Whirlpools: A Novel of Modern PolandSienkiewicz, Henryk
General
Whirlpools: A Novel of Modern Poland
Sienkiewicz, Henryk
Poland -- Fiction
"But amongst you there are also differences. The French socialism is
different, so is the German, and the English, and in their midst we
find opposing camps. For that reason I shall not speak of socialism in
general. I am only interested in the home product, of which you are an
agent; for, from what you have said, I infer that you belong to the
so-called Polish Socialistic party."
"Yes," answered Laskowicz with energy.
Gronski replaced the cleaned spectacles and unfurled all his sails:
"You claim, therefore, that in the name of Poland you have joined youth
with a powerful idea, through which you have infused into her veins new
blood. And I reply that this idea, whatever it may be, has degenerated
in your minds to the extent that it ceased to be a social idea and has
become a social disease. You have infected Poland with a disease and
nothing more. The new Polish edifice must be constructed with bricks
and stones and not with bombs and dynamite. And in you there is neither
brick nor stone. You are only a shriek of hatred. You have abandoned
the old gospels and are incapable of creating a new one; in consequence
of which you cannot offer any pledge of life. Your name is Error and
for that reason the resultant force of your activities will be contrary
to you presuppositions. By pulling the strings of strikes you lead the
people to naught else than to debility and wretchedness and from feeble
beggars you are not able to build a powerful Poland. That is the actual
fact. Besides, on one and the same head you cannot wear two caps unless
one is underneath. So I ask which is underneath? Is your socialism only
a means of building Poland? Or is your Poland only a bait and catchword
to gather the people into your camp? The socialists, who call
themselves socialists without any qualifications and do not insist that
the same entity can be fish and fowl at the same time, are, I admit,
more logical. But you mislead the people. The truth is that even if you
wanted to you could not do anything Polish, for there is nothing Polish
in you. The schools from which you graduated did not take away the
language, for they could not do that, but they molded your minds and
souls in such a manner that you are not Poles, but Russians despising
Russia. How Poland and Russia will fare by this is another matter, but
such is the case. To you it seems that you are making a revolution, but
it is an ape of a revolution, and in addition a foreign one. You are
the evil flower of a foreign spirit. It is enough to take your
periodicals, your writers, poets, and critics! Their whole mental
apparatus is foreign. Their real aim is not even socialism nor the
proletariat, but annihilation.--Firebrand in hand, and at the bottom of
their souls hopelessness and the great nihil! And of course we know
where it originated. The Galician socialism likewise is not an Apollo
Belvedere, but nevertheless it has different lineaments and less broad
cheek-bones.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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