THE SARMATIAN REVIEW

Vol. XVII, No. 3 September 1997 Republics v. empires The dilemma of Central Europe 474 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW September 1997 exclusively by sympathizers of the Freedom The Sarmatian Review [ISSN Union, a party which stands for the 1059-5872] is a tri-quarterly of the Polish In- From the Editor stitute in Houston, Texas, an independent, schol- ideologically leftist and, in some cases, arly and educational not-for-profit institution. This issue features a poetic essay economically opportunistic circles of the SR deals with Polish, Central and Eastern Euro- by Valeriia Novodvorskaia, a Russian postcommunist Polish intelligentsia. If pean affairs, and their implications for the United dissident and political activist. In a way Polish views are heard at all in American S tates. We specialize in the translation of docu- all too rare in Russian intellectual life, ments and in publishing other texts of academic universities and in the opinion-making interest. Novodvorskaia takes note of the point of circles, it is this segment of Polish public Subscription price is $12.00 per year for indi- view of nations conquered militarily by opinion that is considered the voice of viduals, $18.00 for institutions and libraries at some point in time, the nations . Indeed, those Polish intellectuals ($18.00 for individuals, $24.00 for libraries which were part of the USSR and now overseas). The views expressed by authors of who are opposed to the ideology of the texts do not necessarily represent those of the are or are not part of the Russian sometimes encounter the Editors or of the Polish Institute. Texts are sub- Federation; of Chechenya and Georgia in kind of treatment Novodvorskaia writes ject to editing. Unsolicited manuscripts are not particular. These nations aspire to about: they are speedily dismissed, like the returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed sovereignty, an aspiration that informs and stamped envelope. Please submit your con- dissidents who dared to oppose Andrei tribution on a Macintosh disk together with a the entire range of their activity, from Sakharov (who did not flinch while printout. Shorter texts can be submitted by e- military struggle to cultural and economic developing the excessive and unsafe nuclear mail (), with an accompa- development. Novodvorskaia’s comment arsenal for the Soviets). It bears repeating nying printout sent by snail mail. All commu- is valid for other situations concerning nications (articles, letters to the editor, subscrip- that not all Polish intellectuals sympathize tion checks) should be sent to empires which swallowed up nations for with the Freedom Union, and they have to The Sarmatian Review, P.O. Box 79119, Hous- the sake of self-aggrandizement. be listened to, if only for a more accurate ton, Texas 77279-9119. Americans are generally unfamiliar with overall picture. Olszewski is one such Editor: Ewa M. Thompson (Rice University). the struggle-for-independence syndrome Editorial Advisory Committee: Marek Kimmel intellectual. (Rice University), Alex Kurczaba (University which has been a major heritage of Far be it for us to suggest that a of Illinois), Witold J. Lukaszewski (Sam Hous- empires. It takes an existential experience single interview could remedy this ton State University), Michael J. Mikos (Uni- of being a part of an enslaved nation to suggested lack of balance. It is remarkable, versity of Wisconsin), Waclaw Mucha (Rice Uni- empathize with what Novodvorskaia is versity), Pamela Pavliscak (Rice University), however, how few of Mr. Olszewski’s James R. Thompson (Rice University), Andrzej writing about. She suggests that the statements and opinions have been quoted WaÊko (). experience of belonging to a particular in the American media. He was a prime Web Pages: Pamela Pavliscak. national or cultural community is a minister, and his party’s standing with the Web Address: voters is approximately equal to that of the Sarmatian Review Council: Marla K. Burns in different forms it might have always Freedom Union (about 10%, within a few (Burns & Associates), Boguslaw Godlewski been part of human identity. percentage points upwards or downwards). (Diagnostic Clinic of Houston), Iga J. If multiculturalism means a Thus we are happy to offer this interview Henderson, Danuta Z. Hutchins (Buena Vista recognition of that fact, we are for University), Joseph A. Jachimczyk (J.A. although, as a journal, we obviously do not Jachimczyk Forensic Center of Harris County, multiculturalism; if it means a pretense that identify with Mr. Olszewski’s views. So Texas), Leonard M. Krazynski (Krazynski & As- such divisions could be obliterated, we can far as we know, this is the first interview sociates), Martin Lawera (Rice University), only laugh — albeit sadly, for in that case with Mr. Olszewski ever to appear in an Witold P. Skrypczak. multiculturalism signifies another utopia, English language publication. another ‘ism’ forced upon the real world, Professor Lukaszewski’s In this issue: another grim idea manufactured in the eloquent article argues for the republican From the Editor...... 474 intellectual forge of modernity which has option in Central Europe, an option which, SR INDEX...... 475 already produced communism and at this time, manifests itself in the desire of SR interviews ...... 477 nazism. We salute Novodvorskaia for her Poland and other Central European nations Valeriia Novodvorskaia, Throw everything courage to think and say that which few to be admitted to NATO. Lukaszewski overboard that smells of blood (trans. by Russians have dared think and say, and elaborates the views stated forcefully by Steven Clancy)...... 481 we thank the editors of Novoe Vremia for former national security W. J. Lukaszewski, NATO enlargement and permission to publish her article. adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski. ∆ Russian democracy...... 485 We are pleased to offer our BOOKS...... 490 readers an interview with the former The Sarmatian Review Thomas Jagiella, Environmental Politics in Polish prime minister, Jan Olszewski. He is now online! Poland (review)...... 492 represents the center-right segment of the Frank Kujawinski, Conrad and Poland Polish political spectrum. His party’s name LETTERS...... 495 for the Reconstruction of Poland]. or search Yahoo or Altavista ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTES...... 496 Olszewski’s sympathizers say that in the USA, Poland is represented almost September 1997 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 475 Sarmatian Review Index Area of Poland submerged in July 1997 floods: 3,720 square miles including 40,000 farms and 1,358 towns and villages. Other figures: 162,000 people were forced to flee, 300,000 acres of crops have been destroyed,1.3 million acres of land have been under water. Number of fatalities: 54. Source: Deputy Agriculture Minister Jerzy Pilarczyk, as reported by Reuter, 18 July 1997; Polska Online-WiadomoÊci dnia, 18 July 1997; Reuter, 20 and 30 July 1997. Size of the Russian armed forces in 1997, according to Russian Defense Minister Igor Rodionov: 1.7 million. Armed forces reporting to ministries other than Defense, according to Rodionov: 0.7 million. Source: Reuter, 7 February 1997. Number of car accidents on Russian roads in 1996: 160,523. Number of deaths resulting from these accidents: 29,468. Source: Reuter (), 13 February 1997. Number of Russian-made Russian government cars (out of the total number of 700 purchased in 1996) which broke down within the first week: 200. Of the remaining cars, the number which broke down within the next several weeks: 300. Source: Reuter, 7 April 1997. Number of prisoners in Russian jails (per 100,000 population) in 1996: 694, or the highest in Europe. Number of prisoners in Ukrainian jails (per 100,000 population) in 1996: 392, or the second highest in Europe. Number of prisoners in Slovenian jails (per 100,000 population) 24.1, or the lowest in Europe. Source: Reuter (Strassburg), 13 February 1997. Percentage of crimes committed by teenagers in the Moscow district in 1996: 68%. Number of children under 14 (the age of legal responsibility in Russia) who committed crimes in 1996: 120,000. Number of school age children in Russia in 1996 who do not attend school and do not officially work: 1.5 million. Source: Trud, 6 March 1997, as reported by Peter Rutland in OMRI, 10 March 1997. Russia’s fiscal deficit in 1996: 9.6% of the GDP. Percentage of taxes collected in the first quarter of 1997: 58%. Source: Nailene Chou Wiest of Reuter (New York), 10 April 1997. Percentage drop in Russian oil production in 1996 (by comparison to 1995): 2%. Source: Reuter, 10 April 1997. Number of Russians who went abroad in 1996: 13 million. Of these, the number of those who vacationed in : 1.3 million. Source: Peter Ford in the Christian Science Monitor, 13 April 1997. Percentage of Muscovites who consider themselves Russian Orthodox: 67%. Percentage of Muscovites who attend religious services: 4%. Source: All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion, as reported by Reuter (Moscow), 27 April 1997. Name and location of the most polluted city in Russia: Dzerzhinsk, a chemical production center 200 miles from Moscow and 20 miles from Nizhnii Novgorod. Number of times the ground water concentration of toxic agents in Dzerzhinsk surpasses the norm: 50 million times [sic]. Average life span in Dzerzhinsk: 50 years. Source: Aleksei Kiselyov, co-author of Greenpeace’s report “Poisoned Cities,” as reported by Reuter (Moscow), 14 April 1997. Percentage of the Soviet military taken over by Russia in 1991: 85%. Russia’s contribution to the Soviet economy in 1991: 60%. Source: Russian Defense Council Chief Yury Baturin, as reported by the UPI (Moscow), 7 February 1997. Number of foreign visitors to the Czech Republic in 1996: 109.4 million. Percentage increase from 1995: 12 percent. Source: The Czech Statistical Bureau (CSU), as reported by Reuter (Prague), 4 February 1997. Populations of Great Britain, Italy, Poland and in 1959 and 1995: Great Britain 52 million and 58.48 million, Italy 49.1 million and 58.26 million, Poland 29.48 million and 38.79 million, Romania 18.3 million and 22 million. Source: Encyklopedia Popularna PWN ( 1962), CIA World Factbook 1995. 476 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW September 1997 Estimated percentage of United States residents who are foreign born (including illegal aliens): 9%. Source: National Public Radio news, 8 April 1997. Number of passengers carried by the Polish National Airline LOT in 1996: 2 million. Percentage increase over 1995: 10.5 %. Source: WiadomoÊci dnia, Polska Online, 13 February 1997. Inflation in Poland in January 1997: 2.9%. Source: Lena Białkowska in Donosy, 18 February 1997. Estimate of overdue payables in Russia in mid-1996 (including arrears to supplies and banks , tax and wage arrears): $90 billion, or 21% of Russian GDP. Source: Daniel Rosenblum’s lecture at the Kennan Institute on 13 January 1997, as reported by Jodi Koehn in Report: Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, Vol. XXV, No. 10 (1997), 1. Number of organized criminal groups operating in Russia in 1997: 9,000. Number of people they employ: 100,000. Source: Russian Interior Ministry, as reported by Reuter, 13 June 1997. Russian share of the world market in illegal recordings of music (compact disks and tapes): 70%. Source: RFE/RL, 10 June 1997. Average size of Polish farms in 1996: 7.91 hectars. Percentage of farms with a telephone: 22%. Percentage of farms using gas as a source of energy: 17%. Percentage of farms dependent on their own water supply: 53%. Source: GUS [Polish Statistical Office], as reported by Michał Jankowski in Donosy, 23 April 1997. Percentage of the world’s population of storks nesting in Poland annually: 25%. Estimated number of pairs of storks nesting in Poland annually: 15,000. Source: Reuter (Warsaw), 29 April 1997. Number of who take up jobs abroad each year: 700,000. Of these, estimated number of Poles who work illegally in other countries: 480,000. Number of foreigners who take up jobs in Poland each year: 150,000. Of these, estimated number of those who work illegally: 138,000. Source: Michał Jankowski in Donosy, 30 April 1997. Number of people who attended Masses and other meetings with Pope John Paul II during his May 31-June 10, 1997, visit to Poland: six million. Source: RFE/RL, 10 June 1997. Percentage of Poles who decided to go to confession following the Pope’s visit to Poland in May-June 1997: 47%. Source: A statistical survey published by the Znak Publishing House, as reported by Lena Białkowska in Donosy, 23 June 1997. Anticipated Polish foreign trade deficit in 1997: $13 billion. Poland’s foreign trade deficit in 1996: $8.2 billion. Source: Polish finance minister , as reported by Reuter (Warsaw), 16 June 1997. Current account deficit in the Czech Republic in 1996: 8.6 % of GDP. Projected current account deficit in the Czech Republic in 1997: 6.7% to 7.3% of GDP. Source: The Czech Statistical Bureau on 23 June, as reported by Reuter (Dubrovnik, Croatia) on 25 June 1997. Size of the Ukrainian budget for 1997 [sic] accepted by the Ukrainian Parliament on 27 June 1997: revenues $12.1 billion, expenditures $13.5 billion, with inflation predictions ranging between 17% and 25%, and deficit predictions ranging from 4.00% (IMF) to 5.7% (Ukrainian government). Estimated percentage of Ukrainian economy which is undeclared and on which no taxes are paid: 60%. Percentage of Ukrainian population earning $30 to $50 per month: 30%. Percentage of Ukrainian population earning over $150 per month: 0.5%. Source: Reuter, 26 and 27 June 1997. Global GDP in 1996: $30 trillion. Combined GDP of 26 former communist countries (total pop. 400 million) in 1996: $1 trillion. Source: Reuter, 27 June 1997. Russia’s place on the UN index measuring standard of living & educational standards in 175 countries: 67. Source: Elaine Monaghan of Reuter (Kiyv), 26 June 1997. September 1997 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 477 realism? The Sarmatian Review JO: I do not think so. What happened in 1989 could be compared to a decision, in 1918, to agree to become interviews another Soviet republic on the premise that the Soviet danger was unavoidable, that Russia would always Jan Olszewski dominate that part of Europe, and therefore it was unrealistic to try to build an independent Polish state Former and between Russia and . In a sense, those who said Chairman of the Movement for the so were right. Yet thanks to the ‘unrealistic’ decision by Reconstruction of Poland Piłsudski and others to restore sovereign Poland, we gained twenty years of independence, and in consequence a chance to build an independent Polish state today. SR: So in your opinion, the postcommunists are consciously steering Poland toward a new dependence on postcommunist and ‘reformed’ Russia? JO: I would not put it so categorically. However, some persons in the postcommunist establishment have continued their previous orientation. As Prime Minister, I had access to information warranting these conclusions. Some elements of that old system of servility toward Soviet, and now Russian, interests remained intact. SR: In the United States, we often ask ourselves why, when you were Prime Minister and had power, you failed to carry out a radical purge of the communist networks, of the kind that was carried out in the neighboring Czech Republic. JO: I agree that such ‘’ is a necessary condition of genuine sovereignty. We fought for it at the time. When the government I headed was installed in 1991 by the first freely elected Polish , I requested that the Interior Sarmatian Review: Today [May 25, 1997] Poles vote in a Ministry prepare an appropriate bill entitling me to referendum on the project of the new constitution prepared conduct such house cleaning. Even earlier, the Sejm by the left-dominated Sejm. What is your opinion of this passed an emergency bill requiring that the Ministry of constitution and the referendum itself? Interior prepare a list of former agents of the communist Jan Olszewski: This project is an attempt to impose on ‘security services’ who continued to occupy positions in Polish society a process of political restructuring based government structures and in the Sejm itself. We tried to on the premises characteristic of [Soviet-occupied] Poland carry out this bill, and as a result the government I headed in 1945-1989. The project is a natural consequence of the fell, a development which confirms the strong influence Round Table agreements of 1989 which were crafted by of the pro-Soviet, and pro-Russian, orientation in the the communist side and to which Solidarity political structures of postcommunist Poland. representatives consented, treating them as a lesser evil. SR: Let us now turn to contemporary matters. What is Since then, it has become clear that Solidarity did not your relation to the Solidarity Electoral Action [AWS], a understand the extent of communist manipulation in the Solidarity-led coalition of parties and groups whose goal 1989 negotiations. A large part, if not the majority, of the is to win the elections in the fall of 1997? Solidarity elite accepted the conditions under which the JO: In the course of the campaign preceding the communists were willing to share power. At this point, it constitutional referendum, ROP and AWS came together appears clear that what the communist side had in mind on many issues. We jointly opposed the postcommunist was a restructuring of the system in postcommunist constitution project. It is possible that this closeness will conditions, while rejecting the fundamental conception continue as we jointly oppose the constitutional order of the independence-oriented opposition: the rebuilding imposed by forces presently in power in Poland (should of a sovereign Polish state. the constitutional project be accepted in today’s SR: Wasn’t Solidarity’s consent an expression of political 478 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW September 1997 referendum). Should the referendum fail—which is what associated with the center and the center-right part of the I expect—we will continue to lobby for our project of the political spectrum, i.e., all former Solidarity groups with the constitution. exception of ROP. SR: Do you expect the postcommunist project of the This new conception [of AWS] differs from ours, but we still constitution to be rejected in today’s referendum? treat it with a measure of sympathy. It has one good point. It JO: I certainly hope so. allows for a formation of a center-right coalition dominated SR: As regards the anticipated parliamentary elections in by Solidarity to be sure, but a coalition nevertheless. So far, the fall of 1997, will you form a coalition with AWS and the AWS works. We are concerned, however, that it took in will you draft a common list of candidates which you will some groups whose ideology is alien to our goals, such as continue to support until the distribution of cabinet Stronnictwo Ludowo-Demokratyczne [People’s Democratic positions is completed? Union] headed by[ Jan] Rokita and [Artur] Balazs, or Ruch Stu [RS, Movement of a Hundred People headed by Czesław Persons and groups hostile to Polish Bielecki]. These groups have much in common with the sovereignty...made a contribution to... the parting Freedom Union in their program and ideology, and they appear alien to Solidarity and ROP. of ways of various groups in Poland concerned SR: Is Ruch Stu now part of the AWS? with genuine independence, as well as to the JO: I think that the final decision will be taken at the time splitting of the Solidarity movement. when the electoral program of the coalition is formulated. SR: On the other hand, a recent column by Dariusz Lipiƒski JO: We have already submitted, and the AWS has accepted, in Tygodnik SolidarnoÊç recommends that the Freedom Union a proposal for a common list of candidates to the Senate. As not be admitted to the coalition, because its policies are to a list of candidates to the Sejm, we shall consider drafting it unabashedly opportunistic. Whom do you see in Solidarity in the light of the post-referendum situation. I certainly hope that wishes for a contrary solution? for a reactivation of the proposal submitted to Solidarity JO: I could not mention names because I am not party to leadership in 1996 and dealing with a possible coalition their inner discussions. My impression is that many leading between ROP, Solidarity and other political parties whose figures in Solidarity, as headed by , would chief goal is Polish sovereignty. I stress this issue of political find such a solution satisfactory. sovereignty, because we shall consider coalition only with SR: At the same time, [Tygodnik SolidarnoÊç Editor] Andrzej those parties who genuinely support it. Gelberg said in a recent editorial that Polish citizens should SR: The Polish press in Poland and abroad, as well as the vote against the constitution project. mainstream American press, have indicated that it was your JO: Yes, I think ROP and AWS have a great deal in common. party, rather than the Solidarity labor union, that blocked the I therefore hope that our 1996 proposal [concerning a coalition] creation of such a coalition. Do you confirm or deny it? will be reactivated. JO: Solidarity and AWS are of course our natural political SR: As an English saying goes, politics is the art of the possible. partners. We have supported the formation of a tripartite Don’t you think that there are areas in social and political life coalition between three equal partners: ROP, Solidarity and where your party could collaborate with the postcommunists, other independence-minded parties. Such a coalition would the AWS and the Freedom Union? have had a good chance of winning the elections. But this JO: Yes, I think one can collaborate with all the parties proposal was rejected by the present leadership of Solidarity whose goals include Polish sovereignty. In all post- which offered a counter-proposal: that such a coalition be Solidarity groups there are people who truly desire Polish further broadened to include the Freedom Union. Such a move independence. In our opinion, they have sometimes drawn was advocated by [Lech] Wał∏sa. We could not not accept wrong conclusions and adopted wrong policies. In case of this because it appeared clear to us that the Freedom Union danger, we could collaborate. This also includes the was not going to change its fundamental policies. Our postcommunists. But political sovereignty has to be a genuine assessment was confirmed by later developments. Today, goal, not merely a slogan. At present, Poland does not face during the referendum vote, the Freedom Union goes hand in any immediate danger, in my opinion, while the hand with the postcommunists in accepting and supporting postcommunist camp is oriented not toward sovereignty but the constitution project drafted by postcommunist forces. toward continuation of the system, a reformed communist Such was the first counter-proposal by Solidarity leadership. system to be sure, but in essence a system grounded in the Then Solidarity formed its own coalition, Solidarity Electoral same conceptions which triumphed at Yalta. Action [AWS], to which it invited all parties and groups SR: Yet the postcommunists seem to favor Poland’s admission September 1997 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 479 to NATO. spokespersons? JO: ROP is a young party. It was formed a year and a half We believe that Poland’s place is in a ago. We are concerned primarily with visibility in Poland united Europe... Poland...has aspired to be a before our electorate, for this is our most important source of strength that will in turn impact our image abroad. We Western democratic nation. might have somewhat neglected the issue of visibility abroad, especially in the United States, however. We do JO: At present, yes. Over the forty-odd years of communist have contacts in the U.S., primarily in where we rule in Poland, however, the communist camp assumed keep in touch with organizations which share our point of many faces. I remember that after World War II, members view at least to some extent. of the [communist] Polish Workers’ Party would hotly SR: Which organizations or persons? deny that Poland was slated to embrace communism, or JO: Several organizations which actually mention ROP that the Polish Workers’ Party was a ‘bolshevik’ in their names. Among our friends in Chicago are Mr. organization. One could go to jail for saying such things. [Mirosław] Rogala and the former Pomost group. We have I remember how [President of the Soviet-occupied friends in the network of Polish Clubs, Polish veteran Poland] Bolesław Bierut kissed the cross during a Corpus organizations, ‘Solidarity with Solidarity’ and others. Christi procession on Krakowskie PrzedmieÊcie in Warsaw, pretending to be a Christian. I remember him Solidarity and AWS are our natural political using the formula ‘so help me God’ during the swearing- in ceremony on the occasion of the adoption of the ‘little partners. constitution’ in 1947. I remember how the communists said things they did not mean, and meant things they did SR: Some persons believe that Polish organizations in Chicago not speak about. Today, it is advantageous for the and elsewhere have been penetrated by a small but effective postcommunists to demonstrate a certain attitude toward network of persons who , under the guise of working for ‘Polish the West. causes,’ actually strive to render the Polish community SR: So your party wholeheartedly supports Poland’s ineffective, reinforce its inferiority complex, and keep its admission to NATO? publications and periodicals on a level of primitiveness which JO: Yes. This has been our position all along. precludes gaining credibility in the opinion-making circles in SR: What about the and the ensuing America. Any comments? necessity of changing Polish laws to conform with those JO: Of course we realize that this may be the case. The of the EU? same is true of Poland. Persons and groups hostile to Polish JO: We have always advocated equality in this area. We sovereignty have certainly made a contribution to the believe Poland’s place is in a united Europe. Poland has process of differentiation, not to say the parting of ways, been part of the circle of Western civilization, and has of various groups in Poland concerned with genuine aspired to be a Western democratic nation. Such has been independence, as well as to the splitting of the Solidarity our history for a thousand years. World War II was fought movement. This is doubtless a planned campaign which over related issues. Poles have never abandoned the wishes Poland’s place in Europe to be weaker rather than aspiration to return to the Western world after that war stronger. Such activity has played a role in Polish affairs, and after Yalta. but of course there are other influences as well. It is to be We think that entering the EU calls for a long period of hoped that the referendum campaign and the subsequent preparation, or a lot of money if the process is to be electoral campaign will mark a weakening, if not an end, accelerated. We really do not see a possible source of such to such activity. financing. We know how costly it has been for the SR: Don’t you think that another negative factor is Polish Germans to integrate the eastern Länder into West ‘jaÊniepaƒstwo’ [haughtiness] and, among the intelligentsia Germany. Who will cover such costs for Poland? We in particular, a tendency to form parties around personalities know it is unrealistic to demand instant economic rather than around programs? integration with western Europe. JO: Polish political life is severely crippled by a lack of SR: Visibility is essential to every politician and party. experience. Two generations of Poles were prevented from What are the strategies used by you and your party to participating in the political process under normal gain visibility in Poland and abroad, especially in the conditions. For almost fifty years, the entire political United States where so far Poland seems to be represented process was dominated by those who served the political by one party only: the Freedom Union and its system of the Soviets imposed on Poland against the 480 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW September 1997 wishes of her citizens. This is one reason. The second reason is the Round Table agreements which were structured in such Throw everything a way as to lead to Polish dependence on the political forces which were a continuation of the communist system. These overboard agreements were accepted by Solidarity leadership partly out of naivete. But I am not excluding a possibility that the that smells of blood... negotiating teams on both sides contained persons who consciously led the negotiators to adopt a phraseology favoring the postcommunists. Signficantly, certain things unfavorable Valeriia Novodvorskaia to us have been enshrined in law. For instance, parties demanding genuine sovereignty for Poland have been legally cut off from any financial help from the emigre circles. translated by Steven Clancy On the other hand, excessive individualism has been part of the Polish character, and it has its good and bad sides. We have never understood them, and we will Individualism is good for the economy where it provides never understand them, because the full do not leadership, but in political life it is indeed an impediment. comprehend the hungry. We have always had bushels SR: Why are conservative movements so weak everywhere, of geography: ‘many are her forests, fields, and rivers.’1 including the United States? So we could afford ourselves the luxury of throwing JO: I cannot speak about the situation in the United States Central Asia, the Caucasus, , and the Baltics or in other first world countries. But in Poland, and in out the window, and we were none the worse. One- post-communist central Europe in general, the sixth or one-eighth of our land - is it not all the same? fundamental problem is to free those countries from Both ways, it is still about a nine-hour flight from Russian-Soviet domination. This creates a situation where Moscow to Vladivostok. labels such as ‘conservative’ and ‘liberal’ mean different things than in the West. Often what is called right, or center- In life and in death, Dzhokhar Dudaev right, is really not right-wing at all, just oriented toward a and Zviad Gamsakhurdia have been the nation’s self-determination. Sovereignty-oriented groups cover a wide spectrum, and the anti-communist camp is sources of unbearable irritation for the Moscow also quite diverse. A right-wing label is attached to these intelligentsia, the KGB, the FSK, the FSB, for groups largely because the communist side called them President Yeltsin’s administration and for so. The communists kept saying that they are the only other power structures. genuine left. Thus the of Józef Piłsudski and others, a leftist organization par excellence and one with which my own family was associated, Having gotten some 100 million people off their acquired the label ‘rightist’ or even ‘fascist’ in Soviet- hands, our rulers are apparently full up to their ears occupied Poland, and this communist label became widely with the remaining 150 million. In the meantime you accepted abroad. The communists made sure that anyone give everyone food and drink, pacify them, and woo who wanted genuine political sovereignty for Poland them before the elections. We have always had a would be labelled right-wing. One of the urgent tasks surplus of people, land, fossil fuels, soldiers, special facing us is to make sure that accurate labels are put on all services, bureaucrats, police. All of this ‘Russian 2 groups of the political spectrum, both on the left and on wealth’ kept chafing away at our withers, so we kicked the right. However, in my view, all parties should support up our hooves, became indignant, and tried to gallop Polish sovereignty, whether of the left or of the right, just off into the steppe. as is the case in other normal countries. Their social and But they kept dreaming feverishly about their tiny political programs may be different, but they should shred of land. They dreamed that they would hoist a support the national interest This problem of rebuilding national flag there and would manage their own normalcy in political life is one of the most urgent tasks economy. So that it would not be worse than anywhere which Poles face. else, they too would have their own ministries, their SR: Thank you for the conversation. own parliament, and their own police. They would have their own army, even if only one company, but The interview was conducted in Warsaw, in the ROP Headquarters. The new constitution project mentioned in the their own. They would have their own counter- interview has been approved. intelligence, their own postage stamps, and their own September 1997 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 481 currency, even if you could not get more than a ruble management all remain in the hands of Big Brother. And for a whole bag of it. It is with these new toys that a a portion of the hungry population will go back to asking for tiny, weak, premature government starts out and tries the warm cattle-shed with its full trough, while the new to survive. government can only offer a broken one9 for the coming Then the happy government sits down to write decades of toil, privation, and corner-turning. The devoted its own history textbook, as happened in Georgia during supporters, as always, turn out to be in the minority, and thus Zviad Gamsakhurdia’s times.3 The textbook is the government will be overthrown, as Zviad’s was. Or, if a touching, like the dialogues of Romeo and Juliet. Those miracle occurs and the supporters are the majority, then they green, naive young ones were not for this world, will be conquered, as was Dzhokhar Dudaev. because ‘the banks of life cannot contain my love, broad as the sea.’4 In this textbook, it is written that the Few know that Dzhokhar Dudaev Georgians are direct descendants of Prometheus, and sought death...believing that when he was gone, that Mingrelia never asked to join Russia.5 We read about all kinds of kings and queens, even the mythical Russia would begin to negotiate. ones, and about all the knights for whom one tiger skin sufficed.6 These are the myths and legends of ancient We have been able to watch the tragedy unfold in Georgia. Concerning Chechenya, we find here her own the comfort of our theater seats. In the final scene, no one will “Song of Hiawatha.” We read of Sheik Mansur and remain on the stage except for some ‘leading’ political scientists Imam Shamil,7 of exile, deportation, and prison camps, and a chorus of journalists. It will be even worse than in but also of a glorious campaign and the great struggle, Lao-She:10 the dead will begin to bury their own corpses, and of the free race of wolves in the mountains of Zion.8 and the living will keep chewing on their lotus leaves. A net For whom was this history written? Whom did result: five soap operas per day. they hope to convince with the history of green, naive, When the Soviet dissidents from the metropolis young governments who are not for this world? Henry brought down communism (or perhaps just set it aside) Wadsworth Longfellow thus addressed those who value with the help of the shrewdest members of the legends and folk ballads: nomenklatura and the progressive Boris Nikolaevich, they solved most of their problems. With a few exceptions, Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple, they deemed it madness for the dissidents from Russia’s Who have faith in God and Nature, colonies to start solving their own particular problems. Who believe that in all ages Such activities flew in the face of the favorite slogan of Every human heart is human, ‘defense of human rights.’ The dissidence of an entire That in even savage bosoms, people (say the Georgians) turned out to be diametrically There are longings, yearnings, strivings opposed to the dissidence of an individual who disagreed For the good they comprehend not... with his nation (say Merab Mamardashvili).11 The cup of hemlock was left untouched, however. Zviad But there are few such people among us Russians. Gamsakhurdia, an aristocrat of the spirit, was no match for the Athenian mob, but reproaches (justified, in my If only these fledgling governments had arisen opinion) of disrespect for sovereignty and collaboration somewhere besides the sinful, post-Soviet lands, if they with the enemy certainly match those [directed against only had time to grow, to learn to crawl and then to walk Socrates] of corrupting youth and disbelieving in the gods. and then to become familiar with economics, and if they But Socrates did not teach during the Graeco- were given just 50 to 100 years, time which the United Persian wars, nor did he collaborate with Critias, the leader States, France, and Russia all had, they too would make of the ‘thirty tyrants.’12 In the Georgian case, everything it. If they were just given time to outgrow measles and worked out according to the rules of algebra. Zviad was mumps and to get over rubella and scarlet fever. Yet a dissident with respect to the evil empire, Merab without fail, the devil always gets involved with an infant. Mamardashvili was a dissident with respect to Zviad. The empire will come, and it will brush aside the fact that This situation suited the tastes of the empire, which the small nations are tossing about in a fever and need a quickly acknowledged Mamardashvili as the ‘wonderful doctor. Just when they need a doctor, the hatchet man Georgian’ and a true philosopher. He is so presented to comes. He will not allow them to grow up. Then it this day. becomes clear that food, fossil fuels, money, and Similar things happened here in the metropolis. Every now and then, some dissident would rise up in 482 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW September 1997 opposition to a Sakharov or a Ginsburg or an Orlov. state ideology, and subjected himself to a blockade, having Sometimes he would take to writing about it in refused food and supplies from the [evil] empire. But Literaturnaia Gazeta, as did, for instance, Petrov-Agatov. famine did not have time to spread in Georgia: Georgian Then he would be declared a traitor and a KGB independence lasted only eight months, because [all of a collaborator. Merab Mamardashvili, of course, did not sudden] Abkhazia and Ossetia15 decided to take up arms place his complaints with the Department of Defense or not for independence, but for the right to become subject the KGB, but his opinions received wide publicity. to Russia. The communist leadership of Northern Ossetia, Now there is neither Merab nor Zviad. Zviad died sitting on the lap of the Russian Federation, waved a carrot as a martyr, at the hands of the enemy, therefore he won to Southern Ossetia, and it turned out that [the Abkhazian] the argument. The Zviadist intellectuals have been Vladislav Ardzinba (of the Soyuz group) could not tolerate victorious over their colleagues who got along just as well Georgia, but was prepared to get along fine with the USSR with the pre-perestroika Shevardnadze as with and, subsequently, with Russia. And then the salvos were Shevardnadze the communist and satrap or Shevardnadze fired from the tanks and the Black Sea sailors just the president of Georgia. happened to be in the neighborhood. It is interesting to note that Dzhaba Ioseliani’s When the Soviet dissidents from the militia forces fought in Southern Ossetia; that metropolis brought down communism (or Shevardnadze invaded Abkhazia after Zviad was already in Grozny; and that Zviad’s adversaries destroyed perhaps just set it aside)... they solved most of Rustaveli Boulevard16 with cannon fire, trying to smoke their problems. With a few exceptions, they him out of his final refuge; yet the empire-generated deemed it madness for the dissidents from rumors attribute all these actions to Zviad. Way to go. Russia’s colonies to start solving their own This was done so that he would not show up bringing back his ideals, so contrary to the empire’s ideas. The particular problems. happy, light-minded and cosmopolitan Georgian intelligentsia were not attracted to that heroic stoicism Why was Zviad victorious? Because, while the which required starting over from zero. ‘Shevardnadzists’ were called all sorts of names, it was A second war is being waged over Zviad’s grave... the Zviadists who were sent to prisons and torture It would have been better for him to have stayed in the chambers, put to death and exiled (and before that they mountains of Mingrelia. They dishonor his body both in stormed the government buildings under fire). Whoever Moscow and in Tbilisi. Few people know that when gets help from the Soviet tanks and Admiral Baltin’s fleet Zviad was leaving on his first and final military campaign is never right. An evil empire does not help the good in the fall of 1993, he already understood that Georgia guys. had perished, that the uprising was doomed, and that he Zviad Gamsakhurdia was a dissident from the was marching to certain death. I was [probably] the only age of sixteen. Dzhokhar Dudaev began to sense that he person to whom he spoke about this. But he had to take was a dissident when he was ordered to prepare for the up arms and go. He had nothing more to give to Georgia suppression of the Estonians.13 He repaid with interest besides his life and his example. After the defeat of the the ‘debt’ of not having been a dissident all his life. He cherry-colored Georgian banner, everyone should and Zviad succeeded in a way none of us has: when they understand that Zviad’s renunciation of [the tactics of] became presidents, they set their entire nations and peoples 1978 was not motivated by cowardice. Dzhokhar’s on the path of dissidence. returned helicopter is indisputable proof of this.17 Every genuine dissident is a bit like the Count of When he and Dzhokhar were composing some kind Monte Cristo. He dreams in his cell, even if only about a of lengthy document under the evening sky of a still new cell. Zviad Konstantinovich put into practice his undemolished Grozny, they were like two kids planning dreams of many years: he abolished the Soviet holidays, to tie an empty jelly tin to the tail of a wolfhound. They including the 8th of March;14 he closed down the Stalin tied their tin can to the tail of the empire. And the empire Museum; and he dispersed the KGB agents so well that had its run... Shevardnadze was unable to restore ‘ranks’ for years to The “Caucasian Home” was Zviad’s idea, but it took come. He drove all the communists out of the hold in Chechenya at just the right time, and Dzhokhar administrative posts and put democrats in their places. Dudaev elevated it to the status of a state ideology. But He recognized Chechenya, made anti-communism the how did they picture this home? A little from Kuwait September 1997 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 483 (they wanted golden faucets), a little from Urania (the By bullets and dull blades city of philosophers and poets, built by Greek intellectuals And to carry with you to your grave at the time of Alexander the Great), a bit from the green Two or three enemies, two or three enemies. Sherwood Forest, a bit from Lisse, Zurbagan, and Guelle- That was the true revenge - Gue.18 It would be the promised land, a land of political They don’t burn themselves for nothing! sanctuary, and a land of people. There is no sea in The self-immolation of people and mountains Chechenya, but this is no matter. The people’s expectation Is like discord and revolt. of a schooner with scarlet sails called “Independence” easily replaces the sea.21 Few know that Dzhokhar Dudaev sought death In life and in death, Dzhokhar and Zviad are the and that his security people were often angered by his sources of unbearable irritation for the Moscow lack of prudence. He said that when he was gone, Russia intelligentsia, the KGB, the FSK, the FSB,19 for President would begin to negotiate. He could not forget that he had Yeltsin’s administration, and for other power structures. promised his people Kuwait and not ruin. When you are dealing with serious, adult matters, when If you ask what good is independence for the you struggle with inflation, when you are fixing an airplane Chechens when they would not acquire thereby any natural engine after a forced landing, it can be quite distracting resources or professional cadres or economic advantage, when someone from the stars arrives and asks: ‘If you I will answer your question with another. Why did Frezzy please, draw me a sheep!’ Grant run along the waves?22 There was no gain in that Why do the Chechens depict a wolf on their either. Zviad Gamsakhurdia and Chechenya were banner? Probably, this is a noble Akela from The Jungle challenged to that duel of pistols at the invitation of their Book, because in their lives and in their national character, Unrealized Fate who had not visited Georgia since the the Chechens harmoniously combine Little Red Riding twelfth century and who, if the truth were told, had never Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. ‘The wolfhounds of the ever made its home in Chechenya. Whoever has read century go for my neck, but I am not a wolf by my blood...’ enough Grin will understand me and it is useless to talk It would have been better if they had drawn a clover on about the resolution of the Chechen conflict with any their flag, the coat of arms of King MaciuÊ Pierwszy, the others. symbol of Janusz Korczak’s orphanage, destroyed fifty- And now we come to the main point. The Jews odd years earlier by different zealots of another are called the people of the Book, and indisputably they unconstitutional order.20 It is not so important that green are the most educated people on the earth. But the is the color of the prophet as that children love the forest Chechens are people from the Book... and from film; from and the forest is green. Jungwald-Khilkevich’s film about the Three Musketeers, from Scandinavian sagas, from English ballads, from the You can smell the sea, the warm, salt sea, novels of Walter Scott and the fairy tales of Hans The eternal sea and human vanity. Christian Andersen and E.T.A. Hoffmann. They do not And in gold on a banner green live in our grown-up and boring reality. Therefore, the burns the clover, clover, clover. question of Chechenya ought not be answered by politicians, but by the authors of children’s literature, the Whoever speaks up for murdering ‘bandits’ fantasy writers and storytellers. How was it expressed in ‘according to the constitution,’ should come to understand the Constitution of Janusz Korczak’s orphanage? ‘We that it will become necessary to murder everyone, even wanted it so much that it was impossible to resist.’ The women and children, so that, in Stalin’s terms, no ones who should solve the Chechen question are those ‘avengers for the fathers’ grow up. But [in Chechenya] who, instead of a hat, are able to see a boa constrictor even ten-year-olds are already bearing arms. Let the who has swallowed an elephant.23 And those who see Department of Defense, the official channels, and the bandits, separatists, mafiosi, and the hat - those who cannot newspapers on Stalin’s side all declare that Stalin was see the sheep through the box - should not even write right, that it is acceptable to shoot children twelve and about Chechenya, because each phrase about the under. Let them do it, even though they have read what complexity of the situation, the mass of contradictions, Vladimir Vysotskii wrote about the Montenegrins, since the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, the it can also be applied to the Chechens: necessity of ‘protracted consultations,’ means another day of war. There would have been no war in the first place if It was honorable to die the grown-ups from the newspaper and the TV had not 484 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW September 1997 spouted platitudes about ‘Dudaev’s mafia regime,’ ‘the of the Georgian request for assistance in fending off Muslim violations of human rights in Chechenya,’ the calamities attacks from the south. 6 for Russian speakers and the notorious train robberies. Shota Rustaveli, A Knight in a Tiger Skin. Rustaveli was a We do not need to hang a rifle on the stage.24 major Georgian poet of the 12th-13th centuries. 7 Two of Chechenya’s national heroes who fought the Though the journalists did not do the actual shooting, they Russians in the 19th century. did create an atmosphere, lacking in acceptance for the 8 The Chechen national anthem refers to the Chechens as Republic of Ichkeria,25 and this is as good as providing mountain wolves. 9 cartridges and loading weapons. The federal army is not The image of the broken trough comes from Pushkin’s fairy fighting against the separatists. Rather, it is shooting point- tale, “Skazka o rybake i rybke.” 10 blank and destroying our own childhood: Snow White Lao-She (1899-1966), a Chinese writer. 11 and the dwarfs, the fairies, the Nutcracker, Pinocchio, A Russian collaborator. 12 Chippolino,26 and Mickey Mouse. Greek philosopher and political leader (5th century B.C.), All the TV channels bemoan the fate of civilians in ‘The thirty tyrants were appointed by the Lacedaemonians. 13 this war. Thanks a bunch. They seem to remember that every As a Soviet general stationed in Estonia, Dudaev was Chechen soldier was a civilian at some point. Dzhokhar ordered to fire at the Estonian independence demonstrators. He refused. Since that time, he became a national hero for Dudaev, Aslan Mashkadov, and even Shamil Basaev the Estonians as well as for the Chechens. 14 were civilians a long time ago, before the war started. ‘Women’s Day,’ one of communist-designed secular Our laws do not even consider the possibility holidays meant to replace religious and national ones. 15 of ever letting go of anyone, at any time. Interestingly, Provinces of Georgia. 16 countries such as the United States, France, and the Tbilisi’s main street. 17 Netherlands are all silent on the matter of granting Dudaev provided Gamsakhurdia with a helicopter as a independence to Chechenya. They too are grown-ups. means of escape in case of emergency. In Novodvorskaia’s We can garner advice only from literature and from interpretation, sending back the helicopter meant that President Gamsakhurdia was ready to die for his nation’s nowhere else. It’s all right there in Vysotskii: ‘Throw independence. everything overboard that smells of blood,/ and know 18 Lisse, Zurbagan, and Guelle-Gue are all locales from the that the price is not too high.’ ∆ novels and stories of Aleksandr Grin (1880-1932), a Russian fantasy writer. 19 FSB, the Federal Counterintelligence Service; FSK, the V.I. Novodvorskaia is the author of Po tu storonu otchaianiia [This Federal Safety Service. Both are successors to the KGB. side of despair] (M. 1993). She is a leader of Demokraticheskii 20 Soiuz, one of the first dissident parties in post-Soviet Russia. In Janusz Korczak ((1878-1942), writer and pedagogue, the late 1980s, she was arrested numerous times and was director of an orphanage for Jewish children in Warsaw. His incarcerated in a psychiatric prison. The above article first appeared poem, “Król MaciuÊ Pierwszy” [“King Matt the First”] inspired in Novoe Vremia in September 1996. the emblem Novodvorskaia mentions. Korczak and his Steven Clancy is a PhD student in Slavic Languages and Literatures children were killed in Auschwitz in German-occupied at the University of North Carolina. Printed by permission. Poland. 21 Scarlet Sails is one of Grin’s novels. 22 NOTES A reference to the heroine from Grin’s Running Along the Waves. 23 1 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince. As a boy, the From the refrain of a Soviet Russian song by V.I. Lebedev- author gave up on a career in art because the adults saw Kumach, “Shiroka strana moia rodnaia.” 2 only a hat in his drawing which was intended to present a Russkoe Bogatstvo [Russian Wealth] was a journal of the boa constrictor who had swallowed an elephant. 24 late 19th and early 20th centuries. A reference to Anton Chekhov’s comment that if a rifle 3 Zviad Gamsakhurdia was the first freely elected President hangs on the wall at the beginning of the play, then it will of Georgia. Ousted from office in January 1992, he died in surely be used by the end of it. 25 unexplained circumstances (allegedly by suicide) a year or This is how the Chechens refer to their Republic. so later. In the course of his struggle for Georgia’s 26 Gianni Rodari’s Chippolino, a children’s story translated independence, this Christian President sought, and found, from Italian into Russian. In the story, most characters are refuge in Dzhokhar Dudaev’s Muslim Chechenya, as both fruits and vegetables. Its popularity during Soviet times had leaders sought to secure their nations’ independence from to do with the fact that in the story, the poor vegetables (the postcommunist Russia. Novodvorskaia is clearly convinced onions) win out over the rich ones (Prince Lemon and his that Gamsakhurdia was murdered by the Russians. 4 clan). Another popular Soviet Russian song. 5 Mingrelia is a province of Georgia. The reference is to the year 1801 when the Russians double-crossed the Georgians by incorporating them into their empire, as a consequence September 1997 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 485 problem. Immediately after the signing, the Russian leaders announced that they have not withdrawn their NATO enlargement opposition to NATO’s enlargement. A couple of days and Russian democracy later, Kremlin press spokesman, Sergei Yastrzembsky, declared that the signing of the agreement is not the end, but beginning of its life: it begins the struggle over Witold J. Lukaszewski its interpretation (Associated Press, May 20, 1997). The Western and Russian positions on NATO’s The future of NATO has become the most enlargement seem irreconcilable. This contentious issue in the United States-Russian relations. acknowledgment however does not tell us much about While the immediate problem is the planned the implications the Western and Russian security enlargement of the alliance to the east, the real stakes proposals would have on relations among European are much higher. At stake are the survival of NATO states in the twenty-first century. itself and the shape of European security in the twenty- first century. It is not surprising, therefore, that both Integration v. balance of power sides seem to refuse to budge from their positions. The Two fundamental processes have been West is committed to going ahead with the admission struggling for ascendancy in Europe since 1989. One of the Central European states but, at the same time, is is the process of integration, which started in Western very solicitous of Kremlin’s feelings and eager to Europe in the 1950s and has been moving eastward reassure the Russian elites that the projected since the end of the Cold War. The other is the enlargement of NATO is not meant to and will not traditional, balance-of-power (sometimes called statist) threaten Russia. game, which persists in southeastern Europe and the The solicitude for Russian views shown by both former and contains the seeds of a Western and Central European leaders is understandable widespread conflict on the old continent. in terms of both historical experience and contemporary realities. The contrast between the post-World War I and Events since 1989 show that Russia is at post-World War II peace settlements clearly demonstrates a different level of political development than that ostracism of the defeated enemy states by the victors the countries in Central or Western Europe. tends to prejudice future stability and peace in the region. A more generous and accepting treatment of the vanquished by the victors, on the other hand, is likely to Each of the two processes is representative of establish a more partner-like relationship between them. a model of political behavior clearly observable in The acknowledgment of Russia’s importance Europe today. The first, rooted in the natural process to European security has given the Kremlin leaders of integrating kindred societies, places a premium on added political leverage, which they have exploited not cooperation, toleration, compromise, and the sharing only in voicing their objections to NATO’s enlargement of certain fundamental values, such as democracy, but also in vigorously promoting their own vision of a human rights, market economy, and the rule of law. future European security structure. With determination, The second chooses politics over economics, at times manifesting itself in the form of threats and at domination rather than cooperation, spheres of others as reasonableness, the Russians have argued influence rather than integration, and extremism instead back that the enlargement of NATO would destabilize of compromise (Zbigniew Brzezinski, “Destination: Europe and result in a cold peace. They warn that the Strasbourg or Sarajevo?” Encounter, July-August proposed inclusion of Poland, Hungary, the Czech 1990). Republic and possibly others in NATO will draw new The new economic and security structure of dividing lines in Europe, will threaten Russia, and will Europe as a whole will be influenced by the direction undermine democratic forces in their country. In of the domestic development of each society. If Poland, arguing their case against NATO enlargement, the Hungary, the Czech Republic, and others, become Russian political, academic, and opinion-making elites members of the expanding Western European core, have demonstrated a remarkable unity. NATO and EU, it will be because they have The conclusion of the NATO-Russian successfully assimilated the essential elements of the Founding Act in Spring 1997 has not solved the integration model. The choice and successful implementation of the integration model must be the 486 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW September 1997 governing condition for the entry of new members into political problems. Western security and economic institutions. Consequently, Russia is unlikely to achieve a Seen from this perspective, Russia represents a Western-style democracy in the near future, and the troublesome fit in the post-Cold War integration of Europe. stages through which it will have to pass before it It is a significant actor in European politics, but it seems reaches a working democratic system are difficult to unable to relate to the western part of Europe either in predict. Events since 1989 show that Russia is at a terms of the nature of its domestic politics or in the area different level of political development than the of its foreign and security policy concepts and practices. countries in Central or Western Europe. For both these Russians sometimes blame their estrangement from reasons, the integrative fit between the current Russian Europe on their government officials, e.g., on the inability system and the societies in the central and western parts of Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev’s diplomacy of Europe will not exist in the foreseeable future. to ensure Russia’s integration into the Western community The new line of division in today’s Europe, as an equal participant (Sergei Rogov in Nezavisimaia therefore, runs along the developmental divide. As Gazeta, December 31, 1994). There has been no visible such, it does not have to remain permanently fixed. In effort on the part of the Russian elites, however, to fact, when liberal democracy and market economies understand that integration cannot be achieved by an are implemented in Russia and other post-Soviet states, act of governmental will or by a diplomatic fiat but this line of division will shift eastward. For that to must come from a complex social process of becoming happen, however, Russian democrats will have to alike, of fitting in with the object of integration. concentrate on the internal development of their Alain Besançon explains this lack of fit country. By repeating the nationalist and neo- between the Western and Russian approaches by imperialist arguments about a restoration of the former pointing out that the two originate in very different Soviet Union and its empire, they undercut their own historical models of the state. The Western model had credibility as democrats and thereby bolster the political its origins in a well-ordered, multi-level social hierarchy standing of the hardliners. with the ruler (the sovereign) at the top. The second, Russia’s troublesome fit with Western systems eastern and Russian, functioned without a in the domestic sphere is paralleled in the arena of hierarchically differentiated social base. Apart from foreign relations. Moscow’s proposals concerning the the person of the ruler, there existed equality in future European security structure reveal its failure to subservience. As a consequence of the challenges to develop strategic concepts and policies which transcend the position of the sovereign from the upper and later the traditional balance-of-power and spheres-of-interest lower social strata, the Western state model could and approach. Despite their frequent assurances about did evolve into democracy. The second model, partnerships, devotion to democratic values, and even composed of an omnipotent ruler and undifferentiated commitment to a common European home, Russian subservient masses, remained in its authoritarian mold elites have been using strategic imagery reminiscent and, when placed under stress, periodically underwent of nineteenth-century Europe. In a revealing interview revolutionary spasms. Russia has been unable to with a Polish correspondent in Moscow, Sergei overcome the legacy of the second model (Polska w Karaganov, President Yeltsin’s foreign policy advisor, Europie [Warsaw], Vol. 18, September-December 1995, pointed out that Russia favored a security system based 90-93). on the principle of a concert of nations corresponding To state the obvious, democracy cannot be to the interests of a majority of European great powers achieved through large scale violence or through a (Sławomir Popowski, “Dokàd si∏ga Rosja,” wholesale disregard of due process of law. In this sense, Rzeczpospolita, December 4-5, 1993). The unity of democratic revolution is an oxymoron. Unlike Russian elites in their opposition to NATO’s communism, which had been imposed upon an enlargement is based not so much on their unanimous intimidated population, democracy evolves gradually, and perception of a threat emanating from the expanding its political culture has to be willingly internalized by the alliance as on their unanimous conclusion that a citizenry. As recent history shows, the political, social, fragmented Europe would open up before Russia and economic conditions in contemporary Russia make significant opportunities to profit from a variety of such a gradual and peaceful transition very difficult. Since contradictions among the Western states (Andrei the beginning of the process in 1987, military force has Zagorsky, “NATO expansion does not conflict with been used on two occasions in attempts to solve domestic Russia’s fundamental interests,” Prism, III/2, September 1997 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 487 Jamestown Foundation, February 1997). for a united Europe, an indivisible, all-European Russia’s assertions that expansion of NATO security, are at best rhetorical. With NATO present into Central Europe would pose a serious security threat already, how can one argue that an enlarged NATO to Russia reflect the strategic framework within which will draw a dividing line? To be consistent, one would Russian elites perceive Europe west of their borders. have to insist that NATO has to be disbanded. Advocacy Their preoccupation with the traditional political- by Russian elites of a unified European security military and territorial aspects of security and their structure, with simultaneous acceptance of the persistent advocacy of the nineteenth century concert- unenlarged NATO, seems like a euphemism for let’s of-powers type of security system in Europe forces divide Europe again along the familiar Yalta line. The them to compete for spheres of interest to the detriment variant of undivided European security, which assumes of the more urgent domestic economic and political a disbanding of NATO or its subordination to the reforms. That, in turn, further distances Russia from OSCE, would lead to a security system imposed and the rest of Europe. dictated by great powers grouped in a European security council, modeled either on the short lived nineteenth Russian arguments against the enlargement of NATO century concert of powers or on the United Nations’ The West is told by a variety of Russian Security Council. In either case, as Sergei Kortunov, spokesmen that if NATO expands to the east, it can President Yeltsin’s foreign policy advisor, put it, what split Europe asunder, it will violate the idea of an is important here is the right of the great of this world indivisible, all-European security system that includes to decide the fate of the medium and small states, and Russia, and it will revive the cordon sanitaire above their heads to boot (Rzeczpospolita, 5 January surrounding Russia in the past. 1996). The reintroduction into Europe of a concert of Despite assurances of partnership, powers system, a century and a half after its devotion to democratic values and the like, progenitor’s demise, would reimpose on Europe the lines of division that led to conflict in the past. The Russian elites have been proffering strategic reimposition of the statist, balance-of-power model on imagery reminiscent of nineteenth-century all of Europe would re-nationalize defense policies, European power arrangements. diminish significantly the role of the United States in matters of European security, and elevate the influence While the idea of a unified Europe with an of Russia on the European continent. In the revived undivided security structure sounds reasonable, concert of powers system, Russia would have as much Europe’s history as well as today’s political realities to say about the fate of Belgium or Luxemburg as about reveal that Europe has been divided for one reason or that of Chechenya or Lithuania. The diminution of another ever since the old monarchical order was America’s role in Europe would be a realization of a challenged by the French revolutionaries. Whether it goal long sought by the Soviet Union during the Cold was the revolutionary idea of popular sovereignty v. War and now by Russia. the ancien régime, or one nationalism against another, Both these security systems, the Yalta-like or the pre-World War I alliance systems, or the interwar division or a concert of powers system, would ideological-systemic divisions (communism v. nazism obviously have a far reaching impact on European v. democracy), or the Cold War confrontation between security. Taking another risk on either of them today, the Western democratic alliance and the communist in the hope that this time the results would be better, bloc, Europe’s divisions have been a consequence of would require us to disregard all the lessons of history. the successive stages of its development. Today, parts of Europe are still divided along NATO: a threat to Russia? the old statist-political lines. The most obvious political The enlarged NATO, according to numerous divisions include the integrating West (NATO and the pronouncements of the Russian leaders, would also EU countries), Central and Eastern Europe (a diverse subject Russia to a variety of external threats. These group of medium and small-sized states with very can be grouped into four categories: strategic (NATO uneven levels of reform achievements and degrees of enlargement would be against Russian foreign and internal stability), and Russia (ambitious to retain its security interests [A. Arbatov] and would put Russia great power status). In the light of these realities, calls into a worse geopolitical and military position 488 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW September 1997 [Primakov]); regional (NATO would cut off the a central role in Eastern Europe (Moskovskie Novosti, Russian enclave of Kaliningrad if Poland and Lithuania July 30-August 6, 1995). Russia regards Poland as joined it [Krasnaya Zvezda], eliminate Russia from the gateway to Europe, a fact which Russian politicians the important political decision-making mechanism and have acknowledged in their complaints that, with the generally from the all-European security system [A. loss of its satellites after 1989, the Soviet Union (later Arbatov]); economic (Russia would lose her arms Russia) was pushed out of Europe by being moved market in Central Europe because NATO’s expansion several hundred kilometers to the east. Joseph Conrad signifies economic conquest of Central Europe by made a similar observation at the turn of the century Western business); and paranoic (enlarged NATO when he wrote, ‘Not until the partition of Poland did would eliminate Russia as a challenger to the United Russia begin to play a significant role in Europe (Joseph States [Gorbachev], force us to our knees Conrad, ‘The Crime of Partitions,’ Białe Plamy, [Makarevsky], deindustrialize and demilitarize Russia Warsaw 1989, p. 12). and make her defenseless [Gorbachev, Arbatov], and The goal to become one of Europe’s governing reinforce Western world hegemony [Yeltsin]). great powers, as the Russian leaders conceive of it, is a The strategic threat category is the most deliberately fashioned policy, not an objective security significant and at the same time the vaguest. Its requirement for Russia. In this sense, the planned vagueness stems from the fact that the Russian leaders enlargement of NATO does not constitute a threat to realize that NATO does not threaten Russia as such Russia itself. However, NATO as such does stand in but that it represents an approach to European security the way of the Russian leaders’ concept of Europe’s which is not one which Russia would prefer and one in post-Cold War security structure. which she could maximize her influence. The Russian The elitist nature of Russia’s policy toward press is replete with statements about the Kremlin’s NATO’s enlargement is borne out by the opinion polls commitments to struggle against a unipolar world as conducted recently in Russia. According to the New well as against attempts to make that alliance the axis York Times (February 16, 1996), in the last presidential of a new European system. election in Russia, the Russian public focused Russia’s expectation had been that after the exclusively on the domestic issues: delayed wages and disintegration of the Soviet Union and the collapse of pensions, corruption and the war in Chechenya. communism, it would fully join Europe and become According to The Washington Post editorial (February one of the principal participants and decision-makers 5, 1997), Iurii Davidov, an expert in the USA-Canada in the post-Cold War European security system. Institute in Moscow, pointed out that the eastern Speaking about Gorbachev’s common European home, expansion of NATO will generate interest in less than for example, Sergei Kortunov recalled that Russia was 20% of the Russian population, while Alexander Oslon, to be its integral part. No one, not even in a most a leading Russian poll-taker, suggested that the question nightmarish dream, could then imagine that the Russian of NATO expansion is dwarfed by worries about day- state would find itself outside of that system. Instead, to-day survival (The Washington Post, , Russia is faced by a growing NATO-sponsored security 1997). system which, unlike the , is expanding. The miscalculation was by the Russians. NATO is a Retrenchment on Russian democracy military alliance, a fact which they rarely fail to point Russian and foreign opponents of NATO’s out but, even more importantly, it is also a security enlargement have been warning that the planned system whose members have sharply de-emphasized broadening of the alliance will provoke Russian or completely eliminated the statist elements in their nationalists and seriously endanger the country’s pro- mutual relations. The European members of the democracy forces. According to Polska w Europie, alliance form a security community which has attained Valdimir Lukin put it thus: ‘There are two ways of significant progress along the road toward a full preventing the Zhirinovsky variant. One is based on integration of its member nations. our working together so that he would not attain power. The regional category of threats from the The second is to stimulate somehow his coming to expanded NATO relates to the former Eastern European power in order to unite so as to oppose him... the second satellites of the Soviet Union. The region, as Alexei way is synonymous with a betrayal of Russian Pushkov and other Moscow analysts often point out, democracy by the West’ (Polska w Europie, No. 18, is of great importance to Russia, with Poland playing September-December 1995, 74). Should nationalists September 1997 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 489 thus come to power, we have been warned by Prime in neighboring states cannot expect to be taken Minister Chernomyrdin and Russia’s Ambassador to seriously when they profess fear for the fate of Sweden, Oleg Grinevsky, tanks will roll again from democracy in their own country. the assembly lines in Russia and the danger of nuclear Russia’s proposals for European security, war will reappear on the horizon. In any case, a return including the opposition to NATO’s expansion, have to a cold peace will inevitably follow. not been of much help to her democratic aspirations. The argument that this or that move by the West As has been pointed out above, Russian vision of a will inevitably lead to certain domestic outcome in future European security structure conforms to the Russia is unprovable. It is, however, a useful tool for statist, balance-of-power model. The statist politics playing on human fears. In fact, the post-World War II on the international arena emphasize the state, its history demonstrates that the United States prevailed strength, national defense, a strong dose of nationalism, in the Cold War not because of twists or turns of its and maximum independence and self sufficiency. This policies relative to the changing Soviet domestic is not a congenial environment in which democracy situation but because it pursued steady, long-range can develop, especially if its foundations are weak to policies based on fundamental advantages, such as the begin with, as in the case of Russia. democratic system and a market economy. In contrast, the integration model, such as has Secondly, not everyone in Russia fears NATO been evolved in the western part of Europe, rests on a or expects a nationalist backlash to occur following its universal acceptance of democratic values, promotes enlargement. Andrei Kozyrev, Russia’s former foreign mutual acceptance and respect of all member nations, minister, advised his countrymen, ‘It is wrong to create strong and weak alike, requires fundamental the image of NATO as the enemy. It plays into the compatibility of members’ economic and legal hands of the opposition.’ James Hoagland suggested that systems, downgrades the role of the military in the nationalist card using the NATO issue is in fact being relations among the member countries, and exerts a played in the internal politics of the Russian elites. ‘NATO moderating influence on nationalism. expansion is an issue for the elite.... Uniting the communists, All this suggests that a credible program for the nationalists and the government would make it easier to promotion of Russian democracy would first and unite against Lebed (The Washington Post, February 9, 1997). foremost focus the country’s attention on domestic The future of Russian democracy will be development of its democratic institutions and market decided principally by the domestic factors in Russia. economy. She has much to offer as a trade partner, but Will Russian leaders be able to avoid violence in much to threaten with as an unreformed empire. In domestic affairs such as the use of tanks against the this context, Russian leaders’ vocal opposition to the Duma in October 1993, and the war in Chechenya? enlargement of NATO is a wasteful distraction from According to Aleksei Pushkov, it was the latter which an important domestic program. caused a serious break between Yeltsin and all democratic parties and strengthened conservative Primacy of the domestic sphere trends and elements in the government (‘NATO The debate about the security system in Europe Expansion: A Russian Perspective,’ 1995 NATO and Russia’s place in it has largely ignored the Symposium at the National Defense University, Ft. relevance of the domestic factors which will shape McNair, Washington, D.C., April 24-25, 1995). future European order. The questions of whether Nationalism, including its aggressive variety, is an end Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic should be result of a complex process and not a consequence of a admitted to NATO, become a buffer zone, or be single event. consigned to the Russian sphere of influence have been In addition to the war in Chechenya, Russia’s addressed, particularly by the Russian side, in isolation clandestine military interventions in the Armenian- from the implications of the internal political and Azerbaijani conflict, in Georgia, and in Moldova are economic processes underway in those countries. likely to have a negative cumulative effect on Russia’s Similarly, the question of whether Russia will or will progress toward democracy. The extent to which not join Europe is treated by most Russian leaders, Russia supports undemocratic practices in neighboring regardless of their political orientation, as if the answer countries, such as in Belarus, will influence the depended on military power or the will of the state credibility of its own democratic processes. Leaders alone. Attempts by the Russian leaders to bargain with whose political interests lead them to support dictators the West over these issues demonstrate their lack of 490 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW September 1997 understanding of the implications of the internal changes which are taking place in most of BOOKS B O O K S and contemporary Europe. Russian leaders seriously misunderstand the Periodicals Received cultural, economic, social, and political realities when The Clash of Civilizations and the they strive to become an integral part of Europe solely Remaking of World Order, by Samuel P. on the basis of their governmental decisions. Their demands for inclusion in Europe simply because they Huntington. New York. Simon & Schuster (1230 abandoned communism or have a large nuclear arsenal, Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020). or a huge territory, or untold natural resources will 1996. 368 pages. Hardcover. certainly mean that Europe will not be able to ignore An expanded version of Huntington’s 1993 article Russia. Western Europe also could not ignore the in Foreign Affairs. Huntington argues that after the fall of Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, which based its status ideologies such as nazism and communism, a new era of as a significant European actor only on military- politics will be marked by reemergence of the concept of political power, was a Eurasian state geographically civilization. He goes on to identify major world civilizations, among them the Western one, and he draws its eastern border speaking, but it was not a cultural, economic, or social in western Ukraine and western Belarus. That is to say, he part of Europe. implicitly acknowledges the role of the Polish-Lithuanian The Kremlin leaders refuse to recognize the Commonwealth in shaping civilizational consciousness of nature and the implications of the integration process central and eastern Europe, and implicitly argues in favor underway in Western and Central Europe. It is incorrect of central Europe’s reintegration with the West via NATO to claim, as Kozyrev has, that the abolition of the and EU. Small wonder that those who would like the Yalta communist system placed Russia on the same level as the agreements to reemerge are so strongly opposed to United States and other Western countries. The defeat of Huntington’s book. communism was only the first step; the second is the In this configuration, Russia and Eastern Orthodoxy indispensable rejection of the statist model of politics, with occupy a space between the increasingly assertive Chinese, Indian and Islamic civilizations, and the civilization of the all its military-political, neo-imperialistic concepts and West. Perhaps the only loose end of this book is predispositions. Huntington’s failure to articulate more fully the place of The insistence by the West that the integration of Byzantium and its descendants. It does not seem that the Europe will proceed and that it will do so on the basis of vitality of this cultural formation matches that of Islam or its liberal-democratic criteria does not constitute a betrayal of the West, yet its distinctness is beyond doubt. of pro-democratic forces in Russia, nor does it threaten There is much more to this book than just an Russia itself. The European integrative process has its assertion of the right of the Central Europeans to return to own internal logic which, if the process is to survive and their civilizational home. There is a global vision of how become inclusive, has to be obeyed. ∆ various civilizations are likely to align themselves in the future, where the fault lines lie and which places are dangerously exposed to conflict. This incomplete note is Witold J. Lukaszewski is Professor of Political Science at meant to draw attention to two problems: first, the book is Sam Houston State University. This paper was read at the an ally of Central Europeans and their aspirations. Second, Southwest Slavic Conference, Rice University, February 21-2 1997. it is likely to be attacked by those who find the concept of civilizational distinctness abhorrent. Notwithstanding a silence that surrounds this book in the media, it has been Old Sarmatian Review issues needed noticed and discussed informally at universities. A purchase of this book would extend its influence further. The Sarmatian Review Editors seek the following issues of Much recommended. the SR: Encyklopedia Polski. Edited by Roman Vol. XI, No. 3 (September 1991) --issue titled ‘Eastern Europe: How to Teach It’ Marcinek. Introduction by Tadeusz Chrzanowski. Vol. XIII, No. 1 (January 1993) --issue titled ‘Polish Politics Kraków. Ryszard Kluszczyƒski Publishers (30-110 in the 1990s.’ Kraków, ul. Kraszewskiego 36, tel/fax 21-22-28). If you keep a full set of SR issues, no need to break it -- it may become valuable in the future. But those readers who 1996. ISBN 83-86328-60-6. 808 pages, 8’’ x 11’’. happen to have a few odd issues including those listed above Reproductions of numerous Polish paintings, other are asked to send them to the SR address. Many thanks. illustrations, maps, graphs. Hardcover. No price given, but the superb quality of paper and September 1997 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 491 reproductions indicates an upscale item. brethren in the Polish diaspora. The separation between the The Kluszczyƒski Publishers specializes in old and new Polonia has been enforced by the structure of beautifully edited encyclopedic volumes. We reviewed Polish organizations in this country and the pattern of Kronika dziejów Polski in SR (September 1996). The book meetings, conventions and the like. Kudos to Professor under review has the usual encyclopedic format, and its Buczek for raising these issues. contents were composed by some sixty Polish scholars Literatura polska w latach II wojny anchored at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Jagiellonian Êwiatowej (Polish Literature in World War II), University and other Kraków universities and colleges, as by Jerzy Âwi∏ch. Warsaw. Wydawnictwo well as in the country’s museums and scholarly institutes. Naukowe PWN. 1997. 583 pages. Numerous The volume covers Polish history and social life from Mieszko I to contemporary politicians. While those already indices and illustrations. Hardcover. In Polish. deceased are decidedly favored, Polish political life in the This book belongs to the series titled ‘Wielka 1990s is accurately featured. Among foreigners, those who historia literatury polskiej,’ or an unabbreviated history of influenced Poland’s fate are featured too, from Ivan the Polish literature. Several volumes have already appeared, Terrible to Brezhnev’s doctrine (but no Brezhnev nor his of which Jerzy Ziomek’s Renesans, now in its sixth edition, successors). was the finest so far, now to be replaced by Âwi∏ch’s volume. Encyklopedia is a reliable source of basic facts In addition to synthesizing information and criticism about about Polish writers, politicans, artists and public figures. It the well known writers who later published in Soviet- pays detailed attention to Polish history, shaking off the glum occupied Poland and in emigration, the author presents interpretations imposed by the Soviet occupiers and their writers and movements suppressed under the Soviets, e.g., Polish underlings. As is usual with books authored by a an underground association called Unia which had 20,000 vast array of authors, some omissions and disagreements members in 1942 and which published such periodicals as are inevitable. We were piqued by the uncharacteristically Kultura Jutra (January 1943-June 1944). Unia’s orientation dilletantish entry on Sarmatism, but we loved the emphasis was Christian and patriotic, and its plans included on children’s literature (Jan Brzechwa, Julian Tuwim, Jan renunciation of western Ukraine and western Belarus, and Twardowski, Kornel Makuszyƒski, Stanisław Jachowicz). moving the western border of Poland to where it is today. Recommended for libraries; a coffe table attention- Members of the association stressed similarities between getter. nazism and communism, considering both of them Polish American Studies, Vol. LIII, No. 2 abhorrent. They were represented in the (Autumn 1996). Edited by James S. Pula. Published by government-in-exile, and maintained connections with the (AK). Those active in Unia’s publications the Polish American Historical Association and the included Jerzy Braun (1901-75), Artur Górski (1870-1959), Catholic University of America. 114 pages. Karol Ludwik Koniƒski, Wojciech ukrowski, Zofia Kossak, The PAHA journal holds a place of increasing and the budding Catholic intellectual Jerzy Turowicz. importance in the intellectual debate on Polish-related issues Kultura Jutra published such poets as Tadeusz Gajcy, in the United States. The present issue features an article K.I.Gałczyƒski, Jerzy Braun, Tadeusz Hollender, Jerzy by Daniel Buczek on several topics, among them the Zagórski, Anna Swirszczyƒska; it reviewed books by continuing cultural struggle for ‘the soul of the youth’ of Krzysztof Baczyƒski and Tadeusz Borowski. The importance American Polonia among ‘the Polish [Roman Catholic] of Jerzy Braun for Polish culture can hardly be overestimated parishes,’ ‘the secular, non-religious intelligentsia, (although his notions of ethnic identity seem archaic today), concentrated in the Polish language press’ and ‘the secular and we welcome the attention given to him in Literatura associations grouped...in the so-called Polish Homes.’ This polska. This thick tome is chock full of facts, dates, and unresolved (and, one conjectures, not entirely spontaneous) interpretations. It reads extremely well, a rarity among struggle (which Professor Buczek traces back to the pre- encyclopedic works. World War II period) continues to the present day, and it Follow me: the Memoirs of a Polish Priest, by saps away a good deal of Polish energy and attention. An Monsignor Stanisław Grabowski. Edited with a awareness of this very real issue needs to be raised Preface by John Radziłowski. Roseville, MN. White Rose significantly in American Polish communities before any Press (P.O. Box 18403, Minneapolis, MN 55418-0403). long-term solutions can be found. In this connection, it is important to keep in mind 1997. xiv +146 pages. Paper. the issue Professor Stanislaus Blejwas once raised in his Father Grabowski (1911-1993) survived the Nazi polemic against Czeslaw Milosz in : concentration camps to which several thousand Polish priests were that the ‘old’ Polonia, originally blue-collar and proficient deported during World War II (1,800 were deported to Dachau in a Polish dialect but not in literary Polish, has often suffered alone; of these, 830 survived until 1945). This is one of those slights from the university-trained ‘intelligentsia’ who seem blood-curdling books that one long remembers. Grabowski’s to believe in their innate superiority over their less educated subsequent emigration to the United States facilitated the writing 492 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW September 1997 of it. This memoir is remarkable as he records not only the tragedies Anna Burzyƒska. Index, photographs. Houston, Texas. Skok of his life, but also his journey of faith. His increasingly profound Communication Arts. 1997. 439 pages. Hardcover. In Polish. faith and understanding of ontological realities made it possible An autobiography in verse by one of Houston’s for him to come to terms with malignant people and their monstrous remarkable engineers. doings. Catholic priests were exposed to unbelievable torture. “Robert F. Kelley. Wokół amerykaƒskiej polityki Particularly horrible are the descriptions of medical ‘experiments’ performed on the priests, and their death at wschodniej w okresie mi∏dzywojennym,’ by Bogusław the hands of the SS men and of ordinary German criminals. W. Winid. Dzieje Najnowsze [Warsaw], Vol. XXXVIII (1996), 47-63. Other Books Received: A scholarly study of the Division of Eastern European Borders of Language and Identity in Affairs in the US State Department in 1926-1937 headed by R.F. Kelley. The author points out that Kelley’s awareness of the problems Teschen Silesia, by Kevin Hannan. New York. Peter of Soviet imperialism was an exception rather than the rule in the Lang Publishers (275 Seventh Avenue, New York, US State Department whose traditions of friendship with Russia at NY 10001). 1996. 280 pages. Hardcover. $49.95. the expense of Russia’s neighbors go back to the nineteenth century. An interdisciplinary study of the borderland that Bondage to the Dead: Poland and the Memory intersects the territory of the Polish, Czech, and Slovak of the Holocaust, by Michael C. Steinlauf. Syracuse, NY. languages. The book explores ethnic consciousness in the Syracuse University Press. 1997. Paper $16.95. border areas. Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature. Vol. XLVII, Nos 3-4 (Spring-Summer 1995). Editor: Joseph Schwartz. Guest editor for the issue: Halina Filipowicz. Topic: “Sacrum in Environmental Politics Polish Literature.” in Poland Modernistic and secularist approaches to sacrum in selected works of Polish literature. A Social Movement Artists from Ukraine: Works on Paper. between Regime and Opposition Catalogue designed by Susan J. Baker and Lydia Bodnar Balahutrak. Foreword by Ann Trask. The by Barbara Hicks. New York. Columbia University O’Kane Gallery, University of Houston-Downtown Press. 1996. xvii + 263 pages. Paper. $15.50. (One Main Street, Houston, Texas 77002). 1997. 40 pages. Paper. Thomas C. Jagiella Color reproductions of prints and other works on paper by twenty artists from contemporary Ukraine. To eyes accustomed to the conventions of ‘postmodern’ American Professor Hicks’ analysis of the Polish paintings and interior design, the works reproduced appear environmental movement is ambitious. She attempts to be strikingly intense and original. to address three somewhat disparate aspects of the The Enigma of General Blaskowitz, by Richard problem. First, she examines the role of the Giziowski. London (Leo Cooper) and New York environmental movement as the Polish state attempted (Hippocrene Books). 1997. 532 pages. Photographs and to control grass roots activism. Second, she analyzes maps. ISBN # 0-7818-0503-1. Hardcover. $29.95. the role of the independent environmental movement A biography of Johannes Blaskowitz, the Nazi general in the postcommunist Polish state. Third, she provides responsible for the taking of Warsaw in 1939. According to the a running commentary of Polish environmental politics. biographer, Blaskowitz was one of the few Nazi generals who As is often the case when an author addresses protested German atrocities in Poland in 1939-1940. For that, he disparate topics in a short work, Professor Hicks does was transferred to the western front where atrocities were the greater justice to some at the expense of others. Her exception rather the rule. greatest success is her compilation of a large set of Culturelink: Network of Networks for Research facts regarding Polish environmental organizations, and Cooperation in Cultural Development, No. 21 (April legislation, demonstrations, and controversies. She 1997). Zagreb: Institute for International Relations. 155 provides a useful taxonomy of these facts. pages. Paper. Moje žycie, by Tadeusz Burzyƒski. Edited by In Chapter Three, “The Structure of September 1997 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 493 Environmental Protection: Legal Provisions and The conclusions Hicks draws from the large Administration,” Hicks details the milestones in Polish collection of facts she accumulated are somewhat environmental protection. She rightly observes that in unsatisfying. Perhaps it is my background as an Soviet-occupied Poland, as well as in other Soviet- environmental engineer which biases my reaction to occupied countries, a fundamental lack of the rule of her arguments. She asserts that the causes of law rendered any official acts directed at environmental environmental degradation in both communist and protection futile. So long as the ruling oligarchy did capitalist countries stem from the same root, ‘a general not see environmental protection as a worthy goal, any ideology of unlimited economic growth.... [a belief in] environmentally motivated obstructions to economic human ability to conquer and tame nature for human or military objectives were swept aside. Rather than purposes... [and] a belief in technological solutions.’ protect the environment, central planning ‘actually Professor Hicks does acknowledge the irony that state coalesced the forces against regulation and control of socialism would appear to be well-suited to protect the environmental destruction.’ environment, yet utterly failed to do so. She also observes that such ecological destruction in a socialist In Poland and elsewhere, public support economy indicates that private property is not the root for environmental protection typically wanes cause of such destruction. However, she claims that it when the public recognizes the economic costs. was the state’s need to achieve legitimacy through economic development, and not any inherent flaw of Another significant contribution is Hicks’ state socialism relative to other systems of government, adumbration of theories relating to the process of which caused widespread economic degradation in ‘normalization’, or a process by which the state former communist nations such as Poland. Even more attempted to restore state socialism in the face of public remarkably, Professor Hicks alleges that the Western unrest, with particular emphasis on the role of capitalist countries have similarly failed to protect the independent environmental groups. environment. While Hicks does cite a number of specific It is unfortunate that such an excellent instances of environmentally motivated political unrest, exposition of historical fact would be burdened by the she fails to make the case that environmental activism usual indefensible pablum of environmentalist was a major consideration in either the motivations or ideology. Nevertheless, Hicks book is important as strategies of the Polish political opposition. She does an exposition of key facts about the Polish cite the Chernobyl nuclear accident as an event which environmental movement and the history of helped galvanize opposition not only from without, but environmental protection in Poland. ∆ also from within the state. However, it is not clear that the reaction to Chernobyl was in the interest of Thomas C. Jagiella, PE, is Environmental Engineer/Director of environmental protection as much as it was one of the Compliance Republic Group, Inc. in Hutchinson, Kansas, and a PhD candidate in Environmental Engineering at Rice University. many manifestations of hostility toward Soviet inefficiency and lack of regard for public well-being. This lack of a clearly identified connection Conrad and Poland between the Polish environmental movement and unofficial or official state policy continues through her analysis of postcommunist Poland. One example is Edited with an introduction by Alex S. Kurczaba. provided of opposition to the construction of an Boulder, CO., East European Monographs and aluminum smelter, but this smelter was not on Polish Lublin, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Press. soil, and it would not have provided direct economic Distributed by Columbia University Press. 1996. benefit to the affected Poles. Hicks lists polling data v + 258 pages. $35.00. which purport to show widespread public support for greater environmental protection. However, such polling data are not uncommon. As anyone who has Frank Kujawinski been involved with implementation of environmental policy can attest, public support for environmental His was, we are told, ‘the richest and most protection typically wanes when the public recognizes extraordinary life of any major English novelist.’ (93) the economic costs. Beyond the majesty of his writings lies, like some 494 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW September 1997 distant and exotic port, the reality and mystery of Joseph discourse of Polish intellectual circles at that time. Conrad’s life. As all the essays in this collection Bross deals expertly with the public controversy that witness, the experiences of his Polish youth inform and followed the failure of the January rising and with shape the narratives he wrote as an adult. That is the Conrad’s own ‘shocking simplification’ (80) of its basis on which Jakob Lothe justifies in his essay meaning. Susan Jones sees in the Polish myth of the crossing the ‘borderline between fiction and self-sacrificing heroine (as renewed in the life and death autobiography’ (227) which frequently occurs in of Conrad’s own mother) the source of Conrad’s Conrad’s writings. We gradually discover that all those subsequent attitude toward his female characters and, sea stories and adventures, the wilderness of place and derivatively, of his ideas on bravery, loyalty, and honor. psychological tumult of individual lives are equaled As Poland is, in biographical fact, the actual and sometimes surpassed by the real life story of the point of embarkment for the future mariner, so Conrad’s young Conrad, his family and his country. Joseph words and attitudes are laden with the burden, nuance Conrad was not only ‘an old salt’ of the sea, a and wealth of those earlier years. In a wonderful essay representative of Her Majesty’s eastern empire and an on linguistic comparison, Mary Morzinski discovers observer of oriental trading posts, he was also the son in the ‘syntactic-semantic infrastructure’ (175) of Polish of his father’s feverish desire for the rebirth of his the sources of Conrad’s characteristic style, as he shapes nation. As for his mother, she lived only long enough in his English stances more easily rendered in Polish. to charge his imagination with a deep feeling of loss Noel Peacock focuses on the ‘ocularcentrism’ in and a need to ‘reinvent’ her (41) — which he Conrad’s style, using this focus to strong effect in his accomplished in his narratives. Conrad subsequently study of Under Western Eyes where seeing both reveals lived under the tutelage of an uncle opposed to his the truth and, under other conditions, becomes the father’s ways of thinking, that is to say, to the intrusive tool of autocracy. Yet it is because Under impractical dreams of uprisings and armed struggle. Western Eyes pulsates with the rhythm of a personal These tangled biographical streams remain unseen and experience of autocracy — an almost Polish sixth sense distant in most works on Conrad. The essays in this of the dangers — that Peacock can remind us: ‘It is collection map and chart these influences, as well as worth keeping in mind however that the Poland about identify commonalities of perspective in later writers which Conrad is writing is a Russified Poland...’ (130) who came under Conrad’s influence. Then, too, because of his Eastern European connection, Conrad anticipates the advancing twentieth Because of his Eastern European century and foresees its horrors. He had known, connection, Conrad anticipated the advancing firsthand, the experience of repression, loss of family, loss of country, loss of dignity, and the weight of being twentieth century and... the experience of a stranger in another’s land (‘the alien’ in Wiesław repression, loss of family, loss of country, loss of Krajka’s essay, the ‘not “one of us”’ in Carola M. dignity, and the weight of being a stranger in Kaplan’s). Both Krajka’s discussion of Jerzy Kosinski’s another’s land. The Painted Bird and Alex S. Kurczaba’s study of Conrad’s influence on Czeslaw Milosz’s poetry extend Stephen G.W. Brodsky aggressively and the range of these essays to the present era. Both Krajka contentiously reviews the heritage of Western and Kurczaba do not hesitate to comment on Conrad’s scholarship on Conrad, concluding that ‘a reassessment relevance today. Keith Carabine’s essay on Conrad’s from the Polish perspective is already overdue .’ (12) ‘peculiar experience of race and family’ and his Brodsky develops in detail the theme of ‘interior honor’ consequent uniqueness among British authors of his and offers it to Western critics as an enriching corrective time is a statement on the continued modernity of to their long-dominant cultivation of a guilt-laden Conrad’s experience. So is Laurence Davies’ substratum in Conrad’s works. Addison Bross provides ‘speculation’ on the shared ‘international qualities’ historical depth as he critiques the relationship in (191) of Conrad and Count Jan Potocki of The Poland between a fading Romanticism and an Saragossa Manuscript. antagonistic Positivism. The political and social It is hard to believe that Conrad’s first book, repercussions of these movements dominated the Almayer’s Folly, was completed in 1895. What he repressive, turbulent times that followed the defeat of wrote in the ‘Author’s Note’ suggests the tempered the 1863 January rising and shaped the confrontational wisdom of one looking back over the twentieth century. September 1997 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 495 The issues Conrad explored are still our issues: ‘I am content to sympathize with common mortals, no matter Letters where they live; in houses or in tents, in the streets Compliments department under a fog, or in the forests behind the dark line of I continue to look forward to every issue of the Review. dismal mangroves....Their hearts — like ours — must Enclosed is a check for a three-year subscription endure the load of the gifts from Heaven: the curse of renewal. facts and the blessing of illusions, the bitterness of our wisdom and the deceptive consolation of our folly.’ In Don Banas, San Jacinto, California I do not recall receiving a reminder about subscription the above, one can feel the experience of the Pole whose dues for 1997. Enclosed is a check. I always look adult life carried him beyond his childhood in Poland, forward to your publication. but not beyond the moral reach of the memories. These essays reinvigorate the all-too- Jonathan Keyes, DDS, New Philadelphia, PA infrequent conversation of like minds and hearts, recall Enclosed is a subscription check for your splendid and revisit old stories, retell, rephrase, and enlighten publication. I hope the subscription can begin with this forgotten or yet unappreciated elements, point out to month’s (April) edition. us the sources that gave birth to, nourished and John Mlynarczyk, San Antonio, Texas developed Conrad’s penetrating vision into the human heart sometimes of darkness and sometimes of dignity. Such letters are deeply appreciated. Thank you all. Ed. This is the book’s greatest value: by way of scholarship and research, it proceeds to a renewal of that Correction conversation of which Conrad was such a master and In stanza Six, line three and four of my poem stylist, and of which we are the current beneficiaries “Chechenya” published in the January 1997 issue of and participants. ∆ The Sarmatian Review, a translator’s mistake distorted the poem’s meaning. Instead of Frank Kujawinski is Lecturer in Polish at Loyola University in Chicago. ...to the endless power that makes everything else diminutive I prayed...

- the lines should read The Sarmatian Review would like to thank the following persons and institutions for ...to the endless power their generous donations to the SARMATIAN that everything else diminishes REVIEW PUBLICATION FUND: I prayed..... Ferdous Shahbaz-Adel, Chicago, Illinois Mr. & Mrs. J. Grembowiec of GREMBOWIEC & ASSOCIATES; Professor Our Lady of Czestochowa Polish Parish Richard J. Hunter, Jr; Mr. & Mrs. Jan & Hanna in Houston, Texas Karon; Dr. & Mrs. Jonathan M. & Ann Marie will celebrate its 15th anniversary on September Keyes; Professor and Mrs. Marek & Barbara 20, 1997. Festivities will end with a banquet in the Kimmel; Mr. & Mrs. Ryszard & Janina Marriott Hotel on Hwy. 10. Donations of $75 per Kowalczuk; Mr. & Mrs. Leonard M. Krazynski person (toward the Building Fund) are requested. of KRAZYNSKI & ASSOCIATES, INC.; Dr. For more information call Fr. Frydrych at T. Z. Laskowski; Mr. & Mrs. Martin & 713-973-1081. Aleksandra Lawera; Ms. Beatrice Shube; Ms. Warszawa Restaurant - Polish Cuisine Aurellia Sobczyk; Mr. Kenneth W. Walpuck; 1414 Lincoln Blvd (at Santa Monica Blvd.) Mr. & Mrs. Stanley J. & Stella Wlodarczyk. Santa Monica, CA (310)393-8831 One of the finest and most reasonably priced restaurants in the Los Angeles area. 496 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW September 1997 Announcements and Notes Lecture meeting WiadomoÊci dnia-Polska Online News Central Europe in NATO provides mighty competition to Donosy. It offers Polish news with multiple links to politicians, parties, ( a panel discussion) personalities, issues. It appears on weekdays in Polish and English. W.J. Lukaszewski, Sam Houston State Univ. More Web suggestions J.R. Thompson, Rice University The Polish World site has tremendous possibilities, if you 7:30 PM, September 26, 1997 (Friday) care to explore them: . 110 Rayzor Hall, Rice University Another big metasource is NEWSPAPER MANIA: . Refreshments will be served Polish Chair at Central Connecticut State Univ. This panel discussion is sponsored by the Central Europe On 7 May 1997, Governor John Roland announced the Study Group at Rice University, the Houston Circle of the establishment of an Endowed Chair in Polish at CCSU. Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, and the $600,000 has already been raised, owing largely to the efforts Houston Chapter of the Kosciuszko Foundation. of Professor Stanislaus Blejwas, Coordinator of the Polish electronic bookstore NEPO flourishing Polish Studies Program at CCSU. The state will provide supplementary matching funds. accepts orders for books in Polish at Mikos and Kurczaba receive prizes . Credit cards accepted. You can Two SR Editorial Committee members, Professors Michael try us for ANY book IN PRINT in Poland in the current Mikos of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Alex year. Our catalog: . Kurczaba of the University of Illinois-Chicago, received Mailing address: Post Office Box 105, ul. major prizes. The 1995 Translation Prize of the Pen Club of Broniewskiego 77 m. 137, 01-865 Warsaw, Poland. Poland went to Mikos, and a 1997 Teaching Recognition Program Award at UIC was given to Kurczaba. Mikos has RADIO COURIER published Medieval Literature of Poland (1992), Polish Polish American Radio Network Renaissance Literature (1995) and Polish Baroque and P.O. Box 130146 Enlightenment Literature (1996). A review of Kurczaba’s Houston, Texas 77219 Conrad and Poland appears in this issue. Polish Language Program A Sarmatian Review clone? Saturday 11:00 AM, 1520 KYND The Sarmatian Review derives its name from a Graeco-Latin root, Sarmatia. Among its declared objectives, as stated in the masthead, is the publication of archival documents, some of which could not have been accessed or translated in Help Soviet-occupied Central Europe. At least some SR authors can be described as ‘provocative.’ SR is edited by university Central & Eastern European professors, and it has recently acquired a place on the Net owing to the academic affiliation of its editors. Economies Imagine, therefore, our surprise upon receiving, in April Buy Goods 1997, an electronic notice that a journal described in similar terms has made its appearance online. Its title likewise from Central & Eastern Europe derives from an uncommon (in English or Polish) Graeco- Latin root (unlike ours, it has to do with the sea). It promises to publish new archival documentation and essays reflecting ‘provocative thinking.’ Its editors are university professors, G i v e w h e r e i t r e a l l y and the journal found a niche on the Internet owing to G i v e w h e r e i t r e a l l y academic affiliation of one of the profs... cc oo uu nn tt ss Speaking of unacknowledged copycatting... but perhaps we should rejoice that SR format is generating clones. ssuuppppoorrtt Correction In April 1997 Announcements and Notes, we incorrectly identified ycie Warszawy as the only Polish daily available TT hh ee SS aa rr mm aa tt ii aa nn RR ee vv ii ee ww .. online free of charge. In 1997, Rzeczpospolita also went online: .