The Captive Mind

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The Captive Mind is a 1953 book by Polish writer and academic Czeslaw Milosz, written immediately after the author received political asylum in Paris after his break with Poland's Communist government. The book attempted to explain both the intellectual allure of Stalinism and the temptation of collaboration with Stalinist regimes among intellectuals in post-war Eastern Europe.

Milosz learned from his experience as an underground writer during World War II in his critiques on the role communism played in the lives of some intellectuals. The book centers on the portrayal of four gifted Polish men who all capitulated, in some fashion, to the demands of the Communist state. They are identified only as Alpha, the Moralist; Beta, The Disappointed Lover; Gamma, the Slave of History; and Delta, the Troubadour. However, each of the four portraits were easily identifiable: Alpha is Jerzy Andrzejewski, Beta is Tadeusz Borowski, Gamma is Jerzy Putrament, and Delta is Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński.[1]

Prior to WWII, Alpha wrote for a right-wing weekly publication. Influenced by Joseph Conrad, his style was terse and focused on “the pursuit of purity” (Milosz 83). Though "gifted with an exceptional sense of humor... Alpha's tone changed completely when he began to write" (84). "he wanted to be a moral authority" (84). Later, Alpha broke with the extreme right and became "an intellectual Catholic," signing a letter condemning antisemitism. Despite the fact that he was considered an excellent Catholic novelist, he neither saw himself as Catholic, nor as a particularly good writer. Yet for Alpha, Catholicism “introduced the elevated tone that was so necessary to him” (85). Continuing his writing career during the Nazi occupation of Poland, Alpha wrote anecdotes on the theme of loyalty — he was substantially more honest in these stories and even questioned his own faith in God. After the Soviet Red Army defeated and replaced the Germans, Alpha sided with the Communist party and its puppet government, for “Communism was fighting Fascism” (98). After penning Ashes and Diamonds (Polish Popiół i Diament), Alpha became the most respected of all writers in the communist party, becoming both wealthy and famous. Towards the end of his life, he completely embraced “the New Faith,” but was seen as a “respectable prostitute” (109).

Beta began his writing career as a poet, greatly influenced by his experiences during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Having no religious faith, his poetry epitomized the grey, stark, faithless world in which he lived. Later, Beta was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and spent several months in jail. He would then survive two years in Auschwitz before being taken to Dachau where he was finally freed by American soldiers. After his release he settled in Munich and wrote We Were in Auschwitz with two former fellow prisoners. This, along with Beta's other stories illustrated his own experiences living in the concentration camp throughout which he followed the doctrine “every man saves himself the best he can” (Milosz 123). Yet in truth, those who knew Beta in the camps maintained that he acted selflessly. After returning to Warsaw, Beta adopted Leninist-Stalinist ideology. At this point, he wrote The Stony World, a novel in which he was able to channel his artistic tools. Forgoing these tools though, he spent the rest of his life writing shallow propaganda for the New Faith, attacking both America and the West. Soon After, Beta committed suicide.

The contrast between Alpha and Beta lies in the experience: Alpha never suffers the concentration camp lifestyle as Beta does. Infatuated with the idea of morality, Alpha attempts to portray a tragic world he never truly experiences; he creates a moral man that does not realistically exist within the real post-war conditions. As Milosz says, “Alpha was living in the midst of ideas about people, instead of among people themselves” (87). On the contrary, Beta gains experience by living through Dachau and is thus unable to keep faith in human morality and reason: “his nihilism results from an ethical passion, from a disappointed love of the world and of humanity.” (122). Beta stressed that man is victim to his conditions, “governed solely by the laws of the social order in which he is placed” (124): he cannot rise above them to the paragon of morality that Alpha’s ideal man is.