POSTSCRIPT 523More than twenty years on, the People's Republic is already fading into the
distance. The longed-for 'Day of Deliverance' has been and gone. The Soviet
system disappeared painlessly, in a puff of smoke. Poland finally regained the
independence which for much of the twentieth century was little more than a
fragile dream. Poles are living in a new order with new hopes and new problems.
Hard experience has taught Poles that they cannot aspire to a perfect world.
Unlike more fortunate, and more complacent nations, who tend to think that
humanity's greatest ills do not affect them, the Poles of modern time have not
been inclined to boundless optimism. Yet, as they left the Second Millennium
and entered the twenty-first century, they had much to be thankful for. They
had escaped from the Communist nightmare without the shedding of blood; and
they had regained their sovereignty in circumstances where it could be put to
good use. Unlike 1918, they were not isolated; they were not surrounded by
hostile powers nor driven by internal divisions. They had joined a European
community of free nations which had turned its back both on the nationalist
rivalries of the World War and the ideological tensions of the Cold War. They
had used the first decade of their new independence not only to put their coun-
try onto a healthier political and economic footing, but also to gain access to
several leading networks of international co-operation and security. As a mem-
ber of the United Nations, Poland had no longer to look over its shoulder for
Moscow's approval. As a full member of NATO, it belonged to a powerful club
of democratic states which stood by the principle of 'all for one and one for all'.
As a candidate for the next wave of entry to the European Union, it was look-
ing forward to a degree of psychological and material well-being which, as the
cockpit of former conflicts, it had never known.
Moreover, if anyone bothered to compare Poland's predicament in AD zooo
with that in 1900,1800, or 1700, the contrast would have been manifest. In 1700,
the old Commonwealth was in chaos, and was visibly falling into the malevo-
lent clutches of foreign powers. In 1800, 'Poland' had just been wiped from the
map with no prospect of an early return. In 1900, it had been out of commission
for over a century, and was reaching the point where the prophets of doom were
talking of cultural as well as political extinction. Yet in zooo, it was still there -
transformed beyond all recognition, but free and very much alive.
Poles may reflect with wonder, therefore, and with no small pride on the
extraordinary events which have enabled them to survive, and sometimes to
flourish, in the face of such great adversity. Given their three-hundred year
struggle for survival, it would be most inappropriate if they should be judged
exclusively by the standards of worldly success. For Poland is not just another
European country battered by war and beset with problems of post-war adjust-
ment. To everyone who knows its History, it is something more besides. Poland
is a repository of ideas and values which can outlast any number of military and
political catastrophes. Poland offers no guarantee that its individual citizens will