Henry Richard Krygier
OBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(9 September 1917 – 27 September 1986), was a Polish-born Jewish Australian
anti-communist
Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...
publisher and journalist, and a founder of ''
Quadrant'' magazine.
Education and career
He was born in 1917 in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, of Jewish parents, and as a law student was active in student politics at the
Józef Piłsudski (Warsaw) University. His early sympathies with
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
were shattered by events such as the
Soviet purges of the 1930s
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...
and the
Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and he remained a vigorous lifelong anti-communist.
[ Peter Coleman]
"Krygier, Henry Richard (1917–1986)"
Dictionary of Australian Biography, anu.edu. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
In 1939, he and his wife, Roma, escaped to
Kaunas
Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...
,
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
, where they obtained Japanese transit visas. They reached Sydney, via
Vladivostok
Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea ...
, Japan and Shanghai, in 1941.
In Sydney, he was active in Polish journalism and import-export businesses. He was a supporter of the Australian Labor Party, and in 1947 he became a naturalized citizen.
Krygier's anti-totalitarian, liberal, democratic perspective led him to sympathies with the international
Congress for Cultural Freedom
The Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) was an anti-communist advocacy group founded in 1950. At its height, the CCF was active in thirty-five countries. In 1966 it was revealed that the CIA was instrumental in the establishment and funding of the ...
, founded in
West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
in 1950. In 1954, he formed and became secretary of its Australian arm, the Australian Committee (later Association) for Cultural Freedom.
The Association's principal achievement, as well as his, was the creation in 1956 of the literary-political magazine ''
Quadrant'', under the editorship of
James McAuley. Krygier was publisher, business manager and fund-raiser. In addition, he organised lecture tours of prominent overseas political and cultural figures and conferences on the problems on establishing democracy in developing states.
He remained active in ''Quadrant'' up to his death in 1986. For the last four years of his life, he wrote a regular ''Quadrant'' column, but he had contributed a few other pieces to the magazine before then.
Personal life
He married Romualda (Roma) Halpern in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
in 1939.
They had two children, a daughter and a son,
Martin Krygier
Martin Evald John Krygier , (born 1949) is an Australian academic.
Education
Krygier obtained BA and LLB degrees at the University of Sydney and a PhD in the History of Ideas at the Australian National University.
Career
Krygier taught in the ...
(born 1949) who is the
Gordon Samuels Professor of Law and Social Theory at the
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...
.
[Clarence Ling]
Martin Krygier's Contribution to the Rule of Law"
''The Western Australian Jurist'', Vol. 4, p. 211. Retrieved 6 October 2020. Richard Krygier died of cancer on 27 September 1986 at
Darlinghurst, New South Wales
Darlinghurst is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Darlinghurst is located immediately east of the Sydney central business district (CBD) and Hyde Park, within the local government area of the City of Sydney. I ...
and was cremated.
References
Further reading
*Peter Coleman, ''The Liberal Conspiracy: The Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Struggle for the Mind of Postwar Europe'', New York 1989.
*Various authors, "Tributes to Richard Krygier", in: ''
Quadrant'', vol. 30, no. 11, November 1986.
External links
Richard Krygier interviewed by J.D.B. Miller at
National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krygier, Richard
1917 births
1986 deaths
Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Australian publishers (people)
Australian magazine founders
Polish emigrants to Australia
Australian anti-communists
Australian Jews
Australian people of Polish-Jewish descent
20th-century Australian journalists