Oct 15, 2009

Democracy, Totalitarianism, and the Culture of Freedom

A memorial symposium celebrating the life and thought of Leszek Kolakowski (1927-2009)

Thursday, October 15, 2009 
4:00 - 6:00 pm
Reception will follow program

Moderator:
Zbigniew Brzezinski, CSIS

Panelists:
Richard Pipes, Harvard University
George Weigel, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Abbas Milani, Stanford University
Nadia Diuk, National Endowment for Democracy


Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski will be remembered as the thinker who, more profoundly than any intellectual since George Orwell, explained the origins and deformities of communist totalitarianism and the threat it posed to human freedom.  At the core of his thinking was an understanding of how the utopian urge to overcome “the contingency of human existence” led inevitably to communist despotism, just as the justification of this new order by both the communist regimes and their apologists around the world produced a culture of unparalleled duplicity and moral corruption.  From this understanding flowed his distinctive sense of irony, as he dissected and exposed with piercing wit the foundation of lies upon which the whole system of communism ultimately rested. 

But Kolakowski was more than an opponent of communism.  He was a defender of human freedom as “the most precious treasure in life” and the basis on which society can progress and flourish.  He was also a fighter for freedom, having paid the price of exile for his beliefs. He served from exile as the Western representative of OKNO, the underground organization that brought together the principal cultural institutions through which Polish democrats worked to establish an independent civil society.  His devotion to freedom was such that, even in the spring of 1989 when freedom’s advance seemed unstoppable, he warned a NED-sponsored world conference in Washington of the need to remain vigilant, cautioning that “freedom is always vulnerable and its cause is never safe.”  In recognition of his unsurpassed contribution to the cause of democracy and human freedom, the NED is proud to host this symposium celebrating the life and thought of Leszek Kolakowski.

Richard Pipes is the Baird Professor Emeritus of History at Harvard University, where he taught from 1950 until 1996. From 1968 to 1973 he served as the director of Harvard’s Russian Research Center, and later became the senior consultant at the Stanford Research Institute. Under President Ronald Reagan, Pipes served as Director of East European and Soviet Affairs at the National Security Council. He has authored dozens of books and academic articles on the history of Russia and the former Soviet Union.

George Weigel is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Weigel has authored and edited more than 15 books on the subjects of religion and democracy. From 1989 through June 1996, Weigel was president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and as a Senior Fellow of the Center, he began work on Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, which was published to international acclaim in English, French, Italian, and Spanish. Later editions were published in Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Czech, Slovenian, Russian, and German.

Abbas Milani is the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University and a visiting professor in the department of political science. In addition, Dr. Milani is a research fellow and co-director of the Iran Democracy Project at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. His expertise is U.S./Iran relations, and Iranian cultural, political, and security issues. Milani felt that Leszek Kolakowski’s work was especially relevant to the struggle for freedom in Iran and was responsible for translating his work into Farsi.

Nadia Diuk is the Senior Director for Europe and Eurasia at the National Endowment for Democracy, where she has worked since 1987. Before coming to the NED, Dr. Diuk taught Soviet Politics and Russian History at Oxford University. She has published many articles and essays in leading newspapers and journals and is the co-author of two books, The Hidden Nations: The People Challenge the Soviet Union (New York: William Morrow, 1990) and New Nations Rising: The Fall of the Soviets and the Challenge of Independence (John Wiley & Sons, 1993).

Zbigniew Brzezinski is currently a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a professor of American foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. From 1977 to 1981 he served as National Security advisor to President Jimmy Carter. Dr. Brzezinski, who serves on numerous Boards and Committees, was a member of the NED Board of Directors for nine years.