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Ignacy Hugo MATUSZEWSKI (1891-1946)

 

Politician and political journalist. B. Sep. 1, 1891, Warsaw, the son of an academic. Studied philosophy at the Jagiellonian University (UJ), architecture in Milan, law in Dorpat, agriculture in Warsaw. During World War I he served in the Russian army, got involved with J. Pi³sudski's camp, helped organize Polish Corps in Russia and was active in them. From 1918 member of the Polish Military Organization (Polska Organizacja Wojskowa, POW). From Nov. 1918 deputy head, and from Aug. 1920 head (till 1923) of the 2nd Department of General Staff. He took part in the negotiations with the Bolsheviks in Riga as a military expert. 1924-26 military attaché in Rome; 1928-29 Polish envoy in Budapest; 1929-31 minister of finance in a number of consecutive cabinets; 1932-36 editor-in-chief of the governmental Gazeta Polska and Polityka Narodów. One of the most distinguished political journalists and geopoliticians of the inter-war period. After the Sep. 1939 campaign, he settled in New York, where he became active as a journalist, chiefly in Nowy Œwiat and Dziennik Polski. Co-founder of the Józef Pi³sudski Institute in New York and the National Committee of Polish Americans (Komitet Narodowy Amerykanów Polskiego Pochodzenia). D. Aug. 7, 1964, New York. His writings were collected in Próby syntez ("Attempts at Syntheses", 1937), and Wybór pism ("Selected Writings", 1952).

The selected fragments are from "Polish" Communism (1946) published in: "Selected Writings", New York-London 1952 (1st ed. in Dziennik Polski in Detroit, June 3rd, 1946).

 

"Polish" Communism

There are two kinds of communism: the Russian one and that practiced by the rest of the world.

A short article is not the place for discussing the evolution that has led to the transformation of Russian communism into imperialism and of communism in other countries into agencies of a foreign state. But this is what has happened: communism outside Russia has lost the nature of an idealistic political movement and everywhere has become and organization devoted to spying and subversion, working for the Soviet State. Russian communism in turn has lost the nature of an international movement and has become a doctrine of Russian neo-imperialism. The Comintern is composed of the master and his slaves. [...]

Polish communism seems to be more a pathological symptom than a social phenomenon. It is as if Polish patriotism, for so many years turned into something sublime, produced a feeble but passionate reaction; as if the excess of love for Poland has nurtured hatred towards Poland in sick souls; as if the Polish principle of sacrifice for the fatherland found its equivalent in a rebellion of those fearful of this principle, a rebellion in the name of sacrificing the fatherland. "Polish" communism seems to fall almost entirely within the realm of psychiatry.

We must take note of this fact. For the Polish resistance against dependence is being crushed by means of a doctrine which says that "co-operation" with Russia externally and with the communists internally is a necessity. Miko³ajczyk is a symbol of this doctrine. In the name of "co-operation" with the Russians he signed the act of dismemberment of Poland; in the name of "co-operation" with the communists he tore up the constitution and agreed to outlaw everyone in Poland beside himself and his cronies.

"Polish" communism has never been Polish, but always anti-Polish. Russian communism was anti-Tsarist, antidemocratic, but was never anti-Russian. Russian communism, in spite of all its "Marxisms", has resounded with echoes of Philoslavism. Tendencies of "revolutionary imperialism" were so strongly marked that Lenin thought it advisable to suppress them in his own circle, especially before the revolution. Russian communists wanted to take over the Russian State, but they did not intend to destroy it; they wanted to turn it into an instrument for fulfilling their designs, but never to destroy it.

However, when "Polish" communists, long before World War I, started to work under the name of the "Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania", they were already fighting against the Polish State, then non-existent. They cried out loudly that the Polish nation is incapable and unworthy of independent existence. They hated the very possibility of a resurrected independent Poland. Rosa Luxemburg had a dispute with Lenin before World War I, arguing, as a "Pole", that Polish aspirations for independence were "reactionary". It is no coincidence that in 1905 the Social Democrats frothed at the mouth when they saw the Polish flag and cried "down with the white goose", although it was a symbol not of oppression, but of insurrection. No wonder that today they hate not only Pi³sudski, but also Jagie³³o and Boles³aw the Brave. [...]

The German Communist Party never renounced the idea of German statehood: it was opposed to the Versailles Treaty, to "unilateral" disarmament. A disguised superiority complex towards Russia seems to be deeply entrenched in the mindset of German communists. "Polish" communists exhibit an inferiority complex.

Such was the process of natural selection in this party. After 1918 every one of them who did not hate Poland enough or who awoke from this hatred was killed. This was why Heldman, D¹bal, Wojewódzki, and others were shot.

An opposite process took place within the Russian Communist Party. The party executed those who put the interests of the international proletariat above those of the Soviet Empire. The fate of Trotsky is a symbol of that. The master became more and more masterly, the slave more and more slavish.

Today Russian dignitaries consider "Polish" communists who hate their own country to be psychopaths, who can be entrusted with the task of destruction, but who cannot be treated as equals.

Communist rule in Poland is much more dangerous than in any other country. The power that is in the hands of "Polish" communists is not only the power of obedient foreign agents, but is also the power of psychopaths, ready to destroy not only when commanded to do so, but of their own desire as well. They are ready to demolish not only the present, but also the entire past. They would do this not only in order to score a political victory, but also to find a release for their pathological passion.

   Collaboration with communism is a mistake throughout the world. In Poland collaboration with the communists is more than a mistake - it is insanity.




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