Letters from Prison and Other Essays (Society and Culture in East-Central Europe)

Adam Michnik was one of the principles in the 1968 Warsaw student protest followed by his involvement in KOR and Solidarity. Many of the essays in this book were written while Michnik was imprisoned immediately following the imposition of Martial Law in Poland in 1981.

Michnik's essays provide a glimpse into the ideological debates consuming Solidarity's leadership. How far should the opposition go? Should Solidarity negotiate and compromise with the government? Is compromise collaboration? Michnik the historian digs deep into Poland's partitioned past for examples of pragmatic cooperation versus resolute rebellion and concludes Solidarity must negotiate with the totalitarian Polish communist government for meaningful concessions while applying unrelenting pressure with freedom and self-determination as the ultimate goals. Michniks warns against the absolutist approach of the traditionalist Right and their susceptibility to the dogmatism we would later witness during the 2005-2007 Kaczynski government. Michnik is ever mindful of the threatening spectre of Soviet Russia and argues for caution and patience. Little did Michnik know at that time just how ripe the Kremlin was for a fall.

Another reviewer of this book, a neo-Endek, praises Michnik for his positive and nuanced comments regarding Roman Dmowski and the National Democrats. Michnik compliments Dmowski for his awareness of geo-political realities and his practical approach to achieving his ignominious goals as opposed to Pilsudski's idealistic concept of a resurrected Commonwealth. But make no mistake, Michnik clearly labels Dmowski and the Endecja for who they were; "For us what is important is that in Dmowski's doctrine anti-Semitism served as the cement for the construction of the modern Polish nation. It was in the struggle with the Jewish threat that Polish national unity was to be forged." (p. 308)

This book is well worth reading and I recommend it highly.

Michnik is quite an interesting person. Following his involvement in politics he founded Poland's leading daily newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, and has been a leading proponent of civic-nationalism. It's unclear whether the Polish traditionalists despise Michnik because he is a Jew or a liberal. The traditionalist Polish American newspapers I subscribe to have published several articles laughingly demonizing Michnik for his liberal and moderate viewpoints regarding Polish society and politics.

This work traces Adam Michnik's political views through the turbulent period of the late 1970's and early 1980's. It encompasses the period of Solidarity's heyday, the period of Martial law, the murder of Father Popieluszko, etc. It also includes Michnik's essays on other subjects.

Poland was in a situation where, owing to the nuclear age, it was unthinkable that a land war would free Poland from the Soviet Union and the Communist puppet state. Any local violent resistance would be quelled, if not by Soviet intervention, then by the local Communist authorities themselves. Communists were very good at uncovering and neutralizing revolutionary conspiracies directed against them.

So nothing could be done, right? Wrong. Michnik believed that significant concessions could be, and had been, wrought from the Communist authorities, and rejected the premise that the kind of nonviolent resistance exemplified by Mahatma Gandhi worked only in democratic societies.

Michnik was critical of the Communists who, incapable to delivering essential services to the Polish people, wasted time in trying to humiliate them by such things as the "war of the crosses"--the forced removal of crosses off walls of buildings. (p. 72). This is ironic, because we have a "war of the crosses" waged in Poland today by the post-Communist left.

Although Michnik is quite hostile to the Dmowskian style of nationalism, which he considers chauvinistic, he is surprisingly nuanced towards Dmowski and his positions. (e. g., p. 282-on). Although Endeks are sometimes accused to being too conciliatory towards the Catholic Church, Michnik realizes that Dmowski and his policies had kept a respectful distance between the Church and Polish politics. (pp. 322-323). Michnik also moves beyond the notion that Dmowski had been too friendly towards the Polish propertied classes: "To Dmowski, the nation was made up of landowners and peasants, industrialists and workers, craftsmen and teachers--all those who try to build a nation-state despite foreign interests and hostile peoples." (p. 304). "Dmowski looked for allies not among those who shared his ideology but rather among people and nations that shared or could share Poland's interests." (p. 288).

Although Michnik regularly condemns Dmowski and the Endeks for anti-Semitism, there comes a point in which he does find an element of rationality in Dmowski's position: "This also applied to the Jewish population, which in the social structure of the Kingdom of Poland took the place of the third estate. Considering the absence of a Polish bourgeoisie and the poor performance of Poles in trade and the free professions, this was--in the opinion of the National Democrats--a real threat for the future of the modern nation as it was being shaped." (pp. 289-290).

As for Polish anti-Semitism in general, Michnik comments: "Poignant declarations against anti-Semitism can be no substitute for sober analyses of the roots of this frightening illness. The cause does not lie only in the faults of the Polish people. It is also necessary to recognize negative phenomena on the Jewish side as well, a task which by no stretch of the imagination can be interpreted as racism." (p. 215).

Interestingly, among leading Poles, Dmowski was not the only one negatively disposed towards the Jews' pro-Russian orientation. Michnik comments: "Pilsudski was not a philo-Semite. In his articles he frequently criticized the philo-Russian politics of the Bund, the Jewish socialist party. The Bund, which was active among the Jewish proletariat, popularized Russian literature and thus also Russian culture. There would have been nothing wrong in this, except that the orientation coincided with the invader's policies of Russification, and in such circumstances encouraged large groups of the population to lean toward Russia." (p. 215).

During his own lifetime, the author found ways to engage in intelligent discussions with those holding positions very disagreeable to him. Michnik comments: "I am also thinking of one of my professors, a prewar activist of the ONR-Falanga, who reached out to me at a difficult moment and spent long hours explaining to me the complicated story of his generation and his associates." (p. 179).

Unfortunately, Michnik's in-depth and nuanced thinking, as exemplified by this book, has, in recent years, given way to superficial reasoning, strident name-calling, and dismissive attitude towards those with whom he disagrees. See the Peczkis review of: In Search of Lost Meaning: The New Eastern Europe.