Letters From Prison and Other EssaysAmong the voices that speak to us from Poland today, the most important may be that of Adam Michnik. Michnik now sits in a jail belonging to the totalitarian regime, yet his first concern--and herein lies one of the keys to his thinking, and one should add, to his character--is with the quality of his own conduct, which, together with teh conduct of other victims of the present situation, will, he is sure, one day set the tone for whatever political system follows the totalitarian debacle. His essays are the most valuable guide we have to the origins of the revolution, and, more particularly, to its innovative practices. |
Contents
Why You Are Not Signing | 3 |
Why You Are Not Emigrating | 16 |
The Polish War | 25 |
On Resistance | 41 |
A Letter to General Kiszczak | 64 |
About the Elections | 71 |
A Time of Hope | 103 |
Hope and Danger | 111 |
A New Evolutionism | 135 |
Some Remarks on the Opposition and the General | 149 |
The Prague Spring Ten Years Later | 155 |
Maggots and Angels | 169 |
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors | 201 |
The Dispute over Organic Work | 223 |
Poland in Russian Eyes | 249 |
Conversation in the Citadel | 275 |
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Common terms and phrases
actions activists activity Adam Michnik apparatus attitude authorities believe Białołęka camp Catholic Church communist compromise conflict create culture declaration defeat defend democracy dignity Dmowski emigration émigré existence fight force freedom Galician Gdańsk goals hope Hôtel Lambert human idea ideological independent institutions intellectual intelligentsia interests internal Jacek Kuroń jail January Uprising Jerzy Józef Józef Piłsudski Kingdom of Poland labor union leaders Lech Wałęsa liberal live Łukaszewski maggots means Michnik moral movement National Democrats nonviolence official organized party peasants Piłsudski Poles policies Polish nation Polish October Polish Socialist Polish Socialist party Prague Spring principles prison question radical reality reform regime repression resistance revisionism revisionists revolution revolutionary role rule Russian situation Slavophiles social society Solidarity Solidarity's sovereignty Soviet Stanisław strike struggle thought tion totalitarian tradition truth tsarist underground uprising Wałęsa Warsaw Wierzbicki Władysław workers writings wrote