You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Polish. (July 2025) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
View a machine-translated version of the Polish article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must follow the LLM translation guideline, revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Polish Wikipedia article at [[:pl:Aleksander Smolar]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|pl|Aleksander Smolar}} to the talk page.
Smolar was a member of the communist Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). He was removed from the party for publicly defending Leszek Kołakowski, a Polish revisionist Marxist philosopher who was critical of Marxism–Leninism.[4][5]
Political activism
Smolar took part in the March 1968 events, a series of protests by students and young factory workers against the repressive nature of the communist party in Poland.[4] He was arrested and imprisoned until February 1969.[6]
He was expelled from the university and after being released from prison worked in heavy industry. In 1971 he emigrated from Poland, going to Italy, United Kingdom and France. Eventually he began working for the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris.[7]
In 1973, he began publishing a quarterly political journal Aneks, which he continued until 1990.[2] He served as a spokesperson for the Workers' Defence Committee (Komitet Obrony Robotników) a civil society group which aided the families of workers who were being persecuted by the communist authorities. He also served as a representative of the Committee for Social Self-Defense KOR (Komitet Samoobrony Społecznej KOR) abroad.[8]
Role in post-Cold War Poland
After the fall of communism in 1989 in Poland, Smolar served as an adviser to the first democratically elected prime minister of Poland, Tadeusz Mazowiecki From 1992-1993, Smolar served as advisor for foreign policy to prime minister Hanna Suchocka.[9]
Smolar remained active in political commentary. He is very critical of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party because of their illiberal tendency.[10][9]
Selected publications
Globalization, Power and Democracy. (co-edited by Marc Plattner), The Johns Hopkins University Press, Washington, 2000
Entre Kant et Kosovo. Etudes offertes à Pierre Hassner. (co-written with Anne-Marie Le Gloannec), Presses de Sciences Po, Paris 2003
Tabu i niewinność, ("Taboo and Innocence"), Universitas, Kraków 2010
