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Aleksander Smolar - From Russian literature to the Church and the Left (153/201)

130 views · Published 20 December 2018 · 3:35 · Indexed 4 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: We fairly quickly – in fact, almost immediately – had a very good reception among various friends in Poland. There was also – this encouraged us hugely and improved the quality of the publication – co-operation with our friends in Poland. A few issues were put together entirely in Poland. One was dedicated to Orwell and was edited by Marcin Król and Wojtek Karpiński who were our liberal-conservative friends; it was a very good issue. Then there was a very big issue, which we named 'The Archipelago of Free Thought' – Russian thought. It was prepared by a different set of people – writers, poets. There was Wiktor Woroszyński, Andrzej Drawicz and, I think, Dąbrowski as well, Witek Dąbrowski. I don't remember exactly but in any case, they were experts, specialising in Russian literature, very involved in the opposition. So that was 'The Archipelago of Free Thought'. Later, there was a very important series published across two issues dedicated to… I don't remember the exact title – about the Church, socialism, leftism… Christianity, Socialism, the Church and the Left – something like that. And I think this was an idea that Adam Michnik put forward although he didn't write anything for that issue because he was writing his book at the time about the dialogue. What was the title? In any case, it was about the Church…

[VT] 'The Church and the Left'.

That's right – 'The Church and the Left'. That's what he was writing at the time, but we had a few well-known names there – I think I've already mentioned Antoni Macierewicz's piece which was very left-wing in which he castigates the opposition for sheltering under the aegis of the Church, seeking protection there; he was in favour of cutting free from the Church. Teresa Bogucka, an exceptional journalist who later wrote for 'Gazeta Wyborcza' also contributed to that issue. Just as incredibly as in the case of Macierewicz, the radical Fr Małkowski wrote a piece, too. Even the Church considered him to be radical, and had for 20 years or so posted him to officiate at a cemetery somewhere in Górka Węglowa. He used to be in the same class at school as Wojtek Karpiński and Marcin Król. I can't now remember who else contributed to that issue. In any case, it was exciting and it was also politically a very important collection of articles because this was during the time when the secular academics were drawing closer to the Church as confirmation of and testimony to… an explanation and confirmation of that evolution. From today's perspective, it's hard to understand in the face of the level of antagonism and the things that various s bishops and priests are capable of saying about Adam Michnik, about 'Gazeta Wyborcza' and so on. So these issue of our publication were very important.

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