'Revisionism' in Poland

...Antonim Slonimski, president of the Writers' Union, declared that writers were now being asked "to strengthen the hearts of the bureaucrats...

...The workers might ask the authors: Why do you write that way...

...In K. A. JELENSKI, a Polish Social Democrat now living in Paris, has contributed to Encounter and Preuves...

...Szyr complained, for example, that Gomulka's economic plans were too timid, and he contrasted them with China's progress...

...Socialist economic relations could precede advances in the conditions of production...

...the attack upon "revisionism" and in the Committee decisions restricting cultural freedom, Gomulkists and neo-Stalinists expressed substantial agreement, differing only with respect to methods...

...For what is left for them to do...

...It] is frequently spread by theatrical performances and the cinema . . . and by certain journalists, especially in the illustrated weeklies, as can be seen not from what they write but particularly from what they do not mention...

...The Polish press gave little coverage to the Writers' Congress that took place soon after the Central Committee plenum...

...Or else, if they want to continue writing, they will be unable to maintain their present position very long...

...This is undoubtedly a reflection of political debates going on inside the whole Soviet bloc...

...It is doubtful that the new ideological offensive against the Polish intellectuals will succeed in Gomulka's Poland...

...The result of all this is that the intellectuals "are divorced from the working class, the nation and Socialism...

...This uhra-Stalinist heresy aroused the opposition even of Aleksander Zawadzki, an old Stalinist who shifted his support to Gomulka only in October 1956...

...The new Polish economic model, adopted by Party Secretary Wladislaw Gomulka in 1956 after the failure of Stalinist industrialization and collectivization, was violently attacked by the Central Conunittee's neo-Stalinist members...

...He deplored the criticism of Stalinism which had been expressed so violently by Gomulka in 1956...

...And at Wroclaw itself on the eve of the Congress, a Communist writer, Roman Karst, wrote in Gazeta Rahotnicza (Workers' Gazette) that the years 1956 to 1958 marked the liberation of Polish literature from political control and witnessed the production of the best Polish literary work since the War...

...The methods he recommended for forcing writers to cooperate with the regime were a combination of social and material pressures...

...But this "Gomulkist victory" in the economic sphere was obtained at the cost of falling into line in the cultural and ideological fields...

...Finally, in a parody of the famous line by the great Polish writer, Adam Sienkiewicz, who once said that he wrote "to strengthen the hearts of Poles...

...In his enthusiasm for the Chinese experiment, Szyr declared that, contrary to Marxist doctrine...

...Even before the Congress opened, the writers' opposition made itself feh...

...Opinions, so to speak, are shaped and determined by a few leftist comrades sitting around a table in a cafe, and for most intellectuals, these opinions have more weight than all our appeals, all our persuasion...

...Proposed by Jan Kott...

...This poison," as he called it, "continues to harm the minds and ambitions of many writers and intellectuals...

...Wouldn't it be possible to invite authors to visit factories, especially authors who attack the working class...

...But despite the alleged weakening of the intellectuals' opposition to the Party line, Schaff deplored the "inner barriers" of the intellectuals, which keep them from the Party...

...Within a couple of weeks, the Writers' Congress flung back a vigorous challenge to the Party's attempt to re-establish tight control over cultural activity...

...This is how he described the phenomenon: "Comrades who are unfamiliar with this milieu cannot realize the force that is represented by the snobbishness of a certain attitude of leftist intellectuals...

...Gomulka did not conceal the fact that this "revisionist opposition" remains important in Polish cultural life...

...Even in the blackest Stalinist period, men like Schaff and Kruczkowski failed to blackmail the writers by using material pressures...

...The Polish writers once again expressed their support of the principles of Socialism, but they stressed that freedom of expression must be considered one of these principles...

...Why do you spit upon Socialism...

...The Stalinist writers, Leon Kruczkowski and Jerszy Putrament, both Central Committee members, were not even elected delegates to the Writers' Congress by the Warsaw group to which they belong...

...The other is a report on the debate and resolutions of the annual Polish Writers' Congress, which met at Wroclaw on December 15 and 16...

...Why don't you march with us, with the working class, with progress...

...It would be absolutely impossible to transplant mechanically the Chinese experiment to our land...

...Many intellectuals who railed against us at little tables in cafes already feel morally isolated, feel as if they were in a kind of ghetto...

...Furthermore, Kruczkowski urged that "administrative" methods are better than persuasion in putting down efforts "to destroy our Party...

...They are bound quite simply to degenerate...

...Since the "revisionists" have been sympathetically regarded in the West, Schaff stated quite frankly that this sympathy is "an element that must not be overlooked, that, in fact, we must use it with all our force and energy...

...The principal resolution of the Congress called for the defense of freedom of expression...

...In his final report, Gomulka opposed a return to the pure and simple administrative methods urged by Kruczkowski...

...One is the secret stenographic record of the 12th Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Polish Communist party, held in Warsaw last November, which was circulated exclusively to Party functionaries...

...This criticism, he said, "has created an atmosphere of distrust and has spread the conviction that rapid Socialist industrialization is always bound to hamper an increase in consumption and to promote painful and shocking disproportions" in the country's economic life...

...These people are reduced to talking in their own small circle...

...Either they must break their pens and look for other work, another source of livelihood, and hence break with their milieu...

...If in the course of a month, a writer met, for example, a dozen such groups from a dozen such factories, he might come to realize, especially if he offends the dignity of the working class, that the world is somewhat different from the way he sees it from his little window...

...The way in which the enemy or the opponent evaluates revisionism and the Polish revisionists is an important element in characterizing this movement and these men...

...On this issue, Gomulka's final statement was decisive...

...They are bound to lose all their creative possibilities...

...He attributed this development to two factors— the "impotence" of the "revisionists" (i.e., their incapacity to present a positive program), and recent international events which have gone counter to all their expectations...

...Moreover, to establish total control over Polish cultural life, the regime would have to breach the internal solidarity of the group that produces culture...

...The result is that these men no longer know where to turn...

...Specifically, he recommended censorship activities and cited with approval the closing down of the youth journal, Po Prostu, and the cultural magazine, Europa...

...This implicit, but nonetheless remarkable, admission of the Party's failure vis-d-vis the intellectuals was pointed up by the Stalinist writer, Leon Kruczkowski, who denounced "the terror referred to by Comrade Schaff, a terror that is practiced by a powerful mafia in our literary circles...

...The orthodox Stalinist philosopher, Adam Schaff, and Gomulka himself expressed the belief that the best procedure was to try to compromise the "heretics...

...An important subject of debate at the plenum was precisely how to go about "eliminating this poison...

...Significantly the example of Communist China's economic development was at the very heart of the Central Committee's discussion...

...Schaff did claim, however, that there has been an "objective" weakening of "revisionism...

...A large part of Gomulka's report was devoted to "revisionism," a term which he and the other Central Conunittee members use in a very precise way: It refers to the intellectuals who, though they favor Socialism and nationalization of industry, deny the Party's right to have complete control over life and the human conscience...

...All those who dreamed of transformations which . . . were to lead from Socialism to capitalism have pinned their hopes on the revisionists...

...It is the next few years—and no one on either side of the fence can have any doubt about this—that will decide the future of mankind, for peace or for war...

...As Gomulka put it, "reaction has seen in revisionism an ally of capitalism...

...The Polish Writers' Congress at Wroclaw has provided the group's first response to the Party offensive...

...Zawadzki said that "the example of China is not quite convincing for the rest of the world," and that "it would be difficult to affirm that in China the millions of people who joined the 'people's communes' have already been won over to Communism...

...But the attacks were rebuffed by Gomulka, who has a majority in the Committee...

...In the long run, they will be unable to put up with the situation...

...The Central Conunittee plenum dealt with two major problems—the pace of Polish economic development in the next seven years, and "revisionism" in intellectual and cultural life...

...In the opinion of Szyr and his friends, the immediate future is decisive for mankind: "If our major objective is a rapid victory in the peaceful race between the Socialist and capitalist camps, then the question of time, the question of speed and development, becomes of prime importance...

...He noted that in its "leap forward," China had managed to achieve in one year 50 per cent of the total industrial development scheduled for 1962, and he claimed that China had already reached the level of industrial production scheduled for 1968...

...At the Central Conunittee meeting, the Government's economic policy was attacked by Eugeniusz Szyr, economic spokesman of the neo-Stalinist group...

...It] is also to be found in the universities, among students, teachers and scientists...

...If writers are not allowed to publish what ihey write, need might lead them to write otherwise: "Couldn't we, for example, bring together in a factory about 15 persons who read, who are interested in these problems and who might write a letter to the editors of a weekly magazine criticizing their attitude...

...Secret Party reports point up new problems for Gomulka 'Revisionism' In Poland By K. A. Jelenski PARIS TWO HIGHLY significant reports on political, economic and intdleotual conditions in Poland recently reached the West...

...Above all, he sharply castigated the "moral terror" exercised by a small but influential milieu...

...He asserted flatly: "What is being accomplished at the present time in China is a specific phenomenon determined by the historical development of China...

...The poet, Pawel Hertz, declared that censorship is in fact illegal, since the Constitution does not authorize it...

...This creates a situation which we must be aware of and be able to utilize...

...Why are you nostalgic for the past...

...The Chinese example proves," he asserted, "that social consciousness need not necessarily be a mere consequence of the development of the material and technical basis of Socialism...

...He managed to retain the basic elements of his economic policy: decollectivization of the country-side, and a considerable reduction of industrial investment...

...who emphasized that the censors had confiscated 30 books in the course of the preceding year, it was passed by a vote of 42-2, with 15 abstentions...

...This silence is understandable, for the writers clearly shrugged off Party pressures...

...He cited the situation in the Middle East and in France as especially shocking to the intellectuals...

...Since Gomulka considers the "strengthening of the ideological front" as the Party's most urgent task, in which the intellectuals' talents are desperately needed, he declared that "the Party's chief effort should be directed toward the total elimination of post-revisionist poison...