Gone for 34 years, yet the right still fights against it (excerpt - translated by me)

from: Przegląd, 29/2023

Why is the Polish People's Republic (PRL) still talked about when it's been gone for 34 years? Because it's talked about. And not only because 1960s design styles or the music of Maryla Rodowicz [country-folk musician] is returning to fashion. People's Poland is talked about as an object of political discussion. Law and Justice [PiS, reactionaries] constantly brings it up and fights with it, as if it stood just around the corner. The Civic Platform [PO, liberals] also fights with it, because for it the PRL has the face of Kaczyński [PiS leader]. So both sides stand in front of each other in parliament, pointing fingers and scream: "Down with communism! Down with communism!"

Why is this happening? The answer isn't simple. People's Poland is too deeply embedded within us to avoid it, not speak about it, to consider it a black hole. On the other hand, it's too weak to defend itself from the attacks and thus collects condemnations, both deserved and undeserved. Everyone can spit on it nowadays and get praised for it. Karol Modzelewski [left wing dissident from the 80s, think Zizek] spoke of it, when the right wanted to demote General Jaruzelski [military ruler of Poland 1981-1989] to the rank of Private: "It's a special kind of bravery, similar to throwing dead bodies out of their graves. It's the bravery of a cemetery hyena. When someone wasn't as brave as a lion, they now want to be as brave as a cemetery hyena. Too late, they're screwed."

Well, there's no lack of fighters against a People's Poland which isn't here anymore and can't fight back. Back then, they sat around quietly like mice and now they're roaring loudly. Am I exaggerating? I don't think so...

The fight against people's Poland continues

The newest example of it is a law signed in June by President Andrzej Duda on the review of administrative officials. Everyone who is over 51 years of age and works for a public office has to be submitted to it. 40k people are to be subjected to it and everyone who is found to have collaborated with security services, no matter on what case, is to be immediately fired. Without a trial. So they're supposed to be punished for what they did 34 years ago or earlier. If they killed someone, they would have nothing to fear - polish law has a statute of limitations of 30 years for murder. The conclusion is, that they did something worse.

PiS fights against People's Poland on all fronts. It calls it "the commune", because it sounds more menacing than "Socialist" or "People's". It falsifies memory of it - mixing the Stalin era with later years. For this war, they use millions of złoty [polish currency] - creating various institutes and organizations and financing the Institute for National Remembrance [IPN; Nationalist Anti-Communist Think Tank] which leads the "politics of remembrance" and "historical policy". This "Historical Policy" is not only supposed to shape our knowledge of years past, but also the spaces in which we live. Street names, monuments, all is subject to the IPN. Including the judgement of who was a collaborator of SB [security services of the PRL] and who wasn't. IPN is thus both prosecutor and judge at the same time. And sometimes, like in the case of former Ambassador to Germany Andrzej Przyłębski, the defense.

The language of PiS is filled with negative emotions regarding People's Poland. If we listen to their supporters, we hear that those were the times of "Soviet Occupation", so everyone who had party or government offices were in truth minions of the USSR. This tale has a continuation - regarding the Round Table [negotiations of 1989]. There, according to the PiS-Tale, there came a conspiracy of the PZPR and parts of Solidarność. It was betrayal. Thus they lead a fight from the year 1989 and earlier - back then against the PZPR and now with its allies and successors, which grouped themselves in the PO.

And the other side? There is no doubt here either, the worldview of Polish liberals begins with references to People's Poland. And this Poland is embodied by PiS. It's enough to read the titles from opposition media, listen to PO politicians... "Fools' economy. This is how models from the Polish People's Republic thrive in the PiS state" in "Gazeta Wyborcza". "How many similarities are there in PiS rule to the times of the Polish People's Republic?" wonders "Polityka". "Coal has arrived in PiS-Poland. Just like citruses in the PRL [reference to tropical fruit shortages during AES]" - this is" Gazeta Wyborcza "again. And one more thought from their pages: "The Polish People's Republic is a reference point for Kaczyński, a model of an ideal state-as long as PZPR could be replaced by PiS."

These are simple patterns. When the topic is public television, it's called the "TV of Maciej Szczepański [TVP Chairman 1972-1980]" and "Gierek's [PZPR chairman 1970-1980] propaganda". Danuta Holecka is called "PiS' Irena Falska" [both TVP news speakers, one modern, the other from the early 80s]. When the topic is the economy - the accusation is of Gierek's wastefulness [he was an enjoyer of IMF Loan IMF Loan IMF Loan]. And Kaczyński is said to be the new Gomułka [PZPR Chairman, 1956-1970].

PO politicians' thoughts go through a similar path. "PiS is a reconstruction group of the PRL", says Marcin Kierwiński. Of course with horror. And the comedy is seasoned by the fact that his father was an officer of the Polish People's Army, promoted in the times of the Polish People's Republic and as late as 1999, to the rank of brigade general.

If we are already pointing the finger to who was who in the times of the Polish People's Republic... The opposition with satisfaction lists PiS dignitaries who were members of the PZPR. So we have Stanisław Piotrowicz, a current judge of the Constitutional Tribunal, Wojciech Jasiński, the first PiS president of Orlen [State petrochemical company], Marcin Wolski and Jan Pietrzak, i.e. two PiS bards and satiricians, Krzysztof Czabański from the Council of National Media, Stanisław Kostrzewski, i.e. the former treasurer of PC, and Karol Karski - An activist of the Socialist Association of Polish Students ... and there is still a large group of children of PZPR activists in the United Right, which is also reminded of.

Therefore, Polish politics cannot go in its semantic concepts outside People's Poland, everything is compared to it, everything refers to it. What is this all about?

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