Karol Cyryl Modzelewski (23 November 1937 – 28 April 2019) was a Polish

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and academic of Russian origin, one of the leading figures of the democratic opposition in the

Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...

from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Life and career

He was the adopted son of

Zygmunt Modzelewski Zygmunt Modzelewski (15 April 1900, Częstochowa – 18 June 1954, Warsaw) was a Polish communist politician, professor, economist, and diplomat. Life and career He was a member of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania a ...

. A professor at the

University of Wrocław , ''Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau'' (before 1945) , free_label = Specialty programs , free = , colors = Blue , website uni.wroc.pl The University of Wrocław ( pl, Uniwersytet Wrocławski, U ...

and the

University of Warsaw 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 ...

, he was a member of the

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 ...

but was expelled from it in 1964 for opposition to some policies of the party. With

Jacek Kuroń Jacek Jan Kuroń (; 3 March 1934 – 17 June 2004) was one of the democratic leaders of opposition in the People's Republic of Poland. He was widely known as the "godfather of the Polish opposition," not unlike Václav Havel in Czechoslovakia. Ku ...

he co-wrote the Open Letter to the Party, for which he was imprisoned for three years. He took part in the

Polish 1968 political crisis 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 ...

, and for his activities he was again imprisoned for three and a half years. During the 1980 strikes he came up with the name of '

Solidarity ''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio ...

'. He was one of the Solidarity press contacts, and a member of the Solidarity region in

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

. He was interned with many others during the martial law in Poland. From 1989 to 1991 he was a member of the

Polish Senat The Senate ( pl, Senat) is the upper house of the Polish parliament, the lower house being the Sejm. The history of the Polish Senate stretches back over 500 years; it was one of the first constituent bodies of a bicameral parliament in Europe ...

(

Solidarity Citizens' Committee The Solidarity Citizens' Committee (''Komitet Obywatelski "Solidarność"'', KO "S"), also known as Citizens' Electoral Committee (''Obywatelski Komitet Wyborczy'') and previously named the Citizens' Committee with Lech Wałęsa (''Komitet Obywate ...

), supporting the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

, particularly the

Labour Union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

party and later

Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz (, born 13 September 1950) is a Polish left-wing politician who served as Prime Minister of Poland for a year from 7 February 1996 to 31 October 1997, after being defeated in the Parliamentary elections by the Solidarity ...

. He died on 28 April 2019 in Warsaw.

Awards and distinctions

In 1998, he was awarded Poland's highest distinction Order of White Eagle. In 2007, he won the

Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science The Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science () is the most prestigious scientific award in Poland given every year from 1992 by a non-governmental non-profit Polish organization, Foundation for Polish Science (). The prize is widely regarded a ...

for his research on the emergence of the European identity revealing the importance of pre-Christian and

multicultural The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...

tradition for the contemporary concept of Europe, presented in his work ''Barbarzyńska Europa'' ("Barbarian Europe"). In 2009, he received an

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

at the

Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz ( pl, Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego w Bydgoszczy; UKW), also known as the Casimir the Great University, is a state-funded university in Bydgoszcz, Poland. It was named after Casimir III the Great ('' ...

, and in 2014 he was the winner of the prestigious

Nike Award The Nike Literary Award ( pl, Nagroda Literacka „Nike") is a literary prize awarded each year for the best book of a single living author writing in Polish and published the previous year. It is widely considered the most important award for ...

for his

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

entitled ''Zajeździmy kobyłę historii: wyznania poobijanego jeźdźca'' ("We'll Ride the Mare of History to the Ground: Confessions of a Bruised Rider") as well as the

Kazimierz Moczarski Kazimierz Damazy Moczarski (21 July 1907 – 27 September 1975) was a Polish writer and journalist, an officer of the Polish Home Army (''noms de guerre'': Borsuk, Grawer, Maurycy, and Rafał; active in anti-Nazi resistance). Kazimierz Moczars ...

History Award and the

Józef Tischner Józef Stanisław Tischner (12 March 1931 – 28 June 2000) was a Polish priest and philosopher. The first chaplain of the trade union, " Solidarity" (Polish ''Solidarność''). Life Tischner was born in Stary Sącz to a Góral family and gr ...

Award. In 2016, he became an honorary citizen of the city of

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

and together with

Róża Thun Róża Maria Thun (Róża Maria Barbara Fürstin von Thun und Hohenstein, ''née'' Woźniakowska, born 13 April 1954), is a Polish politician, more usually known as Róża Thun than by her formal style of Countess and from 1990 her style changed ...

received the Order of

Legion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

Selected works

* ''Zajeździmy kobyłę historii. Wyznania poobijanego jeźdźca'' ("We'll Ride the Mare of History to the Ground: Confessions of a Bruised Rider"), Warsaw 2013 * ''Scènes de grèves en Pologne'', Lausanne 2006 * ''Barbarzyńska Europa'' ("Barbarian Europe"), Warsaw 2004 * ''Życiodajny impuls chuligaństwa. Notatki z lat 1993–2002'', Kraków 2003 * ''Opole, centena, pagus. Versuch einer komparativen Auffassung der Langemeinde und Territorialverwaltung'', n:"Das Reich und Polen", Constance 2003 * ''La stirpe e la legge'', n:"Studi sulle societa e le culture del Medioevo per Girolamo Arnaldi", Rome 2002 * ''Zemsta, okup i podmiot moralny w prawach barbarzyńskich'', n:"Aetas media, aetas moderna. Studia ofiarowane profesorowi Henrykowi Samsonowiczowi w siedemdziesiątą rocznicę urodzin", Warsaw 2000 * ''Organizacja gospodarcza państwa piastowskiego X-XIII wiek'', Wrocław 1975, Poznań 2000 * ''Liber homo sub tutela nobilis'', n:"Kościół, kultura, społeczeństwo. Studia z dziejów średniowiecza i czasów nowożytnych", Warsaw 2000 * ''Dokąd od komunizmu?'', Warsaw 1993 * ''Między umową a wojną'', Warsaw 1989 * ''Chłopi w społeczeństwie polskim'' ("Peasants in Polish Society"), Wrocław 1987 * ''Revolutionary marxist students in Poland speak out (1964–1968)'', New York 1969 * ''List otwarty do partii'' ("Open Letter to the Party") (co-written by

), Paris 1966

Notes

References

*
Karol Modzelewski
in Encyklopedia Solidarności

External links