Part IV
Who are you, pan Kaczyński?
That’s how brothers looked like in 1962 (scene from the “The Two Who Stole The Moon[1]” motion picture) and
how they look 45 years after that
Jarosław Kaczyński, having stepped over the borders of not only Polish but the European political culture as well, created a new model of political behavior, based not on the politically correct depersonalized attitude to the political struggle — as it is common for the countries with firm democratic traditions — but rather on a passionate, deeply personal attitude to the politics (frankly speaking, a lot more characteristic of the Latin America[2] rather than Europe). In order to understand the incentives and algorithms — according to which Kaczyński acts — we have to have a closer look at his person. That is the only way to understand the transformation of a Democrat, fighting against totalitarian communist regime, into the furious populist, fiercely defying the very same democratic values he once used to fight for.
Analyzing the person of Jarosław Kaczyński we’d have to constantly compare Jarosław’s features to the features of his twin-brother, late Lech Kaczyński. Both of them were born on the 18th of June, 1949 (Jarosław is 45 seconds younger) in a family of former Armia Krajowa[3] officer. In the time of her youth, mother of Kaczyński brothers also used to serve at the “Grey Ranks[4]” patriotic movement. Brothers were raised on the heroic cult of Warsaw rebellion and brought the admiration of its participants’ desperate bravery throughout their lives. Child’s cinematographic experience (they’ve played the parts of twins Jacek and Placek in a children’s fairy-tale “The Two Who Stole The Moon”) didn’t have any reflections in their adult life. Both brothers graduated from Law department of the Warsaw University, both of them became the Doctors in Law[5], both joined underground democratic organization KOR (Komitet Obrony Robotników — Employee Protection Committee). In the 60s the latter was headed by Adam Michnik — current chief editor of “Gazeta Wyborcza” — having later become not just his political opponents, but outright enemies. Having left KOR — which in fact was the anti-communist intellectual club — brothers joined the recently created “Solidarity” labor union that had far broader social support within the Polish society and was headed by Lech Wałęsa. Further political career of two brothers was connected with Wałęsa. Both of them became his close associates and aides. It is well-known that Lech Wałęsa was a common worker without any education and two Doctors in Law at once came just in time. This truly was a period of real revolutionary asceticism. Kaczyński brothers actually spent days and nights in Wałęsa house, they’ve accompanied him in all of his meetings and rallies, and they’ve been executing all of the “Solidarity” documents, having putting their own concepts of tactic and strategy of fight against Polish socialistic regime in the mouth of Wałęsa. They, without doubt, were the brain of “Solidarity”. When Lech Wałęsa became Polish President in 1990, Jarosław Kaczyński quite logically became the head of his chancellery (office), i.e. having turned into the brain of Head of State from the brain of opposition movement. But in less than a year Wałęsa banned Jarosław from his office. According to the eyewitnesses, the reason was that Jarosław Kaczyński underestimated his former charge. He tried to literally control the former electrician, who became a President. Wałęsa of course was inferior to the Doctor of Law in terms of erudition, but he obviously surpassed him when it came to the talent, peculiar political hunch that the politicians so desperately need and — which is the most important thing — to ambitions. Wałęsa’ ambitions turned out to be every bit as exalted as the ambitions of his mentor.
Lech Wałęsa
Even being a head of President’s chancellery, Jarosław Kaczyński along with his brother Lech created new political party “Center Agreement[6]”. In Poland the 90s were every bit as violent as they were in Russia. Whole trail of scandals and gossips about financial abuses, paid lobbying, bribes etc. etc. surrounded the twin-brothers’ party. During next ten years brothers held various posts in the state and parliamentary structures — Lech was a Security Minister at the Presidential Chancellery and head of the Superior Chamber of Control afterwards; Jarosław headed the “Center Agreement” parliamentary group in the Seim — but all these were the sideline roles, while brothers were brimming over with ambitions. They didn’t quite like playing in the crowd scenes, they’ve urged for the leading parts — and preferably getting the director’s seat. Finally, in the 2000 fortune smiled upon them. Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek[7] offered Minister of Justice portfolio (which was combined with the post of Attorney General at the time) to Lech Kaczyński. Lech felt himself in his element. Having accurately felt the social weariness with corruption and unbridled crime, he started an unprecedented campaign against this evil. Enormous amount of criminal lawsuits and the cases of office abuses and bribery were filed — at that, quite famous and popular citizens became the defendants in these cases. One scandal followed after another. Parliamentary commissions were created in order to investigate the top state officials’ activity. Result, however, was quite Shakespeare-like — “Much Ado About Nothing”. The only, yet quite serious, profit Lech Kaczyński gained from his deeds at the Minister’s post, was popularity — and the businesslike brothers immediately put it in action, having created new political party “Law and Justice[8]” in 2001. Following Minister of Justice resignation and disintegration of almost every single corruptions case just consolidated the electoral policy of the newly-born party. Voters got it quite right — their favorite became a martyr, defending their interests, while corruptionists messed up all the criminal cases after his retirement. Jarosław became the chairman of a new party, while Lech soon became mayor of Warsaw. Having taken that post, he once again tried to satisfy his passion of barking at a big Russian elephant by renaming one of the Polish capital’s streets into the street of Dzhokhar Dudayev.
Merely four years after its creation, PiS won the parliamentary elections and Lech Kaczyński won the presidential ones. 2005 became the year of superior success and triumph of the brothers. At first they’ve actually managed to control their own ambitions and the Prime Minister’s post was offered to the popular Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz who quite successfully carried out his functions, while featuring unusually high public support. However, it was getting harder and harder for Jarosław Kaczyński to restrain himself. Thirst for power and popularity prevailed. 8 months from that, Marcinkiewicz was given the sack and Jarosław became a Prime Minister, having broken his pre-election promise not to take this post, while his brother was a President. Since that moment truly a witches’ Sabbath started in the Polish political life. Fight against corruption gained an unprecedented pace and scale. Remembering that it was this very fight that brought brothers to the top of the state leadership, they’ve initiated TV reality-show “Justice”. During the live broadcast of all the state TV-channels handcuffs were put on the Secretary of the Interior, criminal lawsuit against acting Prime Minister Deputy in Jarosław government was filed. Employees of the Polish police special squads were literally palming the bribes on the prominent politicians and heads of municipal formations, simultaneously recording this with the help of cutting-the-edge technical devices. Arrests became a daily routine in a country that once used to be democratic Poland. Generally speaking, lawyer-brothers seriously got down to bringing the ancient Roman “Fiat justitia et pereat mundus[9]” postulate to life. Having lost the sense of harmony and frightened Poles with repressions, brothers lost the public support as well. Disastrous results of public opinion polls made brothers to hold pre-term parliamentary election where they’ve suffered a shattered defeat. Polish government was headed by Donald Tusk, leader of the “Civic Platform” party, which won the elections. Jarosław fetched himself out of the business once again, while his dear brother hadn’t got even a slightest chance to be re-elected for the second Presidential term.
We’d be very willing to believe that the political career of Jarosław Kaczyński came to an end and he would never ever head the long-suffering Poland but, unfortunately, it’s not that easy. He features an outstanding ability for political survival, he always lands on his feet and just like his beloved cat, he seems to have nine lives at the very least. His passion is deceitful — in fact he is deprived of any principles and yet he is utmost principal in his own irrational way. Weirdly enough, his Catholic fundamentalism and pathological hatred towards Russia, being combined with the calls for justice and showy patriotism, meet response in the Polish society. All these extraordinary characteristics of his may outbalance everything else at the electioneering weighing machine and then — who knows — we may actually face provocative behavior of a small, yet existing member of NATO, European Union and WTO. In this case he would really be capable of significantly complicating our nearly-established cooperation with the above-mentioned international organizations.
[2] Perhaps the only European analogue of Jarosław Kaczyński is Byelorussian President Alexander Lukashenko: he is every bit as passionate as Kaczyński, he holds the same personal attitude to politics and just as Kaczyński he made his way to power having ridden the tidal wave of anti-corruption fight, also being the chairman of Byelorussian parliamentary commission for the anti-corruption fight.
[3] During the WWII Armia Krajowa was the anti-fascist resistance movement, acting at the occupied Polish territory. It was guided by the London-based Polish government in exile
[4] Youth wing of Armia Krajowa during the Hitler’s occupation of Poland
[5] I had to read an entire author’s abstract from Jarosław Kaczyński’s PhD dissertation, dedicated to the Polish joint high school authorities, which he defended on the 8th of December, 1976. He excessively quotes then Polish Communist leaders — from Józef Cyrankiewicz to Władysław Gomułka — in it, but the most curious thing is that his extraordinary scientific paper turned out to be quite politically correct, judging by either 1976 or contemporary standards. Brilliant example of conformism it is.
[7] Nowadays Jerzy Buzek is a chairman of the Euro-Parliament
[9] Fiat justitia et pereat mundus (Lat.) – Let the justice prevail, even if the entire world is to die. “Justitia” may be translated to Russian as both “Justice” and “Fairness”. Unlike the ancient Romans, in our country these two terms meant the same. Kaczyński brothers at the same time, have seemingly identified “justice” with the name of their political party — “Law and Juctice”
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