RADIO FREE EUROPE in NEW YORK Poland on the Wave of The

Wiesława PIĄTKOWSKA-STEPANIAK

RADIO FREE EUROPE IN NEW YORK

Poland on the wave of the free word

“Then [after the Second World War - W.P.-S.], New York was a city marked with the presence of Poles who all found themselves here and came on purpose — it would seem — straight from Warsaw. Literaturę was represented by almost the whole of Skamander Group, sińce with the exception of Lechoń and Tuwim there were Wierzyński and also Józef Wittlin staying there; fine arts were represented by Czermański, Lorentowiczówna; theater, subsided from London donations but on rarer and rarer tours around American Polish centers — by Maria Modzelewska, Zofia Nakoneczna, Janina Wilczówna and Ka rin Tiche”.1 And the majority of politicians — socialists, nationalists, national democrats, peasant party supporters, members of the newly-established Polski Ruch Wolnościowy ‘Niepodległość i Demokracja’ (Polish Independence Move- ment ‘Independence and Democracy’). They were all in search of their own environments seeing that moving within the old Polish Americans’ circles proved a considerable problem. The morę so as their leaders distanced themselves from cooperating with wartime exiles. The Polish Americans did not understand the newcomers. Those ‘ill with Poland’ madę it their goal to realize an independence-oriented mission which became the central idea behind all actions undertaken by both politicians and artists, and writers.2 The majority, however, claimed that the emigration cre do defined in this way was not identical with maintaining contacts with the communist-ruled country.3 At the same time, the authorities of the Polish People’s Republic under- took propagandist and — indeed — seductive efforts so that the largest possible

1 A. Janta, Nowe odkrycie Ameryki, Paryż 1973, pp. 75—76. 2 Ibidem; the quote from a letter by H. Floyar-Rajchman to W. Grzybowski, New York, 21 Jan. 1947, the Archives of Józef Piłsudski Institute (further JPI), personal file of Wacław Grzybowski. 3 Morę extensively on this subject see, among others, R. Habielski, Niezłomni, nieprzejednani. Emigracyjne “Wiadomości”i ich krąg 1940-1981, Warszawa 1991; by the same author, Polski Lon dyn, Wrocław 2000; by the same author, Emigracja, Warszawa 1995.

Pobrano z https://repo.uni.opole.pl / Downloaded from Repository of Opole University 2021-09-30 26 Wiesława Piątkowska-Stepaniak number of emigrants should return home. Those actions, nevertheless, raised high emotions or sometimes even indignation within environments which they were aimed at. Still, many of those staying in exile somehow spontaneously wanted to par- ticipate in creating the message to be sent to the mother country, where - in turn — there appeared with time a fairly large number of those willing to make contacts with the West. Thus, between the Scylla of condemnation expressed by the emdronment of exiles and the Charybdis of temptations generated by the new rulers of Poland there was a fairly large group of journalists, men of letters, politicians who set out on a voyage, intending to lead their compatriots to the vast space of independence of the word and truth. The Polish section of Radio Free Europę, which was being formed then, madę it possible to, at least partially, satisfy the hopes. Taking into account the fact that access to true and reliable information that would facilitate en- gaging individuals in matters concerning all was one of the canons which de- termined a civic society, we can accept that it was already at its beginnings that RFE — initially so to say ipso per se — was in the service of building frame- work of such a community. The problem lay, too, in the selection of the subject area, the presence of personages from the world of culture and politics, who appeared in the station’s studios. The news delivered by them, as well as their personal vicissi- tudes and sometimes dramatic experience composed a genuine picture of the life in Poland and in exile. It is still worth underlying the last — yet probably the most significant — aspect: the broadcasting station became a workplace, a forum of hot debates to not only professional journalists, but also poets, pol iticians and social activists, the non-professionals very often proving brilliant in the role of the first ones. It is in front of the studios’ microphones that emigrants (first exclusively) and - with time — also compatriots coming from the People’s Republic of Po land, who had managed to get out of the country, shared information which was broadcast not only to support the so-called ‘common people’, but also to raise the spirit of courage and hope in them. When the first programs of the Polish Section of RFE started to reach listeners at home, the fences and walls of Polish towns still featured posters branding “the spit-soiled dwarf of the reaction”. Therefore propagating reliable knowledge about the latest history became the leading task. The Polish ‘desk’ in New York began the broadcasting of the program on 4 August 1950. It stayed on air incessantly until 1 January 1974. Before the Polish branch of RFE was set up in Munich, all the programs had been prepared in New York. The beginnings of the broadcasting station datę to the time when the US gov- ernmental circles put forward the initiative of establishing the National Com-

Pobrano z https://repo.uni.opole.pl / Downloaded from Repository of Opole University 2021-09-30 Radio Free Europę in New York 27 mittee for a Free Europę, beginning its activity on 1 June 1949, which later changed its name into Free Europę Committee (FEC). Its seat (later on the seat ofRFE) was located at 110 West 57th Street in New York. That organization — brought into existence as a formally independent and non-profit private institution with the aim to complement the overt actions of the US Government4 - was set up in 1949, during the crisis brought about by the hlockade of Berlin. On the side of the USA that event triggered intensive actions, whose goal was to oppose the growing influence of the communists. Representatives of political emigration from Central-Eastern European countries turned out good political allies then as they mobilized all their potential to fight the Soviet. The newly-formed organization was thus to support liberation movements of democratic leaders in the subdued states.5 Jan Nowak-Jeziorański underlined, at the same time, that one of the goals behind bringing FEC into existence “was creating a field for outstanding emigrants to maneuver and providing them with occupations suiting their aspi- rations”.6 The assumptions accepted by FEC wrote into the concept of George Kennan, which took into account - first of all - broad propagandist actions - downright ‘political warfare’ — opposing the Soviet activity.7 In the same year when FEC was established, from the merger of two stations, i.e., Radio Free Europę and Radio Liberty — upon the initiative of FEC — the radio network named Radio Free Europę was formed in New York. It madę an extended political arm of the Committee and its basie instrument of activity. There was formed a network of radio stations broadcasting programs initially in the native languages of the following five states: Poland, Czechoslo- vakia, Hungary, Romania and Bułgaria. In time, the information from the sta tions could reach as many as almost 85 million listeners. The dominant goal that madę up the leading ambition for RFE was to break through the Tron Curtain’ to deliver the message. The station soon won regular and faithful lis-

4 See: A. Paczkowski, Trzy twarze Józefa Światły. Przyczynek do historii komunizmu w Polsce, Warszawa 2009, p. 224. 5 The concept of forming Free Europę Committee as a private institution under the auspices of influential Americans, which was meant to take care of the conąuered states of Central-Eastern Europę, was approved by the then Secretary of State, Dean Acheson. The realization of the idea was the task of Joseph Grew. The Committee comprised 50 outstanding Americans representing Democrats and Republicans, among others: General Dwight Eisenhower - futurę Commander-in- Chief of the NATO and the US President, General Lucius Clay, Senator Herbert Lehman, former Sub-Secretary of State Joseph C. Grew, Allen Dulles - futurę Director of the CIA, an advocate of uncompromising and strict policy towards the USSR. See: D. Platt, “Dyktatorzy polskiej sprawy”, [in:] Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, Jerzy Giedroyc. Listy 1952-1998, selection, elaboration and introduction by D. Platt, Wrocław 2001, p. 20—21; F. Gadomski, Zgromadzenie Europejskich Narodów Ujarzmionych. Krótki zarys, Nowy Jork 1995; J. Nowak-Jeziorański, Wojna w eterze, Wspomnien ia 1948-1956, Londyn 1986, p. 26 ff. 6 J. Nowak-Jeziorański, op. cit., p. 26. 7 See: A. Paczkowski, op. cit., p. 224.

Pobrano z https://repo.uni.opole.pl / Downloaded from Repository of Opole University 2021-09-30 28 Wiesława Piątkowska-Stepaniak teners, whose number was assessed at about 30 million in the 1970s. They listened to broadcasts like news, press reviews, comments, which were impossi- ble to access in Central-Eastern Europę at that time.8 The Free Europę Radio Station — the Voice of Poland in Munieh — began broadcasting regular programs in 1952 — on the day being an anniversary of the declaration of the Third May Constitution. On 3 May 1958 the name was ehanged into Rozgłośnia Polska Radia Wolna Europa (Polish Radio Station of Free Europę Radio).9 The priority goal of the Radio Station consisted in raising the independence spirit in Poland by passing true information from the free world. The free word was to take roots in the consciousness of the Polish and to provide substantial support for the nation at moments of dramatic events going on in the country, such as those, among others, in June 1956, March 1958, December 1970, or during the introduction of the martial law. In the situation that occurred, the fact that the Station’s activity was fi- nanced from American resources was not of great significance. Although Ta deusz Wittlin — one of the wittiest satirists of the emigration - was truły sur- prised when he had to admit that “at the English Garden in Munieh, close to the Chinese Tower, Poles, using American money — to Germans’ dismay — grouse about Russians”.10

Who to go on the air

Before those who had fled from the People’s Republic of Poland sat down in front of the microphones to go on the air, in the first years the Voice of Free Po land Radio Free Europę accepted rigorous principles with reference to its workers, which prohibited visits to Poland. In this way, the management intended to prevent any form of surveillance of the Station on the part of communist in- telligence service. The introduction of the strict principles did not mean complete distancing from comers from Poland, some of whom could even find em- ployment there. Marek Walicki, the first escapee from the People’s Republic of Poland who was offered a job with RFE, wrote about this in his memoirs.11

8 Radio Free Europę in an Era of Negotiation, address by Stewart S. Cort — Chairman Bethle- hem Steel Corporation and Chairman Radio Free Europę Fund, Inc., New York, NY 1972, p. 2 ff., Marek Walickfs archives. 9 For broader reference to the subject see: R. Habielski, Zycie społeczne i kulturalne emigracji. Warszawa 1999 (ser.: Druga Wielka Emigracja 1945-1990, vol. 3), p. 135 ff. 10 T. Nowakowski, “Niagara nazwisk. (Zamiast kieszonkowej encyklopedii)”, [in:J B. Wierzbiański, W. Piątkowska-Stepaniak (eds.), Dziennikarze polscy na emigracji. Wspomnienia z lat 1937-1989, Opole 2001, p. 167. 11 M. Walicki, “Arena i antena. Wspomnienia 1949-1991”, [in:] W. Piątkowska-Stepaniak (ed.), Autoportret zbiorowy. Wspomnienia dziennikarzy polskich na emigracji z lat 1945-2002, Opole 2003, pp. 91-147.

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But, in 1948, when Aleksander Janta-Połczyński set out on a journey from New York to Poland and returned with a report on his visit published later in the form of the book entitled Wracam z Polski 1948: Warszawa, Wrocław, Kraków, Poznań, Szczecin - życie, polityka, gospodarka, sztuka, ludzie i za gadnienia (I Am Corning Back From Poland 1948: Warsaw, Wrocław, Kra ków, Poznań, Szczecin — the Life, Politics, Economy, Art, People and Issues),12 he was the target of biting comments voiced by the so-called steadfast. For in- stance, Lechoń treated Janta’s visit to the mother country as an act of treason and, conseąuently, publicly refused to shake hands with the latter.13 What is morę, the former was so critical towards Janta’s going to Poland that in his letters to Grydzewski, while condemning Janta and also Giedroyć who had pub lished the report - which he considered to be yet another scandal — he wrote as follows: “Has Giedroyć gone mad? Janta is the meanest traitor who ‘turns his shitty ass towards both sides’”.14 In such circumstances, there was no way Janta-Połczyński could stay on the personnel employed for the Polish ‘desk’ in Voice of America or RFE which was being formed in New York at that time. With time he came back to go on the air but never got employed fuli time, but — as many others — stayed a free-lanc- er. Anyway, getting a fuli time position was hard. The vicious opinions saying that in order to get a post at RFE one needed to be a ‘nidowiec’ (a member of the Polish Independence Movement ‘Independence and Democracy’) was com- mented on by Tadeusz Nowakowski who wrote: “Somebody murmured envious- ly that chances of getting the post of a newsreader with Free Europę were only available to a nidowiec’ who had lost their voice during the Warsaw Uprising”.15 The thing looked completely different, though. The very belonging to Polish Liberty Radio ‘Independence and Democracy’ did not necessarily raise the chance of obtaining a post at RFE. Still, both Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, who was put in charge of forming the Polish Section of RFE in Munich, and Bolesław Wierzbiański, who was aiding the former to do so, did have their ‘independence-and-democracy-movement’ political genealogy. J. Nowak-Jeziorański was of the opinion that the fundamental criterion for candidates to be employed at RFE was to be the talent. He had ąuite a few ap- plicants to choose from. As he wrote: “The soldier-based emigration was im- mensely rich in talents at that time. After all, it was emigration that followed

12 A. Janta-Połczyński, Wracam z Polski 1948: Warszawa, Wrocław, Kraków, Poznań, Szczecin - życie, polityka, gospodarka, sztuka, ludzie i zagadnienia, Paryż 1949. 13 See: A letter from J. Lechoń to M. Grydzewski, [in:] Mieczysław Grydzewski, Jan Lechoń. Listy 1923-1956, prepared for printing from the manuscript, with introduction and references by B. Do rosz, vol. 1—2, Warszawa 2006, p. 203. See especially the commentary by B. Dorosz on the significance of A. Janta-Połczyński’s correspondence with “Wiadomości”, and also the significance of the letters written by J. Lechoń to M. Grydzewski, ibidem, p. 204. 14 The ąuotation taken from: M. Grochowska, Jerzy Giedroyć. Do Polski ze snu, Warszawa 2009, p. 147. 15 T. Nowakowski, op. cit., p. 156.

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after September 1939 and 1945. Therefore it had in its ranks plenty of people boasting ofunusual ąualifications. Both among journalists and writers, as well as artists. I wanted, however, to connect this professional criterion with a certain political balance. I was keen for it to be as if a coalition of national unity. And, indeed, it came to be so. We had in our team representatives of all polit ical currents”16. The circle of collaborators was also getting wider and wider. They, as freelance workers, wrote into the history of the Radio. As Andrzej W. Marth (who belonged to the first team employed in the New York branch of the radio station, where he worked for 18 years) recalled at the beginning of the 1950s, “the team of permanent workers was not numerous, yet from the very first moment ‘free-lancers’ - Lechoń, Wittlin, Wierzyński, and various scientists, politicians and men of letters residing outside New York, be it in Europę, America or Australia, wrote for the Radio”17 and then he added, “A considerable influence on the political linę of the Polish Radio was exerted by representatives of parties, that is peasant party members, socialists, members of the National Party, Independence and Democracy Movement, Democratic Party. They themselves addressed their speeches to listeners in the country”.18 Leaders or representatives of Polish political parties, both those who were staying in America and those who had arrived from London, among others, Bolesław Biega, Tadeusz Bielecki, Adam Ciołkosz, Feliks Gadomski, Stefan Korboński, Otton Pehr, Stanisław Mikołajczyk, Adam Rudzki, Jan Fryling, Wacław Jędrzejewicz, Jan Wszelaki or Oskar Halecki, madę their appearance in front of the microphone.19 It is they who set the tonę for political debates, were looking for systemie Solutions for the country — of the federal naturę in the case of Europę and of the peaceful character for the world. They perceived chances of regaining sovereignty, democracy, and society taking control over their matters into their own hands. Broadcasts entitled Świadkowie historii (Wit- nesses to History), programs prepared by Jan Nowak, Tadeusz Zenczykowski, Andrzej Pomian, Jerzy Lerski, Stefan Korboński, commanders of the Polish Armed Forces in the West, opposed the attempts to distort the historical truth. Not idealizing the relationships existing in the Interwar Poland, the authors rejected its falsified image. They did their best - if only not formally so in reality — to be the Voice of Free Poland.20

16 Żmudna praca na rzecz uwalniania umysłów. An interview of A. Grabowska with J. Nowak - Jeziorański, a founder of the Polish Radio Station of Radio Free Europę, [in:] RWE. Wspomnienia pracowników Rozgłośni Polskiej Radia Wolna Europa, texts collected by A. Grabowska, Warsza wa 2002, p. 7. 17 A.W. Marth, “Wycofanie RWE z Ameryki. Jeszcze głos w dyskusji”, Nowy Dziennik, 28.02.1974. 18 Ibidem. 19 M. Rudzki, “Polska sekcja Radia Wolna Europa w Nowym Jorku”, Zeszyty Historyczne (Paris) 2000, p. 188; W. Zachariasiewicz, Etos niepodległościowy Polonii amerykańskiej. Warszawa 2005, p. 205. 20 T. Nowakowski, op. cit., p. 175.

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Tadeusz Pawłowicz (connected with the Democratic Party, entered the struć - tures of the Executive Committee of the Party in the USA) recalled that “My duties involved also making projects relating to various types of new programs. I took the opportunity to push forward, as much as I could, topics of federal- ism, youth, programs on Poles deported to Russia, or the necessity of talking ahout Piłsudski, whom my American colleagues (not without some influence on the part of some of my compatriots) had a distorted knowledge about. I had to draw lists of experts in different domains, who were invited to the studio to deliver specialist talks. Also my duties covered giving opinions on certain Scripts. I was asked to cast some light on the character, numher of members and impact that individual Polish political groups had”21. Every Sunday evening there was a literary program on the air, run by: Jan Lechoń, Józef Wittlin, Jan Olechowski, Henryk Walicki, Kazimierz Wierzyński. The last of them, on the occasion of planning radio broadcasts in the series Pis arz polski w kraju i poza krajem (The Polish Writer at Home and Outside the Country) in 1957, informed Józef Wittlin: “Why am I not returning? Because I have left the country to oppose violence and this has filled up my years out side home, and despite all the changes for the better there, I cant possibly say that I don’t feel this violence being there anymore”.22 He felt the need to for- mulate the ideological bases for Poles in the political exile,23 which he accen- tuated in meetings during the programs entitled Głos wolnych pisarzy (The Voice of Free Writers). Lechoń, while presenting assumptions of this program, said, among others, that “We turn to writers, critics, researchers of literaturę, to youth who are studying, all Poles who love the Polish book, thirsty for Polish poetry. We shall speak to you every Sunday. We means Polish writers, poets, critics, research ers of literaturę and readers of literaturę who are remaining in exile because we want to tell the world the truth about Poland, demand liberty and preserve the treasure of the free Polish word of independent Poland”.24

21 T. Pawłowicz, Obraz pokolenia, Kraków 1999, pp. 146—147. 22 P. Kądziela, “Kazimierz Wierzyński wobec emigracji”, Nowy Dziennik - Przegląd Polski, 23.07.1992. See also: Lechoń Jan, poeta, Arch. JPI, personnel archives, unit no. 154, cat. no. 579. 23 Wierzyński had already signaled the necessity of accentuating the ideological bases of political exile earlier, among others, in his letter to Tymon Terlecki of February 1946, in which he wrote: “The existence outside the mother country, without the sense of purpose of this stay, without taking pride in that you take upon yourself duties for the good of others, without the compulsion of fighting for your country — is not something to endure in the long run. You need to get out of the instinct of resistance and move to its ideological consciousness and active organization”, ibidem. 24 A. Bernat, “Jan Lechoń w radiu”, Nowy Dziennik - Przegląd Polski, 5.03.1992. See also lec- tures by Anna Bernat on radio journalism of Lechoń in RFE in the years 1952—1956 (enriched with a presentation of uniąue recordings of broadcasts obtained from the Archives of Spoken History of Polish Scientific Institute) delivered at the Institute in America and at Yale University during the International Jubilee of Polish Scientific Institute Congress.

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Discussions held by poets, scientists, creators, in which Ludwik Krzyża nowski, Józef Wittlin, Kazimierz Wierzyński, Wiktor Weintraub, Jan Ole chowski, Henryk Walicki, and —with time — Aleksander Janta-Połczyński, took part were not free from sharp literary polemics, criticism of those who created literaturę in the Communist Poland, and who — in their majority were writing — as it was generally maintained — clearly upon the political order. Besides, the debates were fuli of political ideological ąuarrels, daring visions of futurę Poland and Europę common to all nations. By distancing themselves in an ex- plicit way from the authorities of People’s Republic of Poland, they acknowl- edged the strength of Polish society and appealed to it accordingly. They were also able to rise above their own ‘implacable’ attitudes and appreciate the art of many creators living in the country at that time. In 1953, Lechoń wrote in his Dziennik (The Diary): “Tuwim died. |.„] All who came afterwards and many of his peers should say now ‘We are all out of him’”.25 The ‘New York’ Skamandrites repeated these words while sitting down in front of the microphone of the Polish ‘desk’ of RFE. Lechoń’s ‘talking to the radio’, as he himself called it, characterized the type of journalism which we would cali social journalism today, resulting from the essence of social thinking, beliefs, social aims and hopes. Partially, in an un- intended way, it left a permanent contribution to shaping the national atti tudes and beliefs. In the years 1951—1956, the poet himself, in his Diary, recorded various references to the radio and people connected with it, as well as evaluations and his own dilemmas. In one of the entries, madę on 22 Septem- ber 1951, we can read: “I wrote five pages treating about Wanda Wasilews ka to Free Europę. I believe even with some wit and original ideas”.26 “I spent. a few hours preparing a trifle: the plan of literary broadcasts for Free Europę. I didn’t like anything that came to my mind — everything was too much propagandist, and I was bored and disgusted with it in advance. To fight with Bol- shevik propaganda means, primarily, fighting with propaganda at all, dissem- inating the thought, not the will, sińce there is no such thing, but one wishing for freedom. Anything else is basically to stoop to their level. Everybody says: ‘Why don’t we fight using their own weapon?’ But the problem is that may- be this is the only road to victory, yet what sort of road? Towards some other kind of Bolshevik system without terror, still just like that one — without free dom and without the soul”.27 “Today on the air — twice: in the morning — about ‘the misunderstanding’, in the afternoon — about the ‘the myth of the Tatras’. Very bad in the rehearsal and fairly well in front of the microphone, anyway that was not reading out but a talk, a discussion — what Americans consider

25 J. Lechoń, Dziennik, vol. 3: 1 stycznia 1953 - 30 maja 1956, Warszawa 1993, p. 277. 26 J. Lechoń, Dziennik, vol. 2: 1 stycznia 1951 - 31 grudnia 1952, Warszawa 1992, p. 245. 27 Ibidem, p. 367.

Pobrano z https://repo.uni.opole.pl / Downloaded from Repository of Opole University 2021-09-30 Radio Free Europę in New York 33 the very best flavor of a radio broadcast”.28 In 1954, he recorded the following: “The talk on the radio about Upadek tyrana Guzienki (The kall of Tyrant Guzienka)”.29 Then, in December 1955, “Wittlin - during the whole broadcast of today - was demonstrating that Christianity and The Old Testament are one in such an aggressive manner that I thought: may such racists not come to power, because then we can all — if not die at the stake — so suffer most ter- ribly because of mental cruelty”.30 In the context of the undeniable role which people concentrated around RFE played probably of considerable importance is the fact that work for Lechoń was sometimes the sole source of obtaining modest means of sustenance, which both for him and many others was vital. Lechoń noted a few times that “I had to immediately borrow money because it is time to pay the tax and I haven’t been paid my salary yet”,31 “I had to borrow money because Free Europę have lagged two weeks behind with my pay”.32 Many participants of the discussions Przy Okrągłym Stole (At the Round Table) becarne involved in co-creating the program of the Munich broadcasting station by partaking sometimes in preparation, sometimes in running of broadcasts. The commentaries or literary sketches recorded by them at the New York studio were sent over to Munich. Lechoń’s collaboration with RFE lasted prac- tically until the last months of his life, that is up to April 1956 (in June that year he committed suicide). It offered him a sense of communication with the mother country and, in a way, eased the great longing for it, which was called ‘sickness with Poland’ by some. Lechoń, who devoted a large part of his Diary to his cooperation with Free Europę “radiated with his existence over the environment of creators. Even over those who were not in favor of the type of his poetic expression”.33 At the Round Table raised literary, social and political topics, the last aspect resulting from the fact that Lechoń was deeply immersed in the emigration political world of New York. Broadcasts by writers carried thus also a significant polit ical message at that time.34 From the moment of taking the post of the manager by Strzetelski in New York and Nowak in Munich, there commenced an intense rivalry between the two centers to bear the palm. The growing conflict between Nowak and Strze telski finally ended in a defeat of the latter. The dot over ‘i’ that settled the case and resulted in Nowak’s becoming the manager of both departments was

28 J. Lechoń, Dziennik, vol. 3..., p. 258. 29 Ibidem, p. 432. 30 Ibidem, p. 747. 31 Ibidem, p. 250. 32 Ibidem, p. 289. 33 T. Nowakowski, op. cit., p. 153. 34 M. Rudzki, op. cit., p. 187.

Pobrano z https://repo.uni.opole.pl / Downloaded from Repository of Opole University 2021-09-30 34 Wiesława Piątkowska-Stepaniak most probably the operation under the cryptonym ‘Spotlight’ which Strzetelski was decisively negative about. The revelations disclosed by J. Światło were de- scribed, by Zbigniew Błażyński who had been sent to New York by Nowak and done a giant’s job. He created the cycle under the title Za kulisami bezpieki i partii (The Backstage of the Security Service and the Party). Until the end of January 1955 there were 77 programs broadcast, which illustrated revelations of Józef Światło, a high ranking official of the Security Service, who de- fected to the West. Together with other special programs the broadcasts madę a powerful dose of shocking materiał meant to expose the activity of the authorities of the Communist Poland. The project proved successful to a great extent.

A report on the success

In the archives of Piłsudski Institute, we will find a report dated from 1958, drawn by Jerzy Kamiński — a young sociologist, Ford Foundation scholarship- holder, a close co-worker of Professor J. Chałasiński — which concerns the public opinion in Poland on the activity, among others, of foreign radio stations, including Radio Free Europę. In the report we can read that within environments of workers in Poland, until 1956, about 50—60% of those possessing ra dio sets of high reception capacity, listened to a program (the whole of it or a fragment) broadcast by RFE or Voice of America at least once a week. About 80% of workers employed in big industrial works in large cities knew the most attractive news offered by those stations (to a lesser degree that broadcast by BBC, RIAS, RM). After the October events the situation underwent a complete change. From the evaluations presented in the report it follows that RFE did not manage to keep pace with the ‘temperaturę’ of the moods and the events. In conseąuence, the national radio was gradually winning trust and RFE was losing listeners. This did not last long, though. As early as in 1958 the habit of listening to for eign radio stations returned and it followed from the sociological research con- ducted at that time that the dynamics of the young generation had a concen- tric character — focused on their own problems and goals. Shifting the atten- tion from affairs concerning the mother country onto those connected with for eign states, issues like going to study abroad, scholarships, or even escapes and “settling down in hospitable - as the listeners thought - capitalist countries”, especially in the USA, plus the fashion of the ‘Western lifestyle’, jazz, rock and roli, film clubs and foreign musie and information programs, caused the interest in RFE broadcasts to rise considerably, as they propagated broader contacts between the West and Poland. The Polish section of RFE in Amer ica occupied an exceptional place in this respect, sińce young people were in- terested in the USA in a particularly strong way. Therefore, the editorial team of the Radio operating in the USA popularized the policy of openness to eon-

Pobrano z https://repo.uni.opole.pl / Downloaded from Repository of Opole University 2021-09-30 Radio Free Europę in New York 35 tacts with Poland, scholarships and studies funded for the young, which some emigration and Polish American environments endeavored to raise funds for. There appeared a greater number of scientists in the radio studio, who ad- vertised American scientific centers, especially those open to Polish students. What is interesting, the systematic propaganda of the communist authorities that admitted — to a certain degree - the luxury of ‘delighting in the West’ was intentional as in this way the young could be kept away from politics. The beginning of the 1970s saw successive changes, both in Poland and in other states. As a result, the moment of liąuidation of the Polish department of RFE in New York was imminent (not only the Polish one). As a result about 80 employees lost their jobs, including writers and technical personnel.35 The New York-based Nowy Dziennik (The New Daily), in the editorial entitled “Exit ‘Wolnej Europy’ z Ameryki” (Exit o f ‘Free Europę’ from America) an- nounced: “On 31 December 1973 the microphones of Radio Free Europę in New York went silent [in fact, the finał liąuidation of the department lasted for two morę years — W.P.-S.], having broadcast programs from the United States to Poland and other countries of Central-Eastern Europę. [...] From our — Polish- American viewpoint - it is the section of RFE based in New York which was an indispensable connector through which the free word from America, withheld at the borders by the dense networks of censorship, could reach the receivers cut off from the world. Polish-American writers and journalists, leaders and members of the Congress were freąuent guests on the air using RFE waves. Thanks to that Polish creative spirit became part of the all-national creative life. The transfer of the whole of the operation of RFE to Germany cuts off and thwarts the possibility”.36 This did not happen, though. The Munich-based department implemented the goals marked out earlier together with the New York-based one. It was no- where else but in Munich - in front of the microphone of the Polish section of RFE - that a spectrum of colorful personages, creators, men of literaturę and scientists sat down, playing the role of franc-tireur. As Tadeusz Nowakowski wrote about them, himself being one of the pillars of the radio, they generated “a mythogenic gravitational field around their own persons, a peculiar sort of star cult”.37 There were tens of them. Not only Lechoń — a solitary and a man of the world in one — whom Nowakowski admired and respected for “the skill of including good and bad acąuaintances into Lechoń’s planetary system”.38 There was also, among others, Marek Hłasko - whose talent shone on ‘ąuite a different story’ and who, for some time, lived in Munich and was connected with the radio station. The power of exerting influence by the author of Ósmy

35 M. Walicki, op. cit., pp. 115-116. 36 “Exit 'Wolnej Europy’ z Ameryki”, Nowy Dziennik, 3.01.1974. 37 T. Nowakowski, op. cit., p. 169. 38 Ibidem.

Pobrano z https://repo.uni.opole.pl / Downloaded from Repository of Opole University 2021-09-30 36 Wiesława Piątkowska-Stepaniak dzień tygodnia (The Eighth Day of the Week) was immense. “Newspapers in the West, when he had chosen freedom, counted him into the body of witness- es to accuse the world in which he had been brought up”.39 Torn with inner anxiety - as Nowakowski wrote — born of anger and disappointment, he chose to follow the road towards morał transparency. “A hooded moralist, I agree. He did not have in himself the humbleness of the Poor Man of Assisi. He was ready to spring, aggressive not only in relation to prosecutors, but also to their victims. In that aggressive-resistant approach towards the reality he remind- ed of Tadeusz Borowski”.40 And where to cłassify Gustaw Herling-Grudziński? In Munich, he was called ‘Man of Ciołkosz’. The PPS team in Munich was managed by Michał Gamarnikow, following the death of whom the baton was taken up by the edi- tor of the workers’ section — Tadeusz Podgórski. It is the latter who — as Nawa- kowski wrote — “sowed the seed which germinated in Gdańsk”.41 The Sołidarity movement in Poland caused the relations between the emigration and the mother country to tighten. It should not surprise then that Jacek Kaczmarski — a bard and idol of Sołidarity — appeared in front of the microphones of RFE, joining the new wave of exiles and - at the same time — the new voices of Alina Grabowska, Lechosław Gawlikowski, Krystyna Krzyszto fiak, Władysław Odojewski, Leopold Unger, Zdzisław Najder, Piotr Mroczyk, Maciej Wierzyński, Jacek Kalabiński, Andrzej Więckowski, Marek Lehnert, Aleksander Swieykowski. The song Mury (The Walls) which Kaczmarski set to the tune of the Catalonian anarchist Lluis Llach was performed in 1978 at Gdańsk Shipyard and under the Monument of Three Crosses, becoming the unofficial anthem of Sołidarity. It was sang later in prisons and internment camps, as well as broadcast by RFE. When, in 1985, Zygmunt Jabłoński wrote his book Gabinet figur radiowych (The Radio Figures Museum) for the listeners of the Polish Broadcasting Stu dio of RFE, he was in possession of estimated data saying that there were about between 5 and 10 million of them in Poland, depending on the historical significance of political events.42 Did the listeners know the real names of those whose voices were on the air? They certainly recognized Zygmunt Jabłoński, sińce he uttered the words “Przy mikrofonie Zygmunt Jabłoński” (“It is Zyg munt Jabłoński in front of the microphone”) for some dozens of years, so did they know Andrzej Krzeczunowicz, Władysław Bojarski, Michał Tyszkiewicz or the pre-war radio journalist Wiktor Trościanko, the author of the permanent polemics program Odwrotna strona medalu (The Other Side of the Coin), too.

39 Ibidem. 40 Ibidem. 41 Ibidem, p. 173. 42 At Free Europo there was a special department which ordered conducting such research to Gallup Agency, cf. Z. Jabłoński, Gabinet figur radiowych, Berlin 1985, p. 5.

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But some other names, like Tadeusz Nowakowski or Tadeusz Żenczykowski were not necessarily known to the public: the former appeared under the pseu- donym Tadeusz Olsztyński and the latter as Zawadzki. Those using pseudo- nyms did not want to put their families or acąuaintances at the risk of being repressed in Poland, which practice was applied by the Communist authorities towards all who were associated with RFE in the slightest way. The listeners did not have to know the real names; it is important that the whole enterprise was successful. “Summa cum laude”, said one listener of RFE after years, who - not being discouraged by constant disturbance - had been tuning in patiently to find the right freąuency. His name was Karol Wojtyła.43

Bibliography Scientific Studies Gadomski F. Zgromadzenie Europejskich Narodów Ujarzmionych. Krótki zarys, Nowy Jork 1995. Grochowska M., Jerzy Giedroyc. Do Polski ze snu, Warszawa 2009. Habielski R., Niezłomni, nieprzejednani. Emigracyjne “Wiadomości” i ich krąg 1940-1981, War szawa 1991. Habielski R., Emigracja, Warszawa 1995. Habielski R., Życie społeczne i kulturalne emigracji, ser.: Druga Wielka Emigracja 1945-1990, vol. 3., Warszawa 1999. Habielski R., Polski Londyn, Wrocław 2000. Jabłoński Z., Gabinet figur radiowych, Berlin 1985. Janta A., Nowe odkrycie Ameryki, Paryż 1973. Janta-Połczyński A., Wracam z Polski 1948: Warszawa, Wrocław, Kraków, Poznań, Szczecin - życie, polityka, gospodarka, sztuka, ludzie i zagadnienia, Paryż 1949. Paczkowski A., Trzy twarze Józefa Światły. Przyczynek do historii komunizmu w Polsce, Warszawa 2009. Pawłowicz T., Obraz pokolenia, Kraków 1999. Zachariasiewicz W., Etos niepodległościowy Polonii amerykańskiej, Warszawa 2005.

Articles Bernat A., “Jan Lechoń w radiu”, Nowy Dziennik - Przegląd Polski, 5.03.1992. Marth A.W., “Wycofanie RWE z Ameryki. Jeszcze głos w dyskusji”, Nowy Dziennik, 28.02.1974. Kądziela P., “Kazimierz Wierzyński wobec emigracji”, Nowy Dziennik - Przegląd Polski, 23.07.1992. Rudzki M., “Polska sekcja Radia Wolna Europa w Nowym Jorku”, Zeszyty Historyczne (Paris) 2000. “Exit ‘Wolnej Europy’ z Ameryki”, Nowy Dziennik, 3.01.1974.

Archival materials, letters, memories, legał acts Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, Jerzy Giedroyc. Listy 1952-1998, selection, elaboration and introduction by D. Platt, Wrocław 2001. Lechoń J., Dziennik, vol. 2: 1 stycznia 1951 - 31 grudnia 1952, Warszawa 1992. Lechoń J., Dziennik, vol. 3: 1 stycznia 1953 - 30 maja 1956, Warszawa 1993.

43 T. Nowakowski, op. cit., p. 169.

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Lechoń Jan, poeta, Arch. JPI, personnel archives, unit no. 154, cat. no. 579. Mieczysław Grydzewski, Jan Lechoń. Listy 1923-1956, prepared for printing from the manuscript, with introduction and references by B. Dorosz, vol. 1-2, Warszawa 2006. Nowak-Jeziorański J., Wojna w eterze, Wspomnienia 1948-1956, Londyn 1986. Piątkowska-Stepaniak W. (ed.), Autoportret zbiorowy. Wspomnienia dziennikarzy polskich na emigracji z lat 1945-2002, Opole 2003. Radio Free Europę in an Era of Negotiation, address by Stewart S. Cort — Chairman Bethlehem Steel Corporation and Chairman Radio Free Europę Fund, Inc., New York, NY 1972, Marek Walicki’s archives. Wierzbiański B., Piątkowska-Stepaniak W. (eds.), Dziennikarze polscy na emigracji. Wspomnienia z lat 1937-1989, Opole 2001. Wspomnienia pracowników Rozgłośni Polskiej Radia Wolna Europa, texts collected by A. Grabows ka, Warszawa 2002.

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