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Aleksander Smolar - Tadeusz Mazowiecki (185/201)

181 views · Published 20 December 2018 · 3:03 · Indexed 8 November 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: But let me return to Poland, following '89. During my emigration, as I've mentioned, I met Tadeusz Mazowiecki, who'd come to visit us, and Bronisław Geremek who arrive in December '88 with Wałęsa – it was Wałęsa's first trip abroad, he'd been invited by Mitterand on that occasion and you could already feel there was a change coming. It followed a famous debate between Wałęsa and Miodowicz who was head of the official trades unions where Wałęsa drove a coach and horses through his arguments, creating political shock waves in Poland, and so the authorities had to let him travel. So that's when Wałęsa came and Geremek, with whom I later met and talked, came with him – he came fairly frequently. I met him later but our close cooperation came afterwards back in Poland. I can't say that I was ever close personally to Tadeusz Mazowiecki. I was very grateful to him especially since it was largely thanks to him that I was able to return to Poland when he suggested that I become his advisor. I later became the head of his political advisors. He was someone who was incredibly upright, noble, wise yet at the same time he was rather ponderous for a politician – he had his failings. Prior to this he'd been an editor all his life and he'd stuck to certain life style habits. He would wake late and then stay up long into the night – I remember the Council of Ministers meetings used to be torture, they'd go on until 2.00 or 3.00 in the morning having started late because they were adapted to his life style. He was rather slow and in cartoons he was depicted as a tortoise. When he was campaigning for the presidential elections, it's no coincidence that the slogan chosen for him was, 'The power of peace'. Well, peace is associated with a certain slowness but it also reflected a sort of gravity. In any case, it was an exceptional experience for me to be at his side. I think that, obviously, if I'd already been living in Poland then my role would have been considerably greater. It's hard for me to assess retrospectively at which moments I played a crucial role. They varied from discussions directly with Mazowiecki himself, to discussions with those who formed his inner circle and who wrote his notes or his speeches.

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