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PART ISAN REVIEW
a weakness fo r mo ral extremes. Milosz held onto hi s di stance, a critical self–
appraisal whi ch saved him from total inmlersion into communism. After a
few years, the ways of the fri ends parted. In
The CapfilJe M il/d,
the mos t bit–
ter chapter was devoted to Alpha: "The man I call Alpha is one of the bes t
known prose writers eas t of the Elbe. He was a close fri end of mine and
memori es of many diffi cult moments that we went through together tie us to
each other. I find it hard to remain unmoved when I recall him. I even asked
myself if I should subj ect him to thi s analysis but I shall do so because fri end–
ship would not prevent me from writing an articl e o n hi s books in which I
would say more o r less what I shall say here."
Why did Milosz write about these peopl e? Why did he write about com–
muni sm through individual portraits? For one thing, he is a poet, and , wi th hi s
uncanny abili ty he was trying to capture the lived reality. For another, he tried
to show Wes tern intell ectuals the betrayal and travails of their Eas t European
counterparts. But both of these answers, although true, are incompl ete. What
MiJosz did was to write critically about hi s fTi ends within the hi storically and
culturally defin ed tradition of fri endship. Friendship is not only a feeling of
mutual wel l-wishing between peopl e but also a bro therhood among groups of
people who are united by similarities o f age and o ri gin as well as by el ective
affini ties and public responsibili ties. Friendshi p, like marriage, combines an inti–
mate rapport with social duties. Friends share the idea of service, of
participation in and responsibili ty fo r public life; they are united by an exter–
nal val ue, be it God, country, honor, or art. Friendshi p as affini ty between social
subjects has fun ctioned in European hi story from the time of Ari stotl e.
Important writings on fioiendship by Plato, C icero, and Montaigne were trans–
nutted through education in European and therefore also Polish culture. The
Enlightenment and later on Romanticism transformed the idea of fri endship
between a coupl e of "brothers" into that of fr iendship of a group of like–
nlinded men, linked by loyalty and united in the circle of those who pursue
justice. The Masoni c movement, secret student circl es, and associations
embodied the social forms of fri endship. The young Mil osz grew up with thi s
background. Already in high school, he belonged to PET, a secret student orga–
nization. At the University of Vilnius, with its tradi tion of secret societies and
Mickiewicz circl es, Mil osz belonged to the Vagabond C lub and to a circl e of
philology students. Later, he was associated wi th the info rmal li terary group
Zagary. Milosz himself acknowledged the e>..'treme impo rtance of early fri end–
ships for hi s development as a writer. Andrzejewski and Milosz knew each
other well before the war. T heir relationship, however, developed fully during
the war in times of extreme danger. Humo r and alcohol played a very impor–
tant role in that fTi endshi p. Indeed, no hi story of Poli sh mal e fri endships could
be written wi thout a long chapter about drinki ng. Both writers, but especial–
ly Alpha, were deeply involved in dangerous underground Ii terary work .
