THE SARMATIAN REVIEW Vol. XIX, No. 2 April 1999 NATO and Normalcy Normalcy. Public domain. 610 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 1999 The Sarmatian Review (ISSN 1059- 5872) is a triannual publication of the Polish In- From the Editor stitute of Houston. The journal deals with Polish, On March 12, 1999, Poland, conveys a part of the repressed history Central, and Eastern European affairs, and their the Czech Republic, and Hungary were of Central Europe American academia implications for the United States. We specialize in the translation of documents. admitted to NATO. After two hundred is unfamiliar with. It is also a wonder- Subscription price is $15.00 per year for individu- years of partitions, uprisings, wars, de- ful read, comparable to the Victorian als, $21.00 for institutions and libraries ($21.00 struction, colonialism, foreign occupa- texts which likewise envelop the world for individuals, $27.00 for libraries overseas, air tion, fear, brief independence - a period in comforting categories and explana- mail). The views expressed by authors of articles do not necessarily represent those of the Editors of peace and political security is finally tions. But unlike the Victorian novel- or of the Polish Institute. Articles are subject to in sight. Poles, Czechs and Hungarians ists, Dàbrowska presents a world that editing. Unsolicited manuscripts are not returned think of themselves as returning to the is well ordered in spite of attempts to unless accompanied by a self-addressed and Western fold. For them, March 12, introduce chaos and disorder into it. stamped envelope. Please submit your contribu- tion on a Macintosh disk together with a printout. 1999 symbolizes a return to normalcy. Perhaps the crux of the matter lies here: Letters to the Editor can be e-mailed to They can now engage in domesticity the Soviets and the Nazis tried to de- <[email protected]>, with an accompanying and bickering in their parliaments over stroy this kind of ordering of society. It printout sent by snail mail. Articles, letters, and issues of policy, economy and the ways was not just a matter of killing off the subscription checks should be sent to The Sarmatian Review, P.O. Box 79119, to fix things. Poles and Jews physically. They had to Houston, Texas 77279-9119. Barring unforeseen circum- be killed spiritually and intellectually, The Sarmatian Review retains the copyright for all stances such as a major economic crash so to speak. materials included in print and online issues. Cop- in Europe, the anchoring of East Cen- This issue’s ride across Polish ies for personal or educational use are permitted tral European security in NATO fore- literature takes us to a period of Polish by section 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Permission to redistribute, republish, or use SR tells a happy period for the countries history innocent of reflections such as materials in advertising or promotion must be sub- involved. Fifty years after NATO had those occasioned by Dàbrowska’s epic. mitted in writing to the Editor. been created, the three Central Euro- Professor Piotr Wilczek’s essay on re- Editor: Ewa M.Thompson (Rice University). pean nations finally have a cause to cel- ligious debates in Jagiellonian and post- Editorial Advisory Committee: Janusz A. Ihnatowicz (University of Saint Thomas), Marek ebrate. Jagiellonian Poland demonstrates not Kimmel (Rice University), Alex Kurczaba (Uni- Maria Dàbrowska’s novel only the forms which the pre-modern versity of Illinois), Witold J. Lukaszewski (Sam Nights and Days (Noce i dnie, 1932-34) religious tolerance took in Poland, but Houston State University), Michael J. Mikos (Uni- is in many ways an icon of Polish tradi- also is a contribution to Reformation versity of Wisconsin), Waclaw Mucha (Rice Uni- versity), James R. Thompson (Rice University), tions. The Niechcices and the studies in Europe. Wilczek’s essay cau- Andrzej WaÊko (Jagiellonian University). Ostrzeƒskis are ordinary and imperfect tions us not to employ categories of Web Pages: Charles Bearden (Rice University) people who tried to carve out for them- thinking appropriate for our own time Web Address: <http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~sarmatia>. selves a semblance of normalcy in an in assessing a history of another pe- Sarmatian Review Council: Marla K. Burns (Burns & Associates), Boguslaw Godlewski (Diagnostic area of the world coveted by colonialist riod. Clinic of Houston), Iga J. Henderson, Danuta Z. powers. Owing to these circumstances, These relatively serene hori- Hutchins (Buena Vista University), Joseph A. the Polish petty nobility failed: the zons are crossed by a book that seems Jachimczyk (J.A. Jachimczyk Forensic Center of Har- novel ends with the outbreak of World to belong to the fin-de-siécle decadence ris County, Texas), Leonard M. Krazynski (Krazynski & Associates), Martin Lawera (Rice University), War I and the loss of all property by the rather than to the world of Maria Witold P. Skrypczak, Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm. already-impoverished Mrs. Barbara Dàbrowska’s heroes. Yet its heroine Niechcic. The loss of property to fire lived at approximately the same period In this issue: and sword has been monotonously com- of time as Dàbrowska herself. She was mon in Polish history, and its effects on Stanisław Przybyszewski’s daughter, a SR INDEX........................................611 the fabric of society have not been stud- person of considerable talent (she wrote Maria Dàbrowska, Nights and Days (ex- ied. In 1939, people like the Niechcices the play Danton on which Andrzej cerpts)................................................613 and the Ostrzeƒskis became for the So- Wajda based his famous movie), a drug Piotr Wilczek, Catholics and Heretics: Some viets the symbols of ‘gentlemen’s Po- addict and a near-suicide, and her story Aspects of Religious Debates in the Old land’ (panskaia Polsha, an expression is also a part of Polish reality. Last but Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...619 routinely used in the Soviet press of not least, the best history of interwar BOOKS..............................................628 1939-1941) that had to be destroyed at Poland by Richard M. Watt is here ably John J. Kulczycki, Poland and Its Fate any price. Why? Obviously there is reviewed by Professor John J. (review)..............................................631 more here than meets the eye. Kulczycki. ∆ Janet G. Tucker, A Life of Solitude [on We are pleased to offer the Stanislawa Przybyszewska] (review)...632 first-ever translation into English of the 123456789012345678901 LETTERS (Aleksandra Ziółkowska- beginning of this family saga. It would 123456789012345678901SR Boehm, Bogdan Czaykowski)..........634 make us even happier if this fragment ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NOTES.635 led one of our readers to translate the About the Authors...............................635 entire novel. Dàbrowska’s text April 1999 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 611 Sarmatian Review Index NATO FACTS Size of the three new NATO entrants: Poland 122,000 sq miles, Hungary 36,000 sq miles, Czech Republic 31,000 sq miles. Population: Poland 39 million, Hungary 10.5 million, Czech Republic 10.3 million. Defense: Poland: currently 220,000 members, to be cut to 180,000 by 2003; Czech Republic: 85,000; Hungary: 53,150. GDP per capita 1997: Poland $3,512; Hungary $4,46; Czech Republic $5,050, according to EBRD. Source: Agence France-Presse (Vienna), 8 March 1999. Health Life expectancy in Chukotka, a region of the ‘Russian’ [Rossiyskaya] Federation bordering on Alaska and inhabited by the Chukchi, Evens, Eskimos and other native peoples, in addition to the Russian colonists: 34 years. Source: Michael Waller, Russia Reform Monitor, No. 566 (16 December 1998). Number of registered drug addicts in Moscow in 1999: 20,000. Estimated number of drug addicts in Moscow: 50 times greater, or 1,000,000. Source: City Health Committee vice-chairman Nikolay Plavunov at a conference on 28 January 1999, as reported by AFP, 29 January 1999. Demography Percentage decrease in Ukraine’s population in 1998: -0.4 percent, a decrease of 205,000 persons. Ukraine’s population in 1998: 50.09 million. Source: State Statistics Committee, as reported by RFE/RL, 30 December 1998. Percentage decrease in the population of the ‘Russian’ Federation: between January-October 1998: -0.2 percent, a decrease of 311,000 persons. Source: AFP, 29 December 1998. Percentage of immigrants in the US population in 1997 and in 1910: 9.8 percent and 14.7 percent, respectively. US immigrant population in 1997 in millions: 26.3 million. Source: Gabriel Escobar, Houston Chronicle, 9 January 1999. Size of the Jewish community in Ukraine in 1998: 500,000. Names of two of the most important organizations (out of an estimated 300): the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress and the recently-formed Jewish Confederation of Ukraine. Stated reasons for the formation of the new organization: inactivity of the former. Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Newsline, 24 February 1999. Size of the Jewish community in Russia in 1998: 600,000. Source: Paul Goble in Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty, 26 February 1999. Estimated percentage of East Germans who have not yet come to terms with German unification: 33 percent. Source: The Economist, 6-12 February 1999. Number of Chinese living in Moscow in 1998: 100,000. Source: Gazeta, 3 March 1999 (http://www.gazeta.ru). Education Number of PhDs awarded annually in the United States: 40,000. Source: The New York Times, 11 November 1998. Economy Number of registered foreign trade organizations in Poland during the Communist era: 70. Number of registered foreign trade organizations in Poland in 1998: tens of thousands. Source: “World's busiest shopping street? Think Warsaw,” The Christian Science Monitor, 24 December 1998. Percentage of stocks on the Warsaw Stock Exchange held by Poles in 1998 : more than 60 percent . Percentage of stocks on the Moscow Stock Exchange held by Russians before the August 1998 meltdown: five percent.* Source: Peter Finn in The Washington Post, 20 November 1998.