Radzikowski: Pumping Hurrapatriotism

Behind us celebration of the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. I purposely and deliberately compose the name of this tragic event with a lower letter. The Warsaw Uprising was neither an act of heroism nor a origin for glory.

He who sends helpless people to slaughter is simply a murderer, no substance how lofty the slogans justify it. There is no uncertainty that the decision to emergence was not a military decision. The aim was to keep control in the country by the command of the AK and representatives of the London camp, in the face of the establishment of a competitive centre of power in Poland (KRN, PKWN) and in the position of the Red Army offensive. It was in the name of the preservation of power and political influence that the decision to emergence up was decided on. Both the course of the uprising and its disastrous effects are well known, and it is so pointless to describe them again. Suffice to say that it was an unprecedented act of barbarism, resulting in the capital of Poland being almost leveled to the ground, and nearly 200 000 people died. This trauma remained in the inhabitants of Warsaw until today.

Of course, there are those who separate the question of deciding to emergence from the armed act itself. I don't precisely agree with that. Of course, it is impossible to deny the courage, courage and devotion of the case to the private insurgents who practically unarmed faced the German occupier. At the same time, however, the actions taken by them had collective consequences, as they weighed on the destiny of the inhabitants of the capital, who, as a consequence of retaliation, died later during the slaughter of Wola or the pacification of Ochota. Unfortunately, the insurgents lacked reason, reason, and imagination. On the another hand, what could be expected of young people who were soaked with an ethos of insurrection and instilled in them before the war by sanitation elites? Although the Warsaw Uprising had no political colours and its participants were representatives and supporters of various groups and military formations – there was no self-preservation and political realism instinct.

It is crucial that the memory of the Warsaw uprising is now cultivated and celebrated especially by government camp politicians. For example, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki stated late referring to the outbreak of the uprising that “Whosoever desires to live as a free man must be ready to die for freedom”. There is no uncertainty that these are not worshipful words or commemorative phrases for anniversaries. There is besides no uncertainty that both the Prime Minister and another decision-makers would be prepared to direct Polish soldiers to the Ukrainian front in the name of “the defence of the homeland” from an imaginary Russian threat. The number of dead would have no meaning for them, as it had no meaning for their infamous memory of the predecessors – Tadeusz Bora-Komorowski, Leopold Okulicki, Tadeusz Pełczyński, or Antoni Chrusciel. So then and present – behind the full pathos patriotic slogans and references to ethos and imponderabili hide paranoid obsessions and a simple desire to keep power.

When the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising passes, there will be another opportunities to pump the balloon of hurrapatriotism and blow into national trumpets. shortly the anniversary of the Warsaw Battle, called by any “The Miracle of the Vistula”. It will not be a disaster celebration in this case, but the fact about this event has long been distorted (e.g. omitting the function General Tadeusz Rozwadowski), and secondly, utilized propaganda to address current political needs. As usual, a military defilada will take place, and lovingly our rulers will give occasional speeches about the ethos of the Polish soldier, the readiness to defend the homeland and the Russian threat. It is crucial that all time Polish politicians tighten their muscles and guarantee the strength of the Polish army and the inextricable alliance with the US – I feel little and little secure...

An old proverb says a cattle that roars quite a few milk gives. Similarly, the politicians of the government camp, who have long lost themselves in their pseudo-patriotic tromtadration. This is besides the nature of propaganda on public tv and of bending past to political needs. This is why the memory of the initiators of the Warsaw Uprising is cultivated, or "soldiers cursed", and forgets about actual heroes specified as mentioned Tadeusz Rozwadowski, or Sigmund Berling. The problem, however, does not just come down to the historical dimension, but besides translates into current political action.

Under the noisy slogans of the defence against the Russian threat, military aid is given to Ukraine, which puts us in danger of being dragged into war. At the same time, in the name of the “Polish reason of the state” we are disposing of military equipment for a country that has not recognized its own crimes to this day, and is setting up monuments for murderers. All this clearly confirms that the spreading of patriotic phraseology by the ruling organization has nothing to do with defending the Polish national interest and acting for the public good. Let's just hope it doesn't end in disaster like September 1939 or August 1944.

Michał Radzikowski

Przemyśl Poland nr 33-34 (13-20.08.20123)