August 14th passes the anniversary of the death of Jan Stachniuk – a philosopher, economist, writer and cultural theorist. Jan Stachniuk was the founder of the magazine “Zapuga” and the intellectual group under this name, whose main representatives were Antoni Wacek, Józef Grzanka, Stanisław Grzanka, Janina Kłopocka, Bogusław Stępiński and Tadeusz Then. The outstanding sculptor Stanislaw Ławski worked with this environment temporarily.
Monthly ‘Zasecond’having the subtitle ‘letter of Polish nationalists” was edited from 1937 to 1939, and unlike the mainstream national camp he rejected Catholicism, referring symbolically to Slavic traditions and pre-Christian beliefs. The thought declaration in the letter’s signal number reads: “We are Polish nationalists who, in the current reality, are suffocating. We choke in the fumes of mediocrity and smallness, in the fumes of spiritual poorness and material poverty. Seeing what surrounds us is humiliating. For our unfulfilled hunger, for smallness, for misery, for humiliation, we accuse Polish historical past, we rebel against it‘ [1].
Stachniuk himself was born in 1905 in Kowl in a railway family. After a sentence, he moved to Poznań, where he studied at the School of Commerce. During his studies, he began to operate in the Union of Polish Democratic Youth. In 1933, Jan Stachniuk published his first book entitled “Collectiveism and Nation” in which he argued that only fast industrialization of Poland would enable her to last in the neighbourhood of dynamically developing Germany and the USSR. Stachniuk advocated the planned economy and collective economical solutions, which were intended to enable the fast industrial improvement of Poland. He made akin demands in his work "The Heroic Community of the Nation” published in 1935. In 1939 another book was published “History – the explanation of the interior improvement of Poland“ In which Stachniuk made a pessimistic assessment of the past of our nation. In his opinion, Catholicism had a negative impact on the Polish national character, which perpetuated passiveness, quietism and anti-Community and anti-social attitudes. Like Max Weber, Jan Stachniuk felt that unlike Catholicism, the work ethos present in Protestantism contributed to the dynamic improvement and wealth of nations.
During the occupation, Jan Stachniuk wrote the work “The Issue of totalizmu’, in which he decidedly cut off from the totalitarian views that had previously been attributed to him. This is demonstrated by the following words: “If the civilized humanity knew what fascism and totalizm was 10 years ago and what it would lead to, it would undoubtedly be able to master the incoming flood, laying impenetrable dams on its way. Unfortunately. What was then to be done with a tiny amount of force, present must be paid with immeasurable blood sacrifices and feeding the mole of war, devouring the fruits of the efforts of generations‘ [2]. According to Stachniuk, totalitarian movements utilized the energy and vital forces of societies to act destructively, alternatively of utilizing them to intensify modernization and cultural processes. Despite this, the environment associated with the underground organization of the Polish Revival Front, in which, among others, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, Witold Bieńkowski, Fr Jan Ziej and young Władysław Bartoszewski acted – they slandered Stachniuk and his colleagues' ideological relation with Nazism. It is worth noting that even though Stachniuk did not support the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, he took part in it and was awarded the conflict Cross.
After his liberation, Jan Stachniuk became active in rebuilding the country and made contact with the fresh authority. The environment, which was actively supported by the organization to the National Race, which in 1945 submitted to the National Council. Stachniuk's wartime collaborators Zygmunt Felczak and Feliks Widy-Wirski They took prominent positions in the power apparatus. Stachniuk, however, did not want to engage politically, focusing on writing. Then his most outstanding works were created--"Humanity and Culture” and “Christianity and HumanityIt’s okay. ” In short, the essence of the concept of Jan Stachniuk was the eternal conflict of culture against its opposing processes, called “cultureIt’s okay. ” According to Stachniuk, over the course of history, we have faced a constant confrontation of creative attitudes with anti-cultural attitudes, expressed both in a spiritual separation from temporal affairs (religious culture) and a focus on hedonist and consumerist attitudes (laick culture). According to Stachniuk, specified attitudes promoted bivogetation, i.e. sterile and unreflective persistence for the very duration. Biogetation meant reducing the life of an individual to repetitive biological activities and processes.
Although Stachniuk mostly supported fresh power and social-political change after 1945, he became a victim of panic unleashed by the safety apparatus and the Berman faction in the bosom of the PZPR. In 1949, Jan Stachniuk was arrested and he was accused of “fascinating Poland” before 1939. As a result, he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and went to a dense prison in Barczew. Although the detention was lifted in 1955, as a consequence of traumatic experiences from the investigation and stay in Stachniuk Penitentiary, he never recovered. He was a individual not only incapable to work creatively, but besides capable of surviving independently. Jan Stachniuk died in a healing facility in Joy on 14 August 1963 at the age of only 58.
Michał Radzikowski
[1] Stanisław Grzanka, “Who are we?”, No. 1 of the letter “Zapruga” XI 1937.
[2] Jan Stachniuk, The Issue of totalizm, Wydawnictwo "Toporał", Wrocław 1990.
