Leszek Moczulski
Encyclopedia
Leszek Moczulski (ˈlɛʂɛk mɔˈtʂulskʲi, born 7 June 1930) is a Polish
historian and politician, a member of various organizations opposing the communist regime in the People's Republic of Poland
and the co-founder of the first non-communist and not-underground political party in the Eastern Bloc
.
Leszek Moczulski was born June 7, 1930 in Warsaw
. Shortly after the war and the Communist take-over of power in Poland, Moczulski became involved in various communist organizations. In 1947 he became a member of the Association of Fighting Youth and the following year he became the member of the Polish Workers' Party
and the ZMP youth organization. Then until 1950 he was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party
(PUWP), though was dismissed in 1950, during one of internal struggles for power.
In 1951 he graduated from the Academy of Political Studies, a school of cadres for the communist regime. The following year he graduated also from the faculties of Law and Journalism at the Warsaw University. He completed his education in 1958 by graduating from the faculty of history at the same university. About that time he started to work as a journalist for various Warsaw-based newspapers and weeklies, among them the Życie Warszawy
, Dookoła Świata and Stolica weekly. As a historian, Moczulski focused mostly on modern history of Poland, including the history of the Polish Defensive War
.
Initially, according to the Polish lustration court, a secret informer of the Służba Bezpieczeństwa secret political police, in late 1970s Moczulski most probably broke up with the regime and started working for various anti-communist associations. He was one of the inspirers of the creation and the spokerperson of the Movement for Defense of Human and Civic Rights
. Conflicted with the rest of the members, he tried to break it up by forming a ZINO
faction, which was however unsuccessful. Finally, on September 1, 1979 Moczulski announced the creation of the Confederation of Independent Poland. It was the first political party
in the eastern bloc, at least theoretically independent from the ruling PUWP.
As a politician, Moczulski referred to the rightist wing of the pre-war Sanacja
and the supporters of Józef Piłsudski. In his political works he focused mostly on economical aspect of the possible transformation of Communist planned economy
into free market
economy. Among the most notable of his actions of the 1980s was a memorandum
of February 1985, in which he urged the governments of United Kingdom
and the US of A to fulfill the promises of the Yalta Conference
of 1945 and organise free elections in Poland. For such actions, Moczulski was arrested several times and held in prisons as a political prisoner
.
After the Round Table Talks
and the peaceful transfer of power from the communist regime to the democratic authorities, Moczulski distanced himself from the agreement and openly criticised the idea of gruba kreska
, instead supporting an idea of decommunization
, a concept coined after the post-World War II
de-nazification
of Nazi Germany
. He also stayed off the Solidarity movement. He failed to gain enough support in the Kraków-Podgórze constituency for his candidacy to the Sejm
in the Contract elections
of 1989. The following year he took part in the presidential elections
scoring 2.50% of votes. In the Polish parliamentary elections
of 1991 he became a member of the parliament
. He held his post in the elections of
1993. During his membership, he was a president of various commissions, including the commissions responsible for foreign policies, for support of Polonia
, as well as the commission working on the project of the new constitution.
Moczulski also took part in the presidential election
of 1995, though he withdrew his candidacy. In 1992, during the last days of the government of Jan Olszewski
, Moczulski was accused by Antoni Macierewicz
of being one of the secret agents of the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB), a communist secret police. In 1997 Moczulski himself asked the lustration
tribunal to investigate the matter. However, contrary to his predictions, he was found guilty of hiding his collaboration with the SB during the period 1969-1977, which ended his political career.
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...
historian and politician, a member of various organizations opposing the communist regime in the People's Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
and the co-founder of the first non-communist and not-underground political party in the Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
.
Leszek Moczulski was born June 7, 1930 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...
. Shortly after the war and the Communist take-over of power in Poland, Moczulski became involved in various communist organizations. In 1947 he became a member of the Association of Fighting Youth and the following year he became the member of the Polish Workers' Party
Polish Workers' Party
The Polish Workers' Party was a communist party in Poland from 1942 to 1948. It was founded as a reconstitution of the Communist Party of Poland, and merged with the Polish Socialist Party in 1948 to form the Polish United Workers' Party.-History:...
and the ZMP youth organization. Then until 1950 he was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party
Polish United Workers' Party
The Polish United Workers' Party was the Communist party which governed the People's Republic of Poland from 1948 to 1989. Ideologically it was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism.- The Party's Program and Goals :...
(PUWP), though was dismissed in 1950, during one of internal struggles for power.
In 1951 he graduated from the Academy of Political Studies, a school of cadres for the communist regime. The following year he graduated also from the faculties of Law and Journalism at the Warsaw University. He completed his education in 1958 by graduating from the faculty of history at the same university. About that time he started to work as a journalist for various Warsaw-based newspapers and weeklies, among them the Życie Warszawy
Zycie Warszawy
Życie Warszawy is a right leaning Polish newspaper published in Warsaw. It was founded in October 1944 as an initiative of Polish Workers' Party. Currently it is published by Dom Prasowy Sp. z o.o. and owned by Michał Sołowow....
, Dookoła Świata and Stolica weekly. As a historian, Moczulski focused mostly on modern history of Poland, including the history of the Polish Defensive War
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
.
Initially, according to the Polish lustration court, a secret informer of the Służba Bezpieczeństwa secret political police, in late 1970s Moczulski most probably broke up with the regime and started working for various anti-communist associations. He was one of the inspirers of the creation and the spokerperson of the Movement for Defense of Human and Civic Rights
Movement for Defense of Human and Civic Rights
Movement for Defense of Human and Civic Rights was a right-wing political and social organization formed in People's Republic of Poland in March of 1977...
. Conflicted with the rest of the members, he tried to break it up by forming a ZINO
Zino
Zino is a Greek social networking website. In 2009, it was ranked one of the top Greek social destinations.-History:Zino started as a continuation of a news-focused Greek network, chit-chat.gr, which was established in 2005, and eventually replaced it...
faction, which was however unsuccessful. Finally, on September 1, 1979 Moczulski announced the creation of the Confederation of Independent Poland. It was the first political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in the eastern bloc, at least theoretically independent from the ruling PUWP.
As a politician, Moczulski referred to the rightist wing of the pre-war Sanacja
Sanacja
Sanation was a Polish political movement that came to power after Józef Piłsudski's May 1926 Coup d'État. Sanation took its name from his watchword—the moral "sanation" of the Polish body politic...
and the supporters of Józef Piłsudski. In his political works he focused mostly on economical aspect of the possible transformation of Communist planned economy
Planned economy
A planned economy is an economic system in which decisions regarding production and investment are embodied in a plan formulated by a central authority, usually by a government agency...
into free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
economy. Among the most notable of his actions of the 1980s was a memorandum
Memorandum
A memorandum is from the Latin verbal phrase memorandum est, the gerundive form of the verb memoro, "to mention, call to mind, recount, relate", which means "It must be remembered ..."...
of February 1985, in which he urged the governments of United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the US of A to fulfill the promises of the Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...
of 1945 and organise free elections in Poland. For such actions, Moczulski was arrested several times and held in prisons as a political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
.
After the Round Table Talks
Polish Round Table Agreement
The Polish Round Table Talks took place in Warsaw, Poland from February 6 to April 4, 1989. The government initiated the discussion with the banned trade union Solidarność and other opposition groups in an attempt to defuse growing social unrest.-History:...
and the peaceful transfer of power from the communist regime to the democratic authorities, Moczulski distanced himself from the agreement and openly criticised the idea of gruba kreska
Gruba kreska
The term broad-stroke or broad line policy was employed by prime minister of Poland, Tadeusz Mazowiecki in 1989, in his first parliamentary speech in Sejm. He said "We split away the history of our recent past with a broad line...
, instead supporting an idea of decommunization
Decommunization
Decommunization is a process of overcoming the legacies of the communist state establishments, culture, and psychology in the post-Communist states. It is similar to denazification after Nazism fell...
, a concept coined after the post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
de-nazification
Denazification
Denazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. It was carried out specifically by removing those involved from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering...
of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. He also stayed off the Solidarity movement. He failed to gain enough support in the Kraków-Podgórze constituency for his candidacy to the Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
in the Contract elections
Contract Sejm
Contract Sejm is a term commonly applied to the Polish Parliament elected in the Polish parliamentary elections of 1989. The contract refers to an agreement reached by the Communist Party and the Solidarity movement during the Polish Round Table Agreement. The final agreement was signed on April...
of 1989. The following year he took part in the presidential elections
Polish presidential election, 1990
The 1990 Presidential elections were held in Poland on Sunday, November 25 , and Sunday, December 9 . These were the first direct presidential elections in the history of Poland. Before World War II, presidents were elected by the Sejm, but the Sejm was abolished in 1952. The leader of the...
scoring 2.50% of votes. In the Polish parliamentary elections
Polish parliamentary election, 1991
The Polish parliamentary election in 1991 to the Sejm and the Senate of Poland was held on October 27. In the Sejm elections, 27,517,280 citizens were eligible to vote, 11,887,949 of them cast their votes, 11,218,602 of those were counted as valid. In the Senate elections, 43.2% of citizens cast...
of 1991 he became a member of the parliament
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
. He held his post in the elections of
Polish parliamentary election, 1993
Polish parliamentary election in 1993 to Sejm and Senate of Poland was held on the 19 September. In Sejm elections, 52.13% of citizens cast their votes, and 95.7% of those were counted as valid. In Senate elections, 52.1% of citizens cast their votes, and 97.07% were valid...
1993. During his membership, he was a president of various commissions, including the commissions responsible for foreign policies, for support of Polonia
Polonia
The Polish diaspora refers to people of Polish origin who live outside Poland. The Polish diaspora is also known in modern Polish language as Polonia, which is the name for Poland in Latin and in many other Romance languages....
, as well as the commission working on the project of the new constitution.
Moczulski also took part in the presidential election
Polish presidential election, 1995
1995 Presidential elections were held in Poland on Sunday November 5 , and Sunday November 19 . Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Lech Wałęsa passed to the second round...
of 1995, though he withdrew his candidacy. In 1992, during the last days of the government of Jan Olszewski
Jan Olszewski
Jan 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....
, Moczulski was accused by Antoni Macierewicz
Antoni Macierewicz
Antoni Macierewicz is a Polish Catholic politician, anti-communist activist, member of Sejm, journalist and a former internal affairs minister, former vice-minister of national defence in Jarosław Kaczyński's government, and current parliamentary representative.-Early years and activity during...
of being one of the secret agents of the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB), a communist secret police. In 1997 Moczulski himself asked the lustration
Lustration
Lustration is the government process regulating the participation of former communists, especially informants of the communist secret police, in the successor political appointee positions or in civil service positions in the period after the fall of the various European Communist states in 1989 –...
tribunal to investigate the matter. However, contrary to his predictions, he was found guilty of hiding his collaboration with the SB during the period 1969-1977, which ended his political career.
Note
- According to the Polish Lustration Act, all candidates to the Sejm, Senate or government are to announce whether they collaborated with secret services of the communist regime of Poland. The declaration is then printed on all official lists of candidates.