Aleksander Smolar (born December 10, 1940, in

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...

) is a Polish writer, political activist and adviser, vice-president of Institute for Human Sciences and president of the Stefan Batory Foundation. He is son of prominent communist activist Grzegorz Smolar.

Biography

Irena Grudzinska-Gross and Aleksander Smolar

Between 1954 and 1957 Smolar belonged to the Polish communist youth organization Union of Polish Youth (''Związek Młodzieży Polskiej'') and then, until 1964, to the Union of Socialist Youth (). Smolar began his studies at the Warsaw Politechnic but soon transferred to

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well as 100 specializat ...

to study sociology and economics. In 1962 he joined the Political Discussion Club initiated by Karol Modzelewski. He graduated in 1964. He continued his studies, serving as a research assistant to Włodzimierz Brus in the Political Economy Department at Warsaw University. He was a member of the communist

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party (, ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other legally permitted subordinate minor parti ...

(''PZPR'') which ruled Poland and served as a vice-secretary of the committee of the party in the Political Economy Department at his school. He was removed from the party for publicly defending

Leszek Kołakowski Leszek Kołakowski (; ; 23 October 1927 – 17 July 2009) was a Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. He is best known for his critical analysis of Marxism, Marxist thought, as in his three-volume history of Marxist philosophy ''Main Current ...

, a Polish revisionist Marxist philosopher who was critical of Marxism–Leninism. Smolar took part in the

March 1968 events A series of major student, intellectual and other protests against the ruling Polish United Workers' Party of the Polish People's Republic took place in Poland in March 1968. The crisis led to the suppression of student strikes by Służba Bezpie ...

, a series of protests by students and young factory workers against the repressive nature of the communist party in Poland. He was arrested and imprisoned until February 1969. He was expelled from the university and after being released from prison worked in heavy industry. In 1971 he emigrated from Poland, going to Italy, United Kingdom and France. Eventually he began working for Centre National de l Recherche Scientifique in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. In 1973 he began publishing a quarterly political journal ''Aneks'', which he continued until 1990. He served as a spokesperson for the

Workers' Defence Committee The Workers' Defense Committee ( , KOR) was a Polish civil society group that was established to give aid to prisoners and their families after the June 1976 protests and ensuing government crackdown. It was a precursor and inspiration for efforts ...

(''Komitet Obrony Robotników'') a civil society group which aided the families of workers who were being persecuted by the communist authorities. He also served as a representative of the Committee for Social Self-Defense KOR (''Komitet Samoobrony Społecznej KOR'') abroad. After the fall of communism in 1989 in Poland, Smolar served as an adviser to the first non-communist prime minister of Poland,

Tadeusz Mazowiecki Tadeusz Mazowiecki (; 18 April 1927 – 28 October 2013) was a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist Polish prime minister since 1946, hav ...

, and then to prime minister Hanna Suchocka. He was in the leadership of the Democratic Union (''Unia Demokratyczna'') party, as well as the successor Freedom Union (''Unia Wolności''). In 1990 he was named president of the Stefan Batory Foundation. He serves on the board of the

European Council on Foreign Relations The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is a pan-European think tank with offices in seven European capitals. Launched in October 2007, it conducts research on European foreign and security policy and provides a meeting space for decis ...

and is a vice president of the Institute for Human Sciences in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Selected publications

*''Globalization, Power and Democracy''. (co-edited by Marc Plattner), The Johns Hopkins University Press, Washington, 2000 *''Entre Kant et Kosovo. Etudes offertes à Pierre Hassner''. (co-written with Anne-Marie Le Gloannec), Presses de Sciences Po, Paris 2003 *''Tabu i niewinność'', ("Taboo and Innocence"), Universitas, Kraków 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smolar, Aleksander 1940 births People from Białystok Living people 20th-century Polish non-fiction writers Polish male non-fiction writers 20th-century Polish male writers Members of the Committee for Social Self-Defense KOR

Biography

Selected publications

See also

References