Adam Michnik
Born in 1946. Historian by education, influential dissident 1968-89. Today the general editor of the daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza
Among the leaders of Solidarity, Adam Michnik is not as famous as Lech Wałęsa, who later became President of Poland. But there is ample reason to pause on Michnik, a dazzling intellectual. Thrown into prison for many years he had little else to do except writing. His writings proved a sharp weapon against his captors, influencing the anti-communist struggle in the entire Eastern Bloc.
In his book Letters from Prison, published in 1985, he pondered on the philosophy of dissidents. He noted: “The value of your achievement cannot be gauged in terms of your ideas' chances for victory but rather by the value of the idea itself. In other words, you score a victory not when you gain power but when you remain faithful to yourself”.
Already in 1985 Michnik was certain that “the totalitarian dictatorships are doomed”. What he feared more was the long-lasting effects of Communism on the morale of the people: “They still have their power to jail and kill, but almost no other power. I say ‘almost’ because (alas) there still remains their ability to infect us with their own hatred and contempt. Such infection must be resisted with our whole strength, for of all the struggles we face this is the most difficult”.
After the fall of Communism Michnik has argued against the view that the communists gave up power willingly: “Till the end, they [communists] did not believe that they would lose power and have to give power to Solidarność. They were totally astonished, surprised [as it happened]”.
Michnik is relatively calm about the widespread phenomenon in Eastern and Central Europe, which sees former communists returning to power. He observes that this happens through democratic means and that these people do not wish to restore Communism. But he warns us against those who want to eliminate the communists from society entirely: they are the “anti-communists with a Bolshevik face”.
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