Jan Józef Lipski

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jan Józef Lipski

Jan Józef Lipski (born May 25, 1926 in Warsaw ; † September 10, 1991 in Krakow ) was a Polish literary critic and literary historian, political oppositionist before 1989 and member of the Polish Senate from 1989 to 1991. He was a co-founder of the Committee for the Defense of Workers , Member of the administration of the “ Solidarność ” trade union in the Mazovia region, member of the “Copernicus” Masonic Lodge , chairman of the secret Polish Socialist Party (after 1987).

Life

Before the Second World War he was a member of the Polish Boy Scouts . After graduating from elementary school, he became a student at the 14th Stanisław Staszic High School in the summer of 1939. During the Second World War he attended classes underground. Since 1942 he became a member of the " Szare Szeregi " (German: gray rows), the secret Polish scout movement during World War II . At that time his parents gave shelter to Jews. Lipski took part in some acts of sabotage. He became a fighter in the Warsaw Uprising and was taken prisoner. After fleeing, he found accommodation in Łowicz and Wyszogród .

After the war, he graduated from high school in 1946 and began studying Polish at the University of Warsaw . As a student, he wrote articles in literary magazines. As a former Home Army soldier , he was spied on by the security service. In 1952 he became an editor at the Państwowy State Publishing House Instytut Wydawniczy .

dissident

After the Polish October 1956 he became a member and from 1957 to 1959 chairman of the discussion club " Klub Krzywego Koła " ("Club of the Crooked Circle"). Since 1957 he made contacts with the Paris monthly newspaper " Kultura ". On November 1, 1959, he was released from the State Publishing House. From 1960 to 1961 he found a job in the weekly paper for farmers "Gromada - Rolnik Polski". Since 1961 he has been editor of the works of Gabriela Zapolska and Jan Kasprowicz . He organized help for persecuted opposition members. After the liquidation of the discussion club “Klub Krzywego Koła” he became a member of the “Copernicus” Masonic Lodge in 1961 and was its chairman from 1962 to 1981 and from 1986 to 1988. In 1965 he received his doctorate for his treatise on the work of Jan Kasprowicz. His habilitation in 1975 was initially not approved by the authorities and only released in 1981. He collected donations for the Fund for Assistance to Persecuted Oppositionists and their Family Members.

After the expulsion of the students Adam Michnik and Henryk Szlajfer from Warsaw University in 1968, he and Polish intellectuals signed a letter of protest addressed to the rector of the university. In December 1975 he initiated the letter of protest against the amendment to the Basic Law that transformed the People's Republic of Poland into a vassal state of the USSR .

After the workers 'protests in 1976 , he organized the Workers' Defense Committee . He was in custody from May 9 to June 8, 1977. He was operated on in London in January 1978 for a serious heart disease, but also used his stay to establish contacts with the Polish government in exile . In 1980 he became a member of the "Solidarność" union. After martial law was introduced in 1981–1983, he went to the " Ursus" tractor works to take part in the strike. He was arrested and held in the prison hospital because of his heart disease. From 1981 to 1989 he took part in many illegal initiatives. He was arrested again and was guarded in the hospital.

In November 1987 he became chairman of the newly formed illegal Polish Socialist Party . After the fall of 1989 he was elected to the Senate of the Republic of Poland in the first free elections in 1989 .

His work Two Fatherlands - Two Patriotisms. Comments on the national megalomania and xenophobia of Poles (1981) (Polish: Dwie ojczyzny - dwa patriotyzmy) was heavily criticized by right-wing politicians.

Honors

He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Paris-Nanterre in 1984 . In 1991, President Lech Wałęsa posthumously awarded him the Grand Cross of the Polonia Restituta Order , and in 2006 President Lech Kaczyński awarded him the Order of the White Eagle .

Fonts

literature

personal data
SURNAME Lipski, Jan Józef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish writer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 1991
Place of death Krakow