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> For two decades he remained silent about his prewar and wartime work so as to avoid the attention of Poland's Soviet-dominated government [1] Why would he wa

> For two decades he remained silent about his prewar and wartime work so as to avoid the attention of Poland's Soviet-dominated government [1] Why would he want to hide that fact from the Soviets? [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_Rejewski https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_Rejewski

mwbajor 2y ago
Because they would assume he has American and British friends that he still might talk to.
mbarti 2y ago
Also because Poland was under Russian de facto occupation 1945-1989 and the Russians mass murdered any possible threats to their power (intellectuals, poets, professors, former army officers - 100s of thousands sent to labour/ death camps in Siberia, never to return).
- 48864w6ui 2y ago
  Anyone know why the Russian Formalists got the sparkling repressive power of the state? I had thought they were expressly apolitical, but maybe Stalin was paranoid?
  - throwaway74354 2y ago
    wiki article on the subject isn't bad. 1) Formalism was called Bourgeois Formalism by the state critics. Elitist art, opposite of what would become Socialist Realism. 2) If you click the names at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_formalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_formalism , some of the biographies will lead you to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootless_cosmopolitan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootless_cosmopolitan . Being a Jew in the USSR was an additional risk. 3) Slightly later in history, but typical use of formalism-as-a-prejorative : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhdanov_Doctrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhdanov_Doctrine tldr: young authoritarian states need enemies. Both internal and external. Repression of any form of dissent is a way to unite (or scare into submission) the masses. See also: "degenerative art" in Germany. Also being apolitical is a political statement. There's a good timeline of the 20s in Russian: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%8C%D0%B1%D0%B0_%D1%81_%D1%84%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BC https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%8C%D0%B1...
playingalong 2y ago
Because people who fought one oppressor, might fight the next one. Even if the oppressors were enemies at some point.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
throwaway74354 2y ago
In the USSR, being unreliable (неблагонадёжный, look into Great Terror of the 30s history) and capable of some useful to the regime skills could land you into https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharashka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharashka . Poland in the 40-50s was slightly milder, but not by a lot. Ability to keep quiet is a key survival skill in the authoritarian states.
jjtheblunt 2y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre was recent memory, with Soviets mass murdering educated Poles, among others.
keiferski 2y ago
Fighting against the Germans unfortunately wasn’t much protection against the insanity of the Soviet regime. This guy is a good example: Skalski was a Polish aviator and fighter ace who served with the Polish Air Force and British Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Skalski was the top Polish fighter ace of the war and chronologically the first Allied fighter ace of the war. He returned to Poland after the war but was imprisoned by the communist authorities under the pretext that he was a spy for Great Britain. While in arrest he was tortured and then, in a show trial, sentenced to death on 7 April 1950. Skalski refused to ask for clemency but after his mother's intervention with the president of communist Poland, Boleslaw Bierut, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He remained in prison until 1956 when a court overturned the previous verdict. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Skalski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Skalski
ajuc 2y ago
Post-WW2 Poland was a totalitarian state with stalinist terror. Soviets installed their puppet communist government and murdered anybody inconvenient - mostly people who were connected to pre-WW2 government, army, guerilla fighter groups that fought against Germans or Russians during WW2, etc. For example Witold Pilecki, Polish guerilla group (AK) member who voluntered to get captured by Germans and put in Auschwitz camp to see what happens there. Then he wrote a report and escaped from the camp. After the WW2 he was captured by soviets, sentenced to deatch and executed (supposedly for speing for western powers). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki Leaders of these antinazi partizan groups from WW2 were invited after WW2 to Moscow with the supposed goal being to negotiate. When in Moscow they have been captured and sentenced to death in a show trial, and then executed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_the_Sixteen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_the_Sixteen Pre-WW2 Polish politician Mikołajczyk and a leader of one of the biggest parties - PSL (agrarian party) - returned from exile to Poland after WW2 and was allowed to have his party in elections (as an exception to appease Polish farmers - other parties were banned and over 30 000 people were imprisoned and executed just before the elections). The elections were falsified to absurd level, PSL was the most popular party by far, yet they got 10% of votes officially. Mikołajczyk escaped to London again and later to USA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Miko%C5%82ajczyk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Miko%C5%82ajczy... There's thousand such examples. People were terrorized and kept silent out of fear for their lives. There were whole chapters of history you weren't supposed to talk about (like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre ).
xdennis 2y ago
> Why would he want to hide that fact from the Soviets? The Soviets and Nazis started WW2 by attacking Poland. The Soviets won. Why would he want to collaborate with the enemy? After 1941, the Americans allied themselves with the Soviets because of the doctrine of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", but for Poles the Nazis were the enemies and the Soviets were the enemies too.
self_awareness 2y ago
Because Russians often killed scientists and all kinds of intelligence representatives. Even among their own.

mwbajor 2y ago

Because they would assume he has American and British friends that he still might talk to.

mbarti 2y ago

Also because Poland was under Russian de facto occupation 1945-1989 and the Russians mass murdered any possible threats to their power (intellectuals, poets, professors, former army officers - 100s of thousands sent to labour/ death camps in Siberia, never to return).

48864w6ui 2y ago
Anyone know why the Russian Formalists got the sparkling repressive power of the state? I had thought they were expressly apolitical, but maybe Stalin was paranoid?
- throwaway74354 2y ago
  wiki article on the subject isn't bad. 1) Formalism was called Bourgeois Formalism by the state critics. Elitist art, opposite of what would become Socialist Realism. 2) If you click the names at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_formalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_formalism , some of the biographies will lead you to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootless_cosmopolitan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootless_cosmopolitan . Being a Jew in the USSR was an additional risk. 3) Slightly later in history, but typical use of formalism-as-a-prejorative : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhdanov_Doctrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhdanov_Doctrine tldr: young authoritarian states need enemies. Both internal and external. Repression of any form of dissent is a way to unite (or scare into submission) the masses. See also: "degenerative art" in Germany. Also being apolitical is a political statement. There's a good timeline of the 20s in Russian: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%8C%D0%B1%D0%B0_%D1%81_%D1%84%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BC https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%8C%D0%B1...

playingalong 2y ago

Because people who fought one oppressor, might fight the next one. Even if the oppressors were enemies at some point.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

throwaway74354 2y ago

In the USSR, being unreliable (неблагонадёжный, look into Great Terror of the 30s history) and capable of some useful to the regime skills could land you into https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharashka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharashka . Poland in the 40-50s was slightly milder, but not by a lot. Ability to keep quiet is a key survival skill in the authoritarian states.

jjtheblunt 2y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre was recent memory, with Soviets mass murdering educated Poles, among others.

keiferski 2y ago

Fighting against the Germans unfortunately wasn’t much protection against the insanity of the Soviet regime. This guy is a good example: Skalski was a Polish aviator and fighter ace who served with the Polish Air Force and British Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Skalski was the top Polish fighter ace of the war and chronologically the first Allied fighter ace of the war. He returned to Poland after the war but was imprisoned by the communist authorities under the pretext that he was a spy for Great Britain. While in arrest he was tortured and then, in a show trial, sentenced to death on 7 April 1950. Skalski refused to ask for clemency but after his mother's intervention with the president of communist Poland, Boleslaw Bierut, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He remained in prison until 1956 when a court overturned the previous verdict. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Skalski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Skalski

ajuc 2y ago

Post-WW2 Poland was a totalitarian state with stalinist terror. Soviets installed their puppet communist government and murdered anybody inconvenient - mostly people who were connected to pre-WW2 government, army, guerilla fighter groups that fought against Germans or Russians during WW2, etc. For example Witold Pilecki, Polish guerilla group (AK) member who voluntered to get captured by Germans and put in Auschwitz camp to see what happens there. Then he wrote a report and escaped from the camp. After the WW2 he was captured by soviets, sentenced to deatch and executed (supposedly for speing for western powers). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki Leaders of these antinazi partizan groups from WW2 were invited after WW2 to Moscow with the supposed goal being to negotiate. When in Moscow they have been captured and sentenced to death in a show trial, and then executed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_the_Sixteen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_the_Sixteen Pre-WW2 Polish politician Mikołajczyk and a leader of one of the biggest parties - PSL (agrarian party) - returned from exile to Poland after WW2 and was allowed to have his party in elections (as an exception to appease Polish farmers - other parties were banned and over 30 000 people were imprisoned and executed just before the elections). The elections were falsified to absurd level, PSL was the most popular party by far, yet they got 10% of votes officially. Mikołajczyk escaped to London again and later to USA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Miko%C5%82ajczyk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Miko%C5%82ajczy... There's thousand such examples. People were terrorized and kept silent out of fear for their lives. There were whole chapters of history you weren't supposed to talk about (like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre ).

xdennis 2y ago

> Why would he want to hide that fact from the Soviets? The Soviets and Nazis started WW2 by attacking Poland. The Soviets won. Why would he want to collaborate with the enemy? After 1941, the Americans allied themselves with the Soviets because of the doctrine of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", but for Poles the Nazis were the enemies and the Soviets were the enemies too.

self_awareness 2y ago

Because Russians often killed scientists and all kinds of intelligence representatives. Even among their own.