New Eastern Europe - November-December 2017

(Ben Green) #1

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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
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