Postscript
It has often been said that historians should not meddle with the present, and
that they are incapable of predicting the future. History can teach us little,
except that there is nothing much to learn from History. In one sense, this is wise
advice in a country where sudden and violent charges of fortune have been com-
monplace, and it would be foolish to expect that the past should simply repeat
itself. Yet the present is the product of the past, just as the future will be a con-
tinuation of the present. No traveller can plan the road before him if he knows
not whence he came. No one can begin to contemplate things to come without
a lively memory of times past. Nobody can imagine a country's destiny without
a proper understanding of its growth and development. To that extent, Poland's
History is a vital element in Poland's current affairs.
When the first edition of this book was delivered to the publishers at the end
of the 1970s, the opportunity was taken to predict the end of Soviet domina-
tion. But the day of deliverance hovered far beyond the foreseeable future. So
the original Postscript had to content itself with a balance sheet of the pros and
cons of life in the People's Republic prior to Solidarity. It was necessary to
affirm, the Postscript said, that in many spheres the life of the Poles was supe-
rior to that of previous generations. People who remembered the horrors of the
Second World War, or the communal and social miseries of the inter-war
period, were bound to appreciate the relative security and moderate prosperity
of the People's Republic. Anyone who looked further back, to moments in the
late nineteenth century, when Polish nationality seemed to be in danger of
extinction, must necessarily have admired and respected many of the Poles'
recent achievements. Even within the changing perspectives of the previous
thirty years, it was quite remarkable that Polish artists, writers, musicians, sci-
entists, and sportspersons should have been able to play a more active part on
the European scene than ever before. Given the odds against it, one was moved
to view Poland's survival, and her extraordinary powers of regeneration, with
wonder and admiration.
In the political field, however, any impartial observer could only have con-
cluded that the current situation in Poland contained all the ingredients of past
misfortunes. Indeed, since politics provides the framework within which all
other social and cultural activities take place, it was impossible to ignore the
omnipresent shadow which lay across Poland's path in all directions. For better
or for worse, the People's Republic was created by one of the world's few
remaining imperial powers, and continued to be managed in accordance with
foreign priorities and foreign interests. Of course, limited sovereignty marks