Poland, in fragments

Press, 4 September 1982, Page 16

Poland, in fragments

Poland: The Last Decade. By Adam Bromke. Mosaic Press, Oakville, Ontario. 189 pp. $22.95 (Reviewed by David Gunby)

Bom in Poland in 1928, Adam Bromke fought in the 1944 Warsaw uprising before going on to study and teach at universities in Britain, the United States and Canada. Now resident in the latter, and Professor of Political Science at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, he is a leading authority on Polish affairs and author of numerous books and articles on the subject. Professor Bromke’s latest book, here under review, is a collection of papers first published in a variety of Western and (in one case) Polish journals over a 10year period. 1971-81. Written as they were in the heat of the moment, and without benefit of hindsight, the articles not only provide a contemporary assessment of the various phases in Poland's development over this decade, but also allow us to assess from this side of the crisis of the last two years the author’s predictive as well as his analytic powers. In the event, neither are found seriously wanting. Whether in a 1971 article looking “Beyond the Gomulka Era” or in a 1981 “Interim Report” on “Poland's Upheaval," Professor Bromke shows a' clear and intimate appreciation of the forces at work in Polish society, and of the options open to rulers and ruled alike, bearing in mind the presence of the Soviet Union. He does not foresee the military coup carried out by General Jaruzelski, though he does discuss the crucial role of the General in carrying out necessary reforms in the economy and in the party, and he does point out the excessive costs that would result, politically and economically, from an invasion by the Soviet Union, the other option offering when General Jaruzelski took the step he did. Equally, he does not discuss, perhaps because the publishing deadline precluded

it, the impact that Cardinal Wyszynski's successor, -Cardinal Glemp, may have on the Polish crisis, though he, includes a piece marking the date of Wyszinski’s death which includes the observation; “His

personal stature was so great that no one among the Polish Episcopate can immediately fill his role.” On the evidence so far, this prediction seems correct. Amidst all the positive comments that may be made about Professor Bromke’s volume, two substantial caveats need to be entered, both related to the fact that this is a collection of essays, articles and occasional pieces rather than a book proper. One is that the material is uneven in depth and sophistication precisely because it was originally aimed at differing audiences. The piece on Cardinal Wyszinski, for instance, first appeared in a Toronto Sunday newspaper, and shows it, while other articles are reprinted from academic journals such as “Problems of Communism” — and show it also. The disparity in audience expectation between articles like these affects the reader's response towards the collection as a whole. So, too. does the degree of overlap and repetition evident between articles. There is, for example, a good deal of repetitious material in the third article, “Beyond the Gomulka Era,” when it is read following the second, “Poland’s Political Crisis," and our sense of this repetition of material is heightened by Professor Bromke’s tendency to re-use phrases and sentences from one article in the next. All in all, this reviewer, at least, is left with the feeling that Professor Bromke would have done better to have taken the step of rewriting his material as a book, rather than simply reprinting his articles. The cover of “Poland: The Last Decade” asserts that this “is a continuous story dealing with major events.” It might have been better to say that it is an in-depth look at major events, but make no claims to continuity.