New Eastern Europe - November-December 2017

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found in the submissiveness of the cul-

tural elite towards an authoritarian re-

gime and the resignation of independ-

ent thinking. In addition, it was at Mai-

sons-Laffitte where figures such as Father

Józef Sadzik, who was a close friend of

Czesław Miłosz and the founder of an-

other Polish émigré publication, Éditions

du Dialogue, and Zbigniew Brzezinski,

future advisor of US President Jimmy

Carter, could meet and chat at the same

table. All this was possible thanks to the

efforts of the hosts of Maisons-Laffitte,

and Giedroyc in particular.

A political animal

Giedroyc called himself a political ani-

mal. And indeed he was one. However,

he also had an amazing literary taste as

well as an understanding of the role that

literature could play in the process of

transforming societies. Thus, it was him

who convinced Witold Gombrowicz to

write his diaries (Dzienniki) which were

later published in subsequent issues of

Kultura. It was also because of Giedroyc

that Kultura became what we can call a

meeting place: it gathered the most im-

portant Polish writers who, after the war,

were dispersed throughout the world and

lived in such places as Argentina, Bel-

gium, Guatemala, Germany, Switzerland

and the United Kingdom. It was only in

Kultura that they could publish texts in

their native Polish language.

As a political beast, Giedroyc never

refrained from political engagement

and through Kultura demanded that

Poles come to terms with the loss of

their pre-war eastern territories. Even

more in his correspondence with Juliusz

Mieroszewski, also published in Kultura,

the foundation of the now well-known

ULB concept was formulated. This con-

cept – whose name derived from the

first letters of the states it focused on:

Ukraine, Lithuania and Belarus – as-

sumed that their independence would

be a stability guarantee for Central and

Eastern Europe, and, indeed, Europe

as a whole. It was presented to Kultura

readers at a time where societies in the

region were still strictly oppressed by

Soviet authorities. Giedroyc, however,

was convinced that the post-war politi-

cal power arrangement was doomed to

failure and would collapse one day.

Somewhat less known than the ULB

concept were Giedroyc’s plans and as-

pirations which were not related to his

Giedroyc was convinced

that the post-war political

power arrangement was

doomed to failure and

would collapse one day.

Eastern Café Cultural diplomacy at its best, Dorota Sieroń-Galusek