The Crooked Circle Club () was a discussion club for young

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It was founded in 1955, the first meeting taking place in an apartment on Crooked Circle Street in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. It had connections with the ''Po prostu'' magazine. The club then expanded, and met regularly at the

Old Town Market Place, Warsaw Warsaw's Old Town Market Square (, ) is the center and oldest part of the Old Town of Warsaw, Poland. Immediately after the Warsaw Uprising, it was systematically blown up by the German Army. After World War II, the Old Town Market Place was res ...

every Thursday at six in the evening. The club played an important role during

Polish October The Polish October ( ), also known as the Polish thaw or Gomułka's thaw, also "small stabilization" () was a change in the politics of the Polish People's Republic that occurred in October 1956. Władysław Gomułka was appointed First Secretar ...

and the de-Stalinization of Poland, organizing other clubs and contacts. The club was heavily involved in the

1957 Polish legislative election Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 20 January 1957.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1491 They were the second election to the Sejm – the unicameral parliament of the People's Republi ...

. Matters suppressed by government censorship were discussed openly and frankly in the club. After First Secretary

Władysław Gomułka Władysław Gomułka (; 6 February 1905 – 1 September 1982) was a Polish Communist politician. He was the ''de facto'' leader of Polish People's Republic, post-war Poland from 1947 until 1948, and again from 1956 to 1970. Born in 1905 in ...

tightened his control in 1957, other discussion clubs were closed and the Crooked Circle Club was challenged as well though it survived as the only discussion club in Poland managed by its director

Jan Józef Lipski Jan Józef Lipski (26 May 1926 in Warsaw – 10 September 1991 in Kraków) was a Polish critic, literature historian, politician and freemason. As a soldier of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), he fought in the Warsaw Uprising. Editor of collected w ...

. The club closed in 1962. Several members of the club received awards for their work, including:

Paweł Jasienica Paweł Jasienica was the pen name of Leon Lech Beynar (10 November 1909 – 19 August 1970), a Polish historian, journalist, essayist and soldier. During World War II, Jasienica (then, Leon Beynar) fought in the Polish Army, and later, the Ho ...

, Jan Wolski,

Władysław Bartoszewski Władysław Bartoszewski (; 19 February 1922 – 24 April 2015) was a Polish politician, social activist, journalist, writer and historian. A former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner, he was a World War II resistance fighter as part of th ...

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 analysis of Marxism, Marxist thought, as in his three-volume history of Marxist philosophy ''Main Current ...

, and

Henryk Stażewski Henryk Stażewski (pronounced: ; 9 January 1894 – 10 June 1988) was a Polish painter, visual artist and writer. Stażewski has been described as the "father of the Polish avant-garde" and is considered a pivotal figure in the history of Cons ...

References

Further reading