We found Boleslaw Bierut to be a very unusual character.
Everybody knew that in each country there had to be an equivalent of Stalin, a mini-Stalin,
somebody who co-operated closely with Stalin,
and in this case we knew that this person was Bierut.
Nevertheless, for a long time, we were being told that he wasn't affiliated with any party,
after all, there had been that constitution on the basis of which he became president
which had specified that the president can't be a member of any party.
What could be simpler than to just rescind party membership for a short while.
But we didn't always know these things at the time
and so we didn't always appreciate that this was odd nor who this person was nor what was in fact going on.
More than this, straight after the war, when they were trying to win over the large numbers of Catholics
by saying this communism isn't so bad that it's going to devour all Catholics,
I know this from photos published in newspapers and for all anyone knows,
perhaps there was footage of this in the newsreels,
of Boleslaw Bierut supporting the arm of the priest during a Corpus Christi procession.
Well, all of this was hard to comprehend if you were young like I was then,
I was 20 years old.
Here was one of the leaders of the communist battle, the equivalent of Stalin himself,
his governor and his equivalent really in Poland,
taking part in this religious ceremony,
not affiliated to any party the same way as my father, for instance, this was incomprehensible.
However, there was one thing that was obvious and easy to see:
if there was a big parade, say for May Day or some other occasion,
the crowds would be shouting: Sta-lin, Bie-rut, Ro-ko-ssow-ski.
This could only lead to massive confusion.
About Bierut himself, I heard on more than one occasion from people who knew him,
things that I would go so far as to say weren't the worst.
Above all, he was bright, had a lot of common sense,
I don't think he was very knowledgeable nor was he a great intellectual but I think he was very sensible,
and I heard many different things about him that when some of the crazier people came up with their mad ideas
which could have caused a lot of people a great deal of harm and so on,
Bierut said, no, no and behaved in a sensible way.
I myself talked with one of the famous architects who said that some decisions rested with Bierut,
and that when Bierut heard the opinion of the professional architects,
he'd say, 'Do as you think best'
which meant he was going outside of the principles of socialist realism,
which was there just for the sake of it, whereas the architects were saying
that a different way would be cheaper, more functional.
Because of this, my image of Bierut was always very confused
because I knew that he wasn't my kind of person, not someone I could love or have special regard for
but he was always very ambiguous in both a good and a bad way.
On the other hand, it was said that he was the one
who managed to delay the trial of Gomułka and Spychalski.
Whether that's true or not I can't say but if it is, it would have been greatly to his credit
because delaying anything during the Stalinist period was
neither straightforward nor easy, but did he really do it?
Perhaps he was simply realising the concepts that were coming from HQ, Moscow HQ,
which were saying this isn't the right time for this trial, it needs to be done differently,
we simply don't know. That was a basic principle that no one knew anything.
In any case, the image I have of Bierut is of a gentleman who is usually photographed surrounded by children,
in a kindergarden holding a little girl in his arms,
ringed by little children all dancing around him.
If I'm to be honest, that's the image I have of Bierut although I realise how nonsensical it is.
