Liston M. Oak - Free and unfettered

illegal, did its utmost to win the elections, but .that the nation, conscious of its aims, would not let itself be terrorized. THE SPEAKER:Citizen Deputy, your time is up. ZuLAWSKI: I am just finishing. Just think, Mikolajczyk and I are supposed to represent Polish reaction. Besmirch the good_name of Mikolajczyk, even destroy the P.S.L., and still Mikolajczyk's name will remain, in the soul of the peasants-this greatest stratum of our nation-a symbol, in the same way as Bojko's and Witos's names were symbols.1 Mikolajczyk may fall under the blows, but by his protest against violence, supported by the P.S.L., and the peasants, he saved the honour of our nation. As for me, I want to defend Socialism and its purity and I want to be a living reproach to all those who, despite their promises, obligatioiis, words of honour, and even convictions, could not resist the temptation to participate in power. Premier Osubka may well describe me to foreign journalists as a decrepit old man, half irresponsible,-Dr. Drobner, 2 suffering from a serious, incurable megalomania, may well try to bury me alive in a coffin-which I would anyhow always find preferable to infamy-because apparently I am the one who has betrayed our ideals,-! am not going to be offended either at them or at history ..... Therefore, wishing to fulfil this modest role history has allotted to me, I will repeat the words of Daszynski, 3 whichin his day-he flung at the "Sanacja" lackeys: "I do not know how much longer I shall live, but as long as I live, I shall lash out at those responsible for electoral sharp-practice and violence, careerists, parasites, lackeys who have seized power to the despair of the overwhelming majority of the working people of Poland." 1 Bojko and Witos-prominent peasant leaders in the past. 2 Dr. Drobner, Member for Cracow on behalf of the "Democratic Bloc," who-following Zulawski's rupture with the official Socialist Party-wrote an article, full of attacks and personal invective against the old leader, accusing him of having chosen a "political coffin." 3 Ignacy Daszynski-the greatest Polish Socialist leader. Elected Speaker of the Polish Parliament in 1928, he adopted an uncompromising attitude to Pilsudski's dictatorial attempts. SS Biblioteca Gino Bianco

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