THE LlTERARY IMPACT
625
OF THE AMERICAN AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS
The tragedy of a small nation lies not only in its precarious position
but also in a certain type of national self-perception. A Ukrainian defines
his or her identity in the language of ethnic, cultural, and religious
difference . This is why small nations, when freed from an immediate
threat, cannot immediately shed this specific psychological state. Gaining
independence, a small nation is not able
to
treat the minorities and dissi–
dents within its borders in a liberal-imperialistic manner. The great poet
of Lithuania, Thomas Venclova, seemed to have been right when he said:
We dreamt of the end of the great prison, but we cannot be sure that
when it falls apart it will not merely become a plethora of small cells
in which each nation remains imprisoned by its own blindness and by
the single-minded pursuit of self-interest.
*
The present situation of the Ossetians in Georgia best illustrates how
easily a liberating nationalism can change into an oppressive one.
Poland's situation is unique. It is perhaps the only state in the region
that is simultaneously a large and a small nation. It is small in relation to
Russia or Germany, and large in relation to Ukraine, Lithuania, and Be–
lorussia. This dual identity is evident in Polish public opinion: When
speaking of the German minority in Poland, the Poles stress the
sovereignty of the Polish state and reject the idea of any foreign interfer–
ence in this matter. About the Polish minority in Lithuania, however,
one hear endless appeals in Poland to our Polish government to under–
take formal diplomatic steps on its behalf. In relation to Germany,
Poland perceives itself as a small nation endangered by German hege–
mony. In relation to Lithuania, Poland often speaks in a voice in which
it would never allow any other nation to speak about Poland. Both ex–
amples show how easy it is to evoke conflicts and inflame passions in the
name of the ethnic state or the national mystique. And the issues of
ethnic minorities, disputed territories, and contentious futures are likely
to constantly reheat passions. The future is still questionable. Fukuyama is
wrong when he talks about the end of history. Dahrendorf is right when
he says that history is just beginning.
The next few years will be marked by a deep conflict between the
religious-nationalist fundamentalists and the proponents of the idea of an
open society. But the idea of an open society is not the same as the
*These remarks are excerpted from a speech given by Thomas Venclova on the occasion of
receipt of an honorary doctorate from the Marie Curie Sklodowska University in Lublin
in 1991; they were published in
Z esz yty Literackie
38,1992.
