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Aleksander Smolar - English sensitivity makes aliens of the English (141/201)

115 views · Published 20 December 2018 · 2:00 · Indexed 6 October 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2018 · News & Politics

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To listen to more of Aleksander Smolar’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFwlxPLurqAOCrabBgGrqLA7

Aleksander Smolar (b. 1940) is a Polish writer, political activist and adviser, vice-president of the Institute for Human Sciences and president of the Stefan Batory Foundation. [Listener: Vitek Tracz]

TRANSCRIPT: The deciding factor was that we'd already been in France for a year. In some way, France was psychologically nearer to Poland for me. I remember that England was at that time a strange country on a very distant continent. I'll never forget a reception I attended which became a symbol of the different customs. I'd received an invitation – it might even have been there in Brighton – I came into the room where I knew no one. There was a crowd of people talking yet nobody came up to me, no one invited me to join them. I later discovered that this was simply English sensitivity, that if I'd approached any of the groups, they would have welcomed me warmly to make me feel better right away. But this was so at odds with continental habits, that for me this was a totally alien country. It was an alien country even though I could speak English far better than French. I'd already been to England where I'd done manual work so that I could learn the language. So this also mattered, but apart from that it was already a time when my involvement in Polish affairs… I mean, I had decided that I was going to engage in Polish affairs in light of which… and that France is somehow considerably closer to Poland – in its history, traditions, continent, culture. I decided to settle in France which seemed absurd from an academic point of view, especially in those days. England had a much higher ranking. Apart from that, the choice between France and England was a choice. Was I choosing – as I had thought I was doing when I left Poland – a purely academic life? Or was I going to try to combine the thing that is always a point of reference in my life and was the cause of much frustration, but which in some way satisfies my need to engage in reflection, in academic work and in public affairs as an émigré – in Poland's issues. France made this possible for me.

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