During the period of the People's Republic of Poland, Radio Free Europe focused on radio audiences, presenting a different assessment of political reality.
A large part of citizens felt that the message from this station was an expression of patriotism and the Polish reason for the state, as well as a kind of antidote to propaganda of the times of the Polish People's Republic. The listeners mostly did not realize what the actual origin of the RWE was, by whom the radio was financed, and what objectives it was pursuing. A kind of “legend” of Free Europe is inactive being cultivated among post-solidarity environments. Although the website of the Institute of National Memory can be read that the station "was our voice of freedom for 40 years" as well as "source of independent information about the country and the world". Did it really? With these and many another myths he deals with Andrzej Świdlicki in the book – "Radio with mission – Free Europe for intermediate defaults”, published in 2023 by Capital Publishing. The author, who was editor of Polish Radio Free Europe from 1981 to 1994, reveals a number of unknown facts concerning the origin of the radio station, the sources of its funding, and the real political function it played.
A very crucial issue addressed by the author is the genesis of the creation of the radio station and the expectations associated with it. Even before the formal establishment of the RWE, a Radio Committee was established in July 1949 to launch a political radio station pursuing the political objectives of the US government. In December 1949, the Radio Committee became the department of the National Free Europe Committee. The station was intended to be an instrument of intellectual and information warfare against the countries of the east bloc, pursuing the objectives of American politics. 1 of the initiators of these actions was Allen Dulles – future head of the CIA. There was besides a press magnate in the founding group of the Free Europe Committee Charles Douglas Jackson – 1 of the creators of the Bilderberg group. According to the author: “The main goal of the radio station was to influence the abroad policy of communist governments and the public to be sympathetic to the United States. RWE's broadcasts were intended to bring long-term political benefits to U.S. abroad policy, but not to be identified with it, due to the fact that broadcast under the name of the government would be little effective propaganda duplicate, alternatively of complementing the authoritative government tube – Voice of America” [1].
The beginning of the operation of the Polish RWE station took place on May 3, 1952, with the station initially acting as the “Free Poland Voice” 3 hours a day. The first manager of the station was Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, known for his activities during the war as a courier and emissary, as well as an worker of the Information and Propaganda Office of the office of the Armed Combat Union – Home Army. Interestingly, Jeziorski carefully hid his little boastful activity while during the business he was employed in the Commercial Trust Office, where he was active in the management of the judaic property (disclosure of this fact to the public caused him to leave the station in 1976). After the war, Jeziorański remained on emigration, where he operated in the Polish Freedom Movement "Independence and Democracy" (NiD), and was besides a co-worker of British and American peculiar services. The fact of this cooperation may be the key to knowing why he became the manager of the public service set up to live for American money.
In addition to Nowak-Jezioranski, the leading function in the Polish RWE station was initially played by the erstwhile head of the propaganda of the pre-war OZN, followed by the Information and Propaganda Office of the Home Army – Tadeusz Żenczykowskiand NiD activists Andrzej Pomian and Józef Garliński. It is worth looking at the political environment of the founders of the Polish RWE station. The independency and Democracy Organization, apart from anti-communist slogans, proclaimed federalist and unification ideas. She called for the creation of a supra-state federation at regional level (the Federation of States of Central and east Europe), European (European Confederation) and global (World State), indirectly inspired by the ideas proclaimed by Joseph Retingerand the founder of the Pan-European Union – Richard Coudenhove-Kallergy.
During its operation, the Polish public service RWE pursued goals that coincided with the interests of its political sponsors and power-makers. According to Andrzej Świdlicki: "Radio Free Europe was a long-term American political investment – political reasoning of 2 generations of Poles worked, shaped a affirmative image of the West and the belief that there was a place for them, made it clear that, despite belonging to the russian sphere of influence, they were not alone with the communists, due to the fact that the West claimed them" [2]. From the very beginning, the station protested post-war political order in Poland and attacked the PRL authorities, accusing them of being a tool of russian politics. Indirectly, she promoted opposition political environments, participating in later social protests against the authorities of the People's Poland.
Special activity of the station was demonstrated in the field of tracking and publicising disputes and factions within the Polish United Workers' Party. Initially, this active the activities of 2 major organization factions – “natolins” and “puławan”, followed by the activity of a dynamically developing group called “partisans”. It was an environment centered around General Mieczyslawa Moczara and General Grzegorz Korczyński, combining the demands of defending socialism with patriotic and national slogans. The Polish station RWE from the beginning began an uncompromising fight against the “partisans”, and especially with Mieczysław Moczar. This was not peculiarly strange, given the fact that RWE has favoured the liberal-revisionist wing in the bosom of the PZPR associated with the "Pulavia Group" since 1956. These actions sometimes took grotesque forms. As Andrzej Świdlicki figuratively put it: "The insinuative and scolded image of the enemy was to give the "partisans" a Gombrowicz mouth that they could not get free of due to the fact that it would be more real than they themselves. They were to rise fear and want to remove from public life. Like a priest of the Orwellian minute of hatred, Nowak gave his listeners names-keys to foam in unconditional reflexes" [3].
According to the author, the run against Mieczysław Moczar had another reason. In Munich, it was feared that Moczar, being the head of the dynamically developing Union of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy (ZBOWID), would attract to this organization veterans of the AK and the Polish Armed Forces in the West, which would marginalize the influence of the remaining in the emigration of the combatants, including erstwhile activists of the Information and Propaganda Office of the AK Headquarters, specified as: Żenczykowski, Garliński, Korboński or Nowak-Jezioranski himself.
Free Europe attacked Moczar in 2 ways. On the 1 hand, she attributed work to him for the crimes of Stalinism, utilizing the fact that for a time he was the head of the Provincial Public safety Office in Łódź. This was absurd adequate that Mieczysław Moczar had no influence on decisions made by the headquarters, or Ministry of Public Security. He was a middle-level officer for a comparatively short period of time. It is worth remembering that, while working in the safety apparatus, Moczar has conflicted rather rapidly with his superiors (e.g. Deputy Minister) Roman Romkowski), as a consequence of which he had to leave the resort, as well as the collection of materials incriminating against him as part of the action codenamed “Bagno”. At the same time, Mieczysław Moczar was accused by the Polish RWE station of nationalism and anti-Semitism, which intensified especially after the March 1968 events. The background of the March events itself was besides presented by the RWE in an highly unreliable and biased way. For example, the author quoted Tadeusz Żenczykowski's message on the waves of the Polish RWE radio station: "There is no organization magazine number present or the occurrence of any activist, in which there would be no racist thunder, thrown on alleged "Zionists". Under this Zionist slogan lies the common Nazi-type anti-Semitism taken from Bolesław Piasecki's pre-war “Falangi” programme [4].
It is besides clear that Polish Radio Free Europe has played an crucial function in activating political opposition in the Polish People's Republic and promoting its activities. These actions began after the events of March 1968, erstwhile the radio explicitly supported participants in student protests inspired by revisionists and erstwhile "pulls". In the following years, the RWE became active in supporting the Workers' Defence Committee and the Solidarity Committee. It happened back in the day. Zygmunt Michałowskiand then Zdzisław NajderaAfter Lakeside, they served as directors of the radio station.
Especially the Najder character was crucial for the political direction of the radio station. Zbigniew Najder was a literary student by education, but he put political activity ahead of technological activity. Despite his comparatively young age, Najder had extended political contacts in the West. 1 of his promoters was a CIA advisor. William GriffinWho introduced Najder to political salons. The impact on Zbigniew Najder's life and career besides Joseph Retinger, he met in Oxford in 1957. Retinger and Najder relationships can be described as mentor and student relationships. As Andrzej Świdlicki noted: "The common feature of Retinger and Najder was the tendency to influence the decisions of the people in power from behind the scenes, the advice without taking work for the effects, the theoretical reasoning of politics in isolation about the economy on which they did not know, the deficiency of applicable experience in administering or managing anything" [5]. besides the activity of the de facto created by Najder of the Polish independency Agreement had much to do with the activity created by Retinger of the Bilderberg Group. This organization has besides attempted to have a behind-the-clock and informal impact on political reality – of course to a much narrower extent. These contacts shed light on both the improvement of Najder's career and his activities as manager of the Polish RWE station.
The sources and ways of financing RWE were besides an interesting subject raised by the author. The money for the radio came officially from collections organized by the “Cruciata of Freedom” organization, followed by the Free Europe Fund. They were just a cover-up to cover up the real sources of backing for the radio, which was the CIA. "The scale of RWE's and Svoboda's secret backing by the CIA was investigated by Republican Senator Clifford Classe, who revealed on January 25, 1971 that the fundraising of corporate grants covered 1 5th of RWE's spending and the remainder came from a secret CIA fund outside Congress's control" [6]. In a later period, the amounts for the RWE were already officially allocated by the State Department budget. For example, in 1972, the legislature abroad Affairs Committee proposed to allocate $35 million from the State Department budget to Free Europe and Freedom. This proposal was accepted by Congress. According to the author, this was an authoritative admission that these radio stations were an instrument of US policy. Radio needs were constantly expanding – from 1973 to 1974 it was estimated at $54 million, and from 1978 to 1979 legislature passed a budget of over $88 million and $10 million equalization. Only a tiny part of the public service costs were covered by the UK Government.
So was the Polish Radio Free Europe a pure origin of fact and a voice of freedom? Did the content of it express the Polish right of state in the Cold War era? Were RWE journalists purely patriotic in seeking the welfare of Poland? Andrzej Świdlicki answers this question: “Radio Free Europe should not be assessed from the point of view of Polish aspirations of freedom, but from the political goals of the United States. It was not a free gift to the nations which after Yalta were in the sphere of influence of the USSR, but an instrument for managing their collective perception in a pro-American spirit. Not much has changed to this day. The US policy towards Poland was a function of policy towards the USSR, present towards Russia. Poland is the second most crucial bridgehead of anti-Russian politics after Ukraine, which is subject to the neo-colonial interests of the Anglo-Saxons.” [7].
Michał Radzikowski
PS. The book can be ordered at myśmypolska.info/shop or by e-mail: n.myśmypolska@hoga.pl
[1] Andrzej Świdlicki: “Radio with a mission. Free Europe for Average Defaults”, Capital Publishing Sp. z o.o., p. 38,
[2] ibid. — p. 10,
[3] ibid. – p. 261.
[4] ibid. — p. 277,
[5] ibid. — p. 410,
[6] ibid. — p. 373,
[7] ibid. – p. 12.
Photo: Program conference attended by Tadeusz Żenczykowski (first from the left) and Jan Nowak (second from the left). Munich 1961. (wikipedia)
Think Poland, No. 21-22 (19-26.05.2024)
