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World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace

January 01, 1970

The World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace (Polish: Światowy Kongres Intelektualistów w Obronie Pokoju) was an international conference held on 25 to 28 August 1948 at Wrocław University of Technology. It was organized in the aftermath of the Second World War by the authorities of the Polish People's Republic and the Soviet Union, and aimed against "American imperialism."

World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace
(Światowy Kongres Intelektualistów w Obronie Pokoju)
Session of the World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace in Wrocław, 1948.
Host countryPoland
Date25 August 1948 (1948-08-25)–
28 August 1948 (1948-08-28)
Venue(s)Wrocław University of Technology

The congress was part of Soviets and Stalin’s goal of slowing down the Western nuclear weapon program by the West, by influencing the world public opinion through framing of the communist powers as supporters of peace, and on the opposite side, portraying the West as a threat to peace.[1]

Organization edit

The Congress was officially proposed by Polish communist Jerzy Borejsza, and conceptualized by Andrei Zhdanov in the Soviet Union.[2][3] It was held on 25 to 28 August 1948 at Wrocław University of Technology.[2] It cost the organizers about 100 million Polish zloties.[4]

The topics of the speeches and the selection of speakers were carefully planned. In addition to the lectures condemning American imperialism, a place was also found for the fight against fascism and clericalism. The number of delegations was also determined: the most numerous was the 50-person Soviet delegation, the delegations from France, Italy and Great Britain were to have 35-40 people each, the Hungarian and Czechoslovak delegations were to have around 30 people, and the Romanian and Bulgarian delegations had 15 people each. The plan was also for Congress to establish a peace prize that would offset the Nobel Prize.[5]

Program edit

The Congress was part of the Soviet-supported Poland movement [clarification needed] aimed at slowing down the development of nuclear weaponry by the West [citation needed] (at that time, USSR did not have nuclear weapons of its own, although it was engaged in a crash program to develop them).[2] Polish historian Wojciech Tomasik claimed that the Congress was an example of the Soviet Union hijacking the concept of "defending peace", to justify its own policies.[3] The aim of the Congress was to influence world public opinion, portraying the Eastern Bloc countries as supporters of peace and the Western Bloc countries as a threat to it.[2][3][6] Dąbrowska in her memoirs stated that "the Congress was not aimed at preventing the war in general, but at preventing an American-Soviet war from talking place now, at the moment in which the USSR is in the inferior position."[3]

Some Polish activists and politicians initially saw the congress as a neutral event that would boost Polish relations with the West.[2] However, in reaction to a strongly anti-American speech where the Soviet delegation leader, writer Alexander Fadeyev compared American democracy to fascism, attacked writers and intellectuals such as John Dos Passos, T. S. Eliot, André Malraux, Eugene O'Neill and Jean-Paul Sartre. A number of western delegates such as Huxley or Curie declared themselves offended.[4][2] Some, including Julian Huxley (then director of UNESCO), Léger and Taylor left the conference in protest.[3] Huxley accused the Congress of intolerance to non-Communist viewpoints and stated "such behaviour cannot lead to peace, and may help to promote war".[7] Writer Ilya Ehrenburg then gave a conciliatory speech on behalf of the Soviet delegation, and Borejsza convinced almost everyone to remain at the Congress.[8]

A number of other speeches shared much of the anti-American rhetoric.[4] Journalist François Bondy noted that the Soviet delegation was particularly unfriendly and aggressive towards many of the Western delegates, and their actions sowed much discord into the conference, ruining the attempts by Polish delegates to salvage the neutral tone of the event.[3] The final act of the conference was a resolution to defend world peace.[4] The resolution applauded democracy which saved the world from fascism, and criticized the governments (but explicitly, not the people) of United States and United Kingdom, arguing that a small group of greed-motivated individuals in America and Europe "inherited" the evils of fascism, and are planning a coup d'état against the world's peace.[4] Only 11 delegates voted against (7 out of 32 from the US, and 4 out of 32 from the UK).[4] Another source notes that 371 out of 391 delegates voted in support.[3]

Simultaneously with the Congress, another Wrocław event occurred: the Exhibition of the Regained Territories, another international event, this one used by the Poles to explain the territorial changes of Poland after World War II and the securing of the so-called Regained Territories.[4] Together, the Conference and the Exhibition aimed to convince the world that the border change was beneficial to Europe and the world peace.[4]

The Congress elected a permanent International Committee of Intellectuals in Defence of Peace (also known as the International Committee of Intellectuals for Peace and the International Liaison Committee of Intellectuals for Peace), with headquarters in Paris. The Congress called for the establishment of national branches and the holding of national meetings similar to the World Congress. In accordance with this policy, a Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace was held in New York City in March 1949.[9]

Delegates edit

 
Pablo Picasso, Minnette de Silva, Jo Davidson and Mulk Raj Anand during the Congress.

A large number of notable individuals, primarily supportive of left-wing policies, participated in the conference. They included:

Albert Einstein sent a letter which was read to the delegates – but only after it had been censored[by whom?] to remove the call for a world government that would safeguard the uses of nuclear energy.[2][3] Henry A. Wallace, former Vice President of the United States under Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Progressive Party's candidate in the 1948 U.S. presidential election, also sent a message of support.[11] Overall, the Congress was attended by about 600 individuals from 46 countries.[4]

Julia Pirotte, a photojournalist known for her work in the French Resistance, covered the event.

Aftermath edit

The conference was one of the precursors to the Soviet-dominated World Peace Council organization, which for decades would attempt to influence the world's peace movement to support a more pro-Soviet and anti-American stance.[6][15]

In the United States, a pro-American, anti-Soviet Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace was held in New York City in March 1949.[16]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Vladimir Dobrenko (2016), Conspiracy of peace: the cold war, the international peace movement, and the Soviet peace campaign, 1946-195 (phd)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Pryzmat. 2008-06-30. Archived from the original on June 30, 2008. Retrieved 2012-08-24.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t . Naukawpolsce.pap.pl. 2008-08-25. Archived from the original on 2012-11-16. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af "Ziemie Odzyskane i miłośnicy pokoju". Wroclaw.gazeta.pl. 2008-09-18. Retrieved 2012-08-24.
  5. ^ Zygmunt Woźniczka. Wrocławski Kongres Intelektualistów w Obronie Pokoju. „Kwartalnik Historyczny”. 1987
  6. ^ a b Encyclopedia of the Cold War. Taylor & Francis US. 15 May 2008. p. 962. ISBN 978-0-415-97515-5. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  7. ^ Lawrence S. Wittner, The Struggle Against the Bomb, Volume One: One World Or None. Stanford University Press, 1993 ISBN 0804721416 (p. 176)
  8. ^ Piotr H. Kosicki. Catholics on the Barricades: Poland, France, and "Revolution," 1891-1956. Yale University Press, 2018. p. 182. ISBN 9780300225518
  9. ^ Report on the Communist "peace" offensive; a campaign to disarm and defeat the United States (1951)
  10. ^ a b c d e Tony Judt. Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944–1956. University of California Press, 1992. p. 224. ISBN 9780520086500
  11. ^ a b c d e f Geoffrey Roberts. "Averting Armageddon: The Communist Peace Movement, 1948–1956." The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism. Stephen A. Smith, ed. Oxford University Press, 2014. p. 324–325. ISBN 9780191667510
  12. ^ a b c Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius. "Remapping Socialist Realism: Renato Guttuso in Poland." Art beyond Borders: Artistic Exchange in Communist Europe 1945–1989. Jérôme Bazin, Pascal Dubourg Glatigny, Piotr Piotrowski, ed. Central European University Press, 2016. p. 143. ISBN 9789633860830
  13. ^ a b c d Klefstad, Terry. "Shostakovich and the Peace Conference" (PDF): 4. Retrieved 20 August 2019. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  14. ^ a b c Harriet Atkinson. The Festival of Britain: A Land and Its People. I. B. Taurus, 2012. p. 55. ISBN 9781848857926
  15. ^ Geoffrey Roberts (31 August 2011). Molotov: Stalin's Cold Warrior. Potomac Books, Inc. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-57488-945-1. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  16. ^ Hugh Wilford (2008). The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America. Harvard University Press. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-674-02681-0. Retrieved 24 August 2012.

External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace.
  • Einstein's letter is published in Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc. (October 1948). "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Science and Public Affairs. Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.: 295–. ISSN 0096-3402. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  • Photos from the Congress at wroclaw.hydral.com.pl[dead link]
  • Photos from the Congress at fotohistoria.pl[dead link]
  • World Peace Council[dead link]
  • (subscription required)
  • Canadian Peace Congress
  • Encyclopedia of the Cold War, Volume 1 - Page 962
  • Pathé news film of the Congress [dead link]
  • Polish Film Chronicle film of the Congress [dead link]

January 01, 1970
world, congress, intellectuals, defense, peace, polish, Światowy, kongres, intelektualistów, obronie, pokoju, international, conference, held, august, 1948, wrocław, university, technology, organized, aftermath, second, world, authorities, polish, people, repu. The World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace Polish Swiatowy Kongres Intelektualistow w Obronie Pokoju was an international conference held on 25 to 28 August 1948 at Wroclaw University of Technology It was organized in the aftermath of the Second World War by the authorities of the Polish People s Republic and the Soviet Union and aimed against American imperialism World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace Swiatowy Kongres Intelektualistow w Obronie Pokoju Session of the World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace in Wroclaw 1948 Host countryPolandDate25 August 1948 1948 08 25 28 August 1948 1948 08 28 Venue s Wroclaw University of Technology The congress was part of Soviets and Stalin s goal of slowing down the Western nuclear weapon program by the West by influencing the world public opinion through framing of the communist powers as supporters of peace and on the opposite side portraying the West as a threat to peace 1 Contents 1 Organization 2 Program 3 Delegates 4 Aftermath 5 See also 6 References 7 External linksOrganization editThe Congress was officially proposed by Polish communist Jerzy Borejsza and conceptualized by Andrei Zhdanov in the Soviet Union 2 3 It was held on 25 to 28 August 1948 at Wroclaw University of Technology 2 It cost the organizers about 100 million Polish zloties 4 The topics of the speeches and the selection of speakers were carefully planned In addition to the lectures condemning American imperialism a place was also found for the fight against fascism and clericalism The number of delegations was also determined the most numerous was the 50 person Soviet delegation the delegations from France Italy and Great Britain were to have 35 40 people each the Hungarian and Czechoslovak delegations were to have around 30 people and the Romanian and Bulgarian delegations had 15 people each The plan was also for Congress to establish a peace prize that would offset the Nobel Prize 5 Program editThe Congress was part of the Soviet supported Poland movement clarification needed aimed at slowing down the development of nuclear weaponry by the West citation needed at that time USSR did not have nuclear weapons of its own although it was engaged in a crash program to develop them 2 Polish historian Wojciech Tomasik claimed that the Congress was an example of the Soviet Union hijacking the concept of defending peace to justify its own policies 3 The aim of the Congress was to influence world public opinion portraying the Eastern Bloc countries as supporters of peace and the Western Bloc countries as a threat to it 2 3 6 Dabrowska in her memoirs stated that the Congress was not aimed at preventing the war in general but at preventing an American Soviet war from talking place now at the moment in which the USSR is in the inferior position 3 Some Polish activists and politicians initially saw the congress as a neutral event that would boost Polish relations with the West 2 However in reaction to a strongly anti American speech where the Soviet delegation leader writer Alexander Fadeyev compared American democracy to fascism attacked writers and intellectuals such as John Dos Passos T S Eliot Andre Malraux Eugene O Neill and Jean Paul Sartre A number of western delegates such as Huxley or Curie declared themselves offended 4 2 Some including Julian Huxley then director of UNESCO Leger and Taylor left the conference in protest 3 Huxley accused the Congress of intolerance to non Communist viewpoints and stated such behaviour cannot lead to peace and may help to promote war 7 Writer Ilya Ehrenburg then gave a conciliatory speech on behalf of the Soviet delegation and Borejsza convinced almost everyone to remain at the Congress 8 A number of other speeches shared much of the anti American rhetoric 4 Journalist Francois Bondy noted that the Soviet delegation was particularly unfriendly and aggressive towards many of the Western delegates and their actions sowed much discord into the conference ruining the attempts by Polish delegates to salvage the neutral tone of the event 3 The final act of the conference was a resolution to defend world peace 4 The resolution applauded democracy which saved the world from fascism and criticized the governments but explicitly not the people of United States and United Kingdom arguing that a small group of greed motivated individuals in America and Europe inherited the evils of fascism and are planning a coup d etat against the world s peace 4 Only 11 delegates voted against 7 out of 32 from the US and 4 out of 32 from the UK 4 Another source notes that 371 out of 391 delegates voted in support 3 Simultaneously with the Congress another Wroclaw event occurred the Exhibition of the Regained Territories another international event this one used by the Poles to explain the territorial changes of Poland after World War II and the securing of the so called Regained Territories 4 Together the Conference and the Exhibition aimed to convince the world that the border change was beneficial to Europe and the world peace 4 The Congress elected a permanent International Committee of Intellectuals in Defence of Peace also known as the International Committee of Intellectuals for Peace and the International Liaison Committee of Intellectuals for Peace with headquarters in Paris The Congress called for the establishment of national branches and the holding of national meetings similar to the World Congress In accordance with this policy a Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace was held in New York City in March 1949 9 Delegates edit nbsp Pablo Picasso Minnette de Silva Jo Davidson and Mulk Raj Anand during the Congress A large number of notable individuals primarily supportive of left wing policies participated in the conference They included George Abbe Alexander Abusch Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz Sibilla Aleramo Jorge Amado 4 Albin Amelin Mulk Raj Anand Martin Andersen Nexo Ivo Andric Louis Aragon 3 Ewa Bandrowska Turska Umberto Barbaro Jean Louis Barrault 10 Julien Benda J D Bernal 11 Erik Blomberg John Boyd Orr Bertolt Brecht 4 Wladyslaw Broniewski 4 Jean Bruller 10 Giorgio Caproni Aime Cesaire 12 Jozef Chalasinski 3 Le Corbusier Norman Corwin Eugenie Cotton Edward Crankshaw 11 James Crowther Jan Czekanowski Maria Dabrowska 4 Jo Davidson Jan Dembowski Dominique Desanti Xawery Dunikowski Clifford Durr 13 Virginia Foster Durr Ilya Ehrenburg 4 Hanns Eisler Paul Eluard 4 Alexander Fadeyev 4 Howard Fast 11 Ernst Fischer Grzegorz Fitelberg Max Frisch 12 Louis Golding Graham Greene William Gropper Renato Guttuso J B S Haldane 4 Ludwik Hirszfeld Aldous Huxley Julian Huxley 4 Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz 4 Hewlett Johnson Frederic Joliot Curie 4 Irene Joliot Curie 4 Albert E Kahn Freda Kirchwey Oleksandr Korniychuk Tadeusz Kotarbinski 4 Leon Kruczkowski Julian Krzyzanowski 4 Fernand Leger 3 Leonid Leonov Jack Lindsay Stanislaw Lorentz 3 Berthold Lubetkin 14 Gyorgy Lukacs 3 Andre Mandouze Kingsley Martin 11 Hans Mayer Leopoldo Mendez 12 Edita Morris Ira Victor Morris Leon Moussinac 4 Zofia Nalkowska 3 Otto Nathan Pablo Neruda Hans Jacob Nilsen Stanislaw Ossowski 3 Aleksandr Palladin Aubrey Pankey Andrzej Panufnik 3 Jan Parandowski Max Pechstein Pablo Picasso 4 Oleg Pisarzhevsky ru Salvatore Quasimodo 3 Albert Rakoto Ratsimamanga Eberhard Rebling Alves Redol Madeleine Renaud 10 James Maude Richards 14 O John Rogge 13 Anna Seghers 10 Harlow Shapley 13 Mikhail Sholokhov 4 Waclaw Sierpinski Minnette de Silva Antoni Slonimski 4 Olaf Stapledon 4 Hugo Steinhaus 4 Donald Ogden Stewart Marika Stiernstedt Franciszek Strynkiewicz Wojciech Swietoslawski Yevgeny Tarle Wladyslaw Tatarkiewicz 4 Rafal Taubenschlag A J P Taylor 3 Feliks Topolski 14 Mirzo Tursunzoda Julian Tuwim 4 Roger Vailland 3 Karl Vennberg Samad Vurgun Jean Wahl 10 Colston Warne 13 Ella Winter Friedrich Wolf Kazimierz Wyka 3 David Zaslavsky 11 Jerzy Zawieyski 4 Albert Einstein sent a letter which was read to the delegates but only after it had been censored by whom to remove the call for a world government that would safeguard the uses of nuclear energy 2 3 Henry A Wallace former Vice President of the United States under Franklin D Roosevelt and the Progressive Party s candidate in the 1948 U S presidential election also sent a message of support 11 Overall the Congress was attended by about 600 individuals from 46 countries 4 Julia Pirotte a photojournalist known for her work in the French Resistance covered the event Aftermath editThe conference was one of the precursors to the Soviet dominated World Peace Council organization which for decades would attempt to influence the world s peace movement to support a more pro Soviet and anti American stance 6 15 In the United States a pro American anti Soviet Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace was held in New York City in March 1949 16 See also editList of anti war organizations List of peace activists World Peace Council Lviv Anti Fascist Congress of Cultural WorkersReferences edit Vladimir Dobrenko 2016 Conspiracy of peace the cold war the international peace movement and the Soviet peace campaign 1946 195 phd a b c d e f g O kongresie na Politechnice po 50 latach Pryzmat 2008 06 30 Archived from the original on June 30 2008 Retrieved 2012 08 24 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t 60 lat temu we Wroclawiu obradowal Swiatowy Kongres Intelektualistow amp 124 Naukawpolsce pap pl 2008 08 25 Archived from the original on 2012 11 16 Retrieved 2017 12 01 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af Ziemie Odzyskane i milosnicy pokoju Wroclaw gazeta pl 2008 09 18 Retrieved 2012 08 24 Zygmunt Wozniczka Wroclawski Kongres Intelektualistow w Obronie Pokoju Kwartalnik Historyczny 1987 a b Encyclopedia of the Cold War Taylor amp Francis US 15 May 2008 p 962 ISBN 978 0 415 97515 5 Retrieved 24 August 2012 Lawrence S Wittner The Struggle Against the Bomb Volume One One World Or None Stanford University Press 1993 ISBN 0804721416 p 176 Piotr H Kosicki Catholics on the Barricades Poland France and Revolution 1891 1956 Yale University Press 2018 p 182 ISBN 9780300225518 Report on the Communist peace offensive a campaign to disarm and defeat the United States 1951 a b c d e Tony Judt Past Imperfect French Intellectuals 1944 1956 University of California Press 1992 p 224 ISBN 9780520086500 a b c d e f Geoffrey Roberts Averting Armageddon The Communist Peace Movement 1948 1956 The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism Stephen A Smith ed Oxford University Press 2014 p 324 325 ISBN 9780191667510 a b c Katarzyna Murawska Muthesius Remapping Socialist Realism Renato Guttuso in Poland Art beyond Borders Artistic Exchange in Communist Europe 1945 1989 Jerome Bazin Pascal Dubourg Glatigny Piotr Piotrowski ed Central European University Press 2016 p 143 ISBN 9789633860830 a b c d Klefstad Terry Shostakovich and the Peace Conference PDF 4 Retrieved 20 August 2019 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help a b c Harriet Atkinson The Festival of Britain A Land and Its People I B Taurus 2012 p 55 ISBN 9781848857926 Geoffrey Roberts 31 August 2011 Molotov Stalin s Cold Warrior Potomac Books Inc p 123 ISBN 978 1 57488 945 1 Retrieved 24 August 2012 Hugh Wilford 2008 The Mighty Wurlitzer How the CIA Played America Harvard University Press p 70 ISBN 978 0 674 02681 0 Retrieved 24 August 2012 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace Einstein s letter is published in Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science Inc October 1948 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Public Affairs Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science Inc 295 ISSN 0096 3402 Retrieved 24 August 2012 Photos from the Congress at wroclaw hydral com pl dead link Photos from the Congress at fotohistoria pl dead link World Peace Council dead link Time magazine Monday Sep 17 1951 subscription required Canadian Peace Congress Encyclopedia of the Cold War Volume 1 Page 962 Pathe news film of the Congress dead link Polish Film Chronicle film of the Congress dead link Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace amp oldid 1216745143, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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