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PARTISAN REVIEW
fused the meanings of the words freedom and slavery, loyalty and treason,
revolution and
count~r-revolution.
Even the term "socialism" was so
distorted by Stalinism, that many of us came to believe that all it im–
plied was a very violent and very costly system of industrializing eco–
nomically backward countries. Many long months, not just the last
dramatic weeks, and the fateful Friday night/ were required to restore
their real meanings to words, so that they no longer stuck in our throats,
and so that the words,
socialism, democracy, sovereignty
and
national
pride,
could once again ring out in clear tones. And that is why that
Friday night, the night during which no one slept in Warsaw, will pass
into the history of Poland.
During that night we were not alone. Nor was the sound core
of our party leadership alone. I am convinced that our comrades knew
this well. And during that difficult and bitter night, this knowledge
surely gave them additional strength, courage and resolve.
We still experience enormous inner resistance as we pronounce
those great words. No wonder! So many times they were twisted to
mean the exact opposite. So many times they lied. Only now have they
been sanctioned by history. We must guard against their further abuse.
But there are things that must be said. That fateful night has revealed
that the real master of the country and of Warsaw is the revolutionary
working class, that the youth has rediscovered a common language with
the workers, and that hope for true socialism is still alive in the better
part of our intelligentsia.
Today we can tell ourselves quite explicitly why we experienced
Poznan as a personal tragedy. The process of renewal in Poland pro–
gressed very slowly. Each step forward had to be fought for and was
made with enormous difficulty. The process was initiated from the
bottom, never the other way around. The leadership gave ground, it
did not lead. It was continually on the defensive. Each change came
a few weeks too late-the amnesty, the rehabilitation, the new attitude
toward the former underground, the first economic reforms, partial free–
dom of speech. The old Communists slowly shook off the toxins of
exhaustion and despair. We were fed only small doses of the truth
about the crimes of Stalinism and the critical economic situation. And
yet the process of renewal went ahead. Gleams of hope flashed, backs
were straightened, humps were disappearing. The press gradually began
to regain the people's confidence. Journalism came of age. For the
first time our newspapers and weeklies began to pay attention to the
1 October 19, 1956, the night of Khrushchev's descent on Warsaw in an
attempt to browbeat the Central Committee of the Polish Communists and to
halt the process of democratization.
