski is not a bad thing...
...But behind this facade he hid fear and uncertainty...
...Why did we not expel him earlier...
...Stormy applause.] I support him and his ideas...
...It may be undisciplined, but it is not bad...
...The situation became more and more critical...
...His words struck like a bomb...
...the true socialists are the workers...
...Dissolution of the Faculty of Philosophy In the beginning of 1966 the Party's Central Committee dealt the University another blow...
...Five approved of the book, ten condemned it, including Kliszko...
...They were expelled from the Party and the University...
...I have heard that there will be some changes in the working methods of the Disciplinary Commission...
...Sustained applause.] He was not given the opportunity to defend himself...
...This course takes three or four years and is limited to 15-20 students...
...In June 1966 several young assistant professors—Party members— wrote a letter to Pravda protesting the sentencing of Daniel and Sinyayski...
...Kolakowski, Pomian, and the Dean calmed them down, and reason won again...
...On November 15 he had managed to be out of the country...
...his ideology is impure...
...This document was submitted to the tribunal that judged Kuron and Modzelewski...
...The language of the constitution can be interpreted differently and arbitrarily...
...His reputation diminished, and he lost the respect of those who still esteemed him...
...Some 50 members of the orthodox group, restless and confused, sat in the midst of this enthusiasm...
...To some extent, the Revolution meant the end of dogmatism...
...Then thundering applause for several minutes...
...Only one man could still bring the situation under control: the Dean...
...What have we got to celebrate today...
...Sawicki proposed a vote on this speech...
...The Commission met last November and December...
...There is no opposition...
...They are generally hated by the students and they, in turn, hate the students, especially those who dare to criticize...
...Their policy is cold and calculating...
...Several professors distinguished themselves in the fight against the Party's unjustified measures...
...The PUWP [Polish CP] is no Social Democratic party...
...The university people had to read the text of Kolakowski's speech and listen to its tape-recording...
...They found an outlet in banging on desks, expressing wild agreement, and indulging in frenetic applause...
...Then he left the room...
...The next speaker was Duracz, a mathematics student...
...They will be taken before the Disciplinary Commission...
...for everything that was said was recorded and tape-recorded so that it could be used against one later on...
...After December 12, the students called Schaff "opportunistic" and "insincere...
...6) The penal legislation, which is still semi-fascist or Stalinist, is applied by the Party and the Ministry of the Interior, with no respect for legality...
...his task was thankless, as he openly admitted...
...agents of the Ministry of the Interior had also tape-recorded Kolakowski's speech and the whole discussion...
...But that was 10 years ago...
...Whoever shows these tendencies will be destroyed...
...Innocent people would have to suffer unnecessarily, he warned...
...They smoked many cigarettes, but that did not calm their nerves...
...Nothing, absolutely nothing...
...Each session lasted two or three hours, sometimes more...
...The Rector's weakness is notorious...
...Professors Brus (economics), Baczko (philosophy), and Morawski (philosophy) made passionate speeches defending Kolakowski, Kuron and Modzelewski...
...there is very little chance for the people to choose their leaders...
...The students' situation is also delicate...
...But when he came to the central point, his voice turned shrill, his face orange-red...
...They wanted at least to discuss the resolution...
...Soon after this letter was received, the Ministry of the Interior had Kuron and Modzelewski arrested...
...The worst of these laws is the Small Penal Code of 1945, according to which one can be sentenced to five years' imprisonment on the ground of a simple denunciation...
...It is nonsense to hold discussions behind closed doors...
...But it is surprising that we are being accused of having bourgeois-liberal ideas...
...His post was at stake...
...Each subcommission had five to seven members: high-ranking functionaries to question professors, low-ranking ones to question assistant professors and students...
...The listeners were torn by emotions of fear and of rage...
...Their aim is to put liberal...
...and consequently, some improvement in the level of newspapers and textbooks...
...The situation, if possible, is worse in literary criticism, modern sociology, and contemporary history...
...These methods have not yet been abolished...
...He was an honest and courageous man...
...He promised one, and the students dispersed peacefully...
...Neither the workers nor the ordinary Party members have any influence on these decisions...
...This was the moment for an arrogant-looking young man in his early thirties, a typical backdoor careerist of no talent...
...There is no genuine democracy in this country...
...but they want to keep their jobs, and they like to go occasionally abroad...
...The October Revolution of 1956 was not the starting point of changes in the doctrine of socialist ideology...
...it was the only meeting in the whole city to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution...
...I was the first to speak...
...for here the consequences are even more deadly...
...He has broken Party regulations...
...It was an insincere document, full of sophistry...
...so were the other Party celebrities: the Minister of Higher Education and five other members of the Politbureau were present...
...They were taken to a secret trial, handcuffed like criminals, and accused of having spread "destructive propaganda...
...The government does not feel responsible to the people...
...In 1964, when the Party ignored a protest against censorship signed by 34 well-known Polish intellectuals, there were big demonstrations at the University...
...They know that any attempt to change things leads to trouble with the Party, and especially with Moczar, the Minister of the Interior...
...He spoke for the orthodox group and attacked Kolakowski sharply...
...And one first must complete another course of studies in order to take philosophy as a special subject...
...The Party leadership seemed to be losing the ideological battle with the intellectuals...
...Poles soon coined a name for it: the Polish McCarthy Commission...
...they did not take it...
...Socialists despise demagogues...
...We were all happy—happy to hear a man whose thoughts were bold, sincere, and alive...
...4) The people have no alternative choice of government...
...The Central Committee, too, hesitated before it decided to sentence him to this severe punishment...
...A new Poland was to arise— sovereign, free, liberal...
...There is no public criticism...
...At the beginning of the winter semester of 1964 there were violent debates, especially among the liberal students, on the negative effects of Marxism, in which two young assistant professors of the faculty of history, Karol Modzelewski and Jacek Kuron, played a leading role...
...Kolakowski is one of our great political intellectuals...
...They were condemned in 1965 to six-and-a-half years imprisonment...
...Long speeches and empty stomachs had made people tired...
...This time there was an explosion...
...that was a lie...
...ideas spread and no one can stop them...
...They all hate Moczar...
...The expulsion of Kolakowski from the Party was ordered by the Central Committee, and the local Party organization of the University was not consulted...
...Wild applause.] The Chairman declared the meeting officially closed...
...The dean of Polish philosophers, now 80, a specialist in logic, former president ofthe Polish Academy of Sciences...
...Kliszko had begun his speech in sober and measured tones...
...The point of view of our Party," Kliszko had said, "is surely more important than the things that different anti-Communist Marxologists have to say in the West about Marxism and Socialism...
...the meeting had been called for the purpose of normal discussion, not to start demonstrations...
...The expulsion of Kolakowski and the punishment of the students upset almost everyone at the University, students and professors alike...
...Our Party and its activities should be a democratic example for other parties...
...The meeting began at 9:00 A.M...
...Holzer, a young assistant professor at the Historical Institute who had belonged to the revolutionary elite in 1956, was the first to speak: The Party is not so well-informed about the meeting in the Historical Institute...
...Kolakowski supports this doctrine...
...Let him come up and explain to us why Kuron and Modzelewski were jailed...
...The ideology spread by Kuron and Modzelewski is pettybourgeois...
...The University has inherited a new feudal bureaucracy...
...he switched to the other side...
...The Central Committee invited Kolakowski to discuss the matter with him...
...Kliszko almost implied that Schaff was about to become "a Western Marxist...
...Since 1956 we have had reason to believe that certain rights and laws do exist in Poland...
...But they did not miss this opportunity of telling the Party leaders what they thought of them...
...All this has weakened our society, there is no prospect, no hope...
...The meeting in the Historical Institute was a confrontation of opinions...
...The guilt lies with the weak Party organization at the University...
...He was brief: "Socialists," he said, "must be rationalists...
...Kolakowski, for example, proposed that Modzelewski's views be tolerated in the interests of free research...
...destruction is destruction...
...His vote was awaited with the greatest excitement...
...Kliszko, the secretary of the CC, Gomulka's number two man and chief ideologist, addressed the meeting in the Great Hall...
...an uncommonly good speaker—Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw, Leszek tcoiakowski...
...We clapped, stamped our feet, shouted—some of us red with anger, some with tears in their eyes...
...he shouted, "how long is this to go on...
...ism into practice...
...A system of privilege prevails for a few people who are above and outside the law...
...K.ociolek's speech was sharp, brutal, and cold: I am against discussions, dialogues, seminars...
...The presence of one particular professor was especially noted at this meeting...
...Lesnodorski, dean of the faculty of law: Kolakowski may have acted against the Party...
...There seems to be also a need to introduce seminars for more profound discussion of ideological conflicts on a higher level...
...In his final summary Kliszko spoke of intellectual snobbery...
...They counted on being able to act unpunished, and the authorities had to repress them or make concessions...
...he said it was ridden with a bureaucratic and hierarchical spirit, had no initiative, and was full of indifference—deadly things for an association of this kind...
...Great applause...
...But his activities have now transgressed the Party's bounds of toleration...
...Why did we tolerate him so long...
...Kolakowski and his friends now enjoy the highest...
...A young assistant professor of the faculty of economics painted a shattering picture of the growing anti-Semitism in the Party hierarchy...
...Then I criticized the absurd censorship and the low level of the books on contemporary history...
...it is the Party's duty to discipline them...
...Kolakowski was in contact with the passionate anti-Communist Zbigniew Brzezinski...
...As soon as the atmosphere became somewhat calmer, he added that he could not accept the resolution because it wasn't on the agenda...
...Violent applause.] The students want more freedom...
...The Chairman now threw the meeting open to discussion...
...This article has been translated, in a slightly condensed version, from the Austrian magazine Neues Forum...
...The dean of the faculty of history was present, and a few younger professors who had been student leaders in the 1956 Revolution...
...This shows that he has engaged in a struggle for the creation of another system and that he is against the dictatorship of the proletariat...
...Stalinism was simply the destruction of culture...
...It was a shame that certain comrades took their new cars at election time to visit peasants who lived in houses without running water and sanitary installations...
...to 1:30 A.M...
...we should not make fun of youth or treat it condescendingly...
...This can be seen from the Party conference which met in October 1965 to discuss Schaff's book Marxism and the Human Individual...
...His speech at the meeting in the Historical Institute was a breach of Party discipline...
...and lasted late into the evening...
...We can judge breaches of legal rights only when rights exist...
...It now is no longer possible to take a regular five-year philosophy course...
...2)The Party elite is the sole bearer of state power...
...Kliszko's report was now to be discussed...
...Applause.] And we must explain to the students everything that happened 10 years ago...
...But Schaff does not have Kolakowski's political courage...
...There is no opposition and, hence, no confrontation...
...there was such discussion in the Central Committee...
...The session lasted, with short breaks, from 5:00 P.M...
...Kolakowski gave us the impression of being in Modzelewski's confidence...
...Generally here he sounded moderate...
...Now the Chairman intervened...
...Could he permit a debate on the resolution...
...The leadership which is not really elected becomes arrogant and supercilious...
...What are they...
...Others spoke out directly against Kolakowski and condemned his views, both from fear and conviction...
...The result was the orthodox victory of December 12...
...He asked the people in the hall to let in the man they had come to hear...
...Then they had to take a position on it...
...Sawicki, a physics student, stood up and read another resolution...
...The most depressing thing about them is their collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior...
...Kolakowski is a great humanist...
...P. K. Raina is an Indian historian who worked at the University of Warsaw's Institute for Contemporary History on a fellowship from the Polish Ministry of Higher Education...
...At the meeting in the Historical Institute, Kolakowski emphasized that the one-party system leads to stagnation...
...7) The result is that state, Party, and society fall into stagnation...
...For freedom of speech is indispensable...
...Attendance was compulsory...
...November 15, 1966: Professors against the Party The speeches of the meeting held at the Historical Institute on October 21 were not only taken down by certain students...
...The relative strength of the two wings is now two to one in favor of the orthodox...
...Kolakowski's speech was simple and clear: Why are we here...
...but the Rector did not keep his promise...
...The students became more and more angry, the professors more and more impatient...
...I think that is nothing evil...
...They must submit to that discipline for the Party will not tolerate sectarianism...
...all wanted to vote on the resolutions here and now...
...Party members had a chance then to proclaim theft opinions...
...Gomulka had emphasized that Marxists in the Party could hold different opinions...
...Before the December 12 meeting Schaff was asked to see Kliszko at Party headquarters...
...They were busy writing everything down...
...Kolakowski wanted to damage the Party, Schaff said...
...Brus's attack of the Party's proceedings was especially severe...
...There is great hope for the future of socialism because of the skepticism of our youth...
...Everyone was excited and expectant...
...he was just writing another book on Marxism and would discuss it—in the Central Committee...
...The same thing has happened at the Universities of Cracow and Wroclaw...
...On October 21, 1956, the Central Committee of the United Polish Workers Party (CP) met to give formal recognition to Gomulka's leadership...
...He admitted that there were two distinct groups in the audience: for and against the Party...
...The Warsaw students, protesting against the closing of the University's department of philosophy, marched before the tribune on May 1 and chanted rhythmically, "Phi-lo-so-phy...
...Terror is terror...
...The last meeting had been called almost two years earlier...
...All decisions are made by this elite...
...Werblan and Kociolek, the agents of the Party, turned pale...
...This difference produced a crisis when Kolakowski defended Kuron and Modzelewski in court...
...He defended Modzelewski and used this country's freedom of speech to spread Modzelewski's ideas...
...The Polish police confiscated two of his completed manuscripts, a biography of Gomulka and a study of Poland's political parties during the period 1939-1944...
...3) There is no genuine difference between the program of the United Polish Workers party (CP) and the programs of the other satellite parties...
...Raina was expelled from Poland for "anti-slate activities" —for his contact with Leszek Kolakowski...
...Before he could end his speech he fainted from excitement...
...Comrades...
...The PUWP is a party in which there is no stagnation...
...Kolakowski's remarks about careerists, opportunists, and ideologists are grave accusations...
...The Polish press has remained silent, and Polish public opinion has thereby remained ignorant...
...the Chairman became restless...
...First they attack part of the Party program, then the entire program...
...And it is most doubtful that he would reintroduce capitalism in this country...
...The intellectual weekly Po Prostu was suppressed, and censorship, which had been abolished in 1956, was resumed...
...There is nothing to celebrate...
...Intellectuals produce neither bread nor steel...
...He has adherents not only among youth...
...but they are convinced that none of them can do anything to change it...
...Before the end of November the Party appointed a commission, headed by Sokorski, former Minister of Culture and the Arts...
...The University's Party organization does not meet regularly, only in a crisis...
...We now have had 10 years in which it was possible to make comparisons and pass judgments...
...By 1957 the Party leadership began to feel that the situation was getting out of hand and Gomulka began to tell the Poles to think realistically—that is, to stop thinking...
...The discussion was very agitated...
...But the students did not want to leave the hall...
...he has never questioned the Party leaders' orders...
...They are the officially elected representatives of the students...
...Another speaker, the son of a peasant, gave an excellent report on the agricultural situation...
...And meanwhile all the issues raised by the Kolakowski case continue to fester...
...Stalinism was condemned...
...The meeting in the Historical Institute was a symbol of liberalism...
...He received a sharp warning: "Either you march with us, or you take the consequences...
...several hundred stood outside the door...
...The orthodox Marxist students, professors and assistant professors are all Party people who closely cooperate with the leadership...
...The censorship is extremely severe...
...Kolakowski ended with a few words of hope against all hope...
...They knew what the Dean was talking about, and they calmed down...
...By 5:30 it was impossible to enter the hall, which normally holds 100 people...
...This last sub-group lives in constant terror of the Ministry of the Interior...
...Modzelewski's followers are not immature...
...unfortunately, the second group did not have the courage to come out into the open...
...Reason and democracy are inseparable...
...Then came the final, vigorous warning...
...But Adam Schaff [a leading Polish Communist intellectual and functionary] disappointed them all...
...even their wives, who had also worked in the University, lost their posts...
...Tumultuous applause filled the Institute building...
...but it is all his own fault...
...Kociolek's speech put professors and students into a state of cold rage...
...They organize demonstrations and meetings...
...There is no freedom of assembly...
...They write detailed reports on seminars, party meetings, and discussion clubs for the Ministry, which uses them to proceed against the liberals...
...At that time, the Rector, fearing a riot, forbade all demonstrations...
...they defended Kolakowski and stood up for his ideas...
...When their position was not clear, they were shouted down: "Comrade, do you or don't you agree with Kolakowski...
...He himself discussed matters freely in the Central Committee...
...Kolakowski's situation must be analyzed with regard to the international situation...
...The new Executive Committee was to be free of all "undesirable elements"— of candidates who had recently shown liberal leanings...
...He wanted to speak from a position of strength, using the old military trick—attack is the best defense: Kolakowski is in open opposition to the Party...
...As so often before, he yielded to Kliszko's threat...
...Their aim is to discredit the Party...
...The Commission named several subcommissions...
...It was a kind of psychological torture...
...Not one functionary of the ZSP or ZMS had a good word for Kolakowski...
...Kliszko was, indeed, already beaten...
...There is no freedom of assembly...
...First, he took no definite position and proposed to continue the discussion...
...the wave of criticism first arose after Stalin's death...
...The chairman of the meeting, a young historian, announced that the evening's speaker had alreauy tried to enter the hall, in vain...
...We cannot remain indifferent to this group...
...They denied any connection between themselves and Kolakowski, between his views and theirs...
...Party is on the defensive...
...This time he was present and it was he who tipped the scales between the orthodox and the liberals...
...The Small Penal Code of 1945 is a bad thing that must be abolished...
...Professor Kotarbinski is much respected by liberal Marxists and is a dose friend of Kolakowski...
...Their letter to the Party was the only evidence against them...
...Intellectuals can become as useless as the plague...
...He spoke to them from a position of strength and left no doubt that anyone who attacked his position would be beaten down ruthlessly...
...The two men were offered no opportunity to defend themselves against these slanders...
...We will not tolerate such groups: Party discipline is compulsory...
...The blood began to boil only when he touched on the University's most sensitive nerve: Kolakowski...
...An intellectual suspected by Moczar is denied foreign travel, and his very livelihood is at stake...
...it was very important to the liberals...
...We parted peacefully, but in an embittered mood...
...The next man to speak was Pomian, a philosopher...
...Students stood on chairs, desks, windowsills, and on each other, their feet on the shoulders of their fellow students, their backs against the wall...
...Khrushchev's Party Congress was the ruin of Stalinist ideology...
...These views demonstrate Kolakowski's anti-socialist viewpoint...
...Every Party member at the University, students and faculty members, had to appear before one of these subcommissions...
...The meeting had reached a critical point...
...This structure must undergo a fundamental change...
...I now would like to thank Comrade Kliszko for his assurance that Kolakowski will not lose his post at the University...
...People must be responsible for what they say...
...Stormy applause...
...Not all Party members come to such meetings, even though attendance is compulsory...
...By now it was very late...
...The expulsion of the students was also ordered from above...
...He said he wanted to propose a spontaneous resolution: Since the meeting was organized by the Association of Socialist Youth, Duracz said, it was our duty to pass a resolution demanding the freeing of Kuron and Modzelewski...
...He must not benefit from the privileged position he has enjoyed at the University for the last nine years...
...5) There is no opportunity for public criticism...
...October 21, 1966: Leszek Kolakowski Speaks The meeting was due to start at 6:00 P.M...
...his punishment has only brought damage to the Party...
...Oh, yes, it is the tenth anniversay of our October Revolution...
...His book on Polish foreign policy until 1938 has been published by the Paris Institut Litteraire...
...Kliszko had said at the time that Schaff's views were "ill-considered, disrespectful, and unfounded," that Schaff's criticism was damaging the Party and was a deviation from the fundamental principles of MarxismLeninism...
...Until then, they had expressed their disapproval in private conversations or in seminars...
...On December 29, 1966, Dr...
...It consisted of quotations from a speech made by Gomulka at the Eighth Plenum of the Central Committee, held in October 1956...
Vol. 14 • September 1967 • No. 5
