'THE POSTHUMOUS MASK OF STALINISM'. 'THE SOLDIER OF VICTORY' BY WANDA JAKUBOWSKA AS TESTIMONY OF AN EPOCH

• Authors: Chojnowski A.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article discusses the circumstances of making a feature film about General Karol Swierczewski, whom communist propaganda intended to introduce into the pantheon of national heroes. At the same time, this particular biography was treated as a convenient circumstance for delving into questions of fundamental importance for the ideological climate of the first half of the 1950s: outlining an ideal model of relations within the working class-Party-army triangle, depicting a model of a Stalinist leader, and the mechanism of transforming the masses into revolutionary armed forces. For those reasons, the film was made under the strict supervision of Polish United Workers' Party leadership (including First Secretary Boleslaw Bierut). The motion picture, shown for the first time in 1953, proved to be a total failure - not only artistically, but also politically. Its authors portrayed with excessive sincerity the alien lineage of the Polish post-war authorities, and unintentionally showed that the awareness of the threat posed to the revolution by traitors and 'agents of imperialism' assumed the form of paranoiac obsession within the communist movement. Inadvertently, the film robbed the Swierczewski legend of its mythological features, enabling the viewer to see that the protagonist's death was the outcome not so much of battlefield heroics, but of bravura produced by his carelessness and conceit . The experiences of Wanda Jakubowska became a warning for the future. After several months on screen 'The Soldier of Victory' was withdrawn from release; it was not shown publicly until 1989, and General Swierczewski never returned to the cinema as the lead in a feature film.

Keywords

EN

'SOLDIER OF VICTORY'; JAKUBOWSKA WANDA; SWIERCZEWSKI KAROL (GENERAL)

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla PAN w Warszawie
• Journal: Dzieje Najnowsze
• Year: 2006
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 107-121
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Chojnowski A.

• A. Chojnowski, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Instytut Historyczny, ul. Krakowskie Przedmiescie 26/28, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

06PLAAAA01252861