Bratkovsky, Stefan

Born in the family of a diplomat and military intelligence officer. Since 1936 he lived in Warsaw . After the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, he wandered around Poland for several years and was brought up in an orphanage.

In 1949, Stefan Bratkovsky became a member of the Union of Polish Youth . In 1954 he joined the PUWP . In the fall of 1956 he graduated from the Jagiellonian University . He was engaged in social activities along the Komsomol line, was the organizer of the congress of the Revolutionary Youth Union in Warsaw. In 1956-1957 was a member of the Central Committee of the Union of Socialist Youth.

Stefan Bratkovsky adhered to the ideas of democratic socialism . In 1954, he organized a youth discussion club; in 1956, club members went through an unauthorized march across Krakow . Bratkovsky was in the editorial board of the socio-political magazine Po prostu , which was considered in the mid-1950s the mouthpiece of the “student front”, the public support body for the “liberal” - at that political moment - course of Gomulka . The publication actively promoted the ideas of industrial self-government, Bratkovsky advocated "market socialism" taking into account Western economic experience, criticized the economic inefficiency of the planning system of the NDP . In 1957 , at the first tightening of Gomulka’s policies, the magazine was closed.

Since May 1970, Stefan Bratkovsky edited Życia i Nowoczesności , an appendix to the Życia Warszawy party newspaper. In 1973, the publication was closed as politically unreliable. In 1971 - 1974, Stefan Bratkovsky was also director of the Computer Forecasting Laboratory of the Research and Production Center. After his dismissal, he remained unemployed for several years.

Stefan Bratkovsky was engaged in historical research (for example, the military-engineering side of the activities of Tadeusz Kosciuszko ). He got close to the dissident movement. He participated in the activities of the Flying University , distributed books by the independent publisher Nowa , spoke at the Polish section of Radio Free Europe. Remaining a Marxist and a socialist , Bratkovsky focused on “revisionist” movements in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the CPSU , in particular, on the works of Alexander Tsipko ^[1] .

In 1980, Stefan Bratkovsky actively joined Solidarity . On this wave, he was elected chairman of the Union of Polish Journalists. He was considered a representative of KOS-KOR in the media. Bratkovsky did a lot to lift information prohibitions and introduce actual freedom of the press in Poland in 1981 . He was expelled from the PUWP.

Almost everything was printed that could have crossed the mind of a journalist or editor ^[2] .

At the same time, Bratkovsky did not belong to the radical wing of Solidarity, he was an opponent of confrontation with the PUWP. In December 1981, he actually denounced the Radom platform.

If someone cannot help speaking in the spirit of "this is our last", let him say this in the name of his mother-in-law, where his words are not recorded on a tape recorder. This is not about the "last battle", but about a complex reform process.
Stefan Bratkovsky ^[3]

After the introduction of martial law, Stefan Bratkovsky worked in an illegal journalistic union, collaborated with the counterculture movement, organized illegal seminars, bard song festivals. In 1987, Bratkovsky organized the so-called. “Group of 60” - a collection of intellectuals of “Solidarity”. He effectively maintained links between the illegal Solidarity and the world press ^[4] .

In 1988 , in the wake of mass protests , Stefan Bratkovsky joined the Citizenship Committee of Solidarity, headed by Lech Walesa . He was a member of the Round Table , dealt with issues of legalization of opposition media. In 1989 he again became chairman of the Union of Polish Journalists, since 1990 - honorary chairman. He was one of the founders of the popular edition of Adam Michnik Gazeta Wyborcza and the publishing house Agora .

In the Third Rzeczpospolita, Stefan Bratkovsky continued to actively engage in political journalism. In 1991, he became chairman of the Foundation for the Press Center of Central and Eastern Europe, and since 2007 has headed the Fund’s council. Edits the social portal of independent journalism Studio Opinii ^[5] . Member of the Supervisory Board of the Association of Workers and Friends of the Polish section of Radio Free Europe.

Stefan Bratkovsky is a member of the Union of Polish Writers, an honorary member of the Union of Polish Artists and Designers. Member of the editorial board of the Polish Russian-language magazine New Poland . He was a member of the leadership of the Press Freedom Monitoring Center ^[6] . He was a leading radio program ^[7] .

In 2011, Stefan Bratkovsky was awarded the Commander Cross of the Order of the Renaissance of Poland . Laureate of the prize A. D. Sakharov. Has a PEN Club Award.

Stefan Bratkovsky is the author of a number of artistic and historical-journalistic works.