In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Poland | 247 adam Michnik (b. 1946) Michnik is an internationally esteemed journalist, essayist, and historian who played a major role in the Solidarity movement and was for many years editor of the highly influential newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. He won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in 1983, was named European Man of the Year in 1989, and was made a member of the French Legion of Honor in 2003. His collaboration in the 1970s with the reformist Komitet obrony robotników (KOR; Workers’ Defense Committee) and later Solidarity, as well as his editorship of several illegal underground newspapers between 1977 and 1989, led to his arrest and imprisonment on several occasions. His writings from and on prison, Listy z Białołęki (Letters from Białołęka, 1982), were translated into English by Maya Latynski and published in 1987 as Letters from Prison and Other Essays. The following excerpts are from Letters from Prison and Other Essays, translated from Polish by Maya Latynski (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 81–82, 93–94. from Letters from Prison and Other Essays I am writing soon after the trial of the murderers of Rev. Jerzy Popieluszko.7 For some Western observers, the trial provided a proof of our generals’ liberal tendencies. And indeed, the trial was an unprecedented event in the history of the Leading System. Never before have the provocations of the security apparatus been revealed to such an extent, albeit inadvertently; never before has the villainy of those who are lords over the life and death of common people been laid so bare. That was without precedent. But in the last ten years, everything in Poland has been without precedent. The independent information network. Solidarity. The authority and influence of the Church. The Toruń trial was also unprecedented in its attack on the Church. The vile slander of the murdered priest; the charge of collaboration with the Gestapo, made against the widely respected bishop of the Przemyśl diocese, Ignacy Tokarczuk; the accusations that other bishops destroyed marriages and embezzled money—this is the other side of the Toruń trial. Its main element is blackmail: “Look, we will continue doing this unless you cease to resist!” Our generals know perfectly well that they will not break the resistance of society unless they succeed in driving the Church back to the catacombs, or in refashioning it into a collaborationist institution, on the pattern of the Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union. The Popieluszko murder was an integral part of this scenario because Rev. Jerzy personified the connection between the Church and Solidarity. His Holy 248 | Poland Masses for the Fatherland provided extraordinary, heartening moments for the people of Warsaw. The police could never forgive the shepherd of Żoliborz Church the moments of relief he offered to the tormented, persecuted city. The abduction of the Rev. Jerzy Popieluszko [on 18 October 1984] was but one in a long series of kidnappings. The perpetrators freely walk the streets of Polish cities; they need not worry about any criminal proceedings against them. Despite widespread demands, there was no resumption of any proceedings against the murderers of Grzegorz Przemyk.8 Instead, police captain Piotrowski , the murderer who organized the abduction of Popieluszko and who was later permitted to switch his role from defendant to accuser of the Church, became an idol for his pals in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. I heard enough during my own detention and interrogations. Moments after saying good-bye to Lech Wałęsa, when I was being put into the police car, I heard them say: “We still have free space in the trunk for Mr. Michnik. Just like for Popieluszko.” A marvelous little joke. . . . They didn’t even try to pretend. The immense role of the Catholic Church in Poland, so spectacularly demonstrated during the pope’s visit two years ago, provoked many comments, often unfavorable, from foreign observers. These gentlemen should hear the view of an individual (myself) who has never been accused of following Church instructions in his writings: the Church is not, and should not be a political institution. The bishops are not, and should not be, the representatives of the Poles’ political aspirations. But the Catholic Church is the only institution in Poland that is simultaneously legal and authentic, independent of the totalitarian power structure and fully accepted by the people. The pope is for the Poles the greatest teacher of human values and obligations. This reality has obvious implications, among them the duty...

Share