250
PARTISAN REVIEW
Przeglad Kulturalny,
"a method that enables us to analyze the condi–
tions of economic and cultural development."
The main concern of the Polish intellectuals thus appears to be to
secure for themselves elbow room and a free intellectual approach
within a view of the world that they continue to call Communist or
Marxist. Are they using
this
approach deliberately, out of consideration
for their political and geographical dilemma? Whether they are or not,
the approach is a sound one, for it has the effect of insuring Poland
as much personal and intellectual freedom, justice and social equality
as can possibly
be
achieved under the present conditions.
The situation of Poland is amazingly paradoxical. So long as she
stays within the Communist camp, so long as she does not ask for
neutrality and free elections, she can pursue with impunity policies of
internal independence and democratization which naturally represent
a threat of contamination to the Soviet Union itself. But though the
Soviet leaders may denounce indirectly the "dangers" of the Polish
experiment, as Khrushchev has done recently, they are compelled to
tolerate it and even to condone it, publicly, lest the breach in the
Communist bloc assume irreparable proportions. The Russians realize
that large-scale repression in Poland might embroil them in a war
with a medium-sized power equipped with twenty divisions and produc–
ing eighty Migs a year, and that this would deal a mortal blow to the
prestige of Communism, and might even lead to a world conflict. But
this impunity in Poland is nevertheless restricted, and can continue
only as long as the government is controlled by Gomulka, that is to
say, a national Communist, and only if a majority of the population
supports this government. To retain the support of a population 95
per cent of which is anti-Communist and anti-Soviet and at the same
to remain fixed in an ideology acceptable to the Communist bloc–
such is Gomulka's difficult task, if he wants Poland to avoid the fate
of Hungary, or to frustrate a return of the Stalinists (possibly disguised
as ultra-nationalists).
An important group of "democratic Communist" writers has aided
Gomulka in his fight against the Stalinists, publishing chiefly in three
cultural and social
weeklies-Nowa Kultura, Przeglad Kulturalny,
and
the organ of the Communist youth,
Po Pros.tu.
These writers contributed
in large measure to Gomulka's victory at the Central Committee meet–
ing of October, 1956. They identified themselves with the October
revolution, and in their attempts to define its significance they came
