Gen. Mirosław Hermaszewski, the only Polish cosmonaut in past went to unknown parts of the galaxy at the age of 81. But it's not a standard card. The general's life was a circumstantial act of accusation against her throughout the III period.
The survivors besides cried for memory
An uncomfortable "drawing" on Hermaszewski's résumé was the fact of his miraculous rescue from the Volyn massacre. As an unconscious child, he was found among the bushes, just after the banders made another “act” from the known series.
Could that affect a couple of years old? most likely not. Fortunately. But specified stories were stuck and inactive stuck in the minds of thousands of Poles. Tales which did not fit completely into the policies chosen by the 3rd Polish Republic.
Since 1989 Warsaw has sought strategical relations with Ukraine. But not 1 that was ready for historical reconciliation. On the contrary. The eye was released to this part of Ukrainian oligarchy, which the ideology and practice of flagism had as an axis of Ukrainianness. To this end, the authorities of the III Republic were painfully silent about the victims of flagism. Gen. Hermaszewski had no intention.
“As a Pole, Communist and Soldier”
It was an indispensable condition to make a career after 1989 to condemn the times of the Polish People's Republic. It doesn't substance who did and what they did then – it's crucial that they cut themselves off. He apologized. Many of the stars of the People's Poland found themselves in this way establishment III of Poland. But not Hermaszewski.
Perhaps due to the fact that he had a strong conviction that what he was doing was right. We all remember his interview for TVP erstwhile he brought a writer to the ground trying to reprimand him to service Poland. But possibly simply due to the fact that the general was aware of being the only Polish cosmonaut, i.e. having an unrivalled position even for those who based historiography on absolute negation of the PRL.
Only the deceased can know what it truly was like. Anyway, with his public speeches on the PRL, he gave hope to thousands, or possibly even millions, of those who thought that People's Poland was their homeland and did not intend to be ashamed of it. It was 1 of those fewer voices of protest, and what's more, 1 of the fewer that were just audible.
Not only the first, but the only
But that was what caused cognitive dissonance even in those who would like to set as an example of successful Polish statehood, in opposition to the Polish People's Republic. They frequently explained – possibly to the fact – that Hermaszewski's flight was a form of giving Poland prestige by the “Soviet occupier”. This, however, inevitably gave emergence to further questions.
Because if that was the case, why for more than 30 years of “free” Poland did not go into space any of our countrymen, even thanks to cooperation with Country Paradise from across the ocean? Is the existence of the 3rd Republic of Poland in the Western alliance strategy so meaningless that nobody in Washington feels even the request to award Poland this way?
I am far from saying that walking across space is the culmination of the thousand-year past of the Polish nation, or that in itself it is about the power of the state. However, the fact remains (painful for propaganda) the fact that in the Warsaw Pact we had our cosmonaut, not in years of increasingly disgusting (and dangerous!) service towards NATO.
Relief?
So we say goodbye to the character who was the beam in the eye of the III Republic. Mirosław Hermaszewski's inflexibility reminded us of embarrassing facts about the contemporary form of the Polish state. The general will remainder in the Polish land as outstanding in his achievements. For us it should be an example of a man with a spine not from a parade that is little and little between us. Hi, his memory!
Tomasz Jankowski
