WRITERS IN EXILE
13
YUZ ALESHKOVSKY: I am just as close to the principle of hu–
man rights as to the appeals of Solzhenitsyn to live spiritually . I don't
think that the gap between the two world views is so tragic and so
real. Both of them, democracy and so-called autocracy-moreover
all these terms are approximate - are struggling for the same thing:
the dignity of human existence and its protection against the en–
croachment of a heartless power.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS : We should also hear from those from East
European countries.
JAN KOTT: I was in Poland during the coup, at the last Congress
of Polish Culture, the first independent congress organized by the
Solidarity unions. This was my third visit back. The country looked
desperate; people were standing in long lines for everything- for just
a piece of bread. But it was the country of paradise, of human happi–
ness. Never before had I felt (I left Poland sixteen years ago) this
deep human relationship , this vision of the great hope, this kind of
enthusiasm for the future , the human future . Its independence was
very close to the Yalta agreement .
The great Polish poet , the Nobel Prize winner Czeslaw Milosz,
wrote after a coup that the greatest crime is to kill hope. And finally,
this was the greatest crime that was committed in Poland. They killed
not only a hope for all of us Poles, but also for Czechs, for Hungari–
ans , for Russians too - the hope that every movement for some kind
of decent liberalization will not finish with a brutal crackdown.
In some way Solidarity is different.
If
only the Russians could
wave the flag of Solidarity! In some way Solidarity is also for the es–
capees and the emigres from the southern and the Asian countries.
With the movement of this new emigration, we have a kind of inter–
national Solidarity. It is a statement that life as a human being is
worth a coup, worth working toward a state that will let you organize
your own life.
In this country which has been a haven for almost two hundred
years for so many emigres from all over the world, the Solidarity
movement is now also in some way a hope for the Americas, a hope
that the future can be realized , that it can be realized by
us,
if not
this year, then next year.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS : Do you think that nationalism is a conser–
vative force that enables the Soviet regime to keep its hold on the
population, or is nationalism a force for change in the Soviet Union,
as it is in the East European countries?
