The statue of King Sigismund III stands on a pedestal atop a 8.5m-high marble column. Below it is a larger lower pedestal around which are four bronze plaques in Latin with dedications to the King (including one mentioning that he 'recaptured Smolensk'). Above the plaque on the western face is a smaller one, pictured above. The text is faithfully translated below to show the distorted nature of communist Newspeak.
COLUMN OF SIGISMUND III
BARBAROUSLY DESTROYED
BY THE HITLERITES IN 1944
REBUILT IN THE CAPITAL
OF PEOPLE'S POLAND ON THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE HOLIDAY OF LIBERATION ON 22 JULY 1949
WHEN THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC WAS
BOLESŁAW BIERUT
FROM VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS FROM WORKERS IN THE INDUSTRY: MINERAL MEMBERS OF THE TRADE UNIONS OF
CONSTRUCTION, CERAMICS AND RELATED
TRADES AND THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
Question now is - leave this for posterity - or remove it? What should be done about traces of Poland's communist past? I've photographed PRL-era plaques on the Most Łazienkowski bridge and by the escalators by Trasa W-Z. There are more around Plac Konstytucji and the Palace of Culture.
But given the iconic nature of the Kolumna Zygmunta to the Polish people and history (after all, it is not a PRL relict but part of the capital's cityscape for over three and half centuries, the fact that this Stalinist-era plaque has survived even the late Lech Kaczyński's term as mayor of Warsaw is surprising. Maybe the fact that it was cast in the same style as the original 17th C. plaques beneath it means that it has escaped the notice of the keepers of national purity.
* Święto = feast-day, holiday (as in holy day), festival. From święty, holy, saint. The word - with its religious connotations, has been put to use to describe 22 July 1944; not actually the day that Poland was 'liberated' from the Nazis (the Warsaw Uprising would not start for another week yet) but the date that the manifesto for the Soviet-backed communist puppet government was announced. Voluntary contributions? No reason to doubt that people genuinely wished to see the column re-erected in the Plac Zamkowy - but why only trade unionists and industrial workers?
My gut reaction is to say, "trash it", but there are few enough surviving relics as it is. (Nationalist reasoning of this kind led to the demolition of the marvellous Orthodox cathedral on Pilsudski Square after WWI, a major tragedy, and great loss to Polish culture.)
ReplyDeleteIn truth, the plaque is a monument in itself, especially with the fawning to Bierut. Obviously, it must stay.
Relict, hmm.... Not a word heard much in English. More language interference, mayhap? Don't have my Shorter OED with me to comment.
This is the ever-lasting dilemma. The system vs. the people. The system was evil, but the people who founded the monument had good intentions, just like those hapless Polish soldiers who were too late to come to Poland with Anders army and 'liberated' it with Berling Army. They also had good intentions.
ReplyDeletePS. as Sigismundo noticed, relict or relic. The due proofreading, tomorrow morning. Might be an interesting read as well!
@ Sigismundo, @ Bartek
ReplyDelete- I stand by the word relict. Check it out (en.wiktionary.org for example). Nice word, rolls nicely off the tongue. Use it, cherish it, boys.
Before posting my comment, I looked it up in two dictionaries, both bore out my suspicion it was relic. Now after a short research I agree both words do function.
ReplyDeleteCross-reference links tell also that relic = relikwia and relict = relikt, which leaves me bemused.
There's no single untrue statement in this plaque. Removing it equals saying that yesterday's truths are worse than today's lies.
ReplyDelete@ Anon:
ReplyDelete"Not a single untrue statement"?
'HITLERITES' Why this term rather than Nazis or Germans? To disassociate German war crime from any ideology, (national socialism) or nation (East Germany) but link it with one man.
'ON THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE HOLIDAY OF LIBERATION' Sorry - 'Liberation' is a lie. 'Substitution of one murderous tyrant by another' would be closer to the truth.
'ON 22 JULY' - Warsaw would stay in Nazi occupation until 17 January the next year...
'THE PRESIDENT' - read 'Stalin's puppet'
'OF THE REPUBLIC' - read 'Soviet satellite'
'FROM VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS FROM WORKERS' - a hollow joke; slave-labour on starvation wages more like.