POLAND 100 Years P O L A N D 1 0 0 POLAND POLAND 100 Years 100 Years

The Poland 100 Years album has been created on the occasion Authors of texts of the centenary of Poland’s independence. The concept of the publication was developed by the Program Council appointed Iwona Arabas through a social initiative. Among the creators of the album there Waldemar Baraniewski are distinguished authors representing different disciplines Marek Belka of science, economy and culture. Ryszard Bugaj Wojciech J. Burszta Program Council Andrzej Chwalba Jerzy Eisler Michał Kleiber – Chairman Andrzej Friszke Marcin Gmys Jerzy Bralczyk Grzegorz Gorzelak Waldemar Dąbrowski Ryszard M. Groński Andrzej Mencwel Michał Kleiber Wiesław Myśliwski Krzysztof Kłosiński Witold M. Orłowski Krzysztof Konarzewski Adam D. Rotfeld Andrzej Kruczyński Henryk Samsonowicz Tadeusz Lubelski Krystyna Skarżyńska Dorota Malec Bogdan Szymanik Andrzej Mencwel Dariusz Michalski Krzysztof Michalski Stanisław Michałowski Jan Miodek Władysław T. Miodunka Wojciech Morawski Bolesław Orłowski Witold M. Orłowski Andrzej Paczkowski Walery Pisarek Maria Anna Potocka Adam D. Rotfeld Joanna Schiller-Walicka Janusz H. Skalski Krystyna Skarżyńska Roch Sulima Stefan Szczepłek Adam Szostkiewicz Maciej Tymiński Jarosław Włodarczyk Leszek Zasztowt Nation and Society—the Poles and Others Mathematical and Physical Sciences— Wojciech J. Burszta Explaining the Universe Table of Contents 262 Jarosław Włodarczyk 111 National Identity—Tensions and Contradictions Andrzej Mencwel Natural and Medical Sciences—Nature and Man 276 Iwona Arabas 156 Society—Relationships and Values Krystyna Skarżyńska Technical Achievements—for Poland and the World 288 Bolesław Orłowski, Krzysztof Michalski 168 Religions and the Religious Structure Adam Szostkiewicz 298 V Preface II Michał Kleiber Education and Its Reforms Culture 21 Economy Krzysztof Konarzewski 311 Literature—Between Creative Freedom and Politics Economic Balance of the Second Republic of Poland: Krzysztof Kłosiński I Challenges, Opportunities, Dilemmas Media—From the Press and Radio to the Internet 180 Wojciech Morawski Walery Pisarek History and Politics 162 328 Classical Music—The Golden Age Marcin Gmys Between the East and the West? After the War—the Period of Concrete and Steel Healthcare—the Organization and 191 Adam D. Rotfeld Maciej Tymiński Operation of the System 28 176 Janusz H. Skalski Theater—Between Imitation and Originality 312 Andrzej Kruczyński From Collapse to Resurrection The 1970s—the Time of Shattered Hopes 506 Andrzej Chwalba Ryszard Bugaj Sport as a National Cement 16 190 Stefan Szczepłek Cinema—The Dizzying Career of the 10th Muse 356 Tadeusz Lubelski From First to Second World War Transformation—the Bright and the Dark Sides 521 Andrzej Paczkowski Marek Belka Emigration—in Search of Freedom, 60 202 Bread and Knowledge The Art of the Last Century—Individualism vs. History Władysław T. Miodunka Maria Anna Potocka From the September Disaster till the End of the War The Miracle of Entrepreneurship 378 531 Andrzej Friszke Witold M. Orłowski 71 216 Countryside—Transformations Architecture—Between Tradition and the Avant-Garde in Peasant Mentality and Awareness Waldemar Baraniewski From the Polish Committee of National Liberation The Path Towards the Center of Europe Roch Sulima 550 to the Fall of Communism Grzegorz Gorzelak 100 Andrzej Friszke 221 Popular Music—Entertainment Not Only for the Masses 88 Dariusz Michalski One Hundred Years of Chasing the Developed West IV 562 From the Fall of Communism . . . Witold M. Orłowski Jerzy Eisler 231 Science and Technology Cabaret—Reality in a Distorted Mirror 106 Ryszard M. Groński Institutions—Universities, Institutes, Scientific 571 The Law in Poland During the Last 100 Years III Associations Dorota Malec Joanna Schiller-Walicka 121 Society 118 Varia The Role of Territorial Self-Government in State Structures Changes in the Polish Language Humanities—Achievements of Scholars Stanisław Michałowski Jan Miodek Leszek Zasztowt List of Abbreviations 110 252 130 586

The Homeland is a great—collective—Duty

Cyprian Kamil Norwid

23 Soviet-influenced communist government that was foreign to our Preface tradition.” The celebration of the 100th anniversary of regaining indepen- dence is, of course, an entirely exceptional event. This was why the originators of this album made an effort to emphasize the im- portance of this event by preparing a special jubilee publication with the huge commitment of a few dozen authors. The goal of the Michał Kleiber album is to present the history of Poland over the last 100 years in a verbal and pictorial form. To show in an attractive manner how, in spite of many dramatic events we encountered after regaining inde- pendence, we managed to build a modern, steadily developing state with a strong international position and the rising welfare of inhab- itants. Gratefully looking back on the heroism of our predecessors, whom we owe the possibility of celebrating successive anniver- “On November 11th, 1918, the dream of generations of Poles came orable November of 1918. A state of festive elation was also aroused saries of this splendid Independence Day in such a solemn and true—the Polish State was reborn. After the Partitions and 123 years by the victory in the war against Bolshevik Russia (1919-1921), which emotional manner, we would also like to encourage us all to think of servitude, Russification and Germanization, after great upris- was followed by the mundane process of building a new state. about and reflect on very current topics. The matter of regaining ings, free Poland returned to the world map. [. . .] Independence The complexity of our modern history is reflected by the history independence is of fundamental importance to Poles not only for was regained through the dedicated and heroic fight not only in of the celebration of Independence Day. In 1919-1936, anniversaries the sake of remembrance. The patriotic awareness of our dramatic battlefields but also in daily struggles for maintaining the spiritual of the restoration of independence were celebrated as military cere- past and heroism necessary to overcome the national tragedy also and material national substance [. . .]. This was also possible be- monies in Warsaw, usually on the first Sunday after November 11th. helps us effectively face the challenges of the future, both those cause people representing various circles—the pro-independence The status of a national holiday was assigned to Independence already known and those still unknown. The stimulation of such left wing, the national movement and the people’s movement— Day only by the Act of April 23rd, 1937. It was to celebrate the res- reflection was also the intention of the authors of this album. On managed to come to an understanding in the most important mat- toration of Poland’s sovereignty along with the end of World War I the year of this beautiful jubilee, it is worth realizing once again ters”—we can read in the Resolution of the Sejm of the Republic of and to commemorate Józef Piłsudski. During the Nazi occupation that only a strong civic community, following the example of such a. Secondary school students, members of the Polish Military Or- Poland adopted unanimously on May 25th, 2017, according to which of Poland in 1939-1915, the public celebration of Polish national holi- a diversified society raised in three Partitions one hundred years ganization in Częstochowa with weapons taken over from the Ger- the year 2018 was declared as the year of the 100th anniversary of days was obviously impossible, and organizers of the underground ago, is able to solve problems that we may come upon in the future. mans, November 11th, 1918 the restoration of independence by Poland. celebrations of the anniversary of November 11th were exposed a. The National Independence Day commemorates this event of to severe repressions. However, attempts were still made to keep fundamental importance for the process of forming the modern the memory of Independence Day alive. On the days preceding Polish nation. Although regaining independence was a long-lasting November 11th, inscriptions such as “Poland is fighting” or “Poland and gradual process, the date adopted as Polish National Indepen- is not yet lost” and—from November 1912—also the anchor-shaped dence Day is justified by the most significant events—on Novem- emblem of Fighting Poland could be seen on walls and sidewalks. ber 7th, the Provisional People’s Government was formed in Lublin, In spite of the Poles’ belief in the exceptional importance of this and on November 10th, Józef Piłsudski arrived in Warsaw from the event in our history and reverence for its heroes, Independence prison in Magdeburg and took over military power one day later. Day was abolished in 1915. By the decision of new authorities, the Also on November 11th, an armistice signed in Compiègne sealed most important national holiday became the National Day of the the end of World War I and the ultimate defeat of Germany. On Rebirth of the Polish State, celebrated on July 22nd on the anni- November 16th, 1918, Piłsudski sent the following telegraph to the versary of the proclamation of the Manifesto of the Polish Com- heads of states and the heads of governments of the United States, mittee of National Liberation. This forced independence circles Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and many other states: to organize illegal celebrations of successive anniversaries of the “As Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Army, I wish to notify the restoration of independence during the entire period of People’s existence of the Independent Polish State encompassing all territo- Poland, which met with repressions from the militia. The years ries of united Poland to fighting and neutral governments and na- 1980-1981, when the “Solidarity” trade union restored the proper tions. [. . .] The Polish State is formed by the will of the entire nation status of Independence Day in social awareness for a short time, and is based on democratic foundations. [. . .] I am convinced that were an exception. The actual return to the tradition of celebrat- powerful Western democracies will provide help and brotherly ing this holiday occurred as a result of adopting the act entitled support to the Resurrected and Independent Republic of Poland. “National Independence Day” by the Sejm, which took place in the Commander-in-Chief last months of the existence of People’s Poland on February 15th, Piłsudski.” 1989. The subsequent decision concerning this holiday was passed After more than one hundred and twenty years of Partitions, on November 11th, 1997 in the politically altered country, when the the dreams and aspirations of many generations of Poles came Sejm adopted a resolution proclaiming, among others: “This official true. Freedom! Independence! A state of our own forever! —no lofty anniversary is also an opportunity to reflect upon the half-century words were great enough to express the enthusiasm, the sheer out- in which Poles’ aspirations for freedom and democracy were sup- break of joy that erupted among the Polish population in the mem- pressed by Nazi and Soviet occupants and subsequently by the

21 25 It is necessary to tear Polish wounds apart, otherwise they may become I covered with a membrane of meanness

Stefan Żeromski History and Politics

27 fight Russian troops if they became owners of the land. Unfortu- This slogan accompanied the Creole peoples in their fight against From Collapse to Resurrection nately, insurgents failed to carry out the enfranchisement of the Spain for the independence of states and nations in Latin America. peasants. Only a few of them committed their fates to the Polish The slogan “for our freedom and yours,” which became the binder idea of independence. Only after another defeat did the Polish elites of multinational India, was used by Mahatma Gandhi. proceed to systematic and persistent political work among the Pol- In the Romantic period, Polish revolutionaries in exile were ac- ish-speaking people to make them Polish not only by language, but tive in international organizations led by, among others, Giuseppe also by belief. They were supported in this work by priests of the Mazzini, and subsequently by Giuseppe Garibaldi. European rev- Andrzej Chwalba Roman Catholic Church, which reinforced its position not only as olutionaries, including Italians, Germans and the French, fought a religious but also as a national institution. alongside Polish insurgents and died according to the slogan “for Until 1911, the reinforcement of national identity among the peo- our freedom and yours,” e.g., in the January Uprising. Focused on ple was not finished, except in the lands of the Prussian Partition, fighting for civil liberties, European nations demonstratively wel- which was the most developed economically and culturally, and comed participants of the Polish November Uprising. They were where the Polish population felt Polish regardless of their property enthusiastically welcomed by Germans, who covered the costs of and education, and therefore consciously voted for their candidates their stay and journey to the West. Also in France and Belgium, In 1795, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ceased to exist. Its participate in joint fights because their social role was different. in the elections. At the end of the 19th century, the Polish national Polish insurgents were welcomed by triumphal arches with in- extensive place in Central & Eastern Europe was taken over by the Moreover, they were considered to be unable to fight on the battle- idea reached Polish-speaking circles in Upper Silesia, which stood scriptions such as “Eternal glory to the defeated,” and orchestras three partitioning powers: Prussia, Austria, and Russia. This event field, because they were not skilled in using arms. Referring to for Polishness while retaining their sense of regional distinctness. played Dąbrowski’s Mazurka. The Last 10 of the 4th Regiment, took place during great transformations in Europe at the time of the Kościuszko Uprising, the advocates of the people’s war argued The sense of national identity was significantly reinforced among Julius Mosen’s song glorifying invincible heroes, was performed revolutions and rapid political and cultural changes. All of this also that insurgent peasants had participated and showed heroism in the people in the Austrian Partition, in Galicia, and in Cieszyn Sile- by many people in Germany. European romantics—philosophers, resulted in important changes in its map. Not only the Common- the victorious battle of Racławice against Russian troops in 1791. sia, where valuable role was played by the people’s movement— painters, writers, and musicians—disseminated the idealized im- wealth, but also well-known Republican states such as Genoa or Those who had particularly distinguished themselves in the battle in which, among others, enlightened peasants led by Wincenty age of the Pole as a knight of freedom, and the Cologne water pro- Venice collapsed at that time, and some German states lost their received new surnames and noble titles. The peasant’s weapons— Witos participated—and by the socialist movement led by Ignacy ducer (Eau de Cologne) changed the name of the branded product independence. In the decisive clash between aggressive absolute scythes pointed upwards—had proven dangerous and effective. Daszyński. Progress in this extent was weaker among the Polish to Eau de Pologne for some time. The size of the support for the monarchies and the forces of the revolution, there was no room for Over the course of time, the scythe and the peasant’s coat were people in the Kingdom of Poland belonging to Russia because of Polish cause of freedom by European democracies can only be old types of states; even though the latter undertook the brave work gradually mythologized and became a Polish national relic, prov- the poorly developed education system and unfavorable political compared to the interest generated by the idea of solidarity in the of internal reforms, they did that too late to retain their sovereignty. ing that peasant serfs could stand up and fight with dignity and conditions for national work. The biggest difficulties occurred in 1980s. However, all of these signs of sympathy and support in the courage if they were commanded properly and had been granted Polish-speaking Catholic counties in Lithuania and Belarus, be- 1830s did not translate into concrete actions. Various concepts of regaining sovereignty. Many Poles could not freedom. The myth of those who “feed and defend” would encour- cause these areas were uncivilized and culturally retarded, and come to terms with the decision made in 1795. They regarded nation- age peasants to fight for Poland many more times. However, its the Polish population was mixed with the Lithuanian, Latvian, Be- Poles’ independence attempts vs. interests of powers. Thus, al freedom and state sovereignty as values that could not be traded practical impact left much to be desired. larusian and Ukrainian population. Polish politicians began returning to the idea of supporting Polish and that ranked above private ambitions and interests. The leaders After the disaster of the November Uprising, Polish politicians Altogether, at the time of the outbreak of the Great War of 1911, independence attempts not by nations, but by governments of of the nation undertook different political and military actions that who decided to emigrate, mainly to France, increasingly believed the overwhelming majority of the Polish-speaking population European states. They stressed that the only measurable success were supposed to restore the Commonwealth in Europe. For the that if a new uprising was to be successful, it had to encompass the wanted the resurrection of Poland, although almost everybody for the Polish cause in the 19th century was the establishment entire 19th century, various ways and methods were tested in order entire nation and be organized in accordance with the Romantic realized that this would be difficult, or even virtually impossible of the constitutional Duchy of Warsaw by Emperor Napoleon to achieve this. Some Polish politicians and military men thought slogan: “the Polish people go hand in hand with the Polish nobil- without a favorable political constellation in Europe. This meant Bonaparte in 1807. An important role was played there by Polish that only a national uprising against the invaders would bring the ity.” This meant that the future people’s war in which insurgents that the people had recognized the history of Poland as their own troops referring to the glory of the Polish Legions in Italy under resurrection of statehood. However, they could not agree upon the would be supported by thousands of peasants would bring favora- and wanted to have their own share in its future history. This was the command of General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski. This meant the territorial scope of the planned uprisings. Should it be organized ble results. However, this did not happen. First, a peasant with a the great capital that could be used by national leaders. removal of the borders of the Partitions—at least in the part of against all three invaders, or only against one? Optimists thought scythe was unable to fight effectively against regular armies of the territory of the former Commonwealth, for a certain time. At that an uprising in all three Partitions might succeed. On the other invaders armed with rifles and cannons. Second, peasants often “For our freedom and yours.” Apart from politicians and military the Vienna Congress of 1815, which put an end to the Napoleonic hand, skeptics believed that, because of differences in potential, an had no national consciousness. Moreover, there was a strong so- men opting for an independent Polish action, there were also fre- Wars, two Polish territories were cut out of the former Duchy of uprising against the three states would be doomed to failure. They cial conflict between them and the nobility. Thus, peasants often quent opinions that an independent insurrection movement would Warsaw, although they were not sovereign: the Kingdom of Poland referred to the Kościuszko Uprising of 1791 as a leading example. perceived monarchs of conquering states as allies in this dispute, not have any chance to succeed without support from the peoples in personal union with Russia and the Free City of Cracow. This Initially, there was a chance of success, because the only enemy was which shattered the national elites’ hopes of success. The events of Europe. Already during the uprising in 1791, a slogan “For our allowed the Polish national culture and economy to develop in an Russia. After some time, however, the Prussian army joined the fight in Galicia in 1816 were a good example of this when the planned freedom and yours” was formulated. Appeals were made for the unrestrained manner. In Warsaw, Polish politicians established the against Tadeusz Kościuszko’s insurgents. Being engaged in a war uprising was frustrated by a bloody conflict between peasants and solidarity of peoples to fight against absolute monarchies—against Bank of Poland (an issuing bank) and a stock exchange. However, against revolutionary France, Austria remained neutral for a long the nobility. Supported by the invader, the former quickly sup- tyrants, as it was said. This slogan was taken up by revolutionaries apart from the episode from the Napoleonic era, the hopes vested time, but it also sent forces to fight the insurrection at the end of the pressed the elites’ dreams of independence. in other countries of Europe, who regarded it as their own and by Polish politicians in help from the governments of England and uprising. In this situation, there was no chance of victory anymore. The elites understood that success in fights against the invaders showed solidarity with the fight of the Polish insurgents. Thanks to France in the regaining of independence proved unfounded. At the would become real only after many years of educational work European romantics, the idea that emerged on the Vistula and the end of the 19th century, the matter of the independence of Poland Did the Polish nobility go hand in hand with the Polish people? among the people aimed at convincing them that they were part of Neman became universal. Its heyday occurred during the Spring as an issue of international relations ceased to exist. It seemed that The social character of uprisings was also discussed. Should only the Polish nation along with the other social classes. However, little of Nations. Fighting for the right to political freedoms, national in- Poland was definitely removed from the list of sovereign states. privileged and educated people, mainly the nobility and the middle success was achieved in this regard until another uprising broke dependence, participation in power and a dignified life, European In the 1870s and 1880s, the modest hopes that the fate of Poles class, participate? Or should the peasant masses also join them? out in January 1863. Revolutionary leaders believed that, although revolutionaries went into battle with this slogan on their lips. They might improve began to be associated with the weakening alliance Until 1830, it was generally believed that peasant serfs should not peasants were not nationally conscious, they would be willing to were often led into battle by participants of the November Uprising. of the three conquering states. No uprising could be victorious

16 17 Andrzej Chwalba From Collapse to Resurrection until their attitude toward the issue of Poland was identical. At the ical clash with the occupant. In 1917, he was arrested and interned turn of the 20th century, two antagonistic political-military blocs: in a fortress in Magdeburg. His example, however, was infectious. the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente were formed. For the Many Poles started to believe that Poland would rise again. As a first time since the Napoleonic era, the invaders stood against each result of the increase of pro-independence moods, the position of other. Russia became allied with France and Great Britain, which the trialists became gradually weaker, particularly because neither had been its antagonists a short time ago, and Germany entered Vienna nor Budapest treated trialism as a serious offer. In 1917, it into an alliance with Austria-Hungary. Growing tensions between was shouted out loud: “Poland deserves a place in Europe!” Also, the two blocs and the Balkan War that broke out in 1912 indicated politicians supporting Dmowski understood that Russia would that the possibility of a European war could not be ruled out. not establish a sovereign or even autonomous Poland, particularly However, Polish parties were unable to elaborate and adopt when it was losing the war, and went to the West to organize a a unified position on the approaching conflict. Some politicians promotional campaign for the benefit of Poland. Dmowski gained wished success to the Triple Entente, whereas others counted on support from well-known and respected Poles active in the field of the victory of the Triple Alliance. Roman Dmowski wished success culture. The biggest support came from Ignacy Jan Paderewski— to Russia and the allied forces because he was afraid of the power the world’s most popular pianist at that time, who was respected of the Reich and its effective Germanization policy in the Prussian by politicians from allied states and the United States. His friend Partition. Dmowski believed that the Triple Entente would succeed was the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson. In 1916, in the future conflict. If so, a victorious Russia would annex vast Paderewski was one of the most generous sponsors of his electoral areas of the Austrian and Prussian Partitions. As a result of this, committee. He made a good choice, or rather investment, because the number of Poles in the common state of the Romanovs would Wilson won again and remarked in his speech to the Senate in reach 25 million people. He believed that if Poland was united January 1917 that the war should be aimed at the establishment by the tsars then it would gain independence within Russia. The of a free and sovereign Poland. He was the first politician to make Russian government did not exclude such a course of events but such an announcement, although the United States remained neu- made no promises. On the other hand, Polish conservative pol- tral at that time. He formulated the United States’ war goals even iticians from Galicia who had a good position on the Emperor’s more clearly and explicitly in his speech to Congress in January court counted on the victory of the states of the Triple Alliance. 1918. In the 13th point of the speech, he announced that the war was They believed that this would result in the takeover of lands be- aimed at restoring Poland with access to the Baltic Sea. Paderewski longing to Russia by Austria and the Reich. They were convinced and Dmowski were supported by a number of well-known Poles that the Austrian government and the Emperor would then annex recognized in the West, such as Maria Skłodowska-Curie, the dou- the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish counties of the Grodno Gov- ble winner of the Nobel Prize in physics (1903) and in chemistry ernorate and the Vilnius Governorate to Galicia. As a result of this, (1911), the writer Henryk Sienkiewicz, who was the winner of the the Habsburg monarchy would be transformed into Austria-Hun- Nobel Prize in 1905, and Władysław Mickiewicz, Adam’s son. Jo- gary-Poland. This vision was called trialistic. Its potential fulfill- seph Conrad, an English writer of Polish descent and a former in- ment would mean that the Prussian Partition would be beyond the habitant of Kraków, also tried to persuade the politicians of allied borders of the trialistic monarchy. states into the Polish cause. Polish dreams finally began to come The third political variant was promoted by politicians support- true, also due to the fact that the war had lasted so long and had ing Józef Piłsudski. They thought that the aim of political (and exhausted the war potential of the great powers. If it had lasted military, if necessary) actions should be the full independence of for a shorter time, independent Poland would have probably not Poland. As in the case of the trialists, they considered Russia to be come into being. The new political architecture of Central Europe their main enemy. In order to strengthen their arguments, they es- would not have been created, either. In 1917, after the revolution, tablished a riflemen’s union with Vienna’s consent. At the beginning the tsar’s authority collapsed and the Bolsheviks signed a peace of August 1911, riflemen made an armed entry into the Kingdom treaty with the Central Powers in Brest. The successor of the for- of Poland. After two weeks of fighting, the riflemen’s units were mer tsarist invader withdrew from the war, and the lands of the transformed into voluntary Polish Legions consisting of three in- former Commonwealth that had belonged to Russia before the war fantry brigades. Piłsudski commanded the first brigade. In military were occupied by Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1918. In this terms, Legions were subject to the Austrian command; therefore, situation, the nearest future of Poland depended only on the out- Piłsudski tried to constantly give them an outstandingly Polish and come of the war in Western Europe. History developed in Poland’s pro-independence character. The Legion soldiers fought excellent- favor. The two successive invaders lost the war. The Habsburg ly. Piłsudski’s position grew month by month; he carefully built his and Hohenzollern dynasties were overthrown. At the beginning of myth as the only politician who had always believed that Poland November 1918, Polish conspirators disarmed Austrian-Hungarian would rise again. He stressed that full independence should be troops and then German troops. On November 10th, Piłsudski re- fought for. However, his radical striving for independence irritated turned from Magdeburg, took over military and civil power, and Germans, who invaded Polish lands and planned to build a Ger- became Temporary Chief of State. His power was acknowledged man Europe on the East. It would include a small Polish state con- by almost all Polish domestic political circles and institutions. The trolled by Germany, but Germans did not give their consent to the idea of freedom won, although the war had ravaged the country formation of an independent Poland. Piłsudski had to lose his polit- and impoverished millions of people.

18 19

Andrzej Chwalba From Collapse to Resurrection a. c.

b. d. 49 Johann Esaias The Troelfth Cake—an allegory of the First Par- tition of Poland, 1773

50-51 Map of Poland in the period of Partitions 1770-1795

a. Józef Piłsudski and Kazimierz Sosnkowski command a squad of riflemen during exercises of the Riflemen’s Association, Zakopane, 1913

b. Exercises of the 1st Brigade of Polish Legions, 1915

c. 1st Uhlan Regiment of the Polish Legions commanded by Major Władysław Belina-Prażmowski, 1916

d. Józef Piłsudski, commander of the Polish Legions, 1911

54-55 Soldiers of the First Cadre Company of the Polish Legions enter Kielce, August 12th, 1911

52 53

Andrzej Chwalba From Collapse to Resurrection a. d.

b. c. e. a. Józef Piłsudski and officers of the 1st Brigade of the Polish Legions (third on the left Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski), probably 1915

b. Soldier of the academic battalion in Kraków, probably Novem- ber 1918

c. Message of the Regency Council of November 11th, 1918

d. Students’ watch, Warsaw, after November 11th, 1918

e. Ignacy Jan Paderewski—a pianist, composer, independence activ- ist, statesman and politician. The Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Poland established in January 1919

58-59 Map of Europe prepared and issued by Józef M. Bazewicz, 1921

56 57

The greatest and truest wealth of Poland are people II

Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski Economy

161 of the Kingdom of Poland, despite the fact that they underwent the centuries, and in 1938-1939 again moved closer to the magic One Hundred Years strong industrialization processes at the end of the 19th century, to threshold of 50%, but then, unfortunately, came another world war a large extent shared their economic and social underdevelopment which devastated Polish lands. with the Russian Empire—especially in the countryside, where the of Chasing the Developed West overwhelming majority of the population was living. The situation Centrally planned economy: increasing distance. World War II was similar in Galicia, one of the poorest provinces of the very un- brought not only huge human losses, the destruction of nation- evenly developed Austria-Hungary. As a result, the GDP per capita al wealth and thorough devastation of Polish lands, but also the in the east of Poland was as little as 35-10% of the level in Western changes in the country’s borders and the imposed communist po- Europe. litical and economic system. The lands of the Second Republic of Witold M. Orłowski Poland occupied by Germany experienced five years of incredi- The interwar period: times of difficult development. At the time bly brutal occupation and exploitation. In turn, the lands which of the restoration of independence, the GDP per capita in the ter- belonged to Germany before the war were completely destroyed, ritory of Poland (within the current borders) was only 15% of the and their industrial and infrastructural installations were trans- level in Western Europe (we may estimate that the GDP per capita ported to the East by the Red Army. As a result, in 1916, the GDP It is difficult to provide a definitive assessment of one hundred and the beginning of the market transformation, triggered a drop in the Second Republic of Poland with its borders from 1921 was per capita in Poland again was only 11% of the level in Western years of economic development in independent Poland. In that pe- in the GDP by 11%. even less, i.e., only approx. 35-36% of the level in Western Europe). Europe. riod, the economic history of our country was not less eventful and Obviously, violent economic transformations were a reflection Thus, there was a great distance to go, and the obstacles for the The first years of the postwar reconstruction, despite all the dramatic than the political and social history. of the extremely difficult fate of Polish lands in the past century. development were the destructions of war, unstable political sit- difficulties, can be considered a success. By 1950, the economy re- On the one hand, it was a period of unrest, turbulent changes, However, they should be analyzed against the background of the uation, the absence of adequate and appropriate infrastructure, covered, the basic infrastructure was reinstated, and the magic several radical changes of the economic model, violent crises and phenomena occurring during the past hundred years across the former and present borders running across the country, and most threshold of 50% of the development level in Western Europe was breakdowns, and also of subsequent restoration periods. On the entire European economy. A relatively slow growth of the GDP importantly—many centuries of negligence in social and economic exceeded again. Unfortunately, Poland again found itself on the other hand, despite all that turmoil, it was also a period of devel- generated in the area of contemporary Poland in the interwar development. wrong side of the line dividing the continent—this time, in the opment, scientific and technical progress, increased efficiency of period was associated with a slow growth in the whole world, The interwar period was a time of consecutive attempts to form of the Iron Curtain separating the West from the East. The work and a better standard of living, and also of constant attempts affected severely by the economic breakdown during the Great compensate for this negligence, bring the country on the path of reconstruction was accompanied by changes which introduced a to reduce the distance between Poland and economically better Depression. In turn, the first fifty years after the war was a period continuous development and shrink economic distance to West- communist economy based on state ownership of production as- developed Western European countries. of accelerated development of European economy, followed by a ern Europe. Thanks to the postwar reconstruction which went sets and the Stalinist model of central planning. On paper, Poland strong deceleration during the global crisis of 2008. unexpectedly well and the successful economic integration of the was extremely successful in the process of intensive industriali- Measuring the development. The basic measure used in the Therefore, to assess the economic development of Poland with- three reunited Partitions, it was possible within several years to re- zation. The published statistical data showed a rapid growth in economy for measuring the level of economic development is in the century of independence it is not enough just to look at the store the production level from before the outbreak of World War production, especially of heavy industry, modernization of agricul- the gross domestic product (GDP) calculated per capita. This is rate of production recorded in individual periods. What we should I in the territory of Poland. In 1921 the level of the GDP per capita ture as well as increased income and standard of living. However, a measure of the actual production generated within a specific primarily look at are fluctuations of the GDP per capita in Poland exceeded the symbolic threshold of 50% of the level in Western in terms of the rate of development, Poland was lagging behind year in a specific country by its average resident. Obviously, the compared to the GDP in Western Europe. In other words—how Europe. Unfortunately, at this point politics stood in the way of the economically successful and integrating Western Europe. With GDP level alone does not tell everything—for example, it does not efficient was Poland in its chase after the developed West. further development: trying to force the Second Republic of Po- time, the ineffectiveness of the communist economy resulting from indicate how the generated income is distributed among people land to concessions in terms of politics and economy, Germany the absence of the right incentives for people, signals from the or to what extent a higher income translates to a higher standard Delayed at the start. When Poland regained independence, the declared an economic war on Poland, withholding the import of market being replaced with missed bureaucratic decisions, and of living for a typical resident of the specific country. Despite that, GDP per capita in Poland within the contemporary borders was Silesian coal and drastically increasing duties on Polish goods. For finally—artificial severance from natural economic partners and real GDP growth (i.e., the growth measured after eliminating the 15% of the level in Western Europe. That relation was slightly low- the young economy, which was simultaneously struggling with forced integration with communist countries, started to bring in- effects of inflation) achieved in the long term is considered the er than directly before the outbreak of World War I (approx. 50% the consequences of postwar inflation, this was a heavy blow. This creasingly worse effects. This did not mean there was no econom- most important indicator of a country’s economic success. in 1913). Although after 1915 no direct war operations were taking triggered a severe recession, and the GDP per capita once again ic progress, but the progress was insufficient, and as a result, the According to estimates, within one century of independence, place in the Polish territories, the country was severely destroyed dropped to 15% of the level in Western Europe. distance to the West was increasing. By 1970, the GDP per capita in the real GDP per capita in Poland (within its current borders) and subjected, for several years, to economic exploitation, whereas After the economic war with Germany was over, among others Poland compared to Western Europe dropped again to 13%. increased just over tenfold1. This means that the average annual the political and economic situation did not allow for the full utili- by redirecting a part of Polish exports to other markets (which was In the 1970s, the communist authorities made a radical attempt GDP growth rate was 2.1%. zation of production capacity. facilitated by the construction of the port in Gdynia), the economy to boost the economic development of Poland. However, they did However, the rate of development was not even: in the interwar The relative underdevelopment of the Polish territories did not recovered, and as a result in 1929 Poland again managed to exceed not decide to introduce bold reforms to reinstate the basic market period, the annual average growth rate was only 2.0%, within the appear in the 20th century, but it was the effect of many centuries the magic threshold of 50% of the GDP per capita in Western Eu- mechanisms and restrict bureaucratic management of the econ- forty years of the communist economy (1916-1989) it was up to of history inherited by the reborn Republic. rope. And again, this recovery was brutally interrupted—this time omy. The changes mainly involved the increased scale of invest- 3.3%, and in the twenty-seven years of the economic transforma- At the time when our country regained independence, the level by the outbreak of the great global crisis, which caused a sharp ments financed with foreign loans. In the short run, this led to tion (1991-2018) it increased to 1.0%. Unfortunately, the periods of of development of the territories which make up today’s Poland drop in the Polish GDP. The accumulation of difficult econom- an acceleration in technological modernization, rapid growth in development were interrupted with periods of abrupt economic was diverse. The highest GDP per capita, which reached 75% of ic and political conditions, along with the somewhat unfortunate salaries and increased quality of life. In 1975, the magic threshold breakdowns: devastation brought by both world wars caused huge the level recorded by Western Europe, was to be found in the west- economic policy of the Second Republic of Poland and Germany, of 50% of the GDP per capita in relation to Western Europe was losses in national wealth and a GDP decrease by approx. 25-30%, ern part—in the lands regained by the reborn Republic of Poland was the reason why the crisis was particularly severe on the Polish exceeded again. Unfortunately, the inefficient communist economy the Great Depression of 1929-1933 led to the drop in the GDP by and the lands which still belonged to Germany. However, with the lands. The ratio of the GDP per capita compared to Western Europe was unable to reach continuous, high dynamics of development 25%, the debt crisis and breakdown of the centrally planned econ- exception of the industrialized part of Upper Silesia, before World fell again to the level of 12%. After the end of the Great Depression and generate an export surplus which would make it possible to omy in 1979-1982 caused a GDP drop by 17%, whereas the recession War I they constituted an agricultural backup for the German Poland once again managed to enter the path of accelerated devel- repay the foreign debts. From 1976, the rate of the GDP growth de- of 1990–1991, which marked the end of the communist economy Reich, poorer than the rest of the country. In turn, the territories opment and started to make up for the neglect accumulated over clined rapidly, and the distance to Western Europe began to grow.

231 235 Witold M. Orłowski One Hundred Years of Chasing the Developed West

The heavy debt crisis of 1979-1982 meant, on the one hand, the Poland arising both from good education and from labor costs a. definitive fiasco of the attempts to boost the communist economy, lower than in Western Europe. This great advantage, leveraged by and on the other—a sudden deterioration in the level of economic the effects of Poland’s membership in the EU, was beneficial both 80% development. In 1989, when the communist political system was for domestic capital and for foreign capital with its investments in falling apart and the centrally planned economy was in agony, the Poland. 70% ratio of the GDP per capita fell to 38%. Along with the increase in wages and income earned by Poles— which is the purpose of chasing the developed West—the cost- Economic transformation: breaking the magic threshold. The based attractiveness of investments in Poland will be gradually 60% real condition of the Polish economy after several decades of com- decreasing. Therefore, the country must mobilize investments in munism and its low ability to fare on the global market became another way. It needs to increase the rate of savings to be able 50% fully visible only after the introduction of the reforms which led to build a strong domestic capital. Poles must learn how to bet- to the convertibility of the złoty, opening the market for foreign ter work together in order to develop great, expansive companies competition, stabilization of money and liquidation of subsidies for focused on global success, which must seek innovation and coop- 40% state-owned enterprises. The state sector experienced a sudden eration with the world of science more intensively. And state insti- collapse of production, which initially could not be compensated tutions must increase the efficiency of their actions and effectively 30% for by the development of new, private companies. As a result, the support businesses in their development. ratio of the GDP per capita in relation to Western Europe fell even If all of this happens, in several decades the distance to the de- more and in 1991 reached its historical bottom at the level of 31%. veloped West may be just history. 20% But the effects of dramatic changes in the economic model ulti- mately appeared. Polish economy—gradually privatized, modern- 1 All data on GDP per capita in Poland and its real growth be- 10% ized, open to competition and investment, joining the global divi- fore 1980 are estimates. The presented estimates were made by sion of labor—started to develop dynamically in 1992. The distance the British economist Angus Maddison (cf. Angus Maddison, The I War World Interwar period II War World Communist economy Economic transformation to the developed West decreased. When Poland joined the Euro- World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, OECD, Paris 2001) and 0% pean Union, the ratio of the GDP per capita compared to Western completed by the author (cf. Witold M. Orłowski, Will Poland Europe was 11%, and in 2008 it exceeded the magic threshold of Catch Up With Germany, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warsza- 1913 1916 1919 1922 1925 1928 1931 1934 1937 1940 1943 1946 1949 1952 1955 1958 1961 1964 1967 1970 1973 1976 1979 1982 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 2018 50% again. wa, 2015). The statistical data available to 1980 and forecasts for Within one hundred years of the history of the reborn Poland 2017-2018 come from the database of the International Monetary so far, each time this symbolic threshold was exceeded, it marked Fund (www.imf.org). b. the beginning of problems. Problems came this time as well—in a. GDP per capita in Poland in relation to Western Europe, 1918- the autumn of 2008, the whole world was swept by an enormous 2018. Constant prices of 2016, according to the purchasing power financial crisis followed by a deep global recession. But this time parity, Western Europe = 100%, for 2016-2018—forecasts of the Inter- the economic history of our country took a different turn. Poland, national Monetary Fund (IMF). Source: IMF, Maddison, Orłowski as the only country on the continent, avoided recession and main- (cf. endnote to the text) tained the ability to grow both in the difficult time of 2009-2010 and throughout the period of slowed development of Europe and the b. Steel forging at the Steelworks “Trzyniec” in Trzyniec near world which followed. As a result, the distance to the developed Cieszyn, the 1930s West was systematically decreasing, in an unprecedented manner in the scale of the past century. According to assessments of the In- 238-239 Bus passengers struggling with mud, 1932 ternational Monetary Fund, by 2018 the ratio of the GDP per capita in Poland compared to Western Europe will rise to 67%. It appears that the magic threshold of 50% was thus exceeded for good.

What comes next? In the past 25 years, the ratio of the GDP per capita in Poland compared to Western Europe rose from 31% in 1991 to the forecast 67% in 2018. This means that in this period Poland covered half the economic distance that it originally had to the more developed part of the continent. In the next 25 years, can this distance disappear entirely? Of course, it is difficult to provide a forecast for such a long period, but we can certainly think about conditions which would have to be met. The success of the past 25 years was based on the potential of entrepreneurship released by the free market as well as on bet- ter utilization of labor resources and the talent of Poles. This was largely possible thanks to the high investment attractiveness of

236 237

Witold M. Orłowski One Hundred Years of Chasing the Developed West a. c.

b. d. a. Flight management building at the civil airport in Lviv, the 1930s

b. Polish ocean liner M/S “Piłsudski,” 1935

c. Glider school in Bezmiechowa, pulling the glider to the starting location with a horse-drawn carriage, Bieszczady, 1932

d. Selling herrings at the market in Bydgoszcz, 1925

e. Open-air market in Łąck, Płock County, 1933

e.

210 211 Witold M. Orłowski One Hundred Years of Chasing the Developed West a. c.

b. d. a. Destroyed Warsaw—an image from a German movie Feuertaufe illustrating Luftwaffe operations in the September Campaign of 1939

b. Warsaw in ruins, demolition of the destroyed buildings at Jasna Street, 1916

c. Marszałkowska Street, Warsaw, 1918

d. May Day parade, Warsaw, 1957

212 213 Witold M. Orłowski One Hundred Years of Chasing the Developed West a. c.

b. d. a. Victoria Hotel at Victory Square, Warsaw, 1978

b. Departures building at the Warsaw-Okęcie Airport, Warsaw, 1978

c. Passenger Automobile Factory in Żerań, assembly of Polonez cars, Warsaw, 1989

d. Warsaw-Okęcie Airport, the 1970s

211 215 Witold M. Orłowski One Hundred Years of Chasing the Developed West a. c.

b. d. a. Line of cars on the Polish-German border, Frankfurt on the Oder, 1991

b. Trucks waiting in a line to cross the border with Germa- ny, Kołbaskowo near Szczecin, April 11th, 2001

c. Inside a house in the Polish countryside, 1986

d. Blue Tower at Bank Square, Warsaw, 2001

248-249 Złote Tarasy, Warsaw, 2001

216 217

One Hundred Years of Chasing the Developed West Poland, you’re no longer a slave! You’re the greatest thing that you can be: III Yourself!

Leopold Staff Society

251 only the general (standard, literary) language was functioning, for propaganda purposes, and the resulting influx of young wom- Changes in the Polish Language composed from the mosaic of regional language varieties brought en from the countryside to cities), and among the word formation here in 1915 and in the following years. This is a completely new phenomena—increased occurrence of compounds like kursokon- quality in the history of the Polish language—as the ethnic and lin- ferencja, klasopracownia, szczotkoodkurzacz, garażoparking and guistic mixture characteristic of the interwar period disappeared formations with prefixes anty-, eks-, ekstra-, maksi-, mini-, super-, in the macro scale, and Poland became a nationally homogeneous ultra- (antypropaganda, eksminister, ekstraposiłek, maksisprawy, country with a minimum percentage of the Ukrainian, Belarusian, minibar, superprodukcja, ultraprawica). Jan Miodek Lithuanian, German, Romani or Tatar minorities, usually fully as- The year 1989 brought Poland not only full sovereignty and a similated linguistically. new geopolitical, civilizational and economic situation, but also huge changes in the broadly understood linguistic communica- Polish language of People’s Poland and the transformation tion. Abolition of censorship led to the liquidation of unidirectional period. The period 1915-1989 is a time when Poland became a part communication—already mentioned in this essay—only from the of the bloc of countries of the so-called people’s democracy, dom- authorities to the society, which from that moment could benefit inated by the Soviet Union. The realities of that period were re- from free choice of media and political option. Polish language after the Partitions. When in 1918 Poland re- boks, ring, trener, kort, krykiet, kraul, derby, finisz, hokej, dżokej, flected in many linguistic formulas—adherent to the specific stages gained independence, Polish language was functioning intact. One sportsmen, start, team, brydż, klub, biznes, rower, sliping, bekon, in history—often transferred from the Soviet ground, such as: IT revolution and language. The electronic reality also turned or two hundred years in the life of a language is too short a period bufet, koktajl, pled, pulower, raut, komfort, mityng, skaut, strajk, pegeer, kolkhoz, sovkhoz, apparatchik, politruk, pezetpeerowiec, out as a revolution in communication, and the spreading everyday for any systemic changes to occur. In addition, the 19th century was weekend. In the absence of direct contacts with this language, zbowidowiec, kolektyw, worker-peasant alliance, working intelli- use of computers, Internet, electronic mail, mobile phone or text the time of great Polish literature, general Slavic concern about many of them became graphic loans with the pronunciation cor- gentsia, Iron Curtain, political bureau, central committee, gensek, messaging radically changed the quality and form of interperson- the purity of national languages, and of uprisings, and all those responding to original written forms. E.g., business was busines national unity front, planned economy, economic incentives, six- al communication in private and professional life. The computer circumstances could not be unfavorable to Polishness in a general for a long time, before with the form of biznes it came closer to year plan, kukuruźnik, peem, kalashnikov (kałach), pepesza, world brought hundreds of new words into general circulation, sense (in the purist zeal, there were attempts to replace the “for- the English pronunciation. Klub is still klub in juxtapositions like tysiąclatka, Poznań events, October ’56, December ’70, August ’80, mainly Anglicisms like: backup, bajt, billing, bit, blog, bloger, chip, eign” uniwersytet with wszechnica, and trigonometric terms sinus Łódzki Klub Sportowy, Klub Prasy i Książki, and only in the latest August Agreements, Solidarity, sit-down strike, food ration cards, compact, counter, crack, cracker, czat, delete, desktop, digitalizac- and cosinus with the native forms wstawa and dostawa!). constructions, to say with anticipation, is the letter u pronounced working Saturday, desa, pewex, commercial store, commercial ja, digitizer, discman, drajwer, DVD, dżojstik, emotikon//emotiko- Obviously, the presence of Russian and German in everyday as a, e.g., in clubing or Business Center Club. price, martial law, Round Table, Magdalenka, komuch, solidaruch, na, haker, haking, interfejs, interkom, kompakt, konwerter, laptop, communication (at the office, at school, in the army) caused by One of the new grammatical phenomena from the perspective party hard-liners, horizontal structures, blind spots, perestroika. link, login, modem, nick, notebook, offline, online, pad, palmtop, the geopolitical situation was bound to influence the behaviors of of the history of language is the process—which started at that This was also the time of ubiquitous censorship which formed password, pecet, pendrive, piksel, plik, ploter, procesor, remaster- Poles in different life situations. It helped to fix foreign words from time—of masculinization of forms relating to women, especially the basis for unidirectional communication—only from the author- ing, remix, reset, skaner, serwer, Skype, smartfon, software, spam, these languages, like spasibo, wsio, prikaz, skolko ugodno, chwatit, in important and prestigious positions (pani minister, pani prezes, ities to the society, ideological communication—which even before streamer, surfing, tablet, Twitter, update, web, webmaster. ruki po szwam, genau, genug, ja “yes,” ancug, gruba, szpil, bal pani profesor, pani mecenas), and of surnames (pani Nowak, pani 1989 was named nowomowa (a calque of Orwell’s “newspeak”). The morphologic proof of the overwhelming influence of the “ball,” fuzbal, tor “gate,” lata “crossbar.” In the case of certain Pol- Pietraszko, pani Zaręba), although in official texts female sur- There was also a huge increase in new vocabulary—with over electronic reality on contemporary communication is a unique ish terms, before they became widely used, people preferred terms name forms were still valid with formal indicators of femininity 10 thousand words in the general Polish language and at least productivity of the derivational model filled with uncountable originating from the Russian language. On the other hand, officials (Nowakowa, Pietraszkowa, Zarębina, Nowakówna, Pietraszkówna, several thousand scientific, technical and professional terms (e.g., quantities of formations shaped after the structure of e-mail, such of the Habsburg monarchy established some formulas in the gen- Zarębianka). names of new machines like: koparka, kruszarka, ładowarka, as: e-książka, e-płyta, e-biblioteka, e-podpis, e-faktura, e-szkoła, eral Polish language with the construction copied from the lan- zwałowarka, or production and utility rooms like montażownia, e-PIT, e-Poznań, etc., because everything around us is becoming guage used in German offices. The war and postwar migrations and linguistic changes. nastawnia, wykańczalnia). electronic! The fact that the contemporary state had the areas near Lviv World War II was a period when both native and foreign lexical Thanks to mass media and the restricted—although increas- The subordinate element “e-” (“electronic”) comes first in these and Vilnius within its borders guaranteed a distinct coexistence of units as signs of those times were functioning in everyday circula- ing after 1956—contacts with the world, the Polish language was formations, like in the following compounds: biznesplan, biznes phonetic features of these regions—with a characteristic sing-song tion, e.g.: nalot, sztukas, łapanka, godzina policyjna, getto, zsyłka, permeated with lexical units from the West related to the most notowania, biznes informacje, disco relax, rock encyklopedia, rock manner, reduction of unstressed vowels in the final position within lagier, łagier, oflag, stalag, gestapo, gestapowiec, kripo, ausweis, important phenomena in civilization, customs and culture, with prezydent, Eco zagadka (this refers to Umberto Eco, not to ecolo- words, and articulation of sounds ś, ź, ć, dź as semi-soft s’, z’, c’, dz’, GG, Rajch (some of them would be used for stylistic purposes Anglicisms on top: bestseller, big-beat, dubbing, dżinsy, fan, folder, gy!), uroda studio, Bieszczady Tour, Jazz Forum, Express Narty, e.g., (pronunciation proszy c’ebi “proszę ciebie,” Szczepc’u, Tońc’u many years later at the time of the martial law). hit, hot dog, jeep, keczup, komputer, krakers, laser, mikser, motel, Ski giełda, Kredyt Bank, kinder czekolada, kinder niespodzianka, “Szczepcio, Tońcio,” Kos’c’uszka “Kościuszko”), voiced h (wahadło, The end of the war was the beginning of migrations at a scale playboy, prezenter, relaks, serial, show, skuter, slajd, striptiz, tan- nugat krem, autosalon, auto części, auto komis, auto myjnia, Halina), or the dental consonant ł (łapa, błogosławić), which is unseen in our history—from the countryside to the cities, from the dem, top, toster, trend, western. sekssymbol, pornofala, protest marsz, Rydzyk TV, Sopot Festiwal, documented, e.g., in archival movies from that time. east to the west, caused mainly by the changed state borders. Mil- But the largest part of the postwar loans are the so-called artificial Opole Festiwal, Golec uOrkiestra, Żywiec Cup, Małysz team, Park It should be stressed that at that time, in a macro scale, we lions of people living in the Eastern Borderlands, who as a result loans, i.e., words created today on the Greek and Latin lexical basis: Hotel, eskpert system, but hala (as we can see, their spelling is could observe the permanent presence of a dialectal element in of the postwar arrangements found themselves within the bor- dyktafon, embriogeneza, geriatria, indoktrynacja, informatyka, far from stable—sometimes they are written together, sometimes the grammatical and stylistic landscape of the Polish language, ders of the Soviet Union, resettled to the western region of the kserokopia, liofilizacja, logopedia, noktowizja, synoptyk, tranzystor, separately). In live, colloquial speech they are still considered as as according to estimates, in the interwar period, approx. 80% of so-called Recovered Territories, which belonged to Germany until wideotelefon. structures foreign to the morphological system of the Polish lan- Poles used some sort of dialect, especially in informal contacts. 1915 and were allocated to Poland. They became ethnically sup- Changes in the grammatical system in this period should be guage, which prefers placing the subordinate element after the su- That status of the interwar linguistic mosaic was complemented plemented with people coming from central Poland, Pomerania, considered minimal and marginal. Among them, we could list the perordinate (plan biznesowy, bank kredytowy, salon aut, symbol by national minorities (Ruthenian, German, Jewish, Tatar), which Masovia, Greater Poland and Lesser Poland. As a result, the areas progressing process of masculinization of feminine forms, already seksu, fala porno, marsz protestacyjny). But they are becoming accounted for 1/3 of the entire population in that period. of the Western and Northern Lands—today’s Opolskie province mentioned in this essay in the description of the Polish language in fixed in the common linguistic awareness through different insti- The first Anglicisms in the history of the Polish language per- (in a large part), Lower Silesian, Lubusz, West Pomeranian and the interwar period, ideologically tainted in the years just after the tutions, media, advertisements, and they are increasingly treated meated to the general language and became fixed: mecz, futbol, Warmian-Masurian provinces—became regions where currently war (equal rights and professional advance of women, underlined as neutral—especially by young language users who have known

252 253 Jan Miodek Changes in the Polish Language them since childhood. Here, we are dealing with the struggle of The striking vividness and expansiveness of the language of the Polite expressions with surnames are becoming history, e.g., a. the typological Polish tradition with a new morphological model youngest generations is, in general, one of the most characteristic pani Widera, panie Nowak, pani Jaśkiewicz, replaced with the transferred from English, German and French. hallmarks of the Polish language after 1989, which was building name-based model, promoted especially by companies, banks, two linguistic worlds—of the young and of the old, not able to keep service agencies, but functioning also in pre-schools and elementa- Predominant influence of the English language. The predom- up with the dramatic increase in the youth’s lexicon and to under- ry schools: panie Janie, pani Mario, panie Marcinie, pani Zofio— inance of the English language is all too vivid in the new lexicon stand words like: lol, banglać, bauns, flow, herka, plonk, wtopa or regardless of the age differences between the interlocutors. related to the economic sphere: audyt, audytor, biznesplan, biznes- zmulant. Calling somebody by name—without pani or pan—is also prac- women, broker, consulting, copywriter, design, designer, deweloper, From the perspective of morphology, the most notable feature ticed in so-called licensed TV programs, and the vocative form of diler, grant, holding, home banking, (spółka) joint venture, lokaut, of the youth slang are cut-offs, such as: komp “komputer,” pen these names identical as the nominative is becoming prevalent, even marketing, monitoring, non profit, project manager, provider, rating, “pendrive,” siema “jak się masz, jak się macie,” dozo “do zobaczenia,” in official texts: żegnaj, Gerard; dziękujemy, Adam; gratulujemy, sales manager, sponsoring, supermarket, top management, trade nara “na razie,” spoko “spokojnie, OK,” cze “cześć,” Wro, Wroc Justyna. mark. “Wrocław,” impra “impreza,” es “SMS,” bro “browar—beer,” The name-based model transferred from American and West- In everyday observations of language, we can see the tendency to koment “komentarz—mainly on Internet forums,” kom “telefon ern European habits is beginning to appear even in the relation- anglicize the pronunciation even of the forms which did not come komórkowy,” zbok “zboczeniec,” spontan “coś spontanicznego,” ship between parents and children, parents-in-law and daughters- to us from English. In many cases, they are a heritage of other bulwers “coś bulwersującego,” fryz “fryzura,” haluny “halucyna- in-law or sons-in-law. Likewise, old expressions to address family cultural circles. Some real-life examples include: Ajzaak “Izaak,” cje,” hasz “haszysz,” hera “heroina,” katol “katolik—mainly in members are becoming obsolete, e.g., proszę babci, niech mama Bendżamin “Beniamin,” Najke z Samotraki “Nike z Samotraki,” reference to fundamentalists with conservative views,” info zobaczy, niech tato powie, czy wujek przyjdzie?, macie, tato, Werdżili “Wergili,” kajwaj “kiwi,” styl empajer “styl empire,” Tajtanic “informacja, informacje,” egzam “egzamin,” koło “kolokwium,” weźcie, mamo, replaced with the already common second person: “Titanic,” Virtuti Military “Virtuti Militari,” Hasserl “Husserl,” eko “ekonomia,” fona “fonetyka,” informa “informatyka,” admina chodź, babciu, zobacz, mamo, powiedz, tato, przyjdziesz, wujku?, Hajndenburg “Hindenburg,” Spir “Speer,” Dżosef Ratzinger “Joseph “prawo administracyjne.” masz, tato, weź, mamo. Ratzinger,” Majkel Schumacher “Michael Schumacher,” kawa All those phenomena constitute the grammatical and stylistic Dżakobs “kawa Jacobs,” Dejwid i Goliat “Dawid i Goliat,” Dżek Brutalization of language. Here, we must note the linguistic and sign of the times of our new geopolitical, social, economic, civiliza- Malczewski “Jacek Malczewski,” Dżenua “Genua,” Guatemala stylistic phenomenon which is generally considered as the most tional and cultural realities formed within the several past decades “Gwatemala,” akua park “aqua park,” kuartet, kuintet “kwartet, important and provides a source of intergenerational conflicts, of the history of the Polish language. kwintet,” kuorum “kworum,” rekiuem “rekwiem,” kuazi “quasi” namely the progressing colloquialization, brutalization and vul- (correct Polish pronunciation: kwazi), kui pro kuo “qui pro quo” garization of everyday communication behaviors, promoted even (correct Polish pronunciation: kwi pro kwo), kuantum “kwantum.” in the media, especially television (a fashion for being cool). The influence of the English language is also visible in the Colloquialization is reflected by the increasing persistence of sphere of style. Older generations, for centuries, used construc- the following forms in official texts: ciężki, ciężko, ograć, strasznie, a. Cover of the Language Guide, September 1936 tions of Greek, Latin, French, German and Russian origin to stress niesamowicie, fajny, fajnie , szajba, jaja, kibel, facet, dobra, dzięki. the meaning and expression of specific statements, e.g.: panta rei, Brutalization of the language may be observed, e.g., in sports o tempora!, o mores!, pecunia non olet, ad vocem, nec Hercules texts, where—as mentioned above—the traditional expressions contra plures, toutes proportions gardées, noblesse oblige, pardon, for winning, defeating, fouling or a brutal play are replaced with szlus, fertig, szajs, prosit, bumaga, prikaz, ruki po szwam, chwatit, stronger forms, kasowanie, masakrowanie; the defeated are more wpieriod na zapad. In the utterances of younger generations, Eng- readily called the “executed” or “guillotined,” whereas the victori- lish words have the same stylistic function: było full ludzi, full ous “felt the blood” and were their “executioners,” “killers,” while time, ale boss!, ale man!, dzięki za help, sorry, wow, no comments, an accidental hitting somebody’s head with a ball may be called a number one, the best, jestem cały happy, power, deal, after, afterek, “headshot.” biforek, debeściak, kesz, krejzol, lajcik, lajtowy, lukać. Vulgarity, the lexical manifestation of which is provided by the ubiquitous k-, p-, j-, ch-words, has become, unfortunately, a dis- The young and language. Young Polish-language speakers em- tinguishing mark of Poles in Europe. All social groups use swear- brace electronic reality much more than older people, they move words—men and women, boys and girls, and the desire to justify about it more skillfully, use it more boldly when it comes to stylis- this kind of behavior leads to specific social myths like, for exam- tic ideas. For example, the term megabajt (computer memory unit), ple, that the form zajebisty, which used to be vulgar, has already characteristic for IT language, popularized the particle mega (Greek become entirely neutral. megas “great”), very productive in the language of the youth: mega- wypas, megawypasik – “something described as extremely positive,” Changes in language as the sign of the times. What should also megastrzała “pretty girl,” megaściema “big lie,” megamózg “capable be treated in the categories of a specific social myth is the increas- student.” Another computer term, reset, resetowanie, has already ingly widespread conviction that it is justified not to decline sur- become a lexical variant of resting, relax, regeneration, regaining names, especially in official texts: Janowi Pietraszko, dla Jerzego strength, regaining the full ability for functioning, correcting some- Widera, Antoniemu Nowak—instead of Janowi Pietraszce, dla thing (e.g., policy), and dilejtowanie—of deleting. The latter, thanks to Jerzego Widery, Antoniemu Nowakowi—similarly, the tradition- computers and computer games, has a record-breaking popularity, al morphological structures (państwo) Pietraszkowie, (państwo) for example in sports language, where along with masakrowanie it Widerowie, (państwo) Nowakowie are being replaced with the replaced the traditional winning, defeating, fouling or a brutal play. forms państwo Pietraszko, państwo Widera, państwo Nowak.

251 255 Jan Miodek Changes in the Polish Language a. c. d.

b. e. a. Advertising poster, 1938

b. Advertising poster, the 1930s

c. Polfamix advertisement, the 1970s

d. Display window of a poultry store, Warsaw, the 1930s

e. Inscription at the entrance to the restaurant “Morskie Oko” in Zakopane, 1933

256 257 Jan Miodek Changes in the Polish Language a. c.

b. d. a. Car station, Szczawnica, the 1930s

b. Advertisement for the exhibition of Polmozbyt, Warsaw, 1976

c. Hala Koszyki, Warsaw, 1969

d. Propaganda slogan from the second half of the 1910s

258 259 Jan Miodek Changes in the Polish Language a. d.

b. e. a.-e. Examples of the influence of foreign languages on the Polish language

c.

260 261 Countryside—Transformations in Peasant Mentality and Awareness Science is the technical vanguard of the working mankind, a forge of new forms IV of purposeful action

Stanisław Brzozowski Science and Technology

117 established in Dębica (tires and Polish artificial KER rubber) first portable radio station (walkie-talkie) SCR-300 FM, widely used Technical Achievements—for Poland Mielec (airplanes), Rzeszów (aircraft engines), Sanok (machine by the American army in Europe (from the invasion in Italy in guns), Niedomice near Tarnów (cellulose), Lublin (truck assem- 1913) and on the Pacific. bly plant), Poniatowa (communication equipment) and Tarnów and the World (copper refining plant). The hydroelectric power plant was under Postwar inventions of scientists in Poland and abroad. An over- construction in Myczkowce as well as the oil pipeline from the whelming majority of Polish scientists and engineers who con- Boryslav and Drohobych basin. Thanks to those investments the tributed to the victory of the Allied nations never returned to the Polish interwar industry deservedly enjoyed an excellent reputa- post-Yalta Poland. Their role and subsequent careers in the West tion. Quantitatively, it was modest but in terms of quality, it could were never mentioned by the censored mass media in People’s Bolesław Orłowski, Krzysztof Michalski match the best. Poland. The British were not eager either to highlight the achieve- ments of the abandoned ally. It is only now that we are unearthing A difficult exam in wartime. The COP was not able to save the the glorious achievements of those epigones of the Second Repub- Second Republic of Poland. But it was during World War II that its lic of Poland. technical staff showed what it was capable of, as many of its mem- After the war, one of the most outstanding Polish technicians Technical thought under the Partitions and on emigration. Internationale—as the only Pole until now. Later, he celebrated that bers successfully contributed to enhancing equipment useful for who enjoyed success outside the country was Stefan Kudelski, During the Partitions, many Poles worked abroad—from 1832, success in the main Polish expatriate centers in Brazil and Argen- military purposes. According to the records as of January 1st, 1911, who—working from 1913 in Switzerland—developed the first port- as part of the patriotic Great Emigration, and from the 1880s, in tina. From 1938, he was President of the Polish Aero Club. After the there were 5,592 Polish inventors, scientists and engineers working able tape recorder Nagra with a unique speed stabilization system. much greater numbers, looking for bread and a better life. As a end of the September Campaign, he was in Great Britain, where in the West—mainly in Great Britain—for the victory of the Allied His device was used by radio and television reporters, and also result, our engineers or inventors pursued their careers in various he participated in the 305 Polish Bomber Squadron combat flights nations, 1,019 of whom were in the armed forces. Their achieve- by film studios around the world for many years. In the 1990s, countries. Even more of them studied at Russian universities and over Germany. In the thousand-bomber raid over Bremen on June ments helped to reduce the coalition’s losses, gain advantage and Kudelski wanted to transfer the production of the recorders to Po- worked throughout the entire Russian Empire, building railroads 26th, 1912, his Wellington was hit, and Skarżyński, after a water shorten the time of the war probably more than the participation land, but neither the Polish authorities nor the industry expressed and bridges. They were an important part of Russian leaders in landing on the English Channel, was washed out to the sea by the of the Polish armed forces in the war operations. interest. different fields of technology and technical sciences. wing and drowned. One of the disciplines where they were most successful was Even in Poland, despite unfavorable political and economic When at the end of 1930s, the threat of war increased, the Sec- communication. Janusz Groszkowski, one of the pioneers of ra- conditions, solutions of global importance emerged. The most re- A chance for development in the Second Republic of Poland. ond Republic of Poland was trying to meet the challenges of the dar before the war, had followers active from 1910. Some of their nowned of them include an original method of producing crank- When Poland regained independence in 1918, many Polish scien- arms race by initiating, in 1937, the development of the Central achievements are described below. shafts developed by Tadeusz Rut, and also an industrial press with tists, inventors and engineers returned to their homeland from Industrial Region (COP). Its originator was the then minister of Wacław Struszyński, employed at Admiralty Signal and Radar a sway matrix constructed by Zdzisław Marciniak. An unused Russia torn by civil war. They also returned from other countries, the treasury and deputy prime minister for economic affairs, the Establishment in Haslemere, constructed a short-wave goniomet- opportunity of the Polish industry was the unique K-202 minicom- leaving important positions and well-paid jobs. As a result, the chemist technologist Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski. In the so-called “tri- ric locating antenna, which allowed detecting German submarines puter developed in 1970 by engineer Jacek Karpiński, which was Second Republic of Poland had a much higher level of scientif- angle of security” formed by the Vistula River, the San and the when they radioed their base after emerging. It was mass manufac- ahead of the American solutions by several years. ic and technical personnel than one could expect of a peripheral Dunajec, an area covering 15% of Polish territory and 18% of the tured and installed in destroyers escorting convoys, thus helping to In the last decade of the 20th century, many interesting and im- state of that size. Never in our history have we been so close to the population was earmarked for 100 modern industrial facilities to win the Battle of the Atlantic. Struszyński applied for a patent for portant solutions in the field of technical sciences were developed world’s leaders in so many disciplines. reinforce the defenses and provide the supply base for the army an antenna using a radiolocation system at the Patent Office of the in Poland, usually by young scientists born in the 1960s and 1970s. One of the Polish specialties in the interwar period became the in wartime from its own resources. It had good development and Republic of Poland in 1938. In 1913, he obtained the relevant patent Many of them, after completing studies in Poland, found placements aviation industry, developed without the base provided by the employment perspectives for the local population. (No. 32112) from . . . the Patent Office of the General Government. in the West to conduct research in leading research facilities. automotive industry everywhere else. At that time, the front run- The works were carried out at a dizzying pace called “Ameri- Juliusz Hupert, who worked at the same institution as Struszyński, One of the most outstanding Polish scientists of the young gener- ners in this area were France, Germany, Great Britain and Italy. can” at that time. This is best illustrated by the example of Stalowa invented, among others, a frequency stabilizer for ship radio trans- ation is Maciej Wojtkowski. After several years abroad, leading the We belonged to the second four, alongside the United States, the Wola. In March 1937, the construction of the Southern Facilities mitters (the first was installed on the British battleship HMS Anson). team he created within the Medical Physics Group at the Nicolaus Netherlands and Czechoslovakia. We had successes in the produc- was started—a conglomerate composed of a steel plant, rolling Zygmunt Jelonek, who worked at the Signal Research and Develop- Copernicus University (NCU) in Toruń, he developed and imple- tion of combat planes. From 1935, we were the first to have fighter mill, ironworks, press shop and mechanical workshops manufac- ment Establishment in Christchurch, led the team which designed mented in ophthalmological practice the method of Spectral Opti- planes (PZL.P.11) made entirely of metal, and our bomber PZL.37 turing, among others, artillery equipment—and in December that the innovative eight-channel duplex radio connection WS No. 10 cal Coherence Tomography (SOCT)—a new, non-invasive method Łoś was in many respects an outstanding construction on a global year the first machine tool and the first cannon for the army was operating in the microwave signal band 1 GHz with a pulse width of imaging the interior of the eyeball, 100 times faster than the ex- scale. We also had a leading position in the production of sports produced. Those facilities were ultra-modern, representing the modulation (which was one of the first so-called radio lines). It was isting methods of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). Thanks aircrafts. In that category, our flagship machines were the RWDs. highest global standards; the first in Europe to use natural gas as used during the invasion of Normandy (June 6th, 1911) for commu- to the increased speed of measurement, it allows observing the They were designed by the team of constructors created in 1927 fuel in open-hearth and heating furnaces. nication of the operation’s command with the troops fighting on the eye structures in real time. Wojtkowski presented the concept of and composed of Stanisław Rogalski, Stanisław Wigura and Jerzy Their construction was completed in the spring of 1939. From beaches. The main constructor at the Polish Military Wireless Unit the spectral optical coherence tomography instrument in 1999, and Drzewiecki. 1938, they also produced stainless steel (with a planned production in Stanmore was the talented and inventive Tadeusz Heftman, who then, together with his associates, he designed and constructed Stanisław Skarżyński, an aviation enthusiast who became a fly- of 80,000 tons a year), and they were preparing for the production from 1928 produced miniaturized transmitter-and-receiver devices the instrument for examination of the eye retina, which allows ing ace despite wounds he suffered in 1920, used their RWD-5bis of turbines, steam hammers, pneumatic drills and heavy machine (known as “Peepshtocks”) for the army. Improved and increasingly performing a non-invasive and contactless examination of the or- plane to fly over the Atlantic from French West Africa to Brazil at tools for steelworks. In 1938, the construction of the combined heat miniaturized radio stations of this type were produced there for gan. Soon, the achievements of the NCU scientists attracted the at- night on May 7th/8th, 1933. He flew the distance of 3,582 km solo in a and power plant was started, and at the same time, a large worker the resistance movement in the occupied countries. In 1912, the tention of commercial companies. As a result of negotiations con- cabin comparable to the interior of a British Mini, without a para- town was forming (before that, the village of Pławo with rafting British gave the unit allocations of components, so the production ducted by Andrzej Kowalczyk—head of the NCU Medical Physics chute, rescue boat, radio or sextant, establishing a world record in traditions was located there). increased to 513 in 1913 and to 1000 in 1911. Group, in March 2005, an agreement was concluded to provide the the category of sports aircrafts to 150 kg, for which, in 1936, he was By the time the war broke out, the COP had over 100 mod- Henryk Magnuski, employed at Galvin (from 1917, Motorola) in know-how to the company OPTOPOL from Zawiercie. In Septem- decorated with the Blériot medal by the Fédération Aéronautique ern plants—built and running. The most important of them were Chicago obtained three patents related to the construction of the ber 2005, an industrial prototype was presented, and in the spring

168 169 Bolesław Orłowski, Krzysztof Michalski Technical Achievements—for Poland and the World of 2006, the series production of the tomography instrument, under a. b. the name of SOCT Copernicus, was launched. This was the first tomography instrument in the world for the examination of the eye fundus in spectral technology. In the next two years, other ver- sions were developed: Copernicus HR and Anterius (for the front part of the eye), whereas the instrument SOCT Copernicus Revo is already available on the market. One of the most renowned Polish achievements in engineering in recent years is the original method of graphene production de- veloped by Włodzimierz Strupiński from the Institute of Electronic Materials Technology (ITME) in Warsaw. Graphene is a recently discovered (2001) unique material (an allotrope of carbon—it con- sists of a single layer of atoms) with unusual mechanical, electronic and thermal properties, which allow creating electronic compo- nents much faster than the silicon-based elements. Strupiński start- ed work on graphene production technology in 2006. Four years later, he applied to the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland with a method of producing large-format graphene through embedding carbon atoms in a layer of one C atom on silicon carbide (SiC) plates, applying the classic technique of epitaxy (deposition of monocrys- talline layer on a crystalline substrate). This method made ITME world-famous, and the discoverers of graphene and subsequent Nobel Prize winners (Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov) asked the Polish inventor to make the Polish graphene available for their research. Developing the methods of epitaxial graphene production, Strupiński with his team also prepared the technology of graphene production on copper substrates and the technology of grow- c. ing high-quality graphene on germanium. Polish graphene from ITME is notable for excellent electronic parameters unattainable by other scientists, and that is why it is used in works on advanced new-generation electronic instruments (High Frequency Elec- tronics and Spintronics). The invention of the Polish engineer has already obtained patents in the United States, Japan and Korea. In 2012, the Polish scientist and ITME were invited to the largest European research program, Graphene Flagship Project, and four years later ITME was entrusted with the organization of the most important conference in the world dedicated to the research of graphene—Graphene Week 2016.

a. Constructors of the RWD aircraft, Jerzy Drzewiecki (left) and Stanisław Rogalski, Warsaw, ca. 1930

b. RWD-5bis aircraft used by Captain Stanisław Skarżyński to fly over the South Atlantic in 1933

c. PZL-37 “Łoś” aircraft at the airport, 1939

170 171 Bolesław Orłowski, Krzysztof Michalski Technical Achievements—for Poland and the World a. e.

b. c. f. a. Steelworks Huta Stalowa Wola in the Central Industrial Region, 1939

b. Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski, deputy prime minister and minister of industry and trade in 1926-1930, minister of the treasury in 1935-1939

c. Cellulose plant in Niedomice, Central Industrial Region, 1937

d. Hydroelectric power plant on the San River, Myczkowce in the Central Industrial Region, dam under construction, 1937

e. Nagra tape recorder constructed by Stefan Kudelski, ca. 1960

f. Stefan Kudelski, a Polish electronics engineer and inventor liv- d. ing and working in Lausanne in Switzerland, creator of the Nagra series of professional tape recorders

172 173 Bolesław Orłowski, Krzysztof Michalski Technical Achievements—for Poland and the World a. c.

b. d. a. Jacek Karpiński, an electronic engineer and computer engineer, designer of the first Polish minicomputer K-202

b. Doctor of Engineering Włodzimierz Strupiński from the In- stitute of Electronic Materials Technology in Warsaw showing a plate covered with graphene, Warsaw, January 29th, 2013

c. Retinal imaging using optical tomography OCT: a. Sectional image of the retina along the line connecting the macula lutea with the cen- tral part of the optic disc (colors correspond to the intensity of scat- tered light—red being the most intensive and blue the least); b. Re- construction of the three-dimensional structure of the retina near the optic disc; c. Sectional image of the macula lutea with the described layers of the retina visible in the OCT imaging

d. Maciej Wojtkowski, a Polish physicist specializing in applied op- tics, experimental and medical physics, at the inauguration of the campaign of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education entitled “Being a Professional Scientist,” Warsaw, October 10th, 2011

476-477 Mars rover “#next” built by the students of the Scientific Association of Robotics Engineers at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Bialystok University of Technology, which took fourth place in the international competition University Ro- ver Challenge in the United States in 2015; vehicles constructed by students of this university were also successful in this prestigious competition in 2011, 2013 and 2011

171 175

Fortunate is the nation that has a poet And in its toil does not walk in silence V

Czesław Miłosz Culture

179179 The decisive rise of cinema began during the October 1956 break- initiated by the debut work of Identification Marks: None, which Cinema—The Dizzying Career through period, thanks to a new generation of filmmakers who had was released in 1965 (and followed by Walkover, 1965; Barrier, 1966; been taught—as in the case of Andrzej Munk, Andrzej Wajda, Ka- and a film that was blocked by censorship for many years: Hands th zimierz Kutz, Stanisław Lenartowicz and Janusz Morgenstern, and Up!, 1967) meant the creative adoption of the new wave poetics. of the 10 Muse operators: Jerzy Lipman, Kurt Weber and Jerzy Wójcik—by the old A series of outstanding achievements by more recent creators of masters in the Film School founded in Łódź in 1918, or who had the Polish film school—from Wajda’s Everything for Sale (1968), to acquired professional qualifications in a different way but also after Kutz’s Salt of the Earth (1969) and Konwicki’s autobiographical How the war—as in the case of Wojciech Jerzy Has, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Far Away, How Near (1971), Has’s The Hour-Glass Sanatorium Tadeusz Konwicki, Stanisław Różewicz and screenwriter Jerzy Ste- (1973) and The Third Part of the Night (1971) by their successor Tadeusz Lubelski fan Stawiński. Unlike their prewar predecessors, they established and follower Andrzej Żuławski—confirmed an original approach an emotional dialog with the audience by avoiding taboo issues to cinema. The start of the post-March 1968 generation, which was imposed by censorship and bringing up the most dramatic prob- expressed by debuts—both serious, like Krzysztof Zanussi’s The lems of recent history—e.g., the futile sacrifice of the nation during Structure of Crystals (1969), as well as ironic, like Marek Piwowski’s Nazi occupation and the Warsaw Uprising which did not prevent The Cruise (1970)— reinforced the social ambitions of the film By 1918, world cinema had established its position as the most ef- of themselves. Such a function was fulfilled by the king of the com- submission to the Soviets—with the use of innovative film language. industry. Its professionalism was proven by big productions created fective recorder of the world, as well as an institutional organizer edy, Adolf Dymsza, who refined his character of the eccentric but A series of works produced at that time built the phenomenon of in the middle of the new decade: Jerzy Hoffman’s The Deluge (1971), of shows aimed not only at entertainment, but also propaganda high-minded Dodek, as well as the master of the melodrama Ka- the Polish film school, which added a new, previously unknown Wajda’s The Promised Land (1971) and Jerzy Antczak’s Nights and and education. The fact that Poland was only regaining independ- zimierz Junosza-Stępowski—the performer of the title role in The quality to domestic cinema and brought it international renown as Days (1975). ence at that time inevitably delayed the development of this branch Medicine Man (1937) by Michał Waszyński—and the audience’s confirmed by festival awards not previously received. A pair of in- This professional film industry—in its entirety, from TV cycles of culture in our country, particularly in the role of documenting favorite actress, Mieczysława Ćwiklińska, who combined both of surgents from Wajda’s Kanal (1956) stopped by a grating, the hero of produced in Tor and X film production units, to Stanisław Bareja’s the times. As a matter of fact, important events were filmed in Po- these genres, specializing in roles of elegant matriarchs. The same the first story of Munk’s Eroica (1957) who seems to care only about comedies, particularly the famous Teddy Bear (1980)—was united in land—from Stanisław Wyspiański’s funeral recorded in Kraków goes for a large group of lovers, including Elżbieta Barszczewska, his own comfort but then joins the uprising, and two accidental an opposition protest against the rotten system of Edward Gierek’s (on the initiative of the city mayor!) in December 1907, to the ac- Ina Benita, Eugeniusz Bodo and Jerzy Pichelski. In their films, passengers in a sleeping compartment who fail to encounter their rule in its last years. The signal was given by Wajda’s Man of Marble tions of the Polish Legion soldiers in 1911-1917. However, for various which only seem trivial, we can still recognize the problems of real needs in Night Train (1959) by Kawalerowicz—these pictures (1976), based on the screenplay by Aleksander Ścibor-Rylski, with reasons—the poor respect of former cinema owners for their films contemporary Poles, particularly in ambitious social dramas by defined the Polish state of mind in this era. The culminating mo- a plot based on an analogy between the anti-system rebellion of a and also the miseries of the last war in which kilometers of tapes Józef Lejtes: Girls of Nowolipki (1937) and The Frontier (1938) or in ment of the Polish film school was the reception of Wajda’s Ashes model worker from the Stalinist period (Jerzy Radziwiłowicz) and were set on fire—most of these moving pictures did not survive Scarecrows (1938) by Eugeniusz Cękalski and Karol Szołowski—a and Diamonds (the premiere was in October 1958), when all Poles the contemporary, uncompromising attitude of a student studying and we do not have them in our collective memory. Nevertheless, film produced by the Cooperative of Film Authors (SAF). The wore dark glasses for a while as a sign of their identification with to be a filmmaker who bases her diploma film on him (Krystyna the custom of watching films in cinemas—often in such elegant founders of the SAF, who had been members of the Society of Zbigniew Cybulski—the main character of the film, who expressed Janda). Screenings of the Man of Marble reinforced the rebellious places as the Apollo theater which has existed in Poznań since Artistic Film Lovers START in 1930-1935, formed the leftist oppo- the tragedy of the collective fate like no other. attitude of the audience and undoubtedly heralded the effective 1908 (today known as the Muza, the oldest of the Polish cinemas sition of the professional film industry. A notable phenomenon at The revolutionary scale of this phenomenon surpassed the protest of Gdańsk shipyard workers in August 1980, which became functioning till now), Kraków’s Uciecha and Wanda (both func- the end of the 1930s was the brilliant development of Jewish films expectations of the authorities, who prevented the continuation the main topic of the sequel Man of Iron (1981)—the flagship work of tioning since 1912), or Warsaw’s Colosseum (opened in 1918 with in Yiddish which were produced in Warsaw (their best-known of the Polish film school by adopting a secret Resolution of the the “Solidarity” season. Films made during the five years in between more than 2,000 seats)—was common in our cities one hundred representative was Waszyński’s Dybuk, 1937), but were tragically Secretariat of the Central Committee of the PZPR on the Film those two works by Wajda, comprising a trend called the cinema of years ago. This means that our audience had been accustomed to interrupted by the outbreak of the war. Industry in June 1960. However, once triggered, the development of moral anxiety, had an interventional function. However, the authors Polish films for years. Polish cinema could not be slowed down by censors’ prohibitions. of the most important works managed to find universal dramatic When the People’s Poland was the producer. The postwar The main trend of artistic cinema manifested itself in new forms that gave them a more permanent value, not just as a period The popularity of cinema in the interwar period. We did not restoration of the film industry after the destruction of the war areas in the 1960s: in documentary films created independently piece. Such was the case in the famous clash of attitudes of an have to wait long for the first hit of our national cinema. The pre- involved the changing of its status, which was forced by the new by Kazimierz Karabasz, Władysław Ślesicki, Jan Łomnicki and associate professor and a young scientist in Zanussi’s Camouflage miere of Miracle at the Vistula directed by Ryszard Bolesławski political system. Filmmaking was monopolized by the state-owned Irena Kamieńska; in perverse animated films by Jan Lenica, (1976), the futile protest of the protagonist of Agnieszka Holland’s (who soon made it in Hollywood), held in March 1921—only seven producer (Film Polski, established at the end of 1915), which made Witold Giersz, Mirosław Kijowicz and Daniel Szczechura; in such Provincial Actors (1978), the demoralization of the main character of months after the prototypical event— confirmed that films could production easier but, on the other hand, imposed ideological re- unexpected forms as huge costume shows—initially complying Top Dog (1977) by Feliks Falk and, to the contrary, the development have a great impact on the patriotic awareness of the audience. strictions upon filmmakers. As early as the middle of the 1910s, with the classic rules of a historical show (Knights of the Teutonic of civic awareness in the hero of Camera Buff (1979) by Krzysztof The leading female role was played by Jadwiga Smosarska—the precursory pictures of Nazi concentration camps were made: the Cross by Aleksander Ford, 1960), but then shocking the audience Kieślowski. The protagonist of the first of these four films—Zbigniew most beloved star of Polish cinema in the interwar period, who documentary Majdanek Death Camp—The Cemetery of Europe with their narrative unpredictability (The Saragossa Manuscript Zapasiewicz in the role of the associate professor— and Jerzy Stuhr was the perfect embodiment of various types of Polish feminini- (1911) by Aleksander Ford, and the feature film The Last Stage by Wojciech Jerzy Has, 1961) or with political revision (Ashes who played the main roles in the last two films became the faces ty—from innocent girls from a manor house (Iwonka, 1925) to “lib- (1917) by Wanda Jakubowska, which is still an irreplaceable testi- by Andrzej Wajda based on Stefan Żeromski’s novel, 1965) and, of this trend. European popularity was also gained by other leading erated women” (Is Lucyna a Girl?, 1931, where the title heroine was mony of the atmosphere of the lager. The tradition of prewar en- finally, on popular cinema shows which created heroes of mass actors, particularly those known from Wajda’s films, such as Daniel returning to the country in a convertible after graduating from a tertainment cinema was continued by Leonard Buczkowski’s films imagination, such as the brave intelligence agent Captain Kloss Olbrychski, Wojciech Pszoniak and Andrzej Seweryn—a trio of technical university in Paris) and queens (Barbara Radziwiłłów- Forbidden Songs (1916) and The Treasure (1918), which both suc- (Stanisław Mikulski) from the TV series More Than Life at Stake friends from The Promised Land—as well as Jadwiga Jankowska- na, 1936). In the 1930s, along with the development of Polish vari- cessfully consoled the audience, soothed their pain, and featured (1965-1968) by Janusz Morgenstern and Andrzej Konic, or two Cieślak, who played the main role in Janusz Morgenstern’s To Kill eties of genre cinema, the practice of Poland’s favorite actors and the first star of the new times—Danuta Szaflarska. Unfortunately, quarrelling but paradoxically inseparable neighbors—Pawlak This Love (1972). Ten years later she won the Best Actress award in actresses repeating their “type” in successive films intensified. The the proclamation of social realism as the only acceptable artistic and Kargul from Sylwester Chęciński’s comedy Our Folks (1967). Cannes for her role in the Hungarian film Another Way. magnitude of adoration in those days allows us to treat the film method at the congress in Wisła in 1919 froze artistic freedoms for Finally, although with a delay, we were also affected by echoes of The introduction of martial law halted the progress of the Pol- roles of prewar Polish cinema stars as Poles’ idealized perceptions a few years and isolated the audience from Western cinema. the world modernization of cinema. Jerzy Skolimowski’s tetralogy ish film industry for many years, hindering its development and

521 525 Tadeusz Lubelski Cinema—The Dizzying Career of the 10th Muse postponing the distribution of a number of important films, such Festivals held in Poland, such as the Kraków Film Festival, the a. as Kieślowski’s Blind Chance (1981, premiere in 1987) which en- International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography Camer- couraged Poles to reach an agreement transcending divisions, image (first held in Toruń, then in Łódź and Bydgoszcz), the War- Janusz Zaorski’s The Mother of Kings (1982, premiere in 1987) and saw Film Festival and the New Horizons Film Festival in Wrocław Ryszard Bugajski’s Interrogation (1982, premiere in 1989), which which educates the younger generation, are recognized worldwide. both explored the Stalinist period. The audience found consolation The adoption of the modern Film Industry Act in 2005, which led in laughter, hence the success of comedies: Sexmission (1983) by to the establishment of the Polish Film Institute which is managed Juliusz Machulski and H.M. Deserters (1985) by Janusz Majewski. by filmmakers, prepares programs and raises funds for the support The most important achievement of this decade is, however, the of domestic filmmakers, closed the period of adapting the cinema morality cycle of Kieślowski’s ten TV films, Dekalog (1988-1989), industry to the new system. The institute fulfilled its task to a large which proposed a new reflection on human ethical obligations. extent: Polish films again manage to attract a mass audience and Two cinematic versions of the best episodes of the cycle—A Short win international recognition. The latter refers to, among others, Film About Killing and A Short Film About Love (both in 1988)— Andrzej Wajda’s Sweet Rush (2009), Jerzy Skolimowski’s Essential marked the beginning of the director’s huge international popu- Killing (2010), Lech Majewski’s The Mill and the Cross (2010) and, in larity. For a few seasons before his premature death, he became a particular, Paweł Pawlikowski’s Ida (2013)—the first Polish winner guru of European artistic cinema. of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. New Polish films not only supplement the collective consciousness with facts and char- Liberty cinema. Having been privatized again and liberated from acters that had been displaced from it—e.g., Wajda’s Katyn (2007), the limitations (but also facilitations) of the state-owned producer, Bugajski’s General Nil (2009) and Pasikowski’s Aftermath (2012) the film industry sought an effective method of functioning in the which refers to the Jedwabne massacre—but they also offer an new political situation after 1989. It filled thematic gaps by creating attractive way of talking about the latest history—Borys Lankosz’s images of the Holocaust in Wajda’s Korczak (1990) and Roman Reverse (2009), Wojciech Smarzowski’s The Dark House (2009), Rose Polański’s The Pianist (2002), which won the Golden Palm in (2011) and Volhynia (2016), as well as Jan Komasa’s City 44 (2011) and Cannes and an Academy Award (10 years earlier Polański’s debut Łukasz Palkowski’s Gods (2011)—and the changing contemporary Knife in the Water, 1961, was the first Polish film nominated for an times—Xawery Żuławski’s Polish-Russian War (2009), Małgorzata Academy Award), Soviet occupation in Robert Gliński’s All That Szumow ska’s Body (2015) which deals with existential dilemmas, Really Matters (1992) and by settling accounts with the period of the and Jan P. Matuszyński’s The Last Family (2016). This bodes well for People’s Poland—either straightforwardly as in Kazimierz Kutz’s the future and proves that filmmakers are able to take advantage of b. c. Death Like a Slice of Bread (1991) or metaphorically in Woj ciech the artistic independence that has been afforded to them. Marczewski’s Escape from the “Liberty” Cinema (1990) and Jan Jakub Kolski’s Jańcio Wodnik (1993). Eventually, it also portrayed the pain of the new times: in Marcel Łoziński’s documentary 89 mm from Europe (1992) and Anything Can Happen (1995), in Krzysztof Krauze’s The Debt (1999) and Marek Koterski’s Day of the Wacko (2002). But the former rapport between filmmakers and the intellectual audience disappeared, and one of the biggest hits of the new epoch was Władysław Pasikowski’s Dogs (1992), which imitated the rules of American popular cinema. The adaptation of the Polish film industry to internationally accepted standards soon began to bear fruit. The Polish film artists who contributed to Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993)—cinematographer Janusz Kamiński, production designer Allan Starski and set decorator Ewa Braun—all received Academy Awards. Earlier, in 1983, another Polish winner of an Oscar was a. Montage works for one of the last Polish silent films A Strong Man, Zbigniew Rybczyński for his animated short film Tango. In director Henryk Szaro in the middle, 1929 2000, Andrzej Wajda won an Academy Award for his lifetime achievements. International recognition was gained by a large b. Eugeniusz Bodo (left) and Jadwiga Smosarska in the film Is Lucyna group of Polish cinematographers: Witold Sobociński and his son a Girl?, 1931 Piotr, Sławomir Idziak, Edward Kłosiński, Andrzej Bartkowiak, Paweł Edelman, and Wojciech Staroń. We can even talk about c. Pola Negri (real name Apolonia Chałupiec), a stage and film ac- the existence of a Polish cinematographer school. The festival tress, an international silent cinema star, the 1920s laurels were won by animators: Piotr Dumała (Franz Kafka, 1991) and Jerzy Kucia (Tuning the Instruments, 2000) and by Tomasz 528-529 Film Uhlans, Uhlans, the Painted Boys, in the foreground Bagiński due to his innovative use of computer effects (The from the left: Adolf Dymsza as Felek, Kazimierz Krukowski as Lopek, Cathedral, 2002). Władysław Walter as Wachtmeister, 1932

526 527

Tadeusz Lubelski Cinema—The Dizzying Career of the 10th Muse a. b. d.

c. e. a. Beata Tyszkiewicz in the film Password: Korn, 1968

b. Andrzej Seweryn, Daniel Olbrychski and Wojciech Pszoniak in The Promised Land directed by Andrzej Wajda, 1971

c. Marek Kondrat in Day of the Wacko directed by Marek Koterski, 2002

d. Krystyna Janda and Jerzy Radziwiłowicz in Man of Marble directed by Andrzej Wajda, 1976

e. Jerzy Stuhr in Camera Buff directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1979

532 Andrzej Wajda with an honorary Oscar for lifetime achieve- ment, 2000

533 Paweł Pawlikowski with an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film—Ida, 2015

530 531