Censorship, security and nicknames. Independently journalism in the People's Republic of Poland

In 1945 newspapers appeared in Poland like mushrooms after rain. The communists quickly dealt with this impulse of freedom, closing, seizing and confiscating almost everything with a title, edition and vignette. There is only one extra-system journal left. In addition, it lasted until the end of the commune, for over 40 years playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with censorship ...

I am talking about a magazine that is still being published today, although (naturally) it no longer has the same importance and reputation as it used to be:Tygodnik Powszechny. In the times of the Polish People's Republic, it was the only independent and legally operating periodical between the Elbe and Vladivostok. How did the communists allow this to happen? On the one hand, the "Tygodnik" was protected by the Church, on the other (perhaps even more importantly), the editorial office of the magazine could count on the protection of Western diplomats, cultural institutions and the media. Polish authorities preferred not to mess with everyone at once…

Nevertheless, the editors of Tygodnik constantly had to be on their guard. Each member of the team led by Jerzy Turowicz knew that he could be imprisoned at any time. The entire magazine was also in constant danger. It was enough to exaggerate a little for the party's angry tops to liquidate the business…

A very rationed freedom

Although Tygodnik Powszechny was an independent magazine, it operated in a country where the harshest penalties fell on critics of the government, and censors whitened their texts with great skill. In such conditions, journalism was practiced ... in a very specific way. It is clearly visible in the memories of the journalists of the former "Tygodnik" magazine. Krzysztof Kozłowski said that editing the newspaper in the People's Republic of Poland was a real school of life . Józefa Hennelowa talked about constant tensions with censorship. What was it all about? Antoni Słonimski perversely stated: Almost nothing. In order not to bend the neck too easily .

Editors of Tygodnik Powszechny in the 1960s (photo from the archive of Jerzy Turowicz).

Okay, what did it look like in practice? In the first years, even before Stalinism settled in Poland for good, Tygodnik Powszechny conducted an open polemic with Marxism. Then you had to switch to not so direct methods and believe that the readers will be intuitive and intelligent.

The first page of one of the first, still almost completely free issues of Tygodnik Powszechny (June 17, 1945).

For example, when the troops of the Warsaw Pact attacked Czechoslovakia in August 1968, the editors gave up the weekly column presenting the latest events. Kozłowski recalls in an interview in the book "The gene of risk was in him": We decided that since censorship consistently takes down the news about the situation in Czechoslovakia, it would be fair to resign from the column (...) [Instead] appeared on the first page there are photos with tanks under attack and a short text about the anniversary of the outbreak of World War II (p. 63) . Of course, it wasn't about the anniversary at all, but about the attack on our southern neighbors!

The editors acted similarly during the anti-Semitic campaign launched by the authorities a year earlier. "Tygodnik" not only did not join the "anti-Zionist" front, but also took the matter into its own hands:reports on rescuing Jews in occupied Poland. The same issue also includes fragments of a newly found diary from the Łódź Ghetto. It was the strongest form in which we could cut ourselves off from all the rest of the press ("Conversation with Stefan Wilkanowicz" [in:] "Risk gene ...", p. 119).

In turn, during martial law, Tygodnik was published with an ostentatious, mournful vignette :with white letters on a black background, not the other way around. In addition, the aforementioned column with current news started each time with the words:"The nth week of martial law has passed."

Of course, it was not always possible to create a subtle text that the censor was unable to cling to. Krzysztof Kozłowski proudly says: According to statistics, "Tygodnik" was a magazine that throughout the People's Republic of Poland had the first unclaimed first place in terms of the number of seizures ("Risk gene ...", p. 69) . The number of censorship interventions was also record-breaking. Initially, the editors tried to escape from the watchful eye of the censor. Everything changed when the authorities began marking their interference in the texts. The journalists of "Tygodnik" then came up with a real rivalry: everyone wanted to show off text with as many selections as possible!

Behind the pseudonym readers a rope ...

Tygodnik took the lead in one more area:the number of authors writing under pseudonyms. They were often high-ranking scientists, as well as writers, publicists and poets who were banned from publishing by the state. Jacek Kuroń published claiming to be a woman (under the maiden name of his first wife). Czesław Miłosz used his pseudonyms from the occupation period, but it appeared quickly. Krzysztof Kozłowski says: The future Nobel Prize winner was on the black list. There was a censorship clause forbidding the publication of his works or even mentioning his name. So we wrote:"as the Poet says ...". Miłosz was always a poet, with a capital letter in Tygodnik. Later, even this Poet was oppressed by us ("Risk gene ...", p. 72) .

Another thing is that not every author cursed by the authorities wanted to collaborate with the Catholic intelligentsia. They did not want to have anything to do with Tygodnik Powszechny, among others. Wiktor Woroszylski, Wisława Szymborska and Kazimierz Brandys . Everyone unanimously shouted that they could not be labeled (...) that they felt somehow false in it ("Risk gene ..., p. 51) .

Inside one of the numbers from January 1953. You can see the columns "Without any garden" and "Books sent".

Of course, the communists were very anxious to find out who was spitting at them under a pseudonym. Let us quote Kozłowski again:

The easiest way to figure out who's who was a raid:financial audit, checking who took the fee for specific texts . It was said:"Then maybe we will check the fees, some numbers at random". And by "coincidence", these suspicious authors were inspected. It wasn't the only method. Another was that the secret police called the administration employees and tried to get something out of them ("Gen Ryzyka ...", p. 69) .

The journalists were not indebted to the authorities. They developed elaborate methods of obliterating their tracks and losing a pursuit:

We required authorization for authorization so that the employees of the cash register would not know who they are paying money to. They paid me because I had the authority from Xx and I had permission from Igrek - otherwise we would have been quickly deciphered ("Gen Ryzyka ...", p. 70).

The method turned out to be extremely effective. For example, Jacek Majchrowski - the current president of Krakow! - has never been caught red-handed, and has repeatedly published in Tygodnik. Kozłowski gives an even better example:

We got lost among these fictitious names and surnames. We got it so confusing that today we are sometimes unable to reconstruct on our own who was hiding under a given pseudonym. On the 50th anniversary of Poland regaining independence, I published the book "Roads to independence". (…) I chose a good historical text for it, an author named Liter. To this day, I have no idea who it was. (…) It cannot be recreated from our files because we made it impossible ("The risk gene ...", p. 72) .

The editorial office of the weekly was (and still is) at Wiślna Street in Krakow (photo:Franciszek Vetulani; license CC ASA 3.0).

Special risk occupation

There was a constant danger not only to the authors hiding under the pseudonyms, but also to the entire journal. When in 1964 the editor-in-chief signed Letter 34 (a speech by Polish intellectuals in defense of freedom of expression), "Tygodnik" was reduced in circulation by 10,000 copies . The authorities did the same when the "Znak" parliamentary group associated with the magazine defended church property in the Western Territories:"Tygodnik" lost another 10,000 and was on the brink of bankruptcy. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that in Bierut's time the authorities closed the magazine for several years:in particular, they threw its entire editorial office and handed the Tygodnik over to another, completely obedient team. Of course, the readers were not informed of anything…

Also in the years when the weekly operated more freely, it was swarming with agents, security services and secret collaborators. Even in the Vatican, the Polish secret police had "a man" whose task was to conflict the pope with the magazine. Despite this, Turowicz's team survived all the harassment. It is a pity that hardly anyone remembers today how great a role he played. We live in free Poland not only thanks to Solidarity and the agitated workers. Wałęsa himself once said in an interview with the editors of Tygodnik Powszechny: You did not sign up for Solidarity, you created it.

Source:

The article is based mainly on interviews conducted by Joanna Podsadecka with Józefa Hennelowa, Krzysztof Kozłowski, Stefan Wilkanowicz and Adam Boniecki. You can find all these conversations and some others in the book: The gene of risk had in him ... About Jerzy Turowicz , Literatura Fakt PWN, 2012.