Unhappy love to facts : defining political realism on the basis of Stefan Kisielewski's "Gilded Years, Years of Grey"

Artykuł pochodzi z IV Międzynarodowej Konferencji Naukowej zorganizowanej w KSW im. A. F. Modrzewskiego na przełomie V i VI 2004 r.

The essay is an attempt to indicate a few characteristics o f the phenomenon of political realism on the basis of Stefan Kisielewski's feature articles Lata pozłacane, lata szare. If one tries to avoid simplifications and to show political realism as a universal typological category then serious problems with giving the definition appear. Nevertheless Kisielewski's political considerations enable to point out such the characteristics of political realism as the thorough interest in history, the objection to reducing reality to the main political doctrines - conservatism, liberalism, socialism - that tend to select some social facts and ignore others, the emphasis on development of material culture, conflicts and struggles as an inescapable part of the political life, casual determ inism, and last but certainly not least severe criticism of uprisings which are not supported by prudent policy. Kisielewski, who advocated all these ideas, was - and to a large extent still is - an exceptional and isolated thinker on the Polish political scene.