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Liquidation of the Polish Socialist Party

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Poland: a 'Hitlerised' country?
Jan Józef Lipski Social activist
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Today I think it was an introduction leading into the final contest of the elections to the Sejm. The elections to the Sejm were guaranteed by the Yalta agreement. The results must have been falsified as the referendum showed they must have been falsified, the steps taken at the referendum... there was always a fear they may prove to be insufficient, and one way of dealing with this was to tell people in the West that in this savage, 'Hitlerised' country there is no other solution but for the communists to implement order with a heavy hand. And don't pay too much attention if there were more 'yes' votes or fewer 'yes' votes in these elections, you don't need to concern yourselves with that. That's the way that I see it. Except that to this day, I know too little about this and it remains a typical case of circumstantial evidence. Fortunately, we're not in the situation where we're debating whether Mr Bloggs has to be condemned to death by hanging or not, because then the charges would have to be dropped, right? People can't be condemned in cases of circumstantial evidence. Nevertheless, these circumstances look very bad for this people's government.

Ja sobie wyobrażam raczej dzisiaj, że to była przygrywka raczej przed już tą ostateczną rozgrywką, jaką są wybory do Sejmu. Wybory do Sejmu, które były jednak umowami jałtańskimi gwarantowane, które musiały być sfałszowane, bo referendum pokazało, że musi to być sfałszowane; że kroki, które zastosowano przy referendum... były zawsze obawy, że mogą się okazać niewystarczające i że jednym ze sposobów załatwienia tej sprawy to jest powiedzenie ludziom na Zachodzie, że w tym dzikim, ogarniętym… zhitleryzowanym kraju nie ma innej rady, tylko komuniści muszą twardą ręką zaprowadzić porządek. I nie interesujcie się tak za bardzo, czy w tych wyborach trochę więcej ludzi „tak” głosowało, trochę mniej „tak”... to wy się tym nie interesujcie. Ja to tak widzę. Z tym że do dzisiejszego dnia, oczywiście wiem na ten temat za mało i jest to skądinąd typowa sprawa poszlakowa przecież. Na szczęście nie ma tego problemu, że pana Iksa trzeba skazywać na powieszenie albo nie, bo trzeba by było go uniewinnić, prawda? Z takich poszlakowych spraw nie można ludzi skazywać. Niemniej te poszlaki wyglądają dla tej władzy ludowej bardzo niedobrze.

Jan Józef Lipski (1926-1991) was one of Poland's best known political activists. He was also a writer and a literary critic. As a soldier in the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), he fought in the Warsaw Uprising. In 1976, following worker protests, he co-founded the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR). His active opposition to Poland's communist authorities led to his arrest and imprisonment on several occasions. In 1987, he re-established and headed the Polish Socialist Party. Two years later, he was elected to the Polish Senate. He died in 1991 while still in office. For his significant work, Lipski was honoured with the Cross of the Valorous (Krzyż Walecznych), posthumously with the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1991) and with the highest Polish decoration, the Order of the White Eagle (2006).

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: Yalta agreement

Duration: 1 minute, 26 seconds

Date story recorded: October 1989

Date story went live: 09 March 2011