The Institute of Central Europe has published a new volume of selected writings by Juliusz Mieroszewski, titled Materiały do refleksji. The book has been edited and introduced by Prof. Rafał Habielski.
Juliusz Mieroszewski (1906–1976), writing under the pseudonym Londyńczyk (“Londoner”), was one of the most influential Polish political commentators of the twentieth century. Before World War II, he worked as an editor at Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny. During the war, he served in the 2nd Polish Corps. After 1949, he became associated with the Literary Institute in Paris and went on to play a key role within the circle of the Paris-based Kultura. Over time, he became a close collaborator of Jerzy Giedroyc and a major contributor to the development of its political programme.
As Prof. Rafał Habielski notes in his introduction, the core of Kultura’s geopolitical thinking—shaped in large part by Mieroszewski—was the conviction that Poland’s interests lay in the independence of Ukraine, Lithuania, and Belarus, a concept known as the ULB programme. This also meant accepting the loss of Poland’s pre-war eastern borderlands (the Kresy).
From today’s perspective, this idea may seem obvious, but at the time it met with considerable opposition. Parts of the émigré community—especially those who came from the former eastern territories—saw the ULB programme as undermining the very rationale for remaining in exile. In Poland, meanwhile, it was received with caution, influenced by the communist authorities’ narrative that Poland bordered not Ukraine, Lithuania, or Belarus, but solely the Soviet Union.
Kultura’s eastern programme also assumed the need to define future relations with Russia, on the understanding that the Soviet empire would eventually collapse. One major challenge, however, was the lack of suitable partners for dialogue on the Russian side. This began to change only toward the end of Mieroszewski’s life, when the circle around Kontinent—a journal of the new, democratically oriented Russian émigré community—came to share Kultura’s position on the sovereignty of Poland and Ukraine.
Materiały do refleksji brings together Mieroszewski’s most important texts and offers a fresh perspective on the foundations of Polish political thought on Eastern Europe. The publication is available for download in PDF format on our website.
Juliusz Mieroszewski’s “Materiały do refleksji”. A New Publication from the Institute of Central Europe