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 pur- pose — 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 cent- ers — 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 knowl- edge 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 dem- ocratic 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 lis- tened 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.

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