Aleksander Smolar (born December 10, 1940 in

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...

) is a Polish writer, political activist and adviser, vice-president of

Institute for Human Sciences An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations ( research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

and president of the Stefan Batory Foundation. He is son of prominent communist activist Grzegorz Smolar.

Biography

Between 1954 and 1957 Smolar belonged to the Polish communist youth organization

Union of Polish Youth Związek Młodzieży Polskiej (Union or Association of Polish Youth, abbr. ZMP) was a Polish communist youth organization, existing from 1948 to 1956. It was subordinated to Polish United Workers' Party It was formed from the Union of Youth Stru ...

(''Związek Młodzieży Polskiej'') and then, until 1964, to the Union of Socialist Youth (). Smolar began his studies at the Warsaw Politechnic but soon transferred to

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

to study sociology and economics. In 1962 he joined the Political Discussion Club initiated by

Karol Modzelewski Karol Cyryl Modzelewski (23 November 1937 – 28 April 2019) was a Polish historian, writer, politician and academic of Russian origin, one of the leading figures of the democratic opposition in the Polish People's Republic from the 1960s to the 1 ...

. He graduated in 1964. He continued his studies, serving as a research assistant to

Włodzimierz Brus Włodzimierz Brus (; ; born Beniamin Zylberberg, 23 August 1921 – 31 August 2007) was an economist and party functionary in communist Poland. He emigrated from Poland in 1972, removed from power after the 1968 Polish political crisis. Brus spen ...

in the Political Economy Department at Warsaw University. He was a member of the communist

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...

(''PZPR'') which ruled Poland and served as a vice-secretary of the committee of the party in the Political Economy Department at his school. He was removed from the party for publicly defending

Leszek Kołakowski Leszek Kołakowski (; ; 23 October 1927 – 17 July 2009) was a Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. He is best known for his critical analyses of Marxist thought, especially his three-volume history, '' Main Currents of Marxism'' (1976 ...

, a Polish revisionist Marxist philosopher who was critical of Marxism-Leninism. Smolar took part in the

March 1968 events The Polish 1968 political crisis, also known in Poland as March 1968, Students' March, or March events ( pl, Marzec 1968; studencki Marzec; wydarzenia marcowe), was a series of major student, intellectual and other protests against the ruling Poli ...

, a series of protests by students and young factory workers against the repressive nature of the communist party in Poland. He was arrested and imprisoned until February 1969. He was expelled from the university and after being released from prison worked in heavy industry. In 1971 he emigrated from Poland, going to Italy, United Kingdom and France. Eventually he began working for Centre National de l Recherche Scientifique in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. In 1973 he began publishing a quarterly political journal ''Aneks'', which he continued until 1990. He served as a spokesperson for the

Workers' Defence Committee The Workers' Defense Committee ( pl, Komitet Obrony Robotników , KOR) was a Polish civil society group that was established to give aid to prisoners and their families after the June 1976 protests and ensuing government crackdown. KOR was an exam ...

(''Komitet Obrony Robotników'') a civil society group which aided the families of workers who were being persecuted by the communist authorities. He also served as a representative of the

Committee for Social Self-Defense KOR The Committee for Social Self-Defense KOR or KSS KOR (Polish: ''Komitet Samoobrony Społecznej KOR'') was a Polish civil society group that emerged under the communist rule. It was created in 1977-1978 from the Workers' Defense Committee (''Komit ...

(''Komitet Samoobrony Społecznej KOR'') abroad. After the fall of communism in 1989 in Poland, Smolar served as an adviser to the first non-communist prime minister of Poland,

Tadeusz Mazowiecki Tadeusz Mazowiecki (; 18 April 1927 – 28 October 2013) was a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and Christian-democratic politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist Polish prime min ...

, and then to prime minister

Hanna Suchocka Hanna Stanisława Suchocka (; born 3 April 1946) is a Polish political figure, lawyer, professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and Chair of the Constitutional Law Department, former First Vice-President and Honorary President of the ...

. He was in the leadership of the Democratic Union (''Unia Demokratyczna'') party, as well as the successor Freedom Union (''Unia Wolności''). In 1990 he was named president of the Stefan Batory Foundation. He serves on the board of the

European Council on Foreign Relations The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is a pan-European think tank with offices in seven European capitals. Launched in October 2007, it conducts research on European foreign and security policy and provides a meeting space for decisi ...

and is a vice president of the Institute for Human Sciences in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Selected publications

*''Globalization, Power and Democracy''. (co-edited by Marc Plattner), The Johns Hopkins University Press, Washington, 2000 *''Entre Kant et Kosovo. Etudes offertes à Pierre Hassner''. (co-written with Anne-Marie Le Gloannec), Presses de Sciences Po, Paris 2003 *''Tabu i niewinność'', ("Taboo and Innocence"), Universitas, Kraków 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smolar, Aleksander 1940 births People from Białystok Living people 20th-century Polish non-fiction writers Polish male non-fiction writers 20th-century Polish male writers Members of the Committee for Social Self-Defense KOR

Biography

Selected publications

See also

References