Tadeusz Mazowiecki Research Articles

Anti-terrorist cooperation as part of Poland’s geopolitical shift. “Operation Bridge” and the rise of a strategic partnership with the United States

This paper discusses Poland’s involvement in “Operation Bridge,” which aimed to transport Jewish citizens from the Soviet Union to Israel between 1989 and 1992. The study is based on recently declassified documents from the former intelligence and counterintelligence services, the Foreign Ministry, and the Prime Minister’s Office, supplemented by accounts of policymakers, secret service officers, and militia involved in protecting Soviet Jews during transit operations. The author argues that this operation was not just a humanitarian effort but also had significant geopolitical implications. The newly elected non-communist government under Tadeusz Mazowiecki saw this as a critical move to establish stronger ties with the United States and Israel. The author also highlights how the cooperation between Poland and the United States in intelligence sharing, counterterrorism, and security operations paved the way for Poland’s strategic partnership with the United States and its eventual entry into NATO. The paper contributes significantly to our understanding of the role played by Poland in the post-Cold War era and sheds new light on the development of US–Polish relations.

Channeling Erasmus in Communist Poland: Leszek Kołakowski, Vatican II, and the Reinvention of "Counter-Reformation".

Polish intellectual historian Leszek Kołakowski proposed in the 1960s an innovative, now virtually forgotten, reimagining of a crucial concept in the history of Roman Catholicism: the idea of "Counter-Reformation." Kołakowski's lifelong affinity for early modern Europe's Catholic dissidents led him into dialogue in the era of Vatican II with Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the leader of a movement of young Polish reformers who styled themselves "Catholic socialists." Seeing them as the bedrock of a new Catholic Counter-Reformation, Kołakowski sketched the role he hoped Poland might play in reinventing not only Catholicism, but religious life in the modern world.

Problem rozliczenia z komunistyczną przeszłością u progu zmiany systemowej w Polsce

The process of settling accounts with the communist past is an answer to the question for countries that are leaving communism through peaceful negotiations with the authorities. In the case of the Polish control system, the first non-communist introduction by Tadeusz Mazowiecki, which is used as the socalled ‘thick line’, it leaked that the problem of lustration and decommunization had been postponed. In the subsequent years of the 1990s, verification tests among people performing the most important functions ended in failure. The most serious consequences occurred in the attempt to implement the lustration resolution by the Sejm in May 1992, which resulted from the failure of Jan Olszewski’s actions. The first lustration act was issued in Poland only in 1997.

Przemiany w polskim aparacie bezpieczeństwa w latach 1989‒1990

Entering the way of changes in 1989, according to those who considered themselves the architects of the new order, was not supposed to bring any changes in the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Security Service, as these departments, as well as the Ministry of National Defence, until 1990 belonged to Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR). Both ministries became the last bastion of ancient regime in Tadeusz Mazowiecki’s government. The fact that Czesław Kiszczak remained the Minister of Internal affairs and Florian Siwicki was still the Minister of National Defence unambiguously indicated the direction of the government policy. However, it does not mean that there were no structural changes introduced to Security Service in this new political situation. These changes were endogenous and were controlled by communists. Changes in the ministry changed the character until spring 1990 years. After long discussions the Parliament finally accepted a bundle of three acts: on the police, on the office of the Minister of Internal Affairs and on the Office of State Protection (UOP). The act on the Office of State Protection in article 129 said that: ‘at the moment of establishing the Office of State Protection (UOP), Security Service (SB) is disbanded’. The final element of this process was appointing, on May 10th, Krzysztof Kozłowski (a deputy from the Civic Parliamentary Club, vice editor-in-chief of ‘Tygodnik Powszechny’) for the position of a chief of the Office of State Protection (contrary to expectations in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where they wanted to appoint colonel Jerzy Karpacz).

Catholics on the Barricades: Poland, France, and “Revolution,” 1891–1956 by Piotr H. Kosicki

Reviewed by: Catholics on the Barricades: Poland, France, and “Revolution,” 1891–1956 by Piotr H. Kosicki Mikołaj Kunicki Catholics on the Barricades: Poland, France, and “Revolution,” 1891–1956. By Piotr H. Kosicki. (New Haven: Yale University Press. 2018. Pp. xxviii, 424. $40.00. ISBN: 9780300225518). Writing a transnational historical monograph about Polish and French intellectuals, lay activists, and ecclesiastical figures alike, who formed the twentieth-century “Catholic avant-garde,” the personalist current, is not an easy task. First, the collective biography of these figures is likely to appeal to highly specialised audiences; [End Page 213] secondly, the current climate around the Roman Catholic Church, with its internal conflicts, sexual-abuse cases, and the Vatican’s inconsistent approach toward international and social affairs may diminish some readers’ appetite for the story of Catholic revolutionaries who sought a just society, engaged in dialogue with Marxism and its Stalinist branch, and paved the way for the groundbreaking Vatican Council II. Fortunately, Piotr Kosicki’s book is a tour de force, expertly researched, elegantly written, and likely to be compared with and favorably contrasted against such titles as Zeev Sternhell’s Neither Right nor Left (1983/1987) and Tony Judt’s Past Imperfect (1992). Kosicki begins his story in the 1890s with Catholics’ reactions to Marxism, capitalism, and nationalism and concludes it in the mid-1950s, when Polish and French personalists and Catholic socialists faced the end of Stalinism, liberating themselves from the ideological corsets (if not straitjackets) of anti-Germanism, Soviet-sponsored and one-sided, anti-Americanist peace activism. The liberating effect of the thaw coincided with the death of Pius XII and the subsequent convocation of the Second Vatican Council. The book’s French characters illustrate the vicissitudes of Catholic thinkers and activists, including Jacques Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier, or worker-priest Jean Boulier, and impact they made in France and beyond. Their Polish counterparts constitute an equally diverse company of groups and individuals who adopted the personalist core, tried to implement and modify it in prewar, wartime, and postwar communist-dominated Poland, often paying for their actions with their lives, imprisonment, or moral compromises. The book focuses mostly on the Polish part of the story, giving the fascinating portrayals of fascists and nationalists turned into pro-communist “progressive” Catholics (Bolesław Piasecki and his entourage of Dziś i Jutro millieu). We also meet their young adept, Catholic radical Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the first Polish democratic prime minister after the collapse of communism, and a young cleric and priest named Karol Wojtyła, better known as John Paul II. Lastly, Kosicki pays close attention to the Cracow-based disciples of Mounier from the Tygodnik Powszechny weekly that were turned down by their spiritual master, vowed to abstain from the communist-dominated political life preserving their integrity and defending independent culture, and later joined forces with Mazowiecki and gay catehumen Jerzy Zawieyski to form the Znak circle of more independent Catholic activists in the post-Stalinist era. For Kosicki, the link between the Polish personalist groups and the Solidarity movement, which served as an icebreaker of communism in the 1980s is obvious. However, the autor is at his best while discussing less-known and researched phenomena such as the peculiar nature of French intellectuals’ involvement in the Soviet-sponsored Peace Movement; the role of anti-Germanism shared by both the French and the Poles in cementing their collaboration with Moscow; and the opposition of Esprit editors to European integration in the 1950s. Kosicki’s work does not contain any flaws or errors. If anything, I view it a bit apologetic toward John Paul II, one of the protagonists of this book, much revered in the past, and currently under posthumous re-examination. Another issue concerns the real [End Page 214] impact of intellectual Catholicism on Polish religiosity, which under the tutelage of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, also a frequently evoked figure, moved away from open Catholicism. Lastly, I would advise the author to pay more attention to the 1968 anti-Semitic campaign and the effect it had on the collapse of the Znak group. Still, Piotr Kosicki authored an excellent work, which will top the readingg lists of students of Polish and European history...

Jak oceniać okrągły stół?

The Agreement Roundtable signed on April 5, 1989, resulted in the creation of the government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki (September 12, 1989) and the end of communist rule in Poland. However, it should be pointed out that the agreement of the Round Table is currently often criticized. It is claimed, among other things, that the agreement was a form of “unification of the elite” (the term of Jacek Kuroń) in order to obtain financial and political benefits. As a result, the mixed communist-solidarity elite have taken over power in the country, guided solely by their own interests. It is also stressed that the contract has enabled the Communists to retain enormous influence in the special services, state administration, various institutions, in economy and finance. There are many arguments in these arguments. On the other hand, these irregularities have been attributed to the part of the solidarity elites who consider the round table agreements to be persistent. Other parts of the solidarity elite treated the Round Table deals exclusively as tactical action to take power away from the Communists. This goal was realized and was a great success.

The Round Table in 1989 – Consequences and Evaluation

The agreement of the round table signed on April 5, 1989, resulted in the creation of the government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki (September 12, 1989) and the end of communist rule in Poland. However, it should be pointed out that the agreement of the round table is currently often criticized. It is claimed, among other things, that the agreement was a form of “unification of the elite” (the term Jack Kuroń) to obtain financial and political benefits. As a result, the mixed communist-solidarity elite has taken over power in the country, guided solely by their own interests. It is also stressed that the contract has enabled the Communists to retain enormous influence in the special services, state administration, various institutions, the economy, and finance. On the other hand, these irregularities have been attributed to the solidarity elites who consider the round table agreements to be persistent. Other parts of the solidarity elite treated the round table exclusively as tactical action to take power away from the Communists.

Senat RP jako efekt kompromisu „okrągłego stołu”

The objective of the present article is to systematize the knowledge about the political conditions that in 1989 were decisive for the restoration of the Senate with quite limited powers. The reasoning consists of an introduction, two main parts listed in chronological order, and a conclusion. The article presents the concepts of reactivation of the second chamber of parliament, which usually appeared in the years of Polish socio-political crises, and then goes on to present the political and constitutional effect of negotiations on the Senate at the "Polish round table". The main result of the research carried out is the fact that the 1989 Senate decision, part of the consensus enabling the "Polish round table" agreement to be reached, resulted in fully democratic elections to the Second House, in which the political opposition won 99 out of 100 senatorial seats. The success of "Solidarity" did not have any real impact on the practice of governance, because (apart from the election of the president) the Senate had no major influence on the then existing system of power. However, the unprecedented victory of the opposition in this election undoubtedly gave an impulse to take steps to establish the cabinet of Tadeusz Mazowiecki - the first non-communist prime minister, who initiated the political process of establishing democracy and a free market economy.

Główni aktorzy polskiej sceny politycznej wobec zjednoczenia Niemiec (1989–1991)

This article examines the attitudes and opinions of major Polish political actors about the impact of German reunification on Polish-German relations between 1989 and 1991. These are outlined against the background of public opinion polls and themes underpinning Polish foreign policy as reflected in the programmes of the main political parties represented in the Polish parliament. There were strong similarities in their programmes and policies. They broadly reflected the approach of Solidarity’s electoral manifesto of 4 June 1989, subsequently adopted by Tadeusz Mazowiecki’s government. In consequence, all political parties represented in the parliament supported the government’s policies towards Germany. The author also considers various forms of Polish-German cooperation outside the realm of intergovernmental relations. Finally, she examines the impact on public opinion of intergovernmental relations between Warsaw and Bonn. It is interesting that the policies of compromise and reconciliation were supported not only by the political class but also by the general public. This factor strongly contributed to the stability of the political and economic transition towards democracy and a market economy in Poland.

TINA and alternative strategies for Polish economic transformation

AbstractThe article examines the commonly shared belief that ‘there was no alternative’ (the TINA hypothesis) regarding the transformation strategy in Poland in 1989–1990. This belief is shown to be incorrect, with evidence that an alternative was contemplated. Following a visit in Stockholm in January 1989 of high-ranking experts of the Consultative Economic Council (a government think-tank established shortly after martial law was introduced on 13 December 1980), the Council produced a report on the Swedish Model. The report was hoped to provide foundations for shifting the still centrally planned Polish economy towards economic efficiency and the social welfare standards of the Nordic countries. After the 1989 parliamentary elections and the appointment of the non-communist government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the political environment changed radically and the priority of the new government was to swiftly establish a truly liberal market economy in Poland. The article shows, however, that notwithstanding those revolutionary changes, a high-level debate took place only a few weeks after the new government came to power to discuss an option of a more gradual strategy of Poland’s economic transformation that at the same time would be of a more social democratic nature. An insider account of that debate and of its external and internal constraints is given in the subsequent sections of the article.

From care to social assistance – transformation in a municipality of the province of Lublin. On the thirtieth anniversary of ‘I implore and recommend’ by the Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki .

Aid activities in Poland have a long history. Over the centuries, it took various forms and evolved from mutual assistance, philanthropy, and charity to organized, purposeful activities. Memories of my experience of working in institutional care and then of social welfare concern the period of the turn of the Polish People's Republic and the Third Polish Republic. The systemic changes initiated at that time were of fundamental importance in the development and professionalization of Polish social welfare. I belong to a group of social workers who started work in the 1960s. Therefore, I am an eyewitness and participant in the changes that took place on the "first line" of social welfare in one of the Polish municipalities in which I worked in those years. I tried to explain the reality of social workers in this period. In my memories I recall some events that may seem insignificant in the scale of general changes but reflect the atmosphere of those times. I trust that they will supplement the knowledge about the history of social welfare of this period.

Spór wokół programu gospodarczego w rządzie Tadeusza Mazowieckiego

The Dispute over the Economic Program in the Government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki
 The article analyzes the discussions and disputes at the end of 1989 in the government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki over the final shape of the stabilisation programme of the economy. The function of foreign advisers as well as the process of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund have been analyzed. The course of the conflict between Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and the Minister of Finance Leszek Balcerowicz was also reconstructed, as well as the role played by the Minister of Labor Jacek Kuroń in settling this dispute.

Rząd Tadeusza Mazowieckiego wobec reformy wymiaru sprawiedliwości

Przedmiotem opracowania jest analiza zmian politycznych oraz dokonujących się na ich tle zmian systemu wymiaru sprawiedliwości w Polsce na przełomie lat 80. i 90. Opierając się na materiałach źródłowych autor przedstawia kulisy prac legislacyjnych, jakie przeprowadził rząd Tadeusza Mazowieckiego w celu zreformowania systemu sądownictwa oraz role poszczególnych aktorów w proponowaniu konkretnych zmian, jak np. postulat wymiany kadrowej w sądach i prokuraturach.Autor porusza również kwestię długofalowych konsekwencji stanu polskiego sądownictwa, ukształtowanego w czasach rządu Mazowieckiego, których efekty są wciąż obecne w aktualnej politycznej debacie dotyczącej zmian dokonywanych w wymiarze sprawiedliwości przez rząd premiera Mateusza Morawieckiego.

Liturgical Development between Ecclesiastical Normativity and Societal Perception

Abstract The historical kiss of peace between Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in Krzyżowa/Kreisau in 1989 serves as an example for how existential experiences can profoundly impact and even alter liturgy. However, liturgy can also be an obstacle for the further reflection and processing of such experiences, if they are not taken up in the liturgical setting. The political situation of a divided Europe as well as the Cold War following World War II indicate a unique situation in recent history that concernes believers all over the world. The question that results from taking this immediate past seriously is what kind of experiences liturgy can and should address (and in what form) and if there might be experiences or forms of handling such experiences that threaten the power of the ritual.

Tadeusz Mazowiecki. Katolik w PRL

Catholic in Communist Poland Tadeusz Mazowiecki was one of the leading Catholic activists and politicians of Solidarity movement. In 1989 he became the first democratic Prime Minister in post-communist Poland. In an unpublished interview from 1984 he speaks about the attitudes of Catholics regarding the communist system, a Polish variant of personal-ism, a dialogue between the Catholic and leftist circles, the values of the Solidarity movement.

Andrzej Paczkowski, Revolution and Counterrevolution in Poland, 1980–1989, trans. by Christine Manetti. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2015. 387 pp. $99.00.

Andrzej Paczkowski, <i>Revolution and Counterrevolution in Poland, 1980–1989</i>, trans. by Christine Manetti. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2015. 387 pp. $99.00.

Ewolucja stanowiska rządu Tadeusza Mazowieckiego w sprawie obecności Polski w Układzie Warszawskim oraz stacjonowania na jej terytorium wojsk sowieckich

The Evolution of the Stand of the Tadeusz Mazowiecki Cabinet Regarding the Presence of Poland in the Warsaw Pact and the Stationing of Soviet Troops on Polish TerritoryWhile assuming the office of prime minister in August 1989 Tadeusz Mazowiecki declared that Poland would remain a loyal member of the Warsaw Pact and that his government would accept the presence of Soviet troops on Polish territory. The article analyses the reasons why – despite an announcement made by the Soviet government in February 1990 about its readiness to embark upon negotiations concerning the status of the Soviet Army in Poland – the Mazowiecki cabinet delayed the inauguration of the talks until September. The author also discussed the evolution of the stand represented by the Polish cabinet regarding the participation of Poland in the Warsaw Pact. Finally, he analysed the dispute concerning the justification of using the term: “Finlandization” in reference to the first phase of the Eastern policy of the Mazowiecki cabinet.

Samorządna Rzeczpospolita – 25 lat samorządu w Polsce

Samorządna Rzeczpospolita – 25 lat samorządu w Polsce

Losy niemieckich cmentarzy wojennych z okresu I wojny światowej

War graves and cemeteries depict a nation’s history. Fallen soldiers are buried far away from where they once lived, often in another country and the vast majority remain anonymous. Around 8.5 million soldiers died in World War I, 2 million of whom were German. They found their final resting place in cemeteries and graveyards or, sometimes, in nameless and forsaken graves scattered not only almost right across Europe, but also in many countries in other parts of the world. More than five hundred war cemeteries were located in Poland. Immediately after the war, their existence stirred no major emotions, albeit that there were some people who objected to their non-native character or to the very fact that it was the soldiers of other nations who were buried there. At that time, financial issues were a more significant problem. The number of war cemeteries in Poland was considerable. In accordance with humanitarian law, they had to be maintained by the state on the territory of which they were located. The authorities were unable to cope with all the obligations. There were a great many cemeteries and their maintenance and upkeep required substantial financial outlays. Efforts were undertaken anyway; involving the local authorities, local inhabitants and young people still at school, they aimed to carry out the necessary work and repairs. The situation began to change at the end of the nineteen thirties. On the part of the Germans, the less-than-ideal state of the German cemeteries was used for propaganda purposes, with reports of visits to Poland being presented in the press, making for an image of poverty, backwardness and a lack of respect for the soldiers’ final resting places. The outbreak of World War II changed the situation of the cemeteries. It was the Germans who then undertook their repair and restoration, on account of both their propaganda value and the fact than many of the newly fallen were also being buried in them. They were not to retain their new appearance for long. Having once again suffered destruction in 1944 and 1945, they were left in that condition over the subsequent decades. While they did not give rise to such emotions and controversies as the German cemeteries of World War II, nevertheless, because they were German cemeteries, they were not accorded the attention and care due to them. There existed an unwillingness to remember that Poles who had been forcibly conscripted to the Wehrmacht were also buried there. It was only the agreement included in the Joint Statement of the Polish Prime Minister, Tadeusz Mazowiecki and the German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, of 14 November 1989 and the Polish-German Treaty of Good Neighbourship and Friendly Cooperation (Vertrag über gute Nachbarschaft und freundschaftliche Zusammenarbeit) of 17 June 1991, which, between them, provided a comprehensive solution to all the issues related to the German cemeteries in Poland. While these initiatives emphasised the resolving of the issues related to the German World War II cemeteries, repairs to those from World War I have nevertheless also been underway since the nineteen nineties. However, the needs are so great that the involvement of the German party which has funded these efforts thus far is insufficient. The several decades over which these cemeteries were left without any care brought about their disappear from the landscape, while nature has also taken its course. Soldiers, volunteers and young people from Poland and Germany alike are now attempting to make up for the lost years and restore this element of the past of the Polish lands.

Remembering Katyn by M Etkind, A., Finnin, R., Blacker, U., Fedor, J., Lewis, S., Mlksoo, M. and Mroz (review)

SEER, 91, 4, OCTOBER 2013 922 been successful in retaining a significant proportion of its operating strength after the disaster of Operation Tempest (J. Blackwell, The Polish Home Army in Lubelszczyzna 1943–45, Saarbrücken, 2010). Komorowski’s order for the provinces to come to Warsaw’s aid led to hundreds of well experienced men being arrested en route to the capital. Equally, whilst Williamson mentions arguments within the Government-in-Exile over policy towards the Soviets, much more could have been made of this (E. Duraczyński, Między Londynem a Warszawą, Warsaw 1986). Yet, such points aside, Williamson’s work is a considerable achievement which helps to advance further the understanding of wartime Europe’s largest underground force for an English-speaking audience. For that he should be commended. Hurtwood House College, Surrey James W. Blackwell Etkind, A., Finnin, R., Blacker, U., Fedor, J., Lewis, S., Mälksoo, M. and Mroz, M. Remembering Katyn. Polity Press, Cambridge and Malden, MA, 2012. xxviii + 185 pp. Map. Timeline. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index.£15.99 (paperback). How this book of essays discusses different forms of ‘remembrance’ in Eastern Europe of the Soviet NKVD murder of over 20,000 captured Polish officers in April and May 1940 is noted thus in the Introduction: If memory is history spoken performatively, the field of memory studies benefits from the employment of the practices of literary and cultural studies, which are attentive to forms and strategies of representation as well as questions of audience and reception. We examine these issues by way of cinematic, literary and memorial texts that commemorate, mediate upon and allude to the Katyn massacres, paying close attention to what might be called the rhetoric of memory. Indeed, rhetoric is the art of persuasion, and memory persuades… (p. 8) The book’s contributors, listed on the title page, belong variously to the Department of Slavonic Studies and the ‘Memory at War’ project at the University of Cambridge, as well as the Universities of Tartu and Greenwich, yet unusually, none of the chapters are attributed to any single author. The loquacious style of the Introduction characterizes the volume, and except for a few instances, overburdens the commentary to its detriment. For example, in chapter three, ‘Katyn in Ukraine’, Rory Finnin (his named photographs denote him as the otherwise unattributed author), writes about the NKVD mass graves in the Piatykhatky Forest on the outskirts of Kharkiv: ‘This aetiological minimalism, which consigns the historical origins of the mass graves to the background, is to be contrasted with what might be called the cemetery’s semiotic maximalism’ (p. 72). REVIEWS 923 Chapter one, ‘Katyn in Poland’, where naturally the subject combines issues of ‘memory and mourning’ (p. 15), compresses the decades-long campaign of Polish activists and Polish émigrés abroad to counter the ‘Katyn Lie’ of 1941: the Moscow line ruthlessly perpetrated by Poland’s Communist leadership, that the killers of Katyn were German (after Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941) and not Russians who in 1940 controlled the ‘Katyn’ area west of Smolensk. Some discussion of Solidarity’s anti-Communist struggles eventually signalled by the swearing into office in September 1989 of Tadeusz Mazowiecki as prime minister would have been useful here. Chapter two, ‘Katyn in Katyn’ is an interesting and thankfully jargon-free discussion of Andrzej Wajda’s important 2007 film, Katyn, the final twenty minutes or so of which presents in graphic detail the NKVD executions of the Polish officers. To sustain the impressions garnered thus, readers might wish to jump straight to chapter seven, ‘Katyn in Katyn’ (the place in Russia), and the final Coda, ‘Katyn-2’. ‘Katyn in Katyn’ recounts the history of the Katyn memorial at the site in Russia and correctly observes that its story ‘is a barometer of fluctuations and changes in the memory of Soviet terror’ (p. 114), principally on the part of the Soviet and post-Soviet governments in Russia. Not only have the respective internal politics of Poland and Russia determined matters at the site, but also the highs and lows of diplomatic relations between the two countries. This is especially drawn out in the Coda which discusses the historical and political fall-out...