Central European dissidents, although in many ways constrained by their post-totalitarian regimes, were nevertheless taking part in a transnational circulation of ideas. This article is inspired by contemporary studies of cultural (g)localization and links them to the research on dissent to show that the dissident intellectuals in Central Europe (the particular contexts of Czechoslovakia and Poland are investigated) were not only the receivers, but also retransmitters and “generators,” of “universal” ideas. To grasp their role and to understand the nature of “universal” ideas, it is necessary to look into domestic contexts to see how internationally functioning ideas are localized—that is, recontextualized and translated. What is more, locally altered meanings can influence the international “originals” so that a new meaning can be renegotiated. Central European opposition found a firm foundation and a source of empowerment in the internationally recognized discourse of human rights. However, with time, dissident groups in the Eastern Bloc struggled to reinterpret these ideas and extend their mobilizing effect onto other issues. Certain themes present in Western debates were taken up in Central Europe and merged with human rights issues. The two analyzed here are pacifism and environmentalism, ideas that were metaphorically “hijacked” and used by the dissidents. The article shows how the translation and renegotiation of these ideas proceeded and to what extent they were successful both locally and transnationally.
On civil society, see for example, John Cohen and Andrew Arato, Civil Society and Political Theory (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994); John Keane, Democracy and Civil Society (London: Verso, 1988); Edmund Wnuk-Lipiński, "Vicissitudes of Ethical Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe," Studies in Christian Ethics 20:1(2007): 30-43. On the role of intellectuals, see András Bozóki, ed., Intellectuals and Politics in Central Europe (Budapest: CEU Press, 1998); Barbara J. Falk, The Dilemmas of Dissidence in East-Central Europe. Citizen Intellectuals and Philosopher Kings (Budapest: CEU Press, 2003). A more general work applying a similar perspective is John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War (London: Penguin, 2007).
2.
Cf. Padraic Kenney, A Carnival of Revolution. Central Europe 1989 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 2002), as well as 1989: Democratic Revolutions at the Cold War’s End. A Brief History with Documents (Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009); see also Andrzej Korboński, "Dissent in Poland 1956-76," in Jane Leftwich Curry, ed., Dissent in Eastern Europe (New York: Praeger, 1983); Tomasz Krawczyk, Stosunki między rządem i opozycją (Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, 2005); Oldřich Tůma, "Upadek systemu komunistycznego w Czechosłowacji," In Paweł Machcewicz, ed., Polska 1986-1989: Koniec systemu. Materiały miedzynarodowej konferencji. Miedzeszyn 21-23 X 1999. Tom I: Referaty (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Trio i ISP PAN, 2002).
3.
E.g., Agnieszka Bieńczyk, "Ludzki wymiar w działalności misji KBWE/OBWE." Sprawy Międzynarodowe, October-December (2000): 87-117; and Roman Kuźniar, Prawa Człowieka. Prawo, instytucje, stosunki międzynarodowe (Warszawa: WSP, 2000).
4.
The most interesting of such historical works concerning Poland is Andrzej Friszke, Przystosowanie i opór. Studia z Dziejów PRL (Warszawa: Więź, 2006).
5.
Wojciech Roszkowski, Najnowsza historia Polski 1945-1980 t.2 (Warszawa: Świat Książki, 2003). 6. For an overview, see Hans Peter Schmitz and Kathryn Sikkink, "International Human Rights," in Thomas Risse, Beth A. Simmons, and Walter Carlsnaes, eds., Handbook of International Relations (London: Sage, 2002), 517-37. Also: Martha Finnemore, "Norms, Culture, and World Politics: Insights from Sociology’s Institutionalism," International Organization 50:2(1996): 325-47; and Andrew Hurrel, "Norms and Ethics in Interntional Relations," in ibid., 137-54.
6.
Cf. Thomas Risse, Stephen Ropp, and Kathryn Sikkink, eds., The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1999); Richard Price, "Reversing the Gun Sights: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines," International Organization 52:3(1998): 613-44; and Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, "International Norm Dynamics and Political Change," International Organization 52:4(1998): 887-917. For empirical applications in Eastern Europe, see Mathew Evangelista, Unarmed Forces. The Transnational Movement to End the Cold War (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999); and Daniel C. Thomas, "The Helsinki Accords and Political Change in Eastern Europe," in Risse et al., The Power of Human Rights.
7.
Patricia Chilton, "Mechanics of Change. Social Movements, Transnational Coalitions, and the Transformation Processes in Eastern Europe," In Thomas Risse-Kappen, ed., Bringing Transnational Relations back in. Non-state Actors, Domestic Structures and International Institutions (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press , 2003), 189-226.
8.
Ibid., 212; cf. Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists beyond Borders (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1998), introducing the "boomerang effect" of transnational mobilization around human rights violations.
9.
Daniel C.Thomas, The Helsinki Effect. International Norms, Human Rights, and the Demise of Communism (Princeton: Princeton, Univ. Press, 2001), 92.
10.
Ibid., 160.
11.
Rodger Payne , "Persuasion, Frames and Norm Construction,"European Journal of International Relations7 (2001): 37-62, at 39.
12.
Michael Barnett , "Culture, Strategy and Foreign Policy Change: Israel’s Road to Oslo," European Journal of International Relations5:1( 1999): 5-36, at 25.
13.
Thomas, The Helsinki Effect, 103, emphasis added.
14.
Daniel C. Thomas, "Human Rights Ideas, the Demise of Soviet Communism, and the End of the Cold War,"Journal of Cold War Studies7:2( 2005): 110-41, at 117; cf. Jacek M. Kurczewski, The Resurrection of Rights in Poland (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1993).
15.
Thomas, "Human Rights Ideas,"110.
16.
Cf. Arista Maria Cirtautas, The Polish Solidarity Movement. Revolution, Democracy and Natural Rights (London : Routledge, 1997).
17.
Main publications in this strand include Roland Robertson, "Glocalization: Time-Space and Homogeneity-Heterogenity," in Mike Featherstone, Scott Lash, and Roland Robertson, eds., Global Modernities (London: Sage, 1995); Michael Burawoy et al., eds., Global Ethnography: Forces, Connections and Imaginations (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2000). For a review, see Ulrike Schuerkens, "The Sociological and Anthropological Study of Globalization and Localization," Current Sociology 51:3-4(2003): 209-22.
18.
Norman Fairclough , "Language in the New Capitalism," Discourse and Society13:2(2002): 163-66.
Bessie Mitsikopoulou , "Introduction. The Branding of Political Entities as Discursive Practice," Journal of Language and Politics7:3( 2008): 353-71, at 353.
21.
Making use of the position they gained through the performative function of the "dissident" as a label. For more on this cultural approach to the "dissidents," see Kacper Szulecki, "Smashing concrete with words. The Central European ‘dissidents,’ their representations and discourses," in Sabine Fischer and Heiko Pleines, eds., Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe before and after the End of Socialism (Bremen: Ibidem Verlag, 2010).
22.
Cf. Stanisław Grzybowski, "Dzieje swobód ludzkich." Znak, December (2008): 29-41; Michael Ignatieff, Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2001). For a lengthier discussion of these historic issues, see Kacper Szulecki, "Human Rights the Central European Way: Investigating Localization Strategies and Practices of Opposition Movements 1975-90" (Paper presented at the conference "Recasting the Peaceful Revolution of ’89. Roots and Legacies," Stockholm, October 2009).
23.
On the vagueness of human rights, see Cornelia Vismann, "Menschenrechte: Instanz des Sprachens-Instrument der Politik," in Hauke Brunkhorst, ed., Demokratischer Experimentalismus . Politik in der komplexen Gesellschaft ( Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1998).
24.
Eugeniusz Smolar, "Samizdat, Tamizdat and . . . Radio. The Circle of Hope" ( Paper presented at the conference "From Samizdat to Tamizdat. Dissident Media Crossing Borders before and after 1989,"IWM, Vienna, September 2006).
25.
Together with the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which was signed in 1966 but entered into force in 1976, and was also called up by the dissidents.
26.
Interview with P. Šustrová, Prague, 18 May 2010.
27.
I understand traditions as "myths" and elements of national self-conception. As such, even if they are not directly prescribing rules of behavior, they are crucial for the legitimization of claims in political debates, providing a "sense of empowerment for those who invoke it, making it possible for them temporarily to occupy the moral high ground." Ladislav Holy, The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation. National Identity and the Post-communist Social Transformation (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996), 85-86, see also 77-82.
28.
Halina Bortnowska , "Potrzebna jest asymetria." Interview by Ewa Zbiegieni, Znak, December (2008): 43-52.
29.
Traditions and realities do not necessarily meet. In cases of divergence, however, tradition can still be reinforced, even if reality does not abide by the prescribed ideal. The democratic experience of prewar Czechoslovakia and elements of democracy in Poland (as well as the older sociopolitical "traditions" of these nations) are constantly invoked in the debates during state socialism, especially on occasions of mass upheaval (1956, 1968, 1980, 1989, etc.).
30.
Holy, The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation, 79.
31.
Hnutí za občanskou svobodu , Demokracii pro všechny. Manifest Hnutí za občanskou svobodu (Praha-Brno-Bratislava: Samizdat , 1988). All translations from Czech, Polish, and Slovak are by the author.
32.
This is close to Thompson’s notion of "perceived experience." See Edward P. Thompson, The Poverty of Theory and Other Essays (London: Merlin Press, 1978).
33.
The concept of parrhesia is discussed in Michel Foucault, Fearless Speech (Los Angeles: Semiotext(e) , 2001).
34.
Václav Havel, "Power of the Powerless," in Vaclav Havel et al., Power of the Powerless. Citizens against the State in Central-Eastern Europe (London: Hutchinson, 1985).
35.
Jiři Hájek, "The Human Rights Movement and Social Progress," in Havel et al., Power of the Powerless.
36.
An example of this typical narrative can be found in Jiři Gruntorád, Niezależne inicjatywy w Czechosłowacji (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Grup Oporu "Solidarni," 1989), 6.
37.
As does the different nature of the "normalization" process. Petr Pospichal argues, however, that this narrative, dominant in the Czech Republic, is inherently Prague-centric. From the point of view of his native Brno, Bratislava appeared as a scene of very interesting dissident action all along. Interview with P. Pospichal, Čelákovice, 18 May 2010.
38.
See Kenney, A Carnival of Revolution; Juraj Podoba, "Rejecting Green Velvet: Transition, Environment and Nationalism in Slovakia," Environmental Politics 7 (1998): 128-44. The national question was a primary topic even for socialist intellectuals. See Myšlienka a čin. Časopis SOS a ROSA (Bratislava: Samizdat, 1989, Libri Prohibiti Archive, Prague).
39.
Ivan Laluha, Alexander Dubček.Politik a jeho doba (Bratislava: Nová, 2000), 98.
40.
See Altamira (Bratislava: Samizdat, 1983, Libri Prohibiti Archive, Prague).
41.
This is not to say that Christian values were absent from the discourse of Charter 77. On the contrary, the movement was built on a partnership of liberal, socialist as well as Christian traditions, represented by such key figures as V. Benda or V. Malý. As one Chartist notes, "The Charter 77 is an expression of belief in human beings, which for a Christian is of course related to the belief in God." Josef Zvěřina, "Nežít v nenávisti," in Vilém Prečan, ed., Charta 77 1977-1989. Od morální k demokratické revoluci. Dokumentace (1990), 72-81, at 73. Scheinfeld et al.: ČSAV & ARCHA, 1990.
42.
See Robert Brier’s contribution in this issue, "Adam Michnik’s Understanding of Totalitarianism and the West European Left: A Historical and Transnational Approach to Dissident Political Thought," East European Politics and Societies 25: 197-218.
43.
Bortnowska interview, 46.
44.
Adam Michnik, Kościół. Lewica. Dialog (Warszawa: Biblioteka Gazety Wyborczej, 1977/2009); Jacek Kuroń, "Lewica-Prawica. Bóg," in Jacek Kuroń, Autobografia (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, 1989/2009). On KIK, see Andrzej Friszke, Oaza na Kopernika. Klub Inteligencji Katolickiej 1956-89 (Warszawa: Więź, 1997).
45.
Adam Michnik , "Nowy ewolucjonizm," in Adam Michnik, Szanse polskiej demokracji ( Warszawa: Biblioteka Gazety Wyborczej, 1978/2009), 112-13.
46.
Georg Lohman , "A Missed Opportunity: The Communist Manifesto and Human Rights" (Paper presented at the conference "Capitalism and Beyond? The Communist Manifesto after 150 Years,"New York, 1998), http://www.uni-magdeburg.de/iphi/gl/Missed.html .
47.
Hájek, "The Human Rights Movement and Social Progress,"140.
48.
It is interesting to compare the "Open Letter to the Party" and the Charter 77 Declaration from this perspective. See Jacek Kuroń and Karol Modzelewski, "List Otwarty do Partii," in Dojrzewanie. Pisma polityczne 1964-1968 (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, 1965/2010).
49.
Hájek, "The Human Rights Movement and Social Progress,"135.
50.
Interview with A. Smolar, Warsaw, 18 Mar. 2010.
51.
The cultural centers of the older emigration were also important: Pavel Tigrid’s Svědectví and Jerzy Gierdoyć’s Kultura in Paris were major intellectual strongholds, also for the opposition, but they were only marginally interested in a communication with the Western public-they were mostly acting as "tamizdat" (cf. Smolar, "Samizdat, Tamizdat and . . . Radio").
52.
Either simply the translations of documents issued domestically, like the Charter 77 Declaration, appeals to the international public, or texts addressed directly to key intellectuals and politicians in the West. Most important examples are Kuroń’s letter to Enrico Berlinguer (Friszke, Przystosowanie i opór, 276-83).
53.
A rather unique early example of the latter is Adam Michnik’s tour of Western Europe in 1976. Cf. Jerzy Giedroyć and Krzysztof Pomian, Autobiografia na cztery ręce (Warszawa: Inwestycje, 2006); Cyril Bouyeure, Adam Michnik, biografia. Wymyślić to, co polityczne (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2009). In the early 1980s, such contacts were maintained by the "envoys" of "Solidarity," like Seweryn Blumsztajn, who during the Martial Law established a whole "foreign ministry" of the trade union. Interview with S. Blumsztajn, Warsaw, 24 Mar. 2010; see also Idesbald Goddeeris, "Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych Solidarności. Zagraniczna Placówka Koordynacyjna NSZZ Solidarność, 1982-1989. Cz. 1," Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość 5:2(2006-2007).
54.
Kultura (1981): 201-4. Interview with B. Toruńczyk, Warsaw , 30 Mar. 2010.
55.
Bortnowska interview, 46.
56.
P.M.K., "Solidarność oczyma Brytyjczyka,"Krytyka18 (1984): 223-25, at 223.
57.
Andrzej Celiński , "Moje kłopoty z ‘Solidarnością." Interview by K. Lubczyński, Trybuna, 4 June 2009, 7.
58.
Bronisław Geremek, "Pokój a prawa człowieka" (Speech at the International Peace Seminar in Warsaw, 7-9 Sept. 1987; Reprinted in Czas przyszły [September 1987]: 4-8, KARTA Archive, Warsaw).
59.
Interview with J. Gruntorád, Prague, 11 May 2010.
60.
Jan Patočka, "O povinnosti bránit se proti bezpráví," in Prečan, Charta 77 1977-1989, 31-34, at 32.
61.
Cf. Willy Brandt’s statement at the tenth anniversary of Charter 77, in comparison to his general political line of clear respect for the Yaltan division of Europe. Willy Brandt, "K 10. výroči Charty 77. 26. prosince 1986," in Prečan, Charta 77 1977-1989, 154-55.
62.
Kenney, A Carnival of Revolution, 91 passim.
63.
Cf.Václav Havel , "Anatomy of Reticence," in Václav Havel, Open Letters: Selected Prose, 1965-1990 (London: Faber and Faber, 1991).
64.
The links between Western (leftist) peace initiatives and USSR intelligence dated back to the late 1940s. Some of the détente movements were indeed accepting money, directly or indirectly, from the Soviets. This was, however, not the case with END. Interview with J. Kavan, Prague, 20 Apr. 2010.
65.
H.J. Schädlich in Po dwóch stronach muru. Rozmowa z J. Fuchsem, H.J. Schädlichem i J. Strasserem, Krytyka25 (1987): 206, KARTA Archive, Warsaw .
66.
One could also mention the role of nonviolence as a philosophy and strategy of action. However, within this article I chose not to discuss the question of nonviolence, seeing it as a certain morally grounded strategic option, and not an idea subject to semantic renegotiation.
67.
O míru a mírovém hnutí (16. XI 1981), in Prečan, Charta 77 1977-1989 , 234-35.
68.
O nedělitelnosti míru 13/82 (29. I 1982), in ibid., 236-37, at 237.
69.
Poselství solidarity mírovému hnutí v NDR’ 18/82 (21. IV 1982), in ibid., 238.
70.
The notion comes from the Czechoslovak president E. Beneš and the time of the Munich Agreement.
71.
The first real peace movement in Eastern Europe was formed in the GDR, though. In the first half of the 1980s it is difficult to speak of a wider localization of pacifist ideas in Czechoslovakia mostly because the dissident discourse reached "not even a percentile, a permil" of the populace, in the words of Gruntorád. (see n. 60)
72.
Interview with J. Czaputowicz, Warsaw, 16 Mar. 2010.
73.
A concise history of the Freedom and Peace movement can be found in Jarosław Podsiadło, Krótki kurs historii Ruchu Wolność i Pokój ( Gdańsk: Maszoperia Literacka, 2010).
74.
J. Żuro in Padraic Kenney, Wrocławskie zadymy (Wrocław: ATUT, 2007): 141; cf. Adam Bota, Trzeci ruch okrężny. A-Capella 12 (1989), KARTA Archive, Warsaw.
75.
Wojsko? Tak! Ale Jakie? Ad Vocem (22 Dec. 1987 ): 9, KARTA Archive, Warsaw.
76.
John Rensenbrink , Poland Challenges a Divided World ( Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press , 1988), 124.
77.
Although a campaign for the demilitarization of the society was launched, the single visible results were the organized protests and petitions against military toys and the promilitary discourse of children’s books. See Po co nam P.O.? Dublin 3 (November 1988), KARTA Archive, Warsaw.
78.
Tadeusz Rzepecki , "Pacyfiści,"Żołnierz Wolności, 3 Dec. 1987.
79.
The instrumentality of the use of peace was noted by some "true" pacifists both in Poland and Czechoslovakia. See Anonymous, "Dopis adresovaný aktivistům NMS," Bulletin NMS 7 (1989), Libri Prohibiti Archive, Prague.
80.
Żurko, in Kenney, Wrocławskie zadymy, 147.
81.
WiP, Deklaracja założycielska Ruchu "Wolność i Pokój" (Kraków: WiP [samizdat], 1985), http://www.ruchwip.org/index.pl?pid=64 (accessed 20 June 2010). Cf. Stanisława Grabska, Spotkanie na ogólnopolskim komitecie pokoju. Dyskurs (June 1988), KARTA Archive, Warsaw.
82.
A. Gawlik, in Kenney, Wrocławskie zadymy, 159
83.
Interview with P. Pospichal, Čelákovice , 18 May 2010.
84.
Compare Franz Josef Strauß, "Peace and Freedom Are Our Mission," Bayern Kurier, 20 Oct. 1983; Witold Trólka, Polska alternatywa? FA. Kwartalnik Ruchu Wolność i Pokój. Region Śląski 1 (1988): 46, KARTA Archive, Warsaw.
85.
Mary Kaldor , "Bringing Peace and Human Rights Together" (Public Lecture no. 9 at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, LSE , London, UK, 1999).
86.
Jacek Czaputowicz, Wolność i pokój są niepodzielne, Czas przyszły (September 1987): 9-15, KARTA Archive, Warsaw.
87.
WiP, "Stanowisko ‘WiP’ na konwencję END w Coventry,"Czas przyszły (September 1987): 27-28. Compare this argumentation with the liberal tradition (Kant) and the "democratic peace theory."
88.
Joanne Landy, "Odpowiedź na list P. Niemczyka wraz z uwagami o tekście K. Orłosia," Czas przyszły (September 1987): 62-67. Divergences at points were impossible to transcend-an example often given is Jan Rokita’s speech during the Peace Seminar in Warsaw, which some foreign activists found unacceptable if not offensive. Compare Jan Maria Rokita, "Wolność i pokój, czyli jak zwiększyć szanse pokoju w Europie," Czas przyszły (December 1987).
89.
Kaldor, "Bringing Peace and Human Rights Together," 8.
90.
Kenney, A Carnival of Revolution, 95.
91.
Podoba, "Rejecting Green Velvet." Due to common interests, the Slovak movement was strongly linked to similar initiatives in Hungary.
92.
L. Budrewicz, in Kenney, Wrocławskie zadymy, 122.
93.
Some underground commentators claimed that apolitical environmentalism is impossible, as "in this whole stagnation everything becomes political."
94.
Ivan Dejmal , K řeci o ekologii, Ekologický bulletin1 (1987 ): 2, Libri Prohibiti Archive , Prague.
95.
As the leader of two such initiatives, Petr Kužvart notices that what was often needed was only a pretext to voice a protest-the ultimate goal was far less important, and environmental issues were an easy source of mobilization. Interview with P. Kužvart, Prague, 9 May 2010.
96.
Holy, The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation, 171.
97.
NMS, Bulletin NMS 4 (1988): 18, Libri Prohibiti Archive, Prague.
98.
Interview with P. Kužvart, Prague, 9 May 2010.
99.
Julia Ziemińska and Kacper Szulecki, "Tracing the Process of Norm Empowerment in the ‘New EU’: Rhetoric, Activism and the Political Controversy over the Rospuda River Valley in Poland" (ESPRi Working Paper1, Wrocław , ESPRi, 2010).
