Stashevsky, Stefan

Born in the family of a Jewish merchant. A 14-year-old schoolboy joined the youth communist organization. Underground was known by the nickname Adam , Yanek , Gutek , Rovinsky , Rudy .

He studied at the Faculty of Law, University of Warsaw , expelled in connection with the arrest for communist activities. He was released on bail, emigrated to the USSR . In 1926 - 1929 , together with Boleslav Berut , was a student of the International Leninist School in Moscow .

Returning to Poland, he became a prominent functionary of the Communist Party at the regional level ^[1] . After another arrest in 1934 he emigrated to the USSR again. He was arrested by the NKVD , in 1938 sentenced to 8 years in prison. He served time in Kolyma .

In 1945, Stefan Stashevsky again returned to Poland and joined the Communist Party of the PPR . Participated in the pro-Soviet partisan movement. He served as Secretary for the Promotion of the PUWP Committee in Katowice . Then he edited Trybuna Ludu , headed the press department of PPR-PORP. He was a conductor of a tough Stalinist course.

In January 1954, Stashevsky was transferred to the post of Deputy Minister of Agriculture. At this post, he was known as one of the organizers of forced seizures of agricultural products using force methods. At the same time, Stashevsky wrote a memorandum to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the PUWP criticizing the agrarian policy. After that, removed from office in the ministry.

In September 1955, Stefan Staszewski took up the post of first secretary of the Warsaw PUWP Committee. Since 1956 , contrary to his previous political reputation, he advocated reforms in the spirit of the 20th Congress of the CPSU . He sharply criticized Berut at party meetings ( Nikita Khrushchev even laid indirect responsibility on Stashevsky for the death of Berut from mental stress). He accused Stalin of anti-Semitism .

Stashevsky was one of the leading figures in the “liberal thaw ” group of the Pulawians . On his initiative, the secretariat of the PUWP Central Committee decided to publish a revelatory report of Khrushchev at the XX Congress (the only such step in the states of Eastern Europe) ^[2] . This decision was of international importance - from Warsaw, the text of the report through news agencies spread throughout the world.

In the political confrontation of October 1956 he supported Vladislav Gomulka . As the head of the metropolitan party organization, he authorized the creation of campaign groups and the preparation for arming of the workers of the Warsaw factories to resist Soviet military intervention. He participated in a meeting of representatives of the NDP with Marshal Rokossovsky , where he managed to somewhat defuse the situation. He was the organizer of the 400,000th Warsaw rally on October 24, 1956 , at which Gomulka delivered a keynote speech.

Despite Stashevsky’s role in Gomulka’s success, the new first secretary of the PUWP Central Committee soon removed the first secretary of the Warsaw Committee (like Khrushchev, Gomulka did not believe in the sincerity of the “Pulawians” and did not trust them). In February 1957, Staszewski moved to a much less significant position as head of the Polish Press Agency . In the summer of 1958 he was also removed from this post, as the NDP Security Service suspected him of focusing on foreign news feed. He resigned from the Ministry of Health, was an editor at PWN .

He was under the supervision of state security, was subjected to harsh pressure from the national communist "partisan faction" Mechislav Mochar ^[3] . During the anti-Semitic campaign of 1968, Stefan Stashevsky was expelled from the PUWP.

Since the 1960s, Stefan Stashevsky became close to the opposition. He was in active contact with dissident student groups. He supported the protests of 1967 - 1968 , but spoke out for cautious actions that did not lead to a violent confrontation with the authorities, urged Jacek Kuronya and Adam Michnik to a more moderate position. Stashevsky's views gradually evolved to liberal forms of socialism .

In the second half of the 1970s, Stashevsky supported the creation of the Workers Protection Committee (KOR). He organized in his apartment a place of constant meetings attended by such KOR figures as economist Professor Edward Lipinski ( socialist , participant in the revolution of 1905 ) and philologist Jozef Rybicki (soldier of the Craiova Army , participant in the Warsaw Uprising ).

In 1979 , during a visit to Poland by Pope John Paul II , Stashevsky persuaded Curony and Michnik to take part in the events dedicated to this event. (Initially, the leftist leaders of the secular opposition distanced themselves from the papal visit.) Stashevsky himself received Catholic baptism. The second wife of Stefan Staszewski Danut actively participated in the activities of the Catholic opposition ^[4] .

In the early 1980s, Stefan Stashevsky supported the trade union Solidarity . As a guest, he was invited to the I Congress of Solidarity ^[5] .

Stefan Staszewski died in November 1989 , when the first non-communist government of post-war Poland was formed, headed by Tadeusz Mazowiecki , shortly before the transformation of the NDP into the Third Commonwealth . He was buried according to the Catholic rite.

• Julia Bristiger