272
DANIEL BELL
guages, including Russian. I had read one of his novels in English
and asked him if he had had any difficulty getting it published.
Very little, he replied. While there are no private publishers in
Poland, there are different houses: the state publishing house,
those associated with different literary magazines, with cooperatives,
and so on. Although each house was subject to political censorship,
the managements were also eager to make money (a percentage of
the profits was retained by each house, for extending their facilities,
such as clubrooms, and even for housing). It's a matter of
Finger–
spitzgefuhl,
he said-of playing off one house against the other. His
wife, a tall, handsome, dark-eyed woman, exquisitely dressed, was
passionately interested in art. She was an ardent admirer of Picasso,
and her magazine had run a series of articles about him, with color
illustrations. One curious incident illustrated her intense Polish cul–
tural nationalism. I asked her if she wanted some "vahdka,': and
she pointed out that in Polish it was pronounced
"vdka."
Poles don't
like to hear the word in its Russian pronunciation, which I had
used. This started us off on language. She insisted that Russian
was
a harsh language and Polish more soft and liquid, and that Polish
poetry was more beautiful than Russian poetry. She had learned
Russian in school-it was compulsory-but had deliberately for–
gotten it because she didn't like the language.
The .party lasted until quite late, with much drinking and
gaiety, and was climaxed with a Russian kazatska performed by the
actress and me. With everyone smiling at everyone else
in
high–
spirited fellowship, we all went out into the morning air.
To lunch with Z., a tall, gaunt, moody man who had played
an important role in the intellectual ferment of September and
October, 1956. A pessimist, he insisted that the dissident impulse
had run its course; nevertheless he did not feel that this was the
reason the regime was moving, at that point, to install new controls.
"There is no coordinated or' carefully worked-out plan to tighten
the society," he said. "The process is more complex. While
Gomulka's power, as a final fact, is unchallenged, when it comes to
the different areas of policy- farm, factory, ideology, for example
-various commissions of the Central Committee are in charge. The
balance of forces shifts constantly in these groups, and this often
