"Oksford w Warszawie" - English translation

Oxford in Warsaw

Translation of the article Oksford w Warszawie by Maria KRUCZKOWSKA
("Magazyn Gazety Wyborczej", 10 January, 1997)

Professor Zbigniew Pelczynski has always been ahead of his times. Fifteen years ago he opened up Oxford for Polish academics; in 1987 he persuaded the philanthropist George Sores to set up the Batory Foundation in Poland, in 1994 he created the School for Young Social and Political Leaders.

His young collaborators complain they can't catch up with him. One of them greeted him once in the morning with the words: "You are at work already, Professor?" "I am just leaving" replied the 71 years' old Pelczynski who had been poring over papers since the previous day. Hę speaks of himself as an academic who gradually, from the 1980s on, changed into a "social entrepreneur", in other words someone who has a feel for social needs and finds practical ways of satisfying them.

After the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 he settled down in Britain. Hę studied political science and economics there. In the academic world he became known as a Hegel specialist. Until 1993, when he retired, he had lectured at Oxford. At heart, as he says himself, he was always primarily a teacher. Ties of friendship bind him to many old students, among them Bill Clinton. The Professor likes contact with young people. "Thanks to them I don't look back, but into the future".

Pelczynski belongs to the youngest generation of "London" military émigrés; what set him apart from those who were older and of higher rank was, from the beginning, his attitude to the homeland. After 1956 he visited Poland regularly and tried to form his own judgment whether the system was reformable. The declaration of martial law he interpreted as the beginning of the end of Communism. From such diagnosis it followed that the most important thing was preparing the homeland for life after the system changed. Hę decided to help Polish academics to move nearer to world science. Hę persuaded Oxford to establish a broad scholarship programme for Poles. Thanks to him between 1982 and today more than 450 Polish academics have spent some time at that university, among them the most able final year undergraduates and doctoral students. In the 1980s Pelczynski made contact with the American millionaire of Hungarian origin, George Soros, the creator of Open Society Foundation. Both of them shared the Popperian idea of promoting "open society". "Let's make a deal", proposed Soros. "For every Hungarian you get into Oxford I shall finance the stay of one Pole". And so in 1986, thanks to Pelczynski, the first 10 Hungarians found themselves at Oxford. The Polish programme turned East-European when Soros scholars started coming from other Central European countries and the USSR. The tireless Pelczynski persuaded Cambridge, Manchester and other British universities to join the Oxford programme. The next idea how to bring Poland nearer to the West was the Batory Foundation. As a Soros Foundation already existed in Hungary, Pelczynski persuaded him to establish a foundation also in Poland. Hę set it up on his behalf in 1988. After 1989 the Professor co-operated with Solidarity governments. Today hę prefers to change reality by educating Polish elites. "The best will pull up the rest", he says. Hence he has founded and been directing the School for Young Social and Political Leaders. The School trains future politicians, self-government councillors and social organizers in the difficult art of negotiating, of reaching compromise. One of the Professor's hobbyhorses is introducing into Poland the art of Oxford style debate, a civilized discussion conducted according to strict rules. He managed to inspire with the idea some Warsaw University students who hold such debates already. Pelczynski hopes that similar debating dubs will before long cover the whole country, and then Belarus and Ukraine. The graduates of the School for Leaders can perfect their skills by observing local elections in Great Britain, working as interns in the office of an American senator or in the Polish Sejm or in consulting firms.

"In our generation of London émigrés", says Pelczynski's friend, the poet and writer Bolesław Taborski with regret, "there were thousands of people with great professional achievements, ready to come and put their experience at the home country's disposal after retirement. But nobody has called us".

It is good that the Professor has met the country's needs by himself.