Jan Józef Lipski
Encyclopedia
Jan Józef Lipski was a Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 critic and literature historian, socialist politician, and notable Freemason
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

 (for a long time Master of the Copernicus Lodge). As a soldier of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...

), he fought in the Warsaw Uprising
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...

. Editor of collected works by Jan Kasprowicz
Jan Kasprowicz
Jan Kasprowicz was a poet, playwright, critic and translator; a foremost representative of Young Poland.-Life:...

, Benedykt Chmielowski and Gabriela Zapolska
Gabriela Zapolska
Maria Gabriela Stefania Korwin-Piotrowska , known as Gabriela Zapolska, was a Polish novelist, playwright, naturalist writer, feuilletonist, theatre critic and stage actress. Zapolska wrote 41 plays, 23 novels, 177 short stories, 252 works of journalism, one film script, and over 1,500...

.

Political life

Between 1956 and 1957 Lipski was an editor of the pro-reform weekly “Po prostu”; from 1957 to 1959 he was president of the Klub Krzywego Koła. In 1964 Lipski organized the Letter of the 34 (objecting the expansion of censorship in communist Poland). In 1975 he signed the Letter of 59
Letter of 59
The Letter of 59 was an open letter signed by 66 Polish intellectuals who protested against the changes of the Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland that were made by the communist party of Poland in 1975...

 and in 1976 he co-funded the Workers' Defence Committee
Workers' Defence Committee
The Workers’ Defense Committee was a Polish civil society group that emerged under communist rule to give aid to prisoners & their families after the June 1976 protests & government crackdown...

 (Komitet Obrony Robotnikow); as one of the most active members of this organization he organized help for the workers who protested in June 1976 against the government sponsored price increases in Radom
Radom
Radom is a city in central Poland with 223,397 inhabitants . It is located on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship , having previously been the capital of Radom Voivodeship ; 100 km south of Poland's capital, Warsaw.It is home to the biennial Radom Air Show, the largest and...

 and in Ursus
Ursus (district in Warsaw)
Ursus is a district of Warsaw, one of the 18 such units into which the city is divided. Between 1952 and 1977 it a was separate city, a legacy of which are Ursus' poor road connections with the Warsaw city centre...

 district of Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

.

In 1980, Lipski became a member of the Solidarity Union and was elected a delegate to the 1st Delegates’ Rally to represent the Masovia Region (based in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

). On December 14, 1981, after the imposition of the martial law
Martial law in Poland
Martial law in Poland refers to the period of time from December 13, 1981 to July 22, 1983, when the authoritarian government of the People's Republic of Poland drastically restricted normal life by introducing martial law in an attempt to crush political opposition to it. Thousands of opposition...

, he was arrested and charged with orchestrating a protest.

As the only senior member of the non-communist opposition, he re-established the Polish Socialist Party
Polish Socialist Party
The Polish Socialist Party was one of the most important Polish left-wing political parties from its inception in 1892 until 1948...

 (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna), which he led from 1987. In 1989 he was elected Senator
Senate of Poland
The Senate is the upper house of the Polish parliament, the lower house being the 'Sejm'. The history of the Polish Senate is rich in tradition and stretches back over 500 years, it was one of the first constituent bodies of a bicameral parliament in Europe and existed without hiatus until the...

 from Radom
Radom
Radom is a city in central Poland with 223,397 inhabitants . It is located on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship , having previously been the capital of Radom Voivodeship ; 100 km south of Poland's capital, Warsaw.It is home to the biennial Radom Air Show, the largest and...

 and was a member of the Civic Parliamentary Club (Obywatelski Klub Parlamentarny); he died during his term in office.

Honours and awards

On December 8, 1969, Lipski received the Armia Krajowa Cross
Armia Krajowa Cross
Armia Krajowa Cross is a Polish military decoration that was introduced by General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski on 1 August 1966 to commemorate the efforts of the soldiers of the Polish Secret State between 1939 and 1945...

, and on December 12, 1969 he was awarded the Medal of the Army for the fourth time. In 1984 awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Paris X Nanterre
Nanterre
Nanterre is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located west of the center of Paris.Nanterre is the capital of the Hauts-de-Seine department as well as the seat of the Arrondissement of Nanterre....

.

For acts during the uprising, Lipski was decorated with the Cross of Valour (Krzyż Walecznych) ("for lifetime achievement, for the brave stance in the street fighting of 25 September, for persevering in a shed at the police station giving a small fire under a strong defence, where he was wounded, and for active participation in patrols"), posthumously awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta
Polonia Restituta
The Order of Polonia Restituta is one of Poland's highest Orders. The Order can be conferred for outstanding achievements in the fields of education, science, sport, culture, art, economics, defense of the country, social work, civil service, or for furthering good relations between countries...

 (by Polish President Lech Walesa in 13 September 1991) and with the highest Polish decoration, the Order of the White Eagle (by President Lech Kaczynski
Lech Kaczynski
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...

, 23 September 2006).

In 2000, Jacek Kuroń
Jacek Kuron
Jacek Jan Kuroń was one of the democratic leaders of opposition in the People's Republic of Poland. Kuroń was a prominent Polish social and political figure; educator and historian; an activist of the Polish Scouting Association; co-founder of the Workers' Defence Committee; twice a Minister of...

 established the Jan Józef Lipski Open University of Teremiski
Teremiski
Teremiski is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Białowieża, within Hajnówka County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland, close to the border with Belarus...

.

Publications in English


Publications in Polish

  • Twórczość Jana Kasprowicza, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, Warszawa 1967
  • Warszawscy "pustelnicy" i "bywalscy", Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, Warszawa 1973 (dwutomowa antologia felietonu prasowego)
  • Komitet Obrony Robotników KOR – komitet samoobrony społecznej, Aneks, London 1983; 2nd ed. Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, Warszawa 2006
  • Dwie ojczyzny – dwa patriotyzmy. Uwagi o megalomanii narodowej i ksenofobii Polaków, Kultura
    Kultura
    Kultura , sometimes referred to as "Kultura Paryska", was a leading Polish-émigré literary-political journal, published from 1947 to 2000 by Instytut Literacki , initially in Rome, then Paris....

    , Paris 1981
  • Szkice o poezji, Instytut Literacki, Paryż 1987
  • Tunika Nessosa. Szkice o literaturze i nacjonalizmie, PEN, Warszawa 1992
  • Katolickie Państwo Narodu Polskiego, Aneks, Londyn 1994
  • Powiedzieć sobie wszystko ...: eseje o sąsiedztwie polsko-niemieckim - Wir müssen uns alles sagen... Essays zur deutsch-polnischen Nachbarschaft, Wydawnictwo Polsko-Niemieckie, Warszawa 1996 (bilingual German-Polish edition)
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