In August it was 30 years since the death of Wojciech Wasiutyński (d. 19 VIII 1994 in Rye, USA).
How crucial was the vasiutyński character as evidenced by the mostly accepted view that he was 1 of the most prominent political publicists of Polish emigration in the 20th century, as well as 1 of 2 – alongside Jędrzej Giertych – the most prominent and most prolific intellectual-continuators of the school of thought and action identified with the Roman Dmowski national camp.
The circular anniversary of Wasiutyński's death passed without echo, which has its pronunciation. Although it cannot be said that the work left by Wasiutyński is not available present and is not curious in researchers of the past of the national camp. Thanks to the determination of Halina's widow, fragments of his memories were published, as well as two-volume works chosen. 2 monographs were created, presenting his life, activity and political thought. Yet, the vasiutyński's achievements are not remembered in the ongoing public debate.
Moreover, for respective years there has been no organization on the Polish political scene that would appeal to the thought of the vasiutyński and alleged "main stream", concentrated in the emigration National Party. The same destiny besides happened to Giertych, and even Dmowski himself, who, even if recalled, was only accompanied by another monumental figures. Of course, if we consider that in changed circumstances, in the 21st century reality, the achievements of the national camp have become obsolete, understandable and inevitable it will become a mention to the proverbial “lamus of history”. What, though, if we put and justify the thesis that the school of Dmowski, after the death of its most crucial creator best interpreted by Wasiutyński, retains its value today, and is inactive the best prescription for solving Polish problems through realistic diagnosis and by applying appropriate means of political and educational influence?
The Lasting News of the National Camp
Stanisław Kozicki, writing “The past of the National League”, he placed the activities of the national camp in a wider historical context in which centuries following the Renaissance have fulfilled the process of liberating an individual “in all areas of life”. The fall of the authority of the Absolute and the 19th eternal supremacy of the individual (human right!) did not lead, which seems apparent today, to the formation of a fresh order. Instead, the achievements of civilization were challenged, there was “a confusion in thought and in life, and a conflict of everyone against everything.” Looking from this perspective, Kozitsky granted the national current a inactive crucial and even fundamentally essential function to defend Western civilization against self-destructive “criminal individualism”, seeking to reconstruct the demolished balance between the individual and society. Similarly, the function of the national camp was seen by Wasiutyński, erstwhile in “Ruins and Foundations” (1947), summarizing the experiences of planet War II and 2 totalitarianisms, he not only established the self-destructive nature of liberalism, rebelling against
Absolute and against social ties and incapable to make a fresh civilization on the ruins of the old, but besides a fiasco of attempts to reject anthropocentristism by russian socialism and Nazi nationalism. In the post-war chaos of Wasiutyński – present we see that besides optimistically – he formulated a fresh historical task for the national camp: the search for a way to reconstruct harmony between the "three fundamental concepts of civilization: man – society – absolute and solution to adversity: man – society and society – absolute".
For the sake of simplicity, let us presume that the essence of the identity of the Dmowski, Kozitsky and Wasiutyński national camp, unchanging over respective decades of its organizational existence, in the country and on emigration, can be closed in 3 points: 1. Pursuing the establishment of an independent state, 2. The perception of Poland as a state of the Polish nation, 3. usage the empirical method (realism!) as the most crucial political signpost. Well, 30 years after the death of Wasiutyński, the issues covered in the above points have not been lost to the slightest extent. As the European Union evolves towards a national state and in a situation erstwhile the Russian-Ukrainian war yet ended, the period of post-Syaltan stabilisation – the problem of ensuring the independent existence of the Polish state urgently requires deep examination and drawing (or correct!) conclusions.
The problem of the national character of the Polish state remains valid. Before our eyes, the informing of Wasiutyński in 1993 (“The large intent Party), erstwhile stating that Poland is an independent and uniform state, not threatened from the outside, he saw the danger of “the moral distribution of the nation”. "This is not about combating ecclesiastical organization or spiritual dogma, but with all Christian ethos, with all tradition and centuries of morality. This wave reaches Poland.” Even if we consider the diagnosis to be excessive or incorrect, the issue of Poland's preservation of the position of a national state remains – in the light of mass immigration to our country.
Wasiutyński as a continuation of Dmowski School
The 3rd component defining the phenomenon of the national camp – the usage of empirical method in political reflection – requires a broader discussion, as political realism is, in my opinion, about the uniqueness and invariant validity of the political school developed by the leaders of the National League. It is worth emphasizing that by applying the principles of the empirical method, Dmowski frequently went against the current, and only after years of past proved the right course of his politics. Realistic politics ruled out the usage of emotions or Messianic motives. Dmowski, as Wasiutyński noted, “In his educational work, he spent his full life fighting a colorful hive—with the cult of uprisings, with the legend of revolutions and legions, with the cult of the army.” (Ruins and foundations)) The value of political projections is appreciated or verified after years. Therefore, the best works of thought, though written many years ago, may seem trivial to the modern reader in their obviousness. Therefore, it is worth reminding and comparing what another luminaries of Polish politics said and wrote at the same time.
The imagination of Poland after the war
After the outbreak of the war in 1939, Wasiutyński estimated that the earlier divisions in the national camp had lost their status, joined the National organization and remained faithful to him until the end of his existence on emigration. In 1940, in the survey “The Insurrection of large Poland”, he outlined the imagination of future Poland. Predicting the defeat of Germany, he explicitly advocated moving the Polish border to the Oder line (with East Prussia) and the forced displacement of the German population. Similarly, the judaic population was to be displaced, as well as the population exchange between Poland and independent Ukraine. Wasiutyński, as 1 of the fewer nationalists, already in 1940 allowed the anticipation of revision of the pre-war east border of Poland in favour of Ukraine. The change of population was to lead to the reconstruction of independent Poland as a state to the national level. Wasiutyński did not believe in the anticipation of permanent demolition of Germany, but saw specified an chance in relation to the russian Union. In leading to the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, he saw an chance to free Poland from the Russian-German vice.
Today we know that first in 1945, after the population exchanges, Poland became a single national state with a border in Oder, Germany was divided, but in 1989 they reunited, while the russian Union broke up in the 1990s into a number of national states, including Ukraine, which has been in an open conflict with Russia since 2014.
Politics of the Polish Government in London
During planet War II, Wasiutyński, like the authorities of the National Party, critically assessed the activities of the Polish government on emigration, accusing him primarily of submission to British and American politics. It is hard to measure whether the government of the time – dependent on allies – could have pursued a more decisive policy, but there is no uncertainty that it could have prevented or at least attempted to prevent the outbreak of the tragic Warsaw uprising. Wasiutyński responded to the news of the outbreak of the Uprising with a clear criticism of the Polish government's policy, accusing him of inaction, consisting in ceding the authorities in the country of competence as to the time limit for calling the uprising. He had no uncertainty that the Rising broke out at the incorrect time and was doomed in advance. Meanwhile, for Prime Minister Stanislaw Mikołajczyk, the Warsaw uprising was to be, as it turned out to be ineffective, a bargaining chip in negotiations with Russia and thus Poland, whose leaders did not usage empirical methods in politics, suffered a tragic cost of pursuing policies which were not based on rational grounds and did not take into account the effects of decisions taken.
About “cold war”
After the end of the war, Wasiutyński remained on emigration and together with his political environment focused on “Polish Thought” he spoke on issues concerning Polish politics. Most emigrants lived by illusions – the expectations of the imminent outbreak of planet War III were common, to open up opportunities to defeat the russian Union and regain independency by Poland. Unlike them, SN leaders, including Wasiutyński, were aware from the beginning that rebuilding independent Poland could be a long-term process. Even during the top global tension after the 1950 Korean War, Wasiutyński argued that "second-rate wars at the interface of powers only confirm the existing agreement, and if Poland had nothing from the close Crimean war, then it would have nothing from the war in the Far East". Similarly, his assessments of the 1956 events were realistic, but the evolution of the Polish People's Republic from a state dominated by russian apparatusists towards the state to an increasingly national degree was being carried out under social pressure. This change was besides not noticed by the majority of the Polish emigration.
The Way to Independence
With admiration for the persistence and consequence of Wasiutyński, he utilized empirical methods for decades of public and political activity, frequently going against the current, frequently against the views of most people, encountering many critics, sometimes even in his own camp. In the early 1970s, erstwhile he gave a paper entitled “On the Right Assessment of the Polish Case” ("Think Poland" January 1973), he repeated his assessment of Polish policy: 1 must quit the dream of war and not be tempted to cooperate. The fresh component in the assessment contained in the Vasiutyński paper was the shift of emphasis from the activities of emigration centres to society in Poland. Again, Wasiutyński's views sounded shocking, due to the fact that the majority of Poles who were politically active on emigration, alternatively of relaxing, expected an increase in the American-Soviet conflict, ruled out the anticipation of voluntary withdrawal of Soviets from Poland, questioned the position of PRL as a Polish state, were distrustful of the society in Poland and opposed to the departure from institutions representing the legal Polish state in exile. The most extremist emigrants accused Wasiutyński and Bielecki of seeking “a deal” with Russia. These answered that a settlement should be distinguished from a compromise, the condition of which is the acceptance of Poland's independency by Russia.
To Russia and beyond.
One of the major attempts to popularise empirical methods in Poland in the assessment of the political situation Wasiutyński undertook in the text announced in “Polish Week” entitled “Is a historical compromise possible?” (22 VIII 1981). He formulated the concept of a Polish-Russian historical compromise that: “Poles must acknowledge... that the border on Bug and Sana is permanent. The Russians must recognise that having Warsaw exceeds their permanent capabilities and real interests (...)". Following the way set by Dmowski, striving for independency by way of compromise alternatively than by fighting Russia, Wasiutyński again missed the views of most political migrants and his own colleagues from the SN.
The most controversy was raised by 2 theories contained in the text: the forecast that Russia could voluntarily relinquish power over the Middle-Eastern Europe and the advice that Poles should accept the definitive failure of the east land. After more than 40 years, we can conclude that there has been no compromise in Polish-Russian relations, but we can see that Wasiutyński was not mistaken in 2 forecasts which caused the top controversy: In the early 1990s, Russia withdrew its troops from Poland and from most countries of Central and east Europe, and even conditionally recognized Poland's accession to NATO, while independent Poland definitely reconciled with the failure of the alleged east Borders. If individual formulated views in 1981 that were not based in reality and encouraged the policy of the alleged "godly wishes", it was surely not Wasiutyński.
Reasonable Programme for Poland
Several years after the introduction of martial law in Poland, Wasiutyński attempted to set a fresh direction in reasoning and political action. He published a text whose content perfectly summarizes the title itself: “About the Programme of the Majority”. While, after the end of planet War II, he correctly predicted that Europe would stay divided into 2 blocks, American and Russian for many years, he expected to break the interior deadlock in Poland in 1985 as well as to make conditions for independent politics in the country. He so reiterated the 4 years ago the anticipation of a "historical compromise" with Russia. He imagined that specified a compromise could happen even without breaking down the Yalta system, which did not work.
The terms of the compromise were as follows: Poland will gain “national independence” and at the same time it will not agree to fulfil the function of “uncoupling action against russian or non-Soviet Russia”. However, the most crucial thesis "About the majority programme" is the call for the title political programme, to prepare for taking work for Poland. The Wasiutyński appeal – as has been the case in the past – was not understood or heard, which took revenge after a fewer years, when, as a consequence of the round-the-clock agreement, the authorities in Poland took over non-communist environments, but not prepared to carry out a systemic-economic sanitation.
The programme indications in this publication deserve any attention today. Vasiutyński stressed the request for a realistic policy, that is to formulate political objectives with a chance to gain the support of the majority. The presented programme imagination can be summarised as follows: the Catholic program should take into account the reality and the fact that the political organization is not equivalent to the Church; Poland should make its own model of capitalism, corresponding to the specificity of our country and Polish mentality; democracy needs good electoral ordination and compliance with principles specified as respect for the opponent and the ability to compromise. erstwhile again, it is hard to underestimate the depth of the author's reasoning of the program. Political events in Poland after 1989 confirmed – and unfortunately they inactive powerfully confirm – how much Poland lost and lost, without having prepared and organized leadership staff.
In III Poland
Until the last years of his life, Wasiutyński did not neglect reflection based on empirical method. After 1989, he felt that it was in Poland's interest to belong to the European homelands, while he was critical of the national concepts. With approval, but without enthusiasm, he spoke of the prospects facing NATO. For the remainder of his life, nothing predicted the return of the Cold War in Europe. Therefore, although he anticipated the emergence of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, according to the conventional Endeck interpretation, he felt that ‘Poland must not be active in this conflict’, and that after the dissolution of the russian Union and Poland regaining independence, there is no dispute between Poland and Russia.
Summary
Use of empirical methods usually results in accurate diagnosis and good predictions. The current Poland would undoubtedly benefit from the implementation of this method by political elites. It is not only worth learning from the mistakes that have been made, but besides to take advantage of the thoughts that have made the test of time. Especially due to the fact that politicians of this measure, as Vasiutyński does not appear often, and deficiency of them is powerfully felt. The actuality of Vasiutinsky's thought, is besides the sense of referring to the inactive attractive expression of the national camp, as a movement entering into a wider and long-term process of tackling the civilization crisis of Europe, caused by centuries-old imbalance and departure from anti-Christian foundations.
Wojciech Turek
Dr. Wojciech Turek is simply a historian and publicist, he was a associate of the Programme Council of the Roman Dmowski and Ignacy Jan Paderewski Institute of National thought Heritage from 2020 to 2024.
Think Poland, No. 45-46 (3-10.11.2024)
