Zmienność czy konsekwencja? Problem relacji Polski ze Związkiem Sowieckim w publicystycznej refleksji Aleksandra Bocheńskiego od lat trzydziestych XX wieku do 1952 roku

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyze the transformations of the relations betweenPolandand theSoviet Unionin Aleksander Bochenski’s journalism since the 1930s to 1952. The author also tries to establish if they were an effect of international situation or maybe stemmed from the journalist’s ideological views. The analysis of historical sources has proven the existence of two stages in Bochenki’s writings about the Soviet Unionin this period. Before 1939, he called for the liquidation of this state by Polandthrough military aggression, the liberation of bordering nations and the creation of a “sanitary cordon” between Polandand Russia, which was in Polish interest. The publicist perceived the Soviet Union as another form of imperial Russia. He disregarded ideological issues. Thus, in the years 1939–1945, he sought the possibility of agreement with Germany. However, at the end of the war, when the Soviets occupied Poland, Bochenski referred to 19 th century positivism and he thought about a compromise with communists. As a result, he become involved in the creation of the progressive Catholics movement. He claimed that the Soviet Union was the only guarantor ofPoland’s western border and thatPoland should become a credible ally of Moscow. The analysis of Bochenski’s narrative about the Polish-Soviet relations allowed to perceive him as a political realist. His attitude to theSoviet Uniondepended on the correlation between geopolitical situation and national interests, which could justify both the strive to liquidate this state and to agree with it.