Voices from Poland II: From a Warsaw Diary: 1978-1981

Kazimierz Brandys is a distinguished, veteran Polish writer who, for several years before the rise of Solidarity, had been prohibited from publishing in his country by the Polish government. From 1978 onward, he kept a diary of events in Warsaw, which is being published this winter in an English translation by Richard Lourie. We wish to thank Random House, Inc., the publisher of A Warsaw Diary, 1978-1981, copyright © 1983 by Kazimierz Brandys, for permission to excerpt the following portions. — EDS.

July 1981

A certain revelation of which I had no inkling has forced me to do some thinking. Over the years I had reconciled myself to the thought that the concept of a struggle for justice or f...