Ewolucja ideowa polskiej inteligencji opozycyjnej w latach 1968-1981

Ewolucja ideowa polskiej inteligencji opozycyjnej w latach 1968-1981

The primary aim of the dissertation is to analyse the ideological evolution of the main current of the Polish opposition intelligentsia between the events of March ’68 and the end of the revolution of Solidarnosc (1980-1981). Before 1968, the circle centred around Jacek Kuron and Karol Modzelewski represented the most radical current of Marxist revisionism. As a result of the March events, the political identity of this left-wing group suddenly disintegrated and, in case of its prominent representative, this meant the beginning of ideological transformations and explorations. They certainly resigned from treating Marxism as a useful set of theoretical tools that could help contemplation of the further practices of resistance; they opened up to the Polish national tradition, to Catholicism, and they stopped thinking in terms of class interests and conflicts. What is particularly striking is that this remained unchanged even after the great unrest of coastal workers in 1970-1971. In the second half of the decade, at the very centre of their discourse, the notion of civil society occurred (usually discursively opposed to the “totalitarian” regime). In August 1980, the working class spontaneously began the great social revolution. The most important representatives of the opposition left quickly became involved in the movement of Solidarnosc (as its advisors or experts). Nevertheless, in 1980-1981, their attitude toward the revolutionary transformation that took place, mainly under pressure from the ever more radical Polish working class, was mostly ambivalent.