Polish Independent Agreement

The initiator was the literary historian Zdzislaw Nyder , the world famous researcher of the work of Joseph Conrad . It was joined by the writers Stanislav Lem , Wojciech Karpinsky , Jan Jozef Schepanski , Gustav Herling-Grudzinsky , journalists Tadeusz Mazowiecki , Jan Jozef Lipsky , Jan Zaransky , Jozef Hennelova , lawyers Jan Olszewski and Jerzy Lerski , historians Vladislav Garther , Bishter Aleksandr Harto philosophers Leszek Kolakowski and Marcin Krul , literary critic Andrzej Kieuwski , art critic Wojciech Wlodarczyk , economist Wojciech Rosczkowski , philologist Jozef Rybitsky - only about 60 people.

All these figures had wide fame and professional authority in cultural and scientific circles. All of them adhered to anti-communist and national - patriotic views. Schepansky, Bartoshevsky, Geishtor, Zaransky, Rybitsky were veterans of the Craiova Army . Lipsky and Hennelova were in the Gray Ranks , Herling-Grudzinsky - in the organization PLAN . Lersky was a functionary of the Polish government in exile . Mazowiecki, Kolakovsky, Olshevsky were known in the Catholic and dissident movements.

The PPN program was presented on May 3, 1976 in the London - based Polish-language publication Tygodnik Polski . The declaration of Poland’s full independence from the USSR , withdrawal from the Warsaw Treaty Organization , the establishment of multi-party democracy in Poland, the establishment of all civil-political freedoms, free economic activity of the private sector were declared. Ways were proposed for Polish-German reconciliation with the further full-fledged entry of Poland into the community of European nations. Support was expressed for the independence movements of Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania, countries historically associated with Poland ^[1] .

Since the 1950s, this was the first public speech of Polish leaders with such a frank presentation of the uniquely anti-communist and anti-Soviet program.

PPN did not conduct organizational work. The activity consisted of socio-political analytics and the development of program theses. Publications, as a rule, came out under pseudonyms and were calculated on a narrow competent audience. In total, 40-50 texts were issued. The most resonant articles were Tradition of Independence and its Enemies , Citizen and Security Service (contained practical recommendations on legal protection and behavior during interrogations), Poland and Germans , Poles - Jews , Poland and Europe . The last material - Poland - Ukraine - dated November 1981 ^[2] .

In the mid-1980s, allegations appeared in Soviet sources that PPN was not only the most conspiratorial and “most sinister” structure of the Polish opposition, but also the organizational center to which all the “threads of the anti-socialist conspiracy” converged ^[3] . Subsequent developments did not confirm such estimates. However, the significant role of PPN in the development of the opposition program is undeniable.

In practical politics, the most active of the PPN members were Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Jan Olszewski and Vladislav Bartoshevsky. They were prominent figures of Solidarity , the first two headed the Polish government in 1989-1990 and 1991-1992, respectively, and the third in the mid-1990s and early 2000s was the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Alexander Geishtor was president of the Polish Academy of Sciences in the first half of the 1980s and early 1990s. He acted as an authoritative mediator between the top PUWP and opposition leaders.

The founder of the PNS, Zdzislaw Nyder, in the early 1980s headed the Polish edition of Radio Free Europe . In 1983, he was sentenced in absentia to the death penalty for "cooperation with American intelligence." In 1989, the sentence was canceled, Nider returned to Poland. He was an adviser to Prime Minister Jan Olszewski and President Lech Walesa . He was accused of collaborating with the NDP state security ^[4] (the accusations came from the Nie newspaper, headed by former spokesman for the NDP government, Jerzy Urban ). In 2015, he supported the Euromaidan and the Russian opposition , criticizing not only Putin , but also the European Union (for unprofessionalism) and the Ukrainian authorities (for ties with the oligarchy and managerial weakness) ^[5] .

In May 2011, the 35th anniversary of the Polish Independent Agreement was celebrated in the Belvedere Palace with the participation of Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski ^[6] .

• Workers Protection Committee
• Confederation of Independent Poland