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Jacek Kuroń Social activist
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Na tym WSP to się zaczęło w ogóle zaraz na początku. Ja przeczytałem wtedy Brandysa Obywatele. Miałem rozliczne uwagi. Przede wszystkim takie, że książka jest, że ludzie są całkiem papierowi. I zobaczyłem plakat na korytarzu uczelni, że jest dyskusja nad książką Mariana Brandysa Obywatele. Akurat stał koło mnie taki chłopaś, kiedy ja coś tam powiedziałem, że właśnie to bym sobie podyskutował. On na to mówi, a to był polonista, mówi: "Ja jestem właśnie przewodniczącym tego kółka, które to organizuje. Chcesz zabrać głos? Dobrze, zapisuję cię do zabrania głosu i zgłoś się do profesora Serafonkwinowicza". No może wyrzucimy to nazwisko. Co będziemy profesorowi jakiemuś staruszkowi, tego... No i ja się zgłosiłem do niego, a on przede mną jakiejś panience mówił co ma mówić, ta panienka zapisywała. Już skończył z nią i mówi: "A, to jeszcze tu towarzysz został" – bo tam wszyscy do siebie towarzyszu mówili – "To towarzysz powie..." i powiedział mi to co ja powiem. Tak słucham go i słucham – "Ale ja bym chciał powiedzieć..." "E nie, nie, nie to". Kompletny... wyszedłem zupełnie zaszokowany, zupełnie rozbawiony po prostu. No i odbyło się to zebranie, na którym ja zabrałem głos w ten sposób, że wyszedłem, wziąłem kartkę i tak dukałem z tej kartki parę zdań na ten temat tego, co on mi kazał powiedzieć. Potem mu odsunąłem tę kartkę łokciem i powiedziałem: "A teraz chciałem powiedzieć coś od siebie". I powiedziałem co miałem do powiedzenia z takim sobie tutaj tego. Ale nie ta historia była tak ważna, ale to co się zdarzyło potem.

Przede mną zabierał chyba głos bardzo sympatyczny chłopak imieniem Józek, nazwiska jego już nie podam, taki no, wyglądał jak parobek, ręce miał takie długie, niżej kolan, dzieci wcześniej zaczynają pracować i on mówił ostro o tym jak to on sierota wiejska, wychowany był przez proboszcza, który wyzyskiwał go nie tylko materialnie, pobierając wartość dodatkową, ale także światopoglądowo, bo wszczepił mu ten zły światopogląd fideistyczny, któremu on tego i on ujrzał dzięki władzy ludowej światło prawdy i sprawiedliwości i zerwał z tym wszystkim i... i go na wyższą uczelnię wysłała władza ludowa. Dzięki władzy ludowej on tu właśnie studiuje i w ogóle. Ale ten wciąż ten fideistyczny światopogląd w nim tkwił i dopiero teraz dzięki książce towarzysza pisarza Kazimierza Brandysa pt. Obywatele on odzyskał naukowy światopogląd. No owacja, Brandys prawie płacze. Ja tym się wzruszyłem, powiem prawdę. Ale za jakiś czas było spotkanie z Broniewskim na przykład. I wyszedł Józek i mówi, że on pracował u tego tam proboszcza, który go wyzyskiwał nie tylko tak ale i tak, i właśnie mu pozostał jeszcze ten światopogląd, mimo że dojrzał dzięki władzy ludowej światło, ale dzięki wierszom towarzysza poety, Władysław Broniewski on tu właśnie odzyskał. I później był i Stryjkowski i inni towarzysze pisarze i on za każdym razem... i każdy towarzysz pisarz płakał, muszę powiedzieć. Ale takich była cała rzesza w ogóle. To jest jakby z zewnątrz.

All that business at the teacher training college began right from the start. I had just read Obywatele by Brandys. I had a lot of comments. First of all, the book, the characters in it were just cardboard cut-outs. Then I saw a poster in the corridor announcing that a discussion was going to be held about Obywatele by Marian Brandys. There was this lad standing next to me and I said something about fancying a discussion about this. It turned out that he was studying Polish and he says, 'I'm the chairman of the discussion club that's arranging this meeting. You want to join in? Good, I'll put you down as a speaker, and you go and introduce yourself to Profesor Serafinowicz.' Perhaps we should edit out this name. Why should we be making trouble for some little old professor... So I went to see him, and just ahead of me he was telling this young girl what she was going to say and she was writing it all down. He finished instructing her and then said, 'Ah, there's still you to see, comrade - everybody addressed one another as 'comrade' - so, comrade, you'll say...', and he told me what I was going to say. I listened to him. 'But this is what I'd like to say.' ' No, no, not that.' I came out of there totally shocked, I thought it was hilarious.

The meeting took place and I went up to speak. I brought my bit of paper with me and mumbled a few sentences I'd written down according to the subject he'd told me to speak about. Then I elbowed aside the bit of paper and said, 'Now I'd like to say what I think.' So I told them what I had to say. But this story wasn't as notable as what happened afterwards. Before I went up to speak, there'd been a very pleasant boy whose name was Józek, but I can't tell his surname any more. He looked like a farmhand with his long arms and hands reaching below his knees. Children went out to work earlier then and he spoke angrily about how as an orphan, he was brought up by the parish priest who exploited him not just materially by claiming additional value, but also mentally because he'd brainwashed him, and it was only thanks to the people's rule that he'd seen the light and justice, and had turned away from all of that, and then the peoples' authorities had sent him away to university. It was thanks to the people's authorities that he was a student there and everything. But he was still influenced by the brainwashing he'd received and it was only now, thanks to the book Obywatele by Comrade Brandys that he'd rediscovered a more intellectual outlook on life. The applause broke out, Brandys was almost in tears. To be honest, I was really moved by this. However, after a while, there was a meeting with Broniewski, for instance. And out comes Józek saying he used to work for this parish priest who exploited him in all kinds of ways and now he's been brainwashed, and even though thanks to the peoples' authorities he's seen the light, it's only after reading the poems of Comrade Władyslaw Broniewski that he's got it back. Later, there was Stryjkowski and other comrade authors, and every time Józek would turn up and each of these authors was practically in tears, I have to say. But there were masses of people like him. This is from the outside.

The late Polish activist, Jacek Kuroń (1934-2004), had an influential but turbulent political career, helping transform the political landscape of Poland. He was expelled from the communist party, arrested and incarcerated. He was also instrumental in setting up the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR) and later became a Minister of Labour and Social Policy.

Listeners: Jacek Petrycki Marcel Łoziński

Cinematographer Jacek Petrycki was born in Poznań, Poland in 1948. He has worked extensively in Poland and throughout the world. His credits include, for Agniezka Holland, Provincial Actors (1979), Europe, Europe (1990), Shot in the Heart (2001) and Julie Walking Home (2002), for Krysztof Kieslowski numerous short films including Camera Buff (1980) and No End (1985). Other credits include Journey to the Sun (1998), directed by Jesim Ustaoglu, which won the Golden Camera 300 award at the International Film Camera Festival, Shooters (2000) and The Valley (1999), both directed by Dan Reed, Unforgiving (1993) and Betrayed (1995) by Clive Gordon both of which won the BAFTA for best factual photography. Jacek Petrycki is also a teacher and a filmmaker.

Film director Marcel Łoziński was born in Paris in 1940. He graduated from the Film Directing Department of the National School of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź in 1971. In 1994, he was nominated for an American Academy Award and a European Film Academy Award for the documentary, 89 mm from Europe. Since 1995, he has been a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Art and Science awarding Oscars. He lectured at the FEMIS film school and the School of Polish Culture of Warsaw University. He ran documentary film workshops in Marseilles. Marcel Łoziński currently lectures at Andrzej Wajda’s Master School for Film Directors. He also runs the Dragon Forum, a European documentary film workshop.

Tags: Teacher Training College, Obywatele, Władysław Broniewski, Marian Brandys

Duration: 3 minutes, 20 seconds

Date story recorded: 1987

Date story went live: 12 June 2008