Letter of 59
Encyclopedia
The Letter of 59 was an open letter
signed by 66 (or 59 at first, hence the name) Polish intellectual
s 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. Additional people signed the letter in January 1976.
The letter was closely related to Helsinki Accords
. On September 1, 1975 Polish socialist government signed "The Blue Book" of CSCE (the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
) committing to, among other things, the respect for human rights
and refraining from the threat or use of force. Meanwhile, the new changes to Polish constitution proposed by the Polish communist party, PZPR after the Helsinki Accords, included the new ideological clause
s pronouncing and reaffirming the "steering role of the Party in the nation", "socialist character of the nation", "permanent and unbreakable alliance with the Soviet Union", and most of all, that "the government obligation to respect the rights of the citizens" is conditional only, and "dependent on the citizens fulfilling their obligations towards the country".
The communist government criticized the letter of protest publicly, with Edward Gierek
calling the signatories "furious anticommunists, politically blind". Eventually, although the constitution was changed, the above fragments were redrafted to sound more neutral:
The government could not officially persecute the signatories for their letter, although various semi-official persecutions were implemented, for example, some authors had the government agencies refuse to print or distribute their books for several years thereafter.
In addition in January 1976, 78 emigrants and exiled Polish intellectuals also signed the letter, including:
Open letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....
signed by 66 (or 59 at first, hence the name) Polish intellectual
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
s who protested against the changes of the Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland
Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland
The Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland was passed on 22 July 1952. Created by the Polish communists in the People's Republic of Poland, it was based on the 1936 Soviet Constitution , and it superseded the post-war provisional Small Constitution of 1947 which, at its turn, had declared...
that were made by the communist party of Poland in 1975. Additional people signed the letter in January 1976.
The letter was closely related to Helsinki Accords
Helsinki Accords
thumb|300px|[[Erich Honecker]] and [[Helmut Schmidt]] in Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe held in Helsinki 1975....
. On September 1, 1975 Polish socialist government signed "The Blue Book" of CSCE (the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, human rights, freedom of the press and fair elections...
) committing to, among other things, the respect for human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
and refraining from the threat or use of force. Meanwhile, the new changes to Polish constitution proposed by the Polish communist party, PZPR after the Helsinki Accords, included the new ideological clause
Clause
In grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,...
s pronouncing and reaffirming the "steering role of the Party in the nation", "socialist character of the nation", "permanent and unbreakable alliance with the Soviet Union", and most of all, that "the government obligation to respect the rights of the citizens" is conditional only, and "dependent on the citizens fulfilling their obligations towards the country".
The communist government criticized the letter of protest publicly, with Edward Gierek
Edward Gierek
Edward Gierek was a Polish communist politician.He was born in Porąbka, outside of Sosnowiec. He lost his father to a mining accident in a pit at the age of four. His mother married again and emigrated to northern France, where he was raised. He joined the French Communist Party in 1931 and was...
calling the signatories "furious anticommunists, politically blind". Eventually, although the constitution was changed, the above fragments were redrafted to sound more neutral:
- steering role of the Party 'in the nation' was changed to 'in the building of socialism'
- the 'alliance' with the USSR was replaced with 'friendship'
- citizens' rights were not linked with their obligations
The government could not officially persecute the signatories for their letter, although various semi-official persecutions were implemented, for example, some authors had the government agencies refuse to print or distribute their books for several years thereafter.
Signatories
Italics refer to the additional signatories from early 1976- Stefan Amsterdamski
- Stanisław Barańczak
- Ewa Bieńkowska
- Jacek Bierezin
- Henryk Błachnio
- Irena Byrska
- Tadeusz Byrski
- Bohdan Chwedeńczuk
- Ludwik Cohn
- Andrzej Drawicz
- Jerzy FicowskiJerzy FicowskiJerzy Ficowski was a Polish poet, writer and translator .- Biography and works :During the German occupation of Poland in World War II, Ficowski who lived in Włochy near Warsaw was a member of the Polish resistance...
- Kornel Filipowicz
- Zbigniew HerbertZbigniew HerbertZbigniew Herbert was an influential Polish poet, essayist, drama writer, author of plays, and moralist. A member of the Polish resistance movement – Home Army during World War II, he is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers...
- Ryszard Herczyński
- Maryla Hopfinger
- Zdzisław Jaroszewski
- Anna KamieńskaAnna KamienskaAnna Kamienska was a poet, writer, translator and literary critic who wrote many books for children and adolescents.-Life:...
- Jakub Karpiński
- Wojciech Karpiński
- Jan Kielanowski
- Stefan KisielewskiStefan KisielewskiStefan Kisielewski , nicknames Kisiel, Julia Hołyńska, Teodor Klon, Tomasz Staliński, was a Polish writer, publicist, composer and politician, and one of the members of Znak, one of the founders of the UPR, the polish libertarian and conservative political party.Kisielewski was born to a Polish...
- Jacek Kleyff
- Leszek Kołakowski
- Julian KornhauserJulian KornhauserThe Polish poet and literary critic was born on 20 September 1946 in Gliwice, Poland.Poems, novels, literary sketches; translations of Serbian and Croat poetry.At present, he works as professor at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.-External links:...
- Maria Komiłowicz
- Mieczysław Kotlarczyk
- Marcin Król
- Ryszard Krynicki
- Jacek KurońJacek KuronJacek 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...
- Stanisław Leśniewski
- Edward LipińskiEdward LipinskiEdward Lipiński was a Polish economist, intellectual, social critic, and human rights advocate. Lipinski’s career spanned almost seven decades. Throughout his career, he held a series of advisory positions within the government, founded several organizations, and published books and essays on...
- Jan Józef LipskiJan Józef LipskiJan Józef Lipski was a Polish critic and literature historian, socialist politician, and notable Freemason . As a soldier of the Home Army , he fought in the Warsaw Uprising...
- Zdzisław Łapiński
- Hanna Malewska
- ks. Stanisław Małkowski
- Jerzy MarkuszewskiJerzy MarkuszewskiJerzy Markuszewski was a Polish theater director and anti-Communist dissident. Born in Warsaw, Markuszewski was one of the co-signers of Letter of 59, which protested the altering of the Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland in 1975.Markuszewski died in Warsaw, Poland, on 16 October...
- Adam Mauersberger
- Adam MichnikAdam MichnikAdam Michnik is the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, where he sometimes writes under the pen-names of Andrzej Zagozda or Andrzej Jagodziński. In 1966–1989 he was one of the leading organizers of the illegal, democratic opposition in Poland...
- Halina Mikołajska
- Jan Nepomucen Miller
- Ludwik Muzyczka
- Zygmunt MycielskiZygmunt MycielskiZygmunt Mycielski was a Polish composer and music critic. He was born in Przeworsk and completed his childhood education in Kraków, where he was taught by Bernardino Rizzi. In 1928, Mycielski moved to Paris, where he studied composition at École Normale de Musique with Paul Dukas and Nadia Boulanger...
- Jerzy Narbutt
- Jan OlszewskiJan OlszewskiJan Ferdynand Olszewski is a Polish lawyer and political figure. He is best known for serving as Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland from 1991 to 1992....
- Antoni Pajdak
- Krzysztof PomianKrzysztof PomianKrzysztof Pomian is a Polish philosopher, historian and essayist. He is a professor of history at the Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika in Toruń and, since 2001, academic director of the Museum of Europe in Brussels.Pomian's specialization lies in the socio-cultural history of France, Italy, and...
- Hanna Rudzka-Cybisowa
- Józef Rybicki
- o. Jacek SalijJacek SalijJacek Salij OP is a Polish theologian and Thomist, philosopher, Roman Catholic priest, Dominican, translator, writer and publicist.- Biography :...
- Władysław Siła-Nowicki
- Stanisław Skalski
- Antoni Słonimski
- Aniela Steinsbergowa
- Julian StryjkowskiJulian StryjkowskiJulian Stryjkowski was a Polish journalist and writer, notable for his social prose of leftists character.He was born April 27, 1905 in Stryj , to a family of Hasidic Jews...
- Jan Józef Szczepański
- Adam Szczypiorski
- Kazimierz Szelągowski
- Wisława Szymborska
- Jacek Trznadel
- Tadeusz Wojnarowski
- Maria Wosiek
- Adam ZagajewskiAdam ZagajewskiAdam Zagajewski is a Polish poet, novelist, translator and essayist.In 1982 he emigrated to Paris, but in 2002 he returned to Poland, and resides in Kraków. His poem "Try To Praise The Mutilated World", printed in The New Yorker, became famous after the 11 September attacks...
- Wacław Zawadzki
- Barbara ZbrożynaBarbara ZbrozynaBarbara Zbrożyna was a Polish sculptor, author of figural sculptures, monuments, portraits, religious and sepulchral sculptures. Her style evolved from realism through the synthetic simplifications, expressive and metaphoric deformation, to abstraction. She was also a painter, drawer and poet...
- ks. Jan Zieja
- Wojciech Ziembiński
In addition in January 1976, 78 emigrants and exiled Polish intellectuals also signed the letter, including:
- Adam Ciołkosz
- Lidia Ciołkosz
- Maria Danilewiczowa
- Józef GarlińskiJózef GarlinskiJózef Garliński was a Polish historian and prose writer. He wrote many notable books on the history of World War II, some of which were translated into English...
- Gustaw Herling-GrudzińskiGustaw Herling-GrudzinskiGustaw Herling-Grudziński was a Polish writer, journalist, essayist and soldier. He is best known for writing a personal account of life in the Soviet gulag - A World Apart.-Biography:...
- Jan KottJan KottJan Kott was a well-known Polish critic and theoretician of the theatre.Born in Warsaw in 1914, Kott moved to the United States in 1966 and lectured at Yale and Berkeley. A poet, translator, and critic, he was also one of the finest essayists of the Polish school...
- Józef Łobodowski
- Tadeusz Nowakowski
- Edward Bernard Raczyński
- Zofia RomanowiczowaZofia RomanowiczowaZofia Romanowiczowa was a Polish writer and translator.When World War II broke out, she first stayed in Radom, where she participated in the Polish resistance as a liaison officer...
- Tymon Terlecki
- Wiktor Trościanko
- Leopold TyrmandLeopold TyrmandLeopold Tyrmand was a Polish novelist and editor. He studied architecture for a year at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris before the war, and during the war was a resistance fighter in Poland, a waiter in Germany , and a prisoner in a Norwegian concentration camp...
- Józef Wittlin