Notes from Poland: Behind the Looking Glass

Crossing the Iron Curtain into Poland is rather like stepping through the looking glass into a world where the familiar political labels no longer fit. Notions of “Right” and “Left,” “conservative” and “liberal” have little meaning in a country where the most reactionary faction uses for its emblem the hammer and sickle.

Aside from conventional labels, Poland is a strictly conservative nation. When Edward Gierek became First Secretary of the Party and wanted to win public favor he knew what to do: He promised to rebuild the Royal Castle in Warsaw exactly as it was before the Nazis razed it in 1944. Donations poured in, even though people complain—with good reason—about poverty and shortages. Whatever his motives, Gierek in this case displayed a keen understanding of his people. The intensity of shared feelings is extraordinarily high among the Poles. The instinct for closing ranks, the spirit of the beleaguered fort, always strong in Poland, was further strengthened after the war when it became one of the most ethnically homogeneous nations of Europe. In 1939 minorities constituted almost a third of the population; after 1945 the Ukrainians and White Ruthenians remained in the provinces annexed by the Soviet Union, the Germans fled to the West and most of the surviving Jews emigrated, with the result that at least 96 per cent of the inhabitants of Poland are now ethnic Poles. The racial tensions and ethnically inspired political movements which assume an increasingly disruptive role in the United States are thus totally absent in Poland. There is, on the other hand, a strong feeling of tribal unity, a family atmosphere, helped by the forcible elimination of former class distinctions.

AJ

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A. T. Jordan

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Crossing the Iron Curtain into Poland is rather like stepping through the looking glass into a world where the familiar political labels no longer fit. Notions of “Right” and “Left,” “conservative” and “liberal” have little meaning in a country where the most reactionary faction uses for its emblem the hammer and sickle.

Aside from conventional labels, Poland is a strictly conservative nation. When Edward Gierek became First Secretary of the Party and wanted to win public favor he knew what to do: He promised to rebuild the Royal Castle in Warsaw exactly as it was before the Nazis razed it in 1944. Donations poured in, even though people complain—with good reason—about poverty and shortages. Whatever his motives, Gierek in this case displayed a keen understanding of his people. The intensity of shared feelings is extraordinarily high among the Poles. The instinct for closing ranks, the spirit of the beleaguered fort, always strong in Poland, was further strengthened after the war when it became one of the most ethnically homogeneous nations of Europe. In 1939 minorities constituted almost a third of the population; after 1945 the Ukrainians and White Ruthenians remained in the provinces annexed by the Soviet Union, the Germans fled to the West and most of the surviving Jews emigrated, with the result that at least 96 per cent of the inhabitants of Poland are now ethnic Poles. The racial tensions and ethnically inspired political movements which assume an increasingly disruptive role in the United States are thus totally absent in Poland. There is, on the other hand, a strong feeling of tribal unity, a family atmosphere, helped by the forcible elimination of former class distinctions.