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Enforced social stagnation

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Shooting at civilians
Julia Hartwig Poet
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I remember when I was in Łódź a friend asked me – this is just a brief story – a friend asked me, 'Will you be joining the party?' Żółkiewski, who was very strongly affiliated with the party but who was also my friend and who believed that it was thanks to him that I was able to publish my work because I published a lot in Kuźnica, said something that I remember to this day. He said, 'So, they're shooting at civilians now, are they?' It was so certain that I wouldn't join the party not just because of my behaviour but because of what I wrote and said without showing off, and that I was being treated as a civilian.

Pamiętam, że kiedy byłam w Łodzi to ktoś ze znajomych – to taka opowiastka krótka – ktoś ze znajomych zapytał: „A czy Ty się nie zapiszesz do partii?”. A na to Żółkiewski – który był bardzo partyjny, ale równocześnie był człowiekiem w jakiś sposób ze mną zaprzyjaźnionym i uważającym, że... że on mi tak umożliwia w ogóle druk, bo w „Kuźnicy” drukowałam dużo – powiedział takie słowa, które do dziś zapamiętałam: „No, no, to już strzela się do ludności cywilnej”. To było tak pewne, że ja nie... do tego... do tej partii nie wejdę – zważywszy na moje nie tylko zachowanie, ale na to co pisałam i jak się wypowiadałam bez żadnych zresztą ostentacji – i także jakoś zostałam potraktowana jako ludność cywilna.

Born to a Polish father and a Russian mother, Julia Hartwig (1921-2017) was a Polish poet, essayist, translator and author of children's books. She studied at the University of Warsaw, the Catholic University in Lublin and the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Czesław Miłosz called her 'the grande dame of Polish poetry'. Julia Hartwig was one of the few poets in Poland who made masterly use of poetic prose. She translated poems by Apollinaire, Rimbaud, Max Jacob, Cendrars and Supervielle, and published monographs on Apollinaire and Gerard de Nerval. She also translated from English, and published a large anthology of American poetry which she co-edited in 1992 with her late husband, the poet Artur Międzyrzecki.

Listeners: Andrzej Wolski

Film director and documentary maker, Andrzej Wolski has made around 40 films since 1982 for French television, the BBC, TVP and other TV networks. He specializes in portraits and in historical films. Films that he has directed or written the screenplay for include Kultura, which he co-directed with Agnieszka Holland, and KOR which presents the history of the Worker’s Defence Committee as told by its members. Andrzej Wolski has received many awards for his work, including the UNESCO Grand Prix at the Festival du Film d’Art.

Tags: Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR, Polish United Workers' Party, Kuźnica, Łódź

Duration: 46 seconds

Date story recorded: June 2010

Date story went live: 14 June 2011