On 21 March 2023, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki gave a lecture at the University of Heidelberg entitled “Europe at a historical turning point”.
Speeched in blameless English, the lecture was well received and can be considered a major image success. This does not alter the fact that the thesis on abroad policy, although beautifully packaged, is wrong. They constitute the essence of Polish naive political morality, in their consequences very dangerous to our safety and so it is worth to respond to them.
A beautiful packaging is the defence of a national state. Prime Minister Morawiecki begins the lecture by convincing listeners that in today's realities the national state and the substance of its self-determination and independency have in no way become obsolete. National states are organisations that are able to solve different problems effectively, and as an example, the Prime Minister gives the last pandemic. The effort to replace independent countries with a centralised organisation in the form of a deepened European Union describes it as a utopia.
If the request for a national state is proven, the accent moves to Ukraine. Morawiecki makes the thesis: Ukraine fights Russian aggression in the name of its independency and the future of Europe depends on its victory. Losing Ukraine would mean losing the West and losing the full free world. It sounds convincing and lofty, but there is first doubt, is that a actual thesis? For if Vladimir Putin had a lecture at the invitation in Heidelberg, he could say something very akin in a likewise moralist tone: Russia fights for its independency and the future of Russia depends on its victory. So who's right? Where's the truth?
International perceptions
International relations are 1 of the most hard technological disciplines. It takes many years of survey to master it, but even their completion does not warrant that a postgraduate will become a good diplomat and will full realize abroad policy. The situation is not facilitated by the fact that we frequently have limited access to sources of information, which is replaced by propaganda and there is difficulty in distinguishing fact from misinformation. Meanwhile, politicians without the slightest preparation for learning about global relations seem to be experts in them and boldly give their courageous thesis, threatening us with Russia and encouraging us to war, until a complete victory, in the face of the threat they see.
Such perceptions are seen in our Prime Minister's lecture, which most likely wants to be good and appeals to good people, but he does not wonder that due to subjective feelings and deficiency of reliable information, it is so easy to make a mistake in reading the intentions of another country. We may misinterpret the situation and respect a possible friend as an enemy or vice versa. due to a thought error, in the name of liberty and another beautiful values given to us in war propaganda, we can enter into an unnecessary and tragic war in which good people on both sides, everyone convinced of the rightness of their cause, will hatred and kill each another – as is the case in most wars.
The basic problem in the explanation of global relations (TSM) is the appropriate discrimination between position quo policies and imperialist policies. This is 1 of the first exercises for students: Was the seizure of Crimea in 2014 an expression of the imperialism of Russia or the position quo policy? Put forward arguments on both sides.
Of course, for Prime Minister Morawiecki, as for most students, the answer is clear – Russia is an imperialist power and strives to conquer Europe and there is no request to see it any another way. Russia can be compared to Germany, Putin can be compared to Hitler. Consent to the failure of Crimea, and now to the failure of the larger territory of Ukraine to Russia, only encouraged the Russians to further conquests, as the consent as a consequence of the Munich Agreement to the failure of part of the Czech Republic to Germany in 1938 constipated the Germans. After Ukraine, in the event of its defeat, there will be a turn across Europe. Ukraine is fighting to defend us all. It seems our Prime Minister is rather certain about this and speaks very convincingly. Is he right? Is that true?
Political Reality
In TSM, political realism is an crucial investigation perspective. Political realists focus on the forces of the states and see the anticipation of maintaining peace in maintaining the balance of power between them. Any violation of it, especially in the case of bad relations and common mistrust between states – if it cannot be corrected in any another way, for example, by alliances or reinforcements, or by full professional diplomacy – could lead to war. China's emergence in power present is causing concern in the Americans, as is the increase in power and the expansion of NATO into another countries is causing fear in the Russians.
In view of political realism, the erstwhile annexation of Crimea and the current war in Ukraine can so be interpreted as an effort by Russia to correct the regional arrangement of forces in the face of its perceived threat. As the outstanding realist claims Prof. John Mearsheimer"The expansion of NATO to Ukraine represents an existential threat to Russia and has triggered its reaction".
From these assumptions, Russian aggression on Ukraine must so be understood as a position quo policy, namely an effort to improve its own safety alternatively than an imperialist policy. The analogy between modern Russia and Nazi Germany and Putin and Hitler, which is carried out by Prime Minister Morawiecki, is so incorrect and it is at least out of 2 submarines.
First, in the 1930 ’ s Germany systematically sought to rebuild its power in Europe after the defeat suffered by planet War I and were not in a situation of threat akin to that seen by Russia as a consequence of NATO enlargement. Secondly, the German expansion efforts were based on the presence of fascist ideology, proclaiming the superiority of the German race over others and the necessity of gaining for itself Lebensraum. In modern Russia there is no akin chauvinist ideology or political force to implement it. Alexander Dugin, which is sometimes referred to as the leading Russian ideologist, proclaims the thesis of Russian traditionalism: a return to religion in God and values lost as a consequence of the expansion of postmodern Western culture. There is simply a strong defensive current in this, even the willingness to sacrifice life, but not possessive.
Russian Beast and Fighting Ukraine
For the Prime Minister Morawiecki, the fighting Ukraine is simply a model of value for the full of Europe today. In his Manichean imagination there is simply a conflict in the planet between light (good) and darkness (bad). As knights of clarity, Ukrainians fight against the Russian beast for their freedom and for the freedom of Europe. ‘Stop feeding this beast” – urges the Prime Minister, with a view to maintaining trade relations with Russia and in peculiar to supplying Russian gas to European markets. "Let us not accept peace at all costs."
In the face of the forces of darkness, those who deceive us with Russian mire, violate human rights and do not give us the right to a national identity, it remains only to fight to the end. Europe, according to our Prime Minister of Light, is at stake in this fight against Moscow tyranny, where "there is no place for censorship and ideological indoctrination" – "Europe as a cathedral of good and a university of truth". Those are beautiful words and may they always prove true. But do we truly have the good on 1 side and the evil empire on the other? Is Ukrainian nationalism the same as Polish? Is the Western planet without defects?
While the main Polish political thought we know well from past is “for our freedom and your freedom” and this thought is clearly indicated in the course of our Prime Minister's speech, the main motto of the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism is “nation above all”. Resolution of 1st legislature of Organizations of Ukrainian Nationalists (27 January – 3 February 1929 in Vienna) this ideology, whose theoretical basis he built Dymytro Doncow, it was adopted as the authoritative ideology of the CNS.
According to this ideology, “nation” remains in eternal hostility and conflict with others. There is pure pragmatism in the quest for the power of the nation. All means, even the cruelest methods of terror, are allowed. Maintaining the nation is the highest value, which is higher than believing in God, obeying the law and maintaining moral principles. The nation is headed by a leader who is subject to a criminal, full disciplined squad of people. 1 of the leaders was the CNS guide Stepan Bandera. The goal of Ukrainian nationalism was to build a uniform state in all alleged "Ukrainian ethnographic territories". The method was to "remove" from these areas of all "occupants" (not-Ukrainians), and in peculiar Poles, Jews and Russians, by means of extermination. The ideology of Ukrainian nationalism remains a surviving ideology to this day, and it is evidenced by many monuments of Bandera, especially in western Ukraine.
There are doubts about Russian sources erstwhile they compose about Ukrainian fascism today. However, we should have comparative trust in American sources. In a 2018 survey entitled "Far-right utmost as a Threat to Ukrainian Democracy" a well-known American organization, Freedom House, wrote: "The utmost right-wing political forces are a real threat to the democratic improvement of Ukrainian society ... The most disturbing component of their show of strength is that so far they act completely unpunished. Their actions undermine the legitimacy of the state, weaken its democratic institutions and discredit national law enforcement authorities."
The utmost right exists as a marginal component in many societies and so it was earlier in Ukraine. But since the Euromaidan Revolution in February 2014, nationalist and terror-based organizations, specified as the Swoboda or the Right Sector, have gained importance and become active, without retreating from acts of force and force against judges, politicians and journalists who opposed their views. As a consequence of these extremist methods and weaknesses of the order force, the nationalist right managed to subdue Ukrainian public life and began to influence the decisions of the authorities. This resulted in, among others, the amendment of the language law. This change can be considered to be the second major origin of the current war, following the expansion of NATO.
Effects of amendments to the Language Act
After the declaration of independency of Ukraine in 2001, the Ukrainian language was considered the only authoritative language, while another languages utilized in that country had constitutional protection guaranteed. The Russian language spoken by about 30-40% of the population was widely utilized in business, judiciary, education and another spheres of everyday life. The 2012 Language Act gave the position of regional language to Russian and another languages of Ukrainian national minorities, leading the various regions of the country to a Russian regional language being declared within their jurisdiction.
However, on 23 February 2014, as shortly as the Euromaidan overturned, the Ukrainian parliament voted to repeal this law. In July 2019, it was formally replaced by a fresh language law which introduced an work to usage Ukrainian language in government, public administration, mass media, schools, hospitals, book publishing, scientific, cultural and sports activities and in economical and social life. Although any exceptions were provided, the Russian language was excluded from them.
This changing content of the language law can be seen as a nationalist effort to make Ukraine a unified national state at the expense of violating number language rights. The consequence was mass protests in confederate and east Ukraine – in areas where the Ukrainian Russian-speaking population is the majority. Events specified as the referendum on the position of Crimea of 16 March 2014, in which the majority voted to integrate the region with the Russian Federation, which led to the annexation of Crimea by Russia; bloody events in Odessa, in which the Right Sector participated and where people were burned alive; and referendums in Donetsk and Luhansk, which form the Donbass region, can be considered to be the direct consequences of changing language law.
In those areas where the Russian language dominates, residents treated this change as an assassination of their autonomy. The consequence was the civilian war in Donbasa, which, despite the agreements between Minsk I and Minsk II, was never completed and in which the Ukrainian army shelled the civilian population, especially in Donetsk, as it does to this day. Its extension is the current armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Scary Truth
One of the most prominent authors of realism explanation in global relations, Hans Morgethauin the book National policies He wrote: “The average human head is incapable to look the fact in politics consecutive into the eye; so it must hide, distort and embellish it, especially erstwhile dealing with fact in abroad politics.”
The fact in the policy which Prime Minister Morawiecki calls for, if indeed discovered and presented without beauty, is frequently frightening, so it is frequently attempted to hide or silence it. This is for the very news of the terrible truth, about the bander troops coming to their village, the grey Italian young Polish girls in Volyn in 1943. 80 years have passed since these events. specified cruel and savage crimes have not been committed in Poles by anyone else, even Nazis, who, in fact, for humanitarian reasons (not to see the sight of blood) invented gas chambers.
The Germans condemned the actions of the Nazis and their crimes after the war. Russia confessed to the execution committed in Poles by russian safety in Katyn. On the another hand, independent after 1991 Ukraine did not condemn the genocide of the CNS-UPA, nor the CNS with its ideology. On the another hand, materials glorifying the past of the CNS are being distributed, and OUN leaders who are liable for crimes specified as Stepan Bandera or Roman Shuchewycz (UPA commander, author of the order to velocity up the liquidation of Poles in connection with the approaching russian army) are honorary citizens of today's Ukrainian cities. Their names are called streets and schools.
He writes about it in his books, frequently published at his own expense in niche publications, a late large Ukrainian friend of Poland Viktor Liszczuk, 1 of the fewer righteous among the nations who sought actual Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation. He urged "to condemn the Polish OUN authorities, as a fascist-type organization ... and UPA, as 1 who committed genocide crimes against the Polish civilian population".
W The Messenger to the Brothers of Poles, Poliszczuk writes that “there are no criminal nations, but there are criminal ideologies and organizations with criminal action plans” and reminds that in addition to about 150 1000 Poles killed at the hands of UPA besides about 50 1000 Ukrainians who refused to follow orders and execution their Polish neighbours. It is on the stories about these real heroes, not on the hierojas of UPA and Bandera, glorified in Ukraine, that we should build our Polish-Ukrainian future.
It is hard to respect Ukraine present as a model of freedom and democracy, as the influence of Ukrainian nationalism is increasingly strong, there is no way to act for the opposition and the utmost right increases control of the state. Opposition parties and opposition media were closed and Orthodox churches closed, accusing them of favoring Russia.
Poland is now needed as an ally in the fight against its perceived Russian enemy. She did well to treat, like her own citizens, millions of Ukrainian refugees and to sacrifice the Ukrainian army with her most valuable weapons. Only a nation filled with deep idealism, which puts others ahead of their own and believes in a just conflict “for ours and your freedom.”
We idealize Ukrainians today, idealize Americans, and previously idealize English and French. Our political naivety is that we do not take into account that another nations, Ukrainians, English, French, whether Americans think differently from us and in global relations are usually guided only by their own interests. After all, no 1 else is doing this but to fight for individual and to give everything back to someone, unless for something circumstantial and has a peculiar interest in it.
Contrary to our idealization, Ukraine is mainly curious in its own nation and treats us instrumentally as an ad hoc ally in the fight, spreading its propaganda, cultivating further flag heroes and involving us in the war. England has no permanent enemies and friends, but simply permanent interests that service to keep the British power. And our U.S. chief ally, weapons are not free, but he sells them for dense cash or credit, and he gains global capital, which quietly counts large war profits.
The planet is crazy
Erich Fromm He wrote a alternatively forgotten book today, Healthy Society. At the social level, madness is manifested erstwhile a fixation or regression occurs to the state appropriate to the earlier level of civilizational development. This kind of process is happening today. We have reached adulthood at the level of technological and method improvement and here we have many large achievements. Meanwhile, we go back to the state of primitiveism at the ethical level. We return to the civilization of the club, or as Fromm more precisely defined, to the “cestuous bonds of the clan and the earth”, expressed in the terms “race” or “nation”. alternatively of respecting cultural and cultural differences, talking to each another and building together, we like to kill each other, utilizing the latest technologies.
Human improvement is the consequence of cultural evolution. From the ethical improvement of our European civilization comes the beautiful thesis that Prime Minister Morawiecki says: "Europe should be a cathedral of good and a university of truth". It follows that "there is no place in Europe for censorship and ideological indoctrination". Unlike the tyranny of Asia, Europe is to be free. But aren't those just beautiful words? Are these not simply images of these beautiful principalities and republics which Machiavelli wrote of; those of which people “did not actually see nor know”? Are we truly surviving in a free Poland and a free planet today?
On 17 March this year, only a fewer days ago, and not in the distant era, a process of respective professors and doctors of medical discipline and doctors began in Poznań. Why? For these people, the faithful oath of Hippocrates, who is besides part of our ethical civilization, have the courage to express their opinion in the autumn of 2020 on the experimental nature of COVID-19 vaccination and the dangers active and in loud appeals to the government calling for their voluntaryness.
In turn, besides recently, his university lecturers lost his occupation Dr Leszek Sykulski, one of the most qualified specialists in geopolitics and abroad policy in Poland. Why? He founded the peace movement and called for the end of the war in Ukraine. In his opinion, Poland should conduct a multi-vector policy, aiming for friendly relations with all its neighbours. This view was considered to be contrary to the Polish state's ration. Earlier, for akin reasons, he lost his occupation to another prominent political scientist, Prof. Stanisław Bielen.
Hasn't Prime Minister Morawiecki heard of these cases, comparing Europe in Heidelberg to the cathedral of good and university of truth? The University of fact is simply a place where we can look for the truth, even if it was bitter truth, and the cathedral of good is simply a place where people are not harmed and are not wronged by destroying their careers simply due to the fact that they are trying to find the truth.
Healthy society fosters the intellectual and moral improvement of man, and the sick arouse common suspicion and hostility. As Erich Fromm writes, in order to heal society and save a falling civilization, it should be possible to express views to wise people, educated in their fields, even erstwhile their views are different from the mainstream. Part of the illness of the modern planet of the West is to escape freedom and fact and to make conformism.
In Poland we do not have professors and doctors of Russian onuc. However, we have outstanding people who know their technological fields well, who, in the interests of Poland's fate, have the courage to express their opinions on crucial issues concerning wellness care and our safety and our abroad policy. These people, now silenced, are the salt of our nation. Since we want to be a part of the free world, it is time, alternatively of harassing them and destroying their public image, to give them full chance to express their views in the main Polish media.
To conclude, a council with the Prince
How he told us in PrinceNiccolò Machiavelli, since we have already decided to search the truth, it is better to “go after the fact according to reality than to its [idealized] idea.” For the knowing of the current armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, consideration must so be given to both interior and global factors. You should be open to the discovery of the terrifying truth. The form of the language law in Ukraine and the utmost right behind it and the inactive alive ideology of Ukrainian nationalism are just as crucial to explain the causes of the conflict, as are strategical considerations regarding the distribution of forces in the region and the expansion of NATO. In the background are the financial interests of arms producers and the U.S.'s desire to hold its position as global leader and weaken Russia.
The war in Ukraine has a very circumstantial reason. The Russians are primarily motivated by their desire to defend themselves and it is not expected to further extend the armed conflict outside Ukraine and spread it to Poland and another European countries, as long as we do not aid and provoke them. Although there is no desire in reasoning in terms of machuga civilization to talk honestly to end the conflict, and the provocation is increasing. 1 of them is the desire to join NATO, a neutral Finland that borders Russia and its delicate place of St. Petersburg and whose young authorities have seemingly forgotten the informing Urho Kekkonena, the large Finnish statesman who led in 1975 to the historical Conference on safety and Cooperation in Helsinki. Let us callback his words, for they besides concern us: “Do not search your friends far away, but your enemies near.”
The war in Ukraine has already taken over half a million lives. How many more will die? But that's a prelude. The world's gone crazy. Israel's war against Iran and the United States against China is waiting in line, followed by more wars. Will there be anything left of us after these wars? All this depends only on our wisdom, on the knowing that human life is the top value, and cannot be subject to the interests of the "nation" or large capital or any state. So it is in the interests of all good people in the planet that the war in Ukraine is to end as shortly as possible, at any cost, and to begin rebuilding our falling civilization on a moral level.
- Julian Korab-Karpovich
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Julian Korab-Karpowicz is simply a political philosopher and thinker, prof. of the University of Opole. He deals with the doctrine of politics and the explanation of global relations. He prepared 2 peace projects: the Korean Peninsula and the mediate East. He is the author of “Social Harmony”, “Political and Philosophical Treaty” and another books translated into respective languages and the winner of the Personality of the Year of Poland 2020 award in the discipline category.
