Służba na rzecz totalitarnego państwa jako przesłanka obniżenia zaopatrzenia emerytalnego funkcjonariuszy zatrudnionych w organach bezpieczeństwa w latach 1944–1990

The paper describes term of service in a totalitarian state as a basis for reducing the pension of officers employed in the security service in the years 1944–1990. The legislators decided to hold liable the officers of the communist political police by reducing their pensions again, 26 years after the transformation. In this aspect, the crucial issue is the concept of service in a totalitarian state. The thesis of the paper is that the qualification of service in a totalitarian state cannot be determined only by formal conditions, that is, the time and place of service, but should also take into account substantive criteria, especially violation of the fundamental rights of individuals by former officers.

Niezależność sądu oraz niezawisłość sędziowska w sprawach karnych w okresie rządów autorytarnych i totalitarnych w Polsce

At present, there is no doubt that a need exists to ensure the citizens’ right to have a criminal case examined by an independent and unbiased court. For the proper functioning of the court-based administration of justice to be possible, the courts must have the attribute of independence and the judges must be autonomous. These issues are regulated in international treaties to which Poland is a party. The aim of this study is to describe the role of judiciary independence and judicial autonomy in criminal cases. In order to achieve these goals, considerations will be presented on the essence of such independence and autonomy, and a reference will be made to the way the authoritarian state functioned after the May coup in the Second Polish Republic, and the totalitarian state during the era of the Polish People’s Republic.

Prawo cywilne PRL — wybrane zagadnienia prawa autorskiego

The author, presenting in a limited way the results of research on the law of the Polish People’s Republic, discusses two institutions regulated in the 1952 Act on copyright — the compulsory license under art. 16 and 17 and the implementation of the Council of Ministers’s powers (resulting from art. 33 § 1) to determine the principles and rates of remuneration for authors and contract templates. In accordance with art. 33 § 2, in relation to the provisions of the contracts covered by them, they were absolutely binding. The first of them limited the protection of subjective “ownership” rights to works, enabling their specific, although limited by their function, “expropriation”, while the second resulted in a significant and real restriction of the freedom of contracts regarding the use and disposal of copyright to works. This analysis leads to the conclusion that adapting the law shaped in a different system and political realities — in this case, its specific “totalization” — does not require large-scale changes in the existing regulation. It is only enough to modify the institutions of fundamental importance for the implementation of the principles of a specific political order. At the same time, in the reality of the totalitarian state of the Polish People’s Republic, the acts issued on the basis of art. 33 of the Copyright Act of 1952 were the most important to fulfil the purpose of these principles.

Fiction May Confront Theories. Locating Determinism of the Newspeak in G. Orwell’s 1984

The paper focuses on the relationships between theory and practice and the consequences of dislocating theory from practice as they are illustrated through fiction. The case study carried out here concerns an exemplary novel, Ninety Eighty-Four by George Orwell, observing how the literary discourse can display a confrontation between two linguistic models, each resulted from a different theory: “instrumentalism” (Winston Smith) and “determinism” (O’ Brien). Also, the possibility of identifying an Orwellian model as opposed to the Sapir-Whorf and the linguistic models deserves examination. Newspeak is full of problematic aspects: ideology shapes the language by means of “wooden language” (la langue de bois, in Françoise Thom’s terms). Therefore, the historical “regime of relevance” (Galin Tihanov) makes possible a peculiar (use of) theory: an instrument that translates the ideology becomes the very essence of the determinist theory on the language in a totalitarian state. In discussing the practical consequences of literary theory, Stanley Fish points out that they are inexistent, because theory can never be united with practice, as it is actually impossible to separate theory from practice – a similar observation made by Steven Knapp and Walter B. Michaels. Whether consequences are real poses a challenge: following Edward Said’s argument, Steven Mailloux observes that theory can be consequential by rhetorical means: theory does what all discursive practices do and that is that it attempts to persuade its readers (or population in a totalitarian state) to adopt its point of view, its way of seeing texts and the world.

Ernst Jünger’s Ethopoietic Authorship

Ernst Jünger’s conception of authorship was closely related to a mode of writing designed to transform the reader’s mode of being. In the first phase of his literary activity, his war diaries were intended to teach readers the behaviour patterns enabling them to cope with the dangerous technology irrupting into their life sphere. In Der Arbeiter, he made use of political myths to induce readers to reshape themselves into the cogs of a totalitarian state machinery. After the Second World War, Jünger provided the readers of his books with ancient spiritual exercises in order that they might work on themselves and thereby attain the selfhood which would allow them to resist technological threats.

Socjalistyczny nihilizm prawny w Polsce Ludowej i drogi przezwyciężania tej koncepcji

<p>After World War 2 in Poland, the process of building a new order began. Marxism, as interpreted by Lenin and Stalin, was adopted as the foundation. The creation of a system consistent with the official ideology required the implementation of abstract ideas in practice. One of the main tools used by the communists was law. It was an example of the practical implementation of legal nihilism, accompanying the construction of a totalitarian state. After 1956, a process began in Poland, aimed at overcoming the forcefully imposed order covering many areas of culture and science. The article provides the presentation of selected ideas from the field of law theory in communist Poland, the development of which reduced the influence of Marxism-Leninism in law. The main thesis of the article assumes that the process of de-Stalinization of Polish legal sciences had progressed gradually since 1956. The research objective of the article is to verify the hypothesis that the changes in Polish legal sciences related to overcoming the tenets of the Marxist-Leninist ideology took place in a manner similar to other areas of cultural and academic life. The issue has not yet been addressed in the way presented in the article, so the study can provide a useful material for research on the period of the Polish People’s Republic.</p>

Poválečné perzekuce příslušníků armády a přijetí zákona na ochranu lidově demokratické republiky

After the end of the Second World War, Czechoslovakia was a country at a crossroads. The communists tried to take control of key institutions of the state, including the army. In doing so, a number of illegalities were committed. After the coup in February 1948, this was followed by the adoption of legislation by the already totalitarian state. A striking example was Law No. 231/1948 on the Protection of the People’s Democratic Republic, adopted in October 1948. On the basis of this law, many thousands of people were convicted for alleged anti-State acts.

Polityczne oraz ideologiczne motywacje działalności Romana Kisiela, pseudonim „Sęp”, „Dźwignia”. Studium przypadku

Roman Kisiel was born in 1916 in the small village of Bystrowice near Jarosław. Before the outbreak of World War II, he worked as a merchant. He also served in the Polish Army. During the war, Kisiel was active in the armed underground against the Nazi Germans who occupied Poland. He was the commander of an armed detachment that also defended the Polish population against attacks by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army troops. He continued his political and underground activities after the end of World War II. For many years he was involved in the Polish People's Party. After 1945, as an independence campaigner and organiser, he was keenly surveiled by the communist repression apparatus. At that time, Poland found itself in the sphere of influence of the USSR, which forcibly imposed a new political, social, and economic system. After the end of World War II, Kisiel was arrested and persecuted many times by the communist authorities. Being convinced of the upcoming international conflict, he founded an armed independence organization called the Polish Insurgent Armed Forces. Its goal was to fight for a free and independent Poland. This organization was infiltrated by the communist repression apparatus: as a result, Kisiel and his associates were deprived of their liberty. After his release, Kisiel continued to be persecuted by the political authorities and was of interest to the totalitarian state. His opponents accused him of treason and pursuing private goals. His close associates valued him for being faithful to his ideals and for devoting his life to fighting for a democratic Poland. The figure of Roman Kisiel is appreciated by many researchers, yet he also has strong opponents.