MICHNIK
387
The days were long gone when a young
Kuznica
editor enthused
about the progress brought by the age of reason. For Kott, as for many
others of his generation, the Soviet invasion of Hungary and the stabi–
lization of the early Gomulka years undermined his faith in the feasibil–
ity of reform. He never again enthused about anything, although from
time to time it seemed as though he was again prepared to get
involved-but only briefly and from a distance. By the end of the 1950s,
he viewed history and his epoch with ever greater irony. "Thanks to the
so-called philosophy of our century, the most stupid of all centuries, we
have been left to fall prey to misfortunes of all kinds, and, to make
things worse, we talk so much nonsense about ourselves that when our
grandchildren and great-grandchildren read the history of this era, they
won't believe such things were possible....As always, the masks fall
away in old age, one after the other." So wrote Kott-again, about
Ignacy Krasicki .
Kott joined the Polish Workers' Party during the occupation, to be in
tune with History, to be on the side of progress, modernity, and social
reform. Was that all? He couldn't stand the prewar establishment, nor
its wartime underground and emigre counterparts. He felt himself
rejected and ignored:
During the occupation, Warsaw was an intellectual backwater,
provincial and isolated. Twentieth-century intellectual trends
became monstrously deformed. Writers and scholars became finan–
cially dependent on the London government's network of agents.
Historical falsehoods were artificially kept alive, thought and cre–
ativity stagnated and died away. Who received financial support?
Zawieyski, Milosz, Jadzwing-Suchodolski....At the same time, the
policy of eliminating all left-wing ideas and creativity was strictly
enforced....Even something as trifling as my participation in orga–
nizing poetry readings was considered undesirable. These are not
just old grudges, but pertinent reminders
to
the current defenders
of freedom of the press and those who are calling for justice in the
allocation of paper and newsprint.
This was the most dangerous of our hero-narrator's faces. He donned
the mask of the just avenger of yesterday'S wrongs. He distorted reality,
presenting the conflict between the veterans of the Home Army and com–
munist Poland as though it were the dispute between the Targowica Con–
federation and those who favored reform. He was passionate in his
condemnation of actors who appeared on stage during the occupation.
