Jan Józef Lipski

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Jan Józef Lipski (born 26 May 1926 Warsaw, died 10 September 1991 Kraków) - Polish critic and literature historian, socialist politician, freemason (for a long time Master of the Copernicus Lodge). As a soldier of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), he fought in the Warsaw Uprising. Editor of Jan Kasprowicz, Benedykt Chmielowski and Gabriela Zapolska.

Between 1956 and 1957 he was an editor of the pro-reform weekly “Po prostu”; from 1957 to 1959 he was president of the Klub Krzywego Koła. In 1964 Lipski organized the Letter of the 34 (objecting the expansion of censorship in communist Poland). In 1975 he signed the Letter of 59 and in 1976 he co-funded the Workers' Defence Committee (Komitet Obrony Robotnikow); as one of the most active members of this organization he organized help for the workers who protested in June 1976 against price raisings in Radom and Ursus.

In 1980, Lipski became a member of the Solidarity Union and was elected a delegate to the 1st Delegates’ Rally to represent the Masovia Region (based in Warsaw). On December 14th 1981, after the imposition of the martial law, he was arrested and charged with orchestrating a protest. As the only senior member of the anti-communist opposition, he re-established the Polish Socialist Party (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna), which he led from 1987. In 1989 he was elected Senator from Radom and was a member of the Obywatelski Klub Parlamentarny (Civic Parliamentary Club); he died while in office.

Lipski was decorated with the Cross of the Valorous (Krzyż Walecznych), posthumously with the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1991) and with the highest Polsh decoration, Order of the White Eagle (2006).

In 2000, Jacek Kuroń established the Jan Józef Lipski Open University of Teremiski.

1 Publications in English
2 Publications in Polish
3 External link
4 Reference

[edit] Publications in English

(1985) KOR : a history of the Workers’ Defense Committee in Poland, 1976-1981. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0520052439.

[edit] Publications in Polish

Twórczość Jana Kasprowicza, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, Warszawa 1967
Warszawscy "pustelnicy" i "bywalscy", Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, Warszawa 1973 (dwutomowa antologia felietonu prasowego)
Komitet Obrony Robotników KOR – komitet samoobrony społecznej, Aneks, London 1983; 2nd ed.Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, Warszawa 2006
Dwie ojczyzny – dwa patriotyzmy. Uwagi o megalomanii narodowej i ksenofobii Polaków, Stop, Warszawa 1984
Szkice o poezji, Instytut Literacki, Paryż 1987
Tunika Nessosa. Szkice o literaturze i nacjonalizmie, PEN, Warszawa 1992
Katolickie Państwo Narodu Polskiego, Aneks, Londyn 1994
Powiedzieć sobie wszystko ... : eseje o sąsiedztwie polsko-niemieckim - Wir müssen uns alles sagen... Essays zur deutsch-polnischen Nachbarschaft , Wydawnictwo Polsko-Niemieckie, Warszawa 1996 (bilingual German-Polish edition)