Najważniejsza książka PRL. Siedem polskich grzechów głównych i spory ideowe lat sześćdziesiątych

Abstract

The most important book in communist Poland. Siedem polskich grzechów głównych [The Polish Seven Deadly Sins] and the ideological disputes of the 1960s Published in 1962, Zbigniew Załuski’s book Siedem polskich grzechów głównych sparked fierce press polemics over Polish history and tradition, and had a significant impact on political life in the 1960s. It was enthusiastically received by the nationalist faction within the ruling elite, faction gathered around the minister of internal affairs Mieczysław Moczar. It reflected the inner divisions within the Polish United Workers’ Party, forcing the party leadership and Władysław Gomułka himself to act. However, it also prompted ideological revisions among people that were far from communism, people who were attracted to the ruling camp by Załuski’s argument. Siedem polskich grzechów głównych can be regarded as one of the most influential books published throughout the People’s Poland period, most likely the most important among those that referred to history. Załuski defended the tradition of armed fight for independence, of national uprisings, heroism demonstrated by Polish soldiers over the previous two centuries, and thus went far beyond the established historical canon shaped by the ruling party. He attacked the “scoffers”, that is all those who were critical about the Romantic ethos of sacrifice in the fight for the homeland. The discussion about Załuski’s oeuvre shows that even in conditions of Polish United Workers’ Party’s political monopoly and censorship genuine ideological disputes were possible, both within the ruling elite and within other influential milieux. In this Siedem polskich grzechów głównych became part of the debates over the interpretation of Polish history and model of patriotism, debates that predated People’s Poland and were continued after its demise. The dispute over the sense of Polish uprisings was very lively in the decades following the fall of the 1863 Uprising and at the beginning of the previous century; it also continues today. Załuski’s book also created an ideological matrix, as it were, that survived the fall of communism and is still alive today: a model of denouncing those who provide critical interpretations of various elements of the national tradition. In his polemical passion Załuski wrote about “apostles of anti-heroic re-education”, those with a “nihilistic attitude to the past”, who “despise their own nation”, “are ashamed of their homeland”, “turn people against Poland and Polishness”. Similar thinking structures and arguments can be found in today’s accusations of engaging in a “pedagogy of disgrace” or “pedagogy of shame”, formulated against some Polish historians, media and opinion leaders. This is yet another confirmation of the fact that many ideological disputes from communist times not only belong to a close historical period, but are part of the longue durée of Polishness.