Paweł Lisicki wants to celebrate the fall of communism 20 years ago

The 20th anniversary of the collapse of communism in Poland must be celebrated, Paweł Lisicki writes in the conservative daily Rzeczpospolita: "One can say a lot about the history of the past 20 years. Without doubt it was a time of great advances as a civilisation. It suffices to say that the average per capita income has increased seven-fold since 1989. … As a result it's hard to imagine that in the mid-1980s everything was so different. There was no hope of improvement, of genuine reform and release from the corset of communism. … Therefore it can be seen as a success story. … But one can tell a different story about the past twenty years: Were they not a time in which values were undermined? A time of loss of memory [no review of the communist dictatorship] and of a weakening of the civic conscience? … Instead of encouraging national pride we have been taught to distrust and feel ashamed of a strong national identity. … But does this mean there is no cause to celebrate? On the contrary, even if the fate of the Poles was not only decided by the Poles on 4 June 1989, one can say that today it is. Therefore this day on which the Poles learned to mobilise themselves and assume responsibility for their freedom deserves to be commemorated."

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