==================================================================== P I G U L K I an occasional electronic collection of news analysis, press reviews, and humor from/about Poland and the Polish community abroad ____________________________________________________________________ October 25 1993 ISSN 1060-9288 Number 15 ____________________________________________________________________ In this issue: Polish Affairs AFTER THE ELECTIONS ......................... M. Cypryk NO DISASTERS, YET ........................... D. Phillips ARE THE POLES ANTI-SEMITIC? ARE THE JEWS ANTI-POLISH? ............... J. Ulanski IT'S A BIG ELEPHANT ......................... D. Phillips Networks A GUIDE TO NETWORK RESOURCES part 3 ......... M. Zielinski POLAND - ELECTRONIC CONTACTS ................ R. Maszkowski and M. Zielinski CYBERSPACE CHRONICLE The Back Page TRAVELOG: Hometown, Winter 91/92 ............ J. Klimkowski Notes on Contributors About PIGULKI ======================================================================== Polish Affairs Marek Cypryk AFTER THE ELECTIONS The results of the parliamentary elections in Poland should not surprise anyone who was following the pre-election polls. Only the extent of the defeat of the right may be a shock for some, although it is said that they have wished it upon themselves. According to popular opinion, voters' preferences definitely shifted to the left. Let us summarize the results: The largest number of votes was cast on SLD, a coalition of various organizations of post-communist extraction, chiefly SdRP. The next was PSL, formerly the ZSL. Those two parties collected about two-thirds of the parliamentary seats by collecting about 36% of the popular vote. The Democratic Union (UD), which was the main engine driving the reforms until now, was third with about half of the SLD votes; fourth place fell to post-Solidarity socialists - the Union of Labor (UP). Other parties which obtained seats in the Sejm were the populist KPN and the presidential BBWR. The remaining post-Solidarity parties: "Solidarity" itself and political freaks such as Tyminski's "X", Lepper's "Samoobrona" and Tejkowski's nationalists were excluded from the competition. Interestingly, parties defining themselves as rightist (PC, RdR, ZChN, Konwencja Polska, UPR and KLD) collected 25% of the popular vote combined, yet none reached the mandatory 5% limit. The results of the parliamentary vote were therefore a combination of two elements: a real shift to the left and a severe fragmentation of the right. Let me briefly discuss the reasons of such a state of affairs. It is believed that one of the main reasons for the popular turn to the left was that people were tired of the high social costs of the reforms. My feeling, to some extent confirmed by official statistics, is that the costs, in terms of an average standard of living, were not that high, although the economical stratification of the population increased and the margin of poverty widened. I believe that the unfavorable psychological atmosphere accompanying the changes in Poland was a more important factor. Although Poland is expected to achieve the largest economic growth in Europe (GNP growth of 4% to 5%), and real income also rose somewhat in 1992 - 93, some 80% of the population believes that they are worse off. The large gap between the economic indicators and popular feelings has, in my opinion, two main explanations. First, it is a result of shattered dreams. The naive belief that immediate prosperity would come with the reform yielded disappointment and discouragement in confrontation with hard reality. Second, the immature political elites, engaging their energy in fierce political battles, disavowed both the reform ideas and the concrete achievements of consecutive governments. One has to admit that many people feel insecure and threatened by the new reality. They fear loss of jobs, of home, of medical benefits. The liberal values have fallen on an unprepared ground - people were used to a substantial social security net and were convinced that the state owes it to them. Used to safety, they do not show initiative, do not understand or accept the fact that their fate depends to a large extent on their own perseverance. They feel lost and have difficulty changing their thinking, accepting the risk that the free- market economy asks them to build into their lives. There is a revolution in the sphere of mentality, and it is understandable that it will cause numerous conflicts. They will not cease until a new generation comes, brought up on the rules of democracy and free-market economy. In this sense, one can talk about a victory for Communism. Another cause of growing frustration is the fact that changes are often not consistent, their meaning and direction not always clear. They are accompanied by legislational and organizational disarray. Many important reforms are neglected, there is no new Constitution, the reforms in social security and medical system are untouched. The actions of the governments are often accompanied by a bad taste of scandals, real or alleged. Many are just accusations without merit, but one has to admit that the extent of dishonesty and corruption is enormous, which is another facet of a demoralization of the post-communist society. The electorate, to a large extent, turned away from "Solidarity" and the post-solidarity parties. The main reason for that was the disgraceful stance of the "right" (I use a quote here since there is a general confusion over the terms and it is difficult to determine clearly what values and concepts are espoused by those who call themselves "right"). The Polish "right" is deeply divided, quarreling and unable to formulate a common program. The party activists vied with each other in allegations against the President, the government and other parties (especially against UD). As a result the energy of the previous Sejm was largely squandered. In effect, the "right" shot its own feet, undermining also the consecutive solidarity governments and slowing down the pace of the reforms. Their basic error was in miscalculating the balance of political forces: they somehow believed that post-communists were permanently eliminated from political life. At the same time their priorities, such as decommunization or abortion, were not sufficiently supported by the voters. Last but not least, the Church was also guilty of excessive interference in political life and meddling with the Sejm. We definitely need the right, and I hope this shock will accelerate its intellectual advance. If the first comments of the politicians on the election defeat are to be any indication, the process will not be easy or fast: they blame the biased press, bad electoral law and ... the Democratic Union for their downfall. PREDICTIONS: SLD has now the biggest chance to form the government. Its activists looked rather troubled with their premature success. They will have to give up their cozy place as the opposition and take up the whole burden of unsolved problems. There is a danger that it may cause internal frictions in the SLD coalition which, contrary to appearances, is not a uniform group at all. There are some old PZPR bureaucrats, burning with a desire for revenge, and there are also many with liberal political opinions, talking of only "small correction" to the course of reforms. Enough to say that significant portion of small business owners voted for SLD! (Although it could be partially ascribed to the fact that many of them were well connected with the former the nomenclatura). I believe that the SLD leadership is less leftist and more pragmatic than UP and PSL. I don't think that the government, led by SLD, can radically change the course of the economy. The pressure of reality is too great for that. I fear, however, that under pressure from the far left, especially PSL (the party which demands highly protectionist role of the government), inflation and the budget deficit will rise uncontrollably, and the privatization process will slow down. Foreign capital may also suspend investments in Poland, at least initially, what will make the economic growth the more difficult. One can expect conflicts with the President upon attempts to limit his power. One should note that SLD and PSL, if they get to an agreement, will be able to pass any law, even the Constitution. In terms of foreign policy, I see a distinct possibility of returning to bigger dependency on Russia. The political situation in Poland changes rapidly and its future course is hard to predict. Keeping the democracy working is becoming more difficult and will require a delicate balance of all the significant political forces. Several scenarios for future events can be considered. The possibility of a fall of democracy, to be replaced by some form of dictatorship is, unfortunately, not inconceivable. Marek Cypryk Translated by Marek Zielinski --------------------------- Major players in the September 1993 parliamentary election. SLD - Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej. (Aleksander Kwasniewski, Leszek Miller, Jozef Oleksy, Jerzy Wiatr). PSL - Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe. (Waldemar Pawlak). UD - Unia Demokratyczna. (Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Hanna Suchocka, Bronislaw Geremek, Jacek Kuron, Zofia Kuratowska, Jan Rulewski, Bogdan Borusewicz). UP - Unia Pracy. (Ryszard Bugaj, Zbigniew Bujak, Aleksander Malachowski, Wieslawa Ziolkowska). KPN - Konfederacja Polski Niepodleglej. (Leszek Moczulski, Krzysztof Krol). BBWR - Bezpartyjny Blok Wspierania Reform. (Andrzej Olechowski). -------------------- KLD - Kongres Liberalno-Demokratyczny. (Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, Donald Tusk, Jacek Merkel, Janusz Lewandowski). PC - Porozumienie Centrum. (Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Adam Glapinski, Jan Parys). RdR - Ruch dla Rzeczypospolitej. (Jan Olszewski, Antoni Macierewicz). ZChN - Zjednoczenie Chrzescijansko - Narodowe. (Wieslaw Chrzanowski, Henryk Goryszewski, Stefan Niesiolowski, Marek Jurek). SOLIDARNOSC (Marian Krzaklewski). UPR - Unia Polityki Realnej. (Janusz Korwin-Mikke). ======================================================================== Polish Affairs Dave Phillips NO DISASTERS, YET Poland has elected a new Sejm and the heirs to the PUWP have obtained the plurality. While perhaps not a great choice by the voters, it didn't surprise me. Many Poles want some reassurance after years of austerity combined with unequal rewards. Also, an increasing number of Poles have been worried about the role the Church has played in shaping domestic policy. The mantras of Chairman Sachs' Permanent Revolution have exhausted some of their charm (and were recently critiqued by the reds at Forbes Magazine), and support from NATO governments, never passionate, has cooled further given distraction over events in Russia and the Balkans and their need to support the EC's farmers. It was clear to most from 1989 that the Round Table marked the end of what appeared to the west as a unified social-political movement in Poland. Those who had followed affairs closely throughout the entire decade, however, knew that the movement was always cobbled together by shifting coalitions of groups who allied to fight the bigger battle. By the time of the first quasi-free election (free polling with a predetermined share of non-PUWP seats), many of the former KOR leaders who had occupied positions within the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union Solidarnosc (and who portrayed themselves for years as "Solidarnosc union leaders" to Western media and diplomats) declared trade unions anachronistic and jumped into the Senate and Sejm with relief that they wouldn't have to deal with worker-leaders as equals again. These intellectuals positioned themselves at the helm of transitional Poland with a sense of duty mixed with no small amount of arrogance and a pinch of opportunism. Instead of bothering to consult with people about the terms of an obviously needed new social contract, Geremek told Western TV "We know what we need," and the Mazowiecki government left farmers in particular in financial free-fall while seeking to build a market system with inadequate institutional and informational mechanisms. These true converts to monetarism proceeded without regard for the sensibilities of a workforce who were struggling to buy their winter's coal while watching former red managers stealing state resources to become new capitalists. People accepted this situation with no small amount of patience, despite hardships which would have brought Parisians out on the streets (we won't speculate on Berliners), but when the next election came the Mazowiecki regime was defeated and a significant protest vote was thrown at the bullshit Party "X." People were sending their self-appointed New Leaders a message: you can lie to us like the Western politicians lie to their voters, but don't treat us like children. The Round-Table election had been a transitional one, as parties were only just allowed to begin forming, and censorship had not yet been repealed. The next election saw a proliferation of parties, many of whom were as much parties of personalities than of interest groups or programs. It appeared at the time that Poland might be going the way of Israel, where the number of parties approaches asymptotically the number of registered voters. The most recent election, along with a minimum threshold for representation, seems to reflect movement towards politics of constituencies and somewhat away from personalities. Parties defined by strong personalities did poorly. Parties which focused on broad constituencies did better. A good example of this is the Polish Folk Party, or PSL. In the first issue of Pigulki, Jerzy Pawlowski predicted PSL and its representation of farmers would play an important role in future Polish politics [1]. Since 1990, EC protectionism has made a mockery of the belief in a completely unfettered agricultural market. Limited farm price supports were put into place by the Suchocka government long after they were clearly needed, years after the first Sachsists deployed police against farmers who were protesting in what might be called French fashion. The overall results of the Sachs-inspired program have been mixed. There have been substantial improvements, but a good part of the recovery discussed in the West has been relative to the first year of the program, which saw a substantial drop in output. It can and has been argued that the program might have done more for the country but for the problems faced by the privatization program (see interview several recent issues of Pigulki). Despite these mixed results, both the farmers and the so-called social-democrats will most likely avoid radical shifts in course of the major economic reforms; people supported them as a way of ameliorating the harshness of the transition, and not of reversing it. Since the secret annex to the Round Table agreement appears to have allowed much of the old guard to keep their ill-gotten gains and in some cases to become capitalists, it may serve the Liberal right best to have the SLD and PSL in charge. To the extent that the SLD strays from the spirit of reform, the right wing can always revive the cases of older commies who are now exploiting peasant girls in factories or the like. Jerzy Urban has always been a good target, even if the SLD wants nothing to do with him. I've heard rumbles that Budweiser is considering Urban to replace the deceased Spuds Mackenzie, Bud Lite's pit bull terrier, as its advertising Party Animal. Rationale: Urban has high recognition in Central Europe as a running dog; with a Bud Lite in his hand, who could say Nie? Finally, I was quite moved to see Marek Edelman and groups he works with recently receiving and treating kids from Bosnia-Hercegovina needing medical care. Apart from the obvious decency of the act it suggests one component of a suitable foreign policy for post-communist Poland. Suchocka's comparisons with Italy notwithstanding, Poland could become the France of Central Europe, provided it can secure its borders against inevitable waves of refugees from the conflicts south and east. It would outdo France, however, in that its people outside the capital are far friendlier. - Dave Phillips Notes: [1] J. Pawlowski, "Political forces in today's Poland," PIGULKI #1, July 15, 1990. ======================================================================== Street Savoir-Vivre Jacek Ulanski ARE THE POLES ANTI-SEMITIC? ARE THE JEWS ANTI-POLISH? For everybody not familiar with Polish and Jewish history the title must seem crazy: why in Poland, where there are virtually no Jews, can somebody think even about anti-Semitism; and why should Jews, living mostly far from Central Europe, mostly in Israel and the USA, should even bother about Poland, not exactly the world's most important country. However, from my experience it follows that any lengthy discussion in or about Polish society must end up addressing Polish-Jewish relations. I have collected the most popular arguments of positions. They are listed separately below, more or less in a chronological order. One can pick up any of the argument from the one list and then try to match its counter-argument(s) from the other list. The discussion will be more lively and vigorous if the exchanged arguments will be taken purely randomly from both lists (as is usually the case in real discussions). A. "The Poles are anti-Semitic" 1. Anti-Semitism is inherent to Christian culture and Poles, as faithful Catholics, have been organically anti-Semitic for many generations. 2. Although the Jews constituted in the past, over hundreds of years, an important part of Polish population, they never had full civil rights. They were forced to live in separate areas and they were not allowed to hold official posts in the state. 3. Educational systems in Poland were always discriminating against Jews. Even in XXth century, in the time between the World Wars, in free and nominally democratic Poland, "numerus clausus" was widely practiced at Polish Universities. 4. The unjust social, economic and political position they faced turned many Polish Jews towards socialist ideologies; this is why Jews were disproportionately represented in all leftist movements in Poland and why so many Jews were leading activists in communist party. 5. Anti-Semitism in Poland sometimes erupted in the form of pogroms. They were mostly spontaneous, showing the real feeling of Polish society. Even if sometimes they were provoked by political fanatics, they usually found enough supporters and the rest were silent, tacitly accepting the acts of violence. 6. Many Jews were forced to emigrate from Poland (both before the Second World War and after) - only because they were Jews. It is easy to meet Jews all over the world who had to leave Poland (or whose ancestors had to leave Poland) seeking a more liberal society. 7. Anti-semitic trends and sentiments in Poland had their tragic culmination during the Second World War. Only a few Poles felt sympathy with Jews and helped them to escape annihilation, and even then many who did this were motivated by profit. It was not an accident that Auschwitz and many other death camps were located in Poland. Most of the Polish society was at best indifferent, but some were actively helping the Nazi occupiers. B. "The Jews are Anti-Polish" 1. Anti-Christianity is inherent to Jewish culture and religion; in order to keep their traditions and identity, Jews living in Poland were against any assimilation and they were hostile to Polish society. 2. Until the middle of the XIXth Century, only the nobility enjoyed full civil rights, but Jews were in a much better position than most of the largely peasant Polish population. Jews controlled, to a large extent, finance, trade, business in general, yet they had no feeling of Polish statehood, being eager to move their business to another country if it was profitable. 3. Jewish culture flourished in Poland. Jews had their own schools on all levels, but they never tried to become a contributing part of Polish culture - only a few Jewish writers, poets and musicians expressed the feeling that they were Polish Jews. 4. The lack of loyalty of Jewish society to the Polish State was becoming evident whenever Poland was in trouble; Jews were ready to accept foreign governments and were collaborating with occupiers, even denouncing Polish insurgents. 5. Communism in its anti-national form was propagated in Poland mainly by Jewish activists. Stalin easily found ardent Polish Jews to carry out the communist terror in Poland after the Second World War. 6. Over centuries Jews were attracted to Poland due to Polish tolerance and freedom offered by the Polish state - what other reason would shift almost all European Jews to Poland in medieval times? However Jewish literature and movies concentrate exclusively on exaggerating anti- Semitism in Poland. 7. The terror in occupied Poland during the Second World War was far worse than the situation in Western Europe. Poles were the next people, after the Jews, destined by the Nazis for annihilation. For any help given to Jews a Pole and his family were shot on the spot - yet many Jews survived due to help from Polish families. In spite of these facts, Jewish propaganda has made the Poles responsible for the Holocaust. C. Either, Neither or Both? The above lists are far from being complete, however they provide enough arguments for endless discussions. I suggest to finish such discussions with following conclusion: those Poles which believe that all the Jews are anti-Polish (option B) are anti-Semitic; and those Jews which believe that all the Poles are anti-Semitic (option A) are anti-Polish. ======================================================================== Polish Affairs Dave Phillips IT'S A BIG ELEPHANT Editing Jacek Ulanski's piece (above) was painful for me, not because of the content, but because of the context. In the days when I felt that the official Polish-Jewish (Jewish-Polish) dialogues were worthwhile, I met people of types A and B. At the time, I attended meetings either as a Jewish guy who was representing a Solidarnosc support group, and/or a B'nai B'rith member who was sympathetic to Poland and Polish history, and who felt that Claude Lanzmann's Shoah was fine journalism except for his crude bias against the Polish people. I dare say I met many more people in Jacek's category "A" than I did those in category "B." I was disappointed by my experiences, and the more I sat at meetings between "community leaders" the more I felt that common ground between (e.g.,) Polish-American and Jewish-American communities was slipping further away. When the slippage induced vertigo, I simply stopped participating, and that sore spot in my chest is usually quiet until a piece like Jacek's raises the Question again. There is a preponderence of American Jews who simply believe, not out of malice but out of complacency, that "the Poles" helped the Nazis practically shove the Jews into the ovens, that there was no resistance support for the Jews, and that the Poles bear a substantial burden of responsibility for the Holocaust, which to many in this group is the war against the Jews and "others." There is very little interest in expanding this view of that period in history on the part of the everyday Jewish-American, whose culture has become practically identical with that of his fellow Americans, that is, largely ahistorical and ageographic. Jewish community leaders seek to buffer Polish-American unease with media stereotyping of Poles (e.g., Shoah's focus on a handful of backward peasants reciting the Blood Libel, as if a KKK cross-burning were somehow an accurate depiction of the people of Connecticut). Some of these leaders often begin to feel other parts of the elephant, but they are not elected or hired to challenge their constituents, only to serve them. So their dialogue with Polonia does not extend beyond their ranks. Elephant? Yes a big one. And in the face of the monstrosity that was World War II, the total war, the atrocities of Stalin, the German quest for Lebensraum, the Nazi eugenics and extermination programs, the use and murder of millions of slaves, the systematic murder of entire peoples, especially but not only of the Jewish people, we can only be blind men feeling parts of the hide or the trunk, trying to understand the entire beast. I submit that no one can fully understand it or comprehend it, and that it is pure hubris - or chutzpah - to pretend that one can. Yet we're all obliged to try. The Polish antisemites I've met over the past decade in this part of the U.S. have been few in number. Most were of limited educational backgrounds and were unsure of themselves. They knew that they didn't know what they were talking about, repeating bullshit as a means of making conversation, as some people seek an excuse for their predicament. One older ex-college instructor I met broke profile however. He came to monthly Solidarnosc support meetings I chaired and tried to network with "the guys," but basically he was of the Endecja intellectual mold, to use the oxymoron. I listened very carefully to him on several occasions, poked and prodded here and there, and felt sad that the failed career of this man would cause him to embrace Holocaust revisionism and conspiracy theories a la the Liberty Lobby. He was his own worst enemy, and was despised throughout most of Polonia, particularly by many of the Wartime generation. That social ostracism of an antisemite spoke volumes on Polonia's behalf. As for antisemites in Poland, who believe in active Jewish conspiracies against the Polish Nation, these people are beneath contempt and I look for Polish society to treat them accordingly. Jewish antipolonism infuriates me because while it has some basis in fact, few Jews seem interested in transcending what they've been told to try to understand what actually happened. I suppose some Jewish readers of this piece will simply assume that I'm a not a "real Jew," and that I'm confused about my heritage. I believe from my reading of history, however, that Jews historically have asked ethical questions, and sought answers to those questions, and this explains in part why Jews have been disproportionately represented in movements for social change (not just on "the left"). The compulsion to ask and find out transcends whether one's position is comfortable or precarious, or whether one is strictly observant of ritual or has set all ritual aside. Antipolonism ignores many things which must be weighed in an ethical judgement, such as how Jews were treated elsewhere in the world (and still are in some parts), such as how other peoples' governments officially rounded up Jews and handed them to the Nazis (Vichy France comes to mind) and otherwise contributed sizable SS contingents while Poland did not (Holland comes to mind). I found Styron's novel "Sophie's Choice" painful and powerful; I wonder if antipolonists even bothered to see the pared-down movie. Most frustrating at all is that I've never known an instance where Jewish community leaders protested an anti-Polish stereotyping within the Jewish community, even when they might privately acknowledge that the stereotyping was unfair. This is not the kind of moral leadership that strengthens a community. My uncle used to risk getting beat up walking to school each morning in the 1940s by Catholic kids yelling "Christ-killer." This was not Lanzmann's Poland, but southeastern Pennsylvania, USA. Jews, Catholics and blacks were not able to buy houses that they could afford in much of the USA until civil rights activists began intensive legal challenges to housing covenants and other forms of discrimination that broke ground in the 1950s and are still ongoing. And let's not forget the quotas on admitting Jews to Harvard and other American colleges in this century. Judging pre-WWII Poland more harshly than the rest of pre-WWII Europe makes little sense, and to blame Poland for having the same winds of fascism blow over its plains that blew across Europe and the Western Hemisphere is dishonest or disingenuous. I'll close with two related observations about the elephant, and why I think we'll never fully grasp the beast. First, over a decade I met a great many Poles who were fascinated that a Jewish guy with no clear personal interest in Poland was involved in supporting Solidarnosc. They'd ask the same question, how'd you get into this anyway? What I learned, purely anecdotally, was that some of these people had a Jewish relative in their family tree. One or two instances could be statistically expected, but the feeling grew over the decade that there was more intermarriage in pre-WWI and interwar Poland than is commonly discussed. If this were true, would it not raise a new wrinkle on the elephant's hide? It's one thing to paint an "us versus them" portrait of Polish Jewry, but what if it was really far more complex? This takes us to the second point, of social class. Many of the people I came across in American Polonia professed that a relative of theirs had hid Jews from the Nazis or helped them escape. Granted, some of these tales might have been made up or exaggerated, but one common theme I detected was that the grandparents and great uncles who had done these good deeds were rural folk, peasants. Again anecdotally, the feeling grew in me over a decade that Yad Vashem has documented only some of the people who actually helped Jews, but that the others were either killed for their actions by the Nazis, or died later in the carnage, or were illiterate or not in contact with anyone interested in hearing their stories, or were scared to talk during the communist hunt of so-called fascist (i.e., non-Peoples-Army) collaborators. Polonia is not too interested in researching this part, because Polonia reflects class prejudices in Polish society, and what peasants did then or do now is of little interest to community leaders or researchers. Also, these righteous peasants are aging and dying out, and we may never know for sure. My feeling about this was reinforced by an organization set up by a Rabbi Schulweis on the West Coast about 6 or 7 years ago: his members believed that there were many more righteous gentiles than had been documented, that of those surviving most were destitute; Schulweis' group aimed to help these people financially. His group got merged into the Anti-Defamation League, which held a gala shindig with celebrities and honored a few of these good people. It's been quiet ever since. There's been no grass roots movement to understand the elephant. Many are simply satisfied with what they think they know. Others would prefer to nurse their prejudices in compensation for deeper problems. Their kids are getting exposed to "Holocaust Curricula" which present some detail but lack the historical sweep and context to stimulate independent inquiry - our kids aren't taught proper use of the library or critical research anyway. We will pay for this complacency; the payment has begun in the Balkans - again - and we allow the rest of Europe and America to do nothing to stop it. The next generation is being told simple stories, easy answers, the kind you get graded on. Will they be the generation that allows things far worse than the Balkans to occur? What will their comforting prejudices be? What will they teach their kids? ======================================================================= Networks by Marek Zielinski A GUIDE TO NETWORK RESOURCES Part 3. Literature A year ago there were very few books about the global networks. There was THE MATRIX by John S. Quarterman, who for the first time applied Gibson's term "Cyberspace Matrix" to a real, not fantastic object. Focusing chiefly on Internet was Brendan P. Kehoe's ZEN AND THE ART OF INTERNET; the famous HITCHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE INTERNET was an official RFC in electronic form; there were few others books, mostly technical manuals. Suddenly, within months, books on The Net multiplied. Reflecting the evolution of The Matrix, they are almost exclusively devoted to various aspects of the Internet. For a beginning traveller, the best advice is still to use the network and to learn as you go. We all know that the printed word will soon become an anachronism, to be preserved in a museum ;-). Information will be distributed only electronically. For a while, however, it might be useful to refer to a printed book or manual. The listing below is a selection of general-interest books and guides to the Net. Perhaps the best known book is THE MATRIX, in which John Quarterman mapped the then existing Cyberspace. Written in 1990, it has more of a historical value now. Quarterman, together with Smoot Carl- Mitchell published an excellent series of articles, under a title "Datagrams", in RS/Magazine. Their new book PRACTICAL INTERNETWORKING WITH TCP/IP AND UNIX should prove as useful as the articles. Brendan P. Kehoe wrote his ZEN AND THE ART OF INTERNET as a graduate student. It is a brief and very concrete guide to the Net, which you can read in one evening. It covers Internet, UUCP and a little of Bitnet, in such topics as Mail, Anonymous Ftp, News, Telnet, Network Ettiquete and more, and I recommend it highly. The first edition is still available by ftp, in several printable forms, the new edition was published by Prentice Hall. Ed Krol's THE WHOLE INTERNET was also highly praised by the readers, and is concidered the authotitative source, togethet with THE INTERNET PASSPORT. The other books are generally new, some of them not even published yet. I have included short descriptions - some come from the readers, from discussion groups such as info-nets, other from the publishers. The list is by no means a complete bibliography, it includes only books which migh prove useful as guides, and only those published in the US for that. If any of you have read and/or used any of those books (or others not mentioned here) and would like to share the experience with the readers of Pigulki, if would be greatly appreciated. !%@:: A DIRECTORY OF ELECTRONIC MAIL ADDRESSING & NETWORKS - by Donnalyn Frey and Rick Adams O'Reilly, 3 ed. 1993, 458pp., ISBN 1-56592-03107, $24.29 "A quick desk reference with two pages per 100 or so networks. The left page contains certain stylized information such as addressing, architecture, facilities, contact, and future plans. The right page is a map. There are also indexes, introductory tutorial material, appendices, and a glossary." ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC JOURNALS IN LIBRARIES: Policy Issues and Case Studies by Dennis Benamati and David Tyckoson Meckler, Oct. 1993, 200pp. ISBN 0-88736-874-3, $39.95 "The first book-length treatment about the use of electronic journals in the context of other library resources" (ed. info) CONNECTING TO THE INTERNET: An O'Reilly Buyer's guide - by Susan Estrada O'Reilly, 1993, 100pp. ISBN 1-56592-061-9, $12.95 "Because there are many new terms and concepts to understand, making a decision about Internet access can be intimidating. This book provides practical advice on how to get and Internet connection. It describes how to assess your needs to determine the kind of service that is best for you - and how to find a local access provider and evaluate the services they offer" (ed. info) CROSSING THE INTERNET THRESHOLD: an Instructional Handbook by Roy Tennant, John Ober and Anne G. Lipow Library Solutions Press, Berkeley 1993, 134 pp., ISBN 1-882208-3, $45 For info: ftp to simsc.si.edu:/networks/crossing.ad An instructional package for librarians and other educators teaching Internet basics. Contains material useful for preparing workshops and training sessions for new Internet users. DIRECTORY OF DIRECTORIES ON THE INTERNET - by Gregory B. Newby Meckler, Oct. 1993. 225 pp. ISBN 0-88736-768-2 $30 "This guide helps in navigating the Internet's maze of data and helps people from all professions find resources of interest to them". (ed. info) ELECTRONIC STYLE: A Guide to Citing Electronic Sources - by Nancy Crane and Xia Li Meckler 1993, 80pp. ISBN 0-88736-909-X, $15 "This guide will standardize the citation of the complete range of electronic formats, including text-based information, electronic journals mand discussion lists, CD-ROM and multimedia products, and commercial online documents" (ed. info) EXPLORING THE INTERNET: A Technical Travelogue - by Carl Malamud Prentice Hall, 1993 "In 3 trips around the world in 6 months, Malamud undertakes a voyage of discovery, a look at the Internet and the emerging global village". (ed. info) GET ON-LINE! The Communications Software Companion - by Lamont Wood Wiley, 1993, 352 pp. ISBN 0-471-58926-8, $24.95 INTERNET ACCESS PROVIDERS, An International Resource Directory - by Greg R. Notess Meckler, Oct. 1993, 230pp. ISBN 0-88736-933-2, $22.95 "...provides descriptive information on a wide range of electronic bulletin boards, private companies, and regional networks that offer - for as little as $10 a month - dial-in access to the Internet" (ed. info) THE INTERNET COMPANION: A Beginner's Guide to Global Networking - by Tracy La Quey and Jeanne C. Ryer Addison-Wesley, 191pp. ISBN 0-201-62224-6, $10.95 A history of the Internet, Internet culture, how to find resources, discussion of nettiquette. Intended for computer- literate home users of the Cyberspace, full of network anecdotes and legends. THE INTERNET CONNECTION: A Guide to Connectivity and Configuration - - by Smoot Carl-Mitchell and John S. Quarterman Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-54237-4 INTERNET CONNECTIONS: A Librarian's Guide to Dial-up Access and Use - by Mary Engle, Marylin Lutz, William W. Jones, Jr. and Genevieve Engle The American Library Association, 1993, $22 Ftp: dla.ucp.edu:pub\internet INTERNET: Getting Started - by April Marine, Susan Kirkpatrick, Vivian Neou and Carol Ward SRI International and Prentice Hall, 1993, 384pp. ISBN 0-13-9327933-2 "...this guide provides comprehensive guidelines for gaining Internet access. The information in this book is based on SRI International's over 20 years of experience in providing Internet Infrmation services to computer users around the world" (ed. info) THE INTERNET GUIDE FOR NEW USERS - by Daniel P. Dern McGraw-Hill, 1983, ISBN 0-07-016511-4, $27.95 Intended for newcomers to networking, the book covers a wide range of topics, including comparison with commercial networks (Compuserve, Prodigy etc.), internet tools and services, nettiquete, Internet costs and security. INTERNET: Mailing Lists - 1993 Directory - by Edward T. L. Hardie and Vivan Neou SRI International, Prentice Hall, 1993, 368pp. ISBN 0-13-327941-3, $26 "A hardcopy version of the 'list of lists'. Whether your interests center on prisons, ham radio Kate Bush's music or the Romanov dynasty, there is already a mailing list of your kindred spirit waiting for you". (Ray Duncan, Dr, Dobb's Journal) THE INTERNET MESSAGE by Marshall Rose Prentice Hall 1992, ISBN: 0-13-092941-7 "This book covers the technical aspects of e-mail" THE INTERNET NAVIGATOR, A New User's Guide to Network Exploration - by Paul Glister Wiley, Nov. 1993, 352pp. ISBN 0-471-59782-1, $24.99 "...this practical guide examines the system as a whole, explores new methods of access, and describes the unique features of the most popular member networks" (from ed. info) THE INTERNET PASSPORT: NORTH WESTNET'S GUIDE TO OUR WORLD ONLINE - by Jonathan Kochmer and NorthWestNet NorthWestNet, 1993, 4 ed., 515pp. ISBN 0-9635281-0-6 $39.95 For info E-mail: passport@nwnet.net. Educ. discount $19.95 A very comprehensive guide, giving detailed and updated information on all important aspects of Internet, including such less frequently seen topics as K-12 networking and supercomputing. Includes chapters on Archie, Gopher, Veronica, WAIS, CWIS, WWW, Usenet, LISTSERV, Electronic Journals, Newsletters, Books and more. INTERNET PRIMER FOR INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS: A Basic Guide to Internet Networking Technology - by Elizabeth Lane and Craig Summerhill Meckler, 1993, 200pp, ISBN 0-99736-831-X $37.50 "In addition to providing background information on the current state of 'national network', it addresses selected 'how-to' issues ranging from necessary equipment to operating system specifics" (ed. info) INTERNET SYSTEM HANBOOK - by Daniel C. Lynch and Marchal T. Rose Addison-Wesley, 1993, 790pp. ISBN 0-201-56741-5, $59.25 "Among the topics addressed are the historical evolution of the Internet community, the technologies employed in the Internet's development, management of the technology for a cohesive infrastructure and future trends in the Internet community" (from ed. info) INTERNETWORKING WITH TCP/IP, Principles, Protocols, and Architecture - by Douglas Comer Prentice-Hall, 1988. "It is generally recognized as the best place to start and the first thing to read on Internetworking." LIBRARIES AND THE INTERNET/NREN: Perspectives, Issues and Challenges - by Charles R. McClure Meckler, Aug. 1993 200pp. ISBN 0-88736-824-7, $35 "This major study identifies key factors within the library and larger environments that will affect libraries' involvement in national networking policies..." (ed. info) THE MATRIX: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide - by John S. Quarterman Digital Press, 1990. "An excellent reference book containing maps, descriptions of 467 networks and 910 network related organizations worldwide." ON INTERNET: An International Title and Subject Guide to Electronic Journals, Nwewsletters, Books, and Discussion Lists on the Internet Meckler, Sep. 1993, 250 pp. ISBN 0-88736-929-4, $45 "Scholarly and commercial electronic publishing over the Internet and other linked networks has exploded over the last two years. This annual directore offers a comprehensive guide to the full range of electronic documents currently available ... to enable users to easily locate publications of professional and personal interest". (ed. info) OPEN SYSTEMS NETWORKING: TCP/IP and OSI - by David M. Piscitello and Lyman Chapin Addison-Wesley, 1993, 650pp. ISBN 0-210-56334-7, $49.50 "The book gives a comparison of the different processes, players, and agenda of the two standards committees and looks at the OSI architecture as it compares to that of TCP/IP." (from ed. info) POCKET GUIDES TO INTERNET - by Mark Veljkov and George Hartnell Vol.1 Telneting Vol.2 Transferring files with File Transfer Protocol Vol.3 Using and Navigating News Nets Vol.4 The Internet E-mail System Vol.5 Accessing Internet Front Ends and General Utilities Vol.6 Physical Connections Meckler, Oct. 1993, $7 ea. PRACTICAL INTERNETWORKING WITH TCP/IP AND UNIX - by Smoot Carl-Mitchell and John S. Quarterman Addison-Wesley, 1993, 432pp. ISBN 0-201-58629-0, $43.25 "...two of the industry's top consultants provide a practical approach to implementing and managing an effective TCP/IP network that is compatible with othe networks" (ed. info) THE TCP/IP COMPANION: A Guide for the Common User - by Martin A. Arick QED, 1993, 273pp. ISBN 0-89435-466-3, $29.95 "Arick's book shows what you need to know to use TCP/IP for remote logon, remote host, file transfer, e-mail, and network connection ... rlogin, telnet, rcp, rsh, tftp, ftp, e-mail and network services". (ed. info) TCP/IP NETWORK ADMINISTRATION - by Craig Hunt O'Reilly 1992 502pp. ISBN 0-937175-82-X, $29.95 "A complete guide to setting up and running a TCP/IP network for practicing system administrators ... covers BSD and System V TCP/IP implementations" (ed. info) WAIS AND GOPHER SERVERS: A Guide for Librarians and Internet End-Users - by Eric Lease Morgan Meckler, Aug. 1993, 100pp. ISBN 0-88736-932-4, $30 "The first book-length treatment of Wide Area Information Servers and Internet Gopher servers" (ed. info) THE WHOLE INTERNET User's Guide & Catalog - by Ed Krol O'Reilly, 1992, 400pp. ISBN 1-56592-025-2, $24.95 Written by the author of the classic "Hitchhiker's guide to Internet", "The Whole Internet" is one of the most thorough and well written guides, covering everything from basic network utilities to new, more sophisticated tools. It guides users through various databases and shows, how to access millions of files and archives, including sample sessions. Somewhat Unix and X-Windows oriented, is general enough for a user of any system to be useful. USING UUCP AND USENET - by Grade Todino and Dale Dougherty O'Reilly 1991, 194pp. ZEN AND THE ART OF THE INTERNET, A Beginners Guide - by Brendan P. Kehoe Prentice Hall, 2 ed. 1993, 112pp, ISBN 0-13-010778-6, $22 Ftp: gvl.unisys.com: pub\pubnet (1 ed.) If you have just a couple of hours time, and would like to get feel what Internet is, this book is for you. Touches most important topic, but doesn't overwhelm with a mass of reference data. Best beginner's introduction. "This guide should give you a reference to consult if you're curious about what can be done with the Internet. It also presents the fundamental topics that are all too often assumed and considered trivial by many network users. It covers the basic utilities and information reaching other networks." ======================================================================== Networks Rafal Maszkowski and Marek Zielinski POLAND - ELECTRONIC CONTACTS 20 October 1993 1. EARN/BITNET ############################################################ The Plearn Nodetree represents schematically the hierarchical tree of the Polish section of EARN. Note, that no two nodes in the same column communicate directly - the transmission of mail, files and messages goes always through the higher level node. For example a message from the Wroclaw Academy of Economy to the Poznan Technical University travels the following route: PLWRAE51 - PLWRTU11 - PLEARN - PLPUAM11 - PLPOTU51. 1.1. PLEARN Nodetree SEARN--PLEARN--+--PLANIF61 +--PLBIAL11 +--PLKTUS11-----PLKTAE11 +--PLPUAM11--+--PLPUAM51 | +--PLPOTU51 | +--PLSZUS11 | +--PLTUMK11 +--PLUMCS11 +--PLUNLO51 +--PLWATU21 +--PLWAUW61 +--PLWRTU11--+--PLWRAE51 +--PLWRTU51 +--PLWRUW11 1.2. EARN/BITNET nodes _________________________________________________________________________ |Nodename Institution, machine, operating system, Internet address | | Status contacts, telephones, comments | |_________________________________________________________________________| -------- - -------------- BIALYSTOK-------------------------------------- PLBIAL11 a Computation Centre of Bialystok Academic Community, at the Bialystok Technical University, BASF 7/38, VM Alicja Modrzejewska op. 885-224-111 x630 -------- - -------------- KATOWICE -------------------------------------- PLKTAE11 a Academy of Economics, Computing Center IBM4341 VM Henryk Orzel op. 832-588-606 PLKTUS11 a Silesian University, Computing Center IBM4341 VM Kasia Stephan, adm. 832-588-211 w.623 Krzysztof Kurczynski, op. -"- -------- - -------------- LODZ ---------------------------------------- PLUNLO51 a University of Lodz VAX3300 VMS Marian Bieniecki, adm. 42-784-176 On Internet as krysia.uni.lod.edu.pl [193.59.1.1] -------- - -------------- LUBLIN ---------------------------------------- PLUMCS11 a Uniwersytet Marii Curie Sklodowskiej IBM4381 VM Andrzej Resztak adm. 81-376-240 Jarek Korzen op. 81-376-192 On Internet as plumcs11.umcs.lublin.pl [192.147.37.100] -------- - -------------- POZNAN ---------------------------------------- PLPUAM11 a Adam Mickiewicz University, Informatics Center IBM4381 Andrzej Szymczak op. 061-662-492 Dariusz Smoczynski adm. -"- On Internet as plpuam11.amu.edu.pl [150.254.65.15] PLPUAM51 a Adam Mickiewicz University, Informatics Center VAX4000 Andrzej Szymczak op. 061-662-492 Dariusz Smoczynski adm. -"- PLPOTU51 a Poznan Polytechnic, Computing Center VAX VMS R. Jezierski op. 061-782-726 Z. Borowiec adm. -"- -------- - -------------- SZCZECIN -------------------------------------- PLSZUS11 a University of Szczecin, Informatics Center IBM4341 VM J. Kolasinski op. 91-788-65 Irena Winiarska adm. -"- -------- - -------------- TORUN ----------------------------------------- PLTUMK11 a Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika [Nicolaus Copernicus University], Academic Computing Center IBM4381 VM Zbigniew Szewczak adm. 856-260-17 w.70 On Internet as vm.cc.torun.edu.pl [158.75.1.15] -------- - -------------- WARSZAWA -------------------------------------- Polish Academy of Sciences PLANIF61 a Institute of Physics SUN 4/75 Sparc-2 Piotr Bialokoziewicz 22-437-001 w.259 Warsaw Technical University PLWATU21 a Informatics Center IBM4341 Janusz Pelc op. 22-21007-1512 Tadeusz Englert adm. -"- Warsaw University, Krakowskie Przedmiescie 26/28, 00-927 Warsaw PLEARN a Informatics Center IBM3090 VM **Central Polish EARN node** On Internet as plearn.edu.pl [148.81.18.1] Andrzej Smereczynski adm. 22-200-381 ext.448 Tadeusz Wegrzynowski dir. 22-263-345 Danuta Burzynska postmaster Malgosia Grabowska postmaster PLWAUW61 a Astronomical Observatory SUN Sparc Station SunOS Andrzej Udalski adm. 22-294-011 Michal Szymanski op. -"- -------- - -------------- WROCLAW --------------------------------------- PLWRAE51 a Wroclaw Academy of Economy, Computer Center K-1840 (VAX) Stefan Zajac dir. 71-681-155 w.486 Wieslaw Borowski adm. PLWRUW11 a Wroclaw University, Informatics Institute IBM4341 Bogdan Bromirski adm. 71-402-300 Marek Stajszczyk op. 71-255-081 w.77 Wroclaw Technical University, Wybrzeze Wyspianskiego 27 PLWRTU11 a Informatics Center IBM4341 VM On Internet as plwrtu11.ci-pwr.wroc.edu.pl [156.17.1.11] PLWRTU51 0 Informatics Center VAX VMS Jarek Kurowski adm. 71-211-018 Jozef Janyszek op. -"- ____________________________________ Status: a = active 0 = non-active contact persons: adm. = node administrator op. = node operator In all EARN nodes there is an address where one can direct inquiries. Node PLKRCY11 has been decommisioned. Mail addressed to PLKRCY11.bitnet will be rerouted to other machines for some time, until all the users of the former PLKRCY11 node obtain accounts on Internet machines. 2. INTERNET ############################################################## The list below is designed as an aid in locating E-mail contacts. Part 2.1 presents a map of the Polish Internet domain, part 2.2 lists the institutions with Internet connections, domain names and names and addresses of contact persons. The electronic mail address can be common for the whole domain [marked as (M) by the domain name] or one has to send mail to a particular machine. The publicly accesible machines (anonymous ftp, telnet, Bulletin Boards) are listed in part 2.3. The number of hosts in the *.pl domain exceds 4000 now. Some 20% of hosts answer ping. This is a rough estimate of a number of machines that are always active. The world average is 28%. 2.1 Domain Map The Internet domain names are organized in a tree, and each domain has one or more end-nodes (usually single computers) which are not shown here. The 'fully qualified domain name' is obtained by travelling along the branches of the tree, from the end-node back to the root. For example at ATM in Warsaw is known to the world as . The numbers in parentheses (Handles) refer to the domains described in section 2.2. Unlike the Plearn connection scheme above, the Internet Domain map does not indicate direct connections between nodes, but only a logical name construction scheme. pl-+--com--+--atm-----------(WA01) | +--nask----------(WA33) | +--icso----------(KK01) | +--gov--+--cup-----------(WA26) | +--cyf-----------(OT01) | +--icso----------(PO07) | +--impan---------(WA28) | +--ippt----------(WA03) | +--kbn-----------(WA31) | +--nencki--------(WA27) | +--poz---+-------(PO01) | +-ikwn--(PO05) | +--org-----nask----------(WA02) +--bialystok--pb---------(BI01) +--gda-+-pg---+----------(GD02) | | +-ely------(GD06) | | +-mif------(GD05) | +-univ-+----------(GD01) | | +-biotech--(GD04) | +-iopan-----------(GD03) | +--kielce---tu-----------(KI01) +--krakow---ptt----------(KR34) +--lublin-+--------------(LU04) | +-umcs---------(LU01) | +-pol----------(LU02) | +-ar-----------(LU03) | +-kul----------(LU05) | +-ipan---------(LU06) | +--pwr-------------------(WR01) +--waw----+-ite----------(WA34) | +-pm-----------(WA36) | +-unipress-----(WA40) | +-solidex------(WA41) | +--wroc---+-itmapwr------(WR09) +--edu--+--agh---+--------------(KR29) | +----biblio----(KR27) | +----ceramika--(KR22) | +----ftj-------(KR08) | +----geol------(KR23) | +----ia--------(KR09) | +----ics-------(KR06) | +----icslab----(KR17) | +----icsr------(KR18) | +----ipbk------(KR24) | +----kme-------(KR21) | +----kt--------(KR20) | +----ktipm-----(KR19) | +----metal-----(KR10) | +----uci-------(KR07) | +----zet-------(KR26) | +----zgp-------(KR25) | +--astrouw-+------------(WA09) | +--bot-------(WA39) | +--byd---+----amb-------(BY02) | +----atr-------(BY01) | +----wsp-------(BY03) | +--camk-----------------(WA06) +--cyf-kr---------------(KR01) +--fuw------------------(WA07) +--gliwice-+------------(GL01) | +--eto-------(GL02) | +--iinf------(GL03) | +--iele------(GL04) | +--ichf-----------------(WA04) +--ifj------------------(KR04) +--ifpan----------------(WA05) +--lod----+-------------(LO04) | +---am--------(LO03) | +---p---------(LO01) | +---u---------(LO02) | +--mimuw--+-------------(WA10) | +--appli------(WA19) | +--ncu------------------(TO01) +--pk-----+-------------(KR12) | +--oeto-------(KR30) | +--twins------(KR31) | +--edison-----(KR32) | +--limba-wil--(KR33) | +--poz----+-------------(PO01) | +----ae-------(PO06) | +----ieittp---(PO03) | +----oinov----(PO02) | +----pol------(PO02) | +----tu-------(PO04) | +----efp------(PO08) | +--pw----+----ca--------(WA20) | +----ch--------(WA21) | +----coi-------(WA11) | +----gik-------(WA22) | +----ia--------(WA12) | +----iem-------(WA37) | +----if--------(WA16) | +----ii--------(WA15) | +----il--------(WA17) | +----imio------(WA25) | +----ipe-------(WA14) | +----ire-------(WA23) | +----it--------(WA18) | +----meil------(WA24) | +----tele------(WA13) | +-torun--+----astri-----(TO05) | +----astro-----(TO06) | +----bu--------(TO07) | +----cc--------(TO03) | +----mat-------(TO02) | +----phys------(TO04) | +--tup------------------(PO01) +--uj---+---------------(KR28) | +-----bj--------(KR14) | +-----ch--------(KR15) | +-----if--------(KR02) | +-----ii--------(KR03) | +-----im--------(KR13) | +-----oa--------(KR11) | +--us---+---------------(KA03) | +-----cto-------(KA01) | +-----ich-------(KA02) | +--uw---+---------------(WA08) | +-----biogeo----(WA30) | +-----chem------(WA32) | +-----psych-----(WA29) | +-----slcj------(WA35) | +--wroc-+-----ch-pwr----(WR02) +-----ci-pwr----(WR03) +-----ict-pwr---(WR01) +-----impwr-----(WR04) +-----immt-pwr--(WR05) +-----ists-pwr--(WR06) +-----ita-pwr---(WR07) +-----ite-pwr---(WR08) 2.2 Internet addresses __________________________________________________________________________ |CITY INSTITUTION | |(Handle): Domain, Contact | |(M) following domain name: E-mail can be addressed to user@domain | |Mail: addresses accepting E-mail | |_________________________________________________________________________| BIALYSTOK ----------------------------------------------------------------- BIALYSTOK TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY (BI01): pb.bialystok.pl BYDGOSZCZ ----------------------------------------------------------------- ACADEMY OF TECHNOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE Institute of Mathematics and Physics (BY01): atr.byd.edu.pl Janusz Szykowny Krzysztof Sobiecki Zbyszek Szewczak Mail: gopher.atr.byd.edu.pl - i86 KA9Q/MS-DOS MEDICAL ACADEMY (BY02): amb.byd.edu.pl Zbigniew Piszcz PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY (BY03): wsp.byd.edu.pl Slawomir Grondkowski GDANSK -------------------------------------------------------------------- POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Institute of Oceanology (GD03): iopan.gda.pl Jacek Piskozub Mail: ocean.iopan.gda.pl TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF GDANSK (GD02): pg.gda.pl Witold Jurczyk Mail: sunrise.pg.gda.pl Faculty of Electrical Engineering (GD06): ely.pg.gda.pl Krzysztof Snopek Mail: sparc10.ely.pg.gda.pl wat3.ely.pg.gda.pl wat4.ely.pg.gda.pl Faculty of Technical Physics and Applied Mathematics (GD05): mif.pg.gda.pl Ryszard Jan Barczynski Mail: mifgate.pg.gda.pl rudy.mif.pg.gda.pl UNIVERSITY OF GDANSK (GD01): univ.gda.pl, gda.pl Marek Karkowski Mail: halina.univ.gda.pl Department of Molecular Biology (GD04): biotech.univ.gda.pl (M) Bogdan Banecki GLIWICE ------------------------------------------------------------------- SILESIAN TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY (GL01): gliwice.edu.pl Mail: gleto2.gliwice.edu.pl gleto4.gliwice.edu.pl Computer Center (GL02): eto.gliwice.edu.pl Institute of Electronics (GL04): iele.gliwice.edu.pl Witold Baran Informatics Institute (GL03): iinf.gliwice.edu.pl KATOWICE ------------------------------------------------------------------ SILESIAN UNIVERSITY (KA03): us.edu.pl Maciek Uhlig Computer Center (KA01): cto.us.edu.pl Maciek Uhlig Mail: apollo.cto.us.edu.pl atena.cto.us.edu.pl herkules.cto.us.edu.pl hermes.cto.us.edu.pl mars.cto.us.edu.pl zeus.cto.us.edu.pl Institute of Chemistry (KA02): ich.us.edu.pl Mail: tc.ich.us.edu.pl KEDZIERZYN-KOZLE ---------------------------------------------------------- INSTITUTE OF HEAVY ORGANIC SYNTHESIS "BLACHOWNIA" (KK01): icso.com.pl (M) Mail: nov1.icso.com.pl har1.icso.com.pl imc1.icso.com.pl imc3.icso.com.pl KIELCE -------------------------------------------------------------------- TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY (KI01): tu.kielce.pl KRAKOW -------------------------------------------------------------------- ACADEMIC COMPUTER CENTRE CYFRONET-CRACOW (KR01): cyf-kr.edu.pl (M) Jerzy Pawlus Krzysztof Gawel Adam Krzyzek JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY (KR28): uj.edu.pl Roman Markowski Astronomical Observatory (KR11): oa.uj.edu.pl (M) Institute of Chemistry (KR15): ch.uj.edu.pl (M) Institute of Computer Science (KR03): ii.uj.edu.pl (M) Institute of Mathematics (KR13): im.uj.edu.pl Marek Slocinski Institute of Physics (KR02): if.uj.edu.pl (M) Roman Markowski Mail: ztc386a.if.uj.edu.pl trisc.if.uj.edu.pl - Theoretical Physics pkpf.if.uj.edu.pl agnes.if.uj.edu.pl - General Physics zfs.if.uj.edu.pl - Solid State Physics Jagellonian Library (KR14): bj.uj.edu.pl (M) NUCLEAR PHYSICS INSTITUTE (KR04): ifj.edu.pl Andrzej Sobala Mail: chopin.ifj.edu.pl kuba.ifj.edu.pl vsk01.ifj.edu.pl to vsk07.ifj.edu.pl vsb02.ifj.edu.pl to vsb04.ifj.edu.pl SOLIDEX, TP S.A. (KR34): ptt.krakow.pl (M) TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF CRACOW (KR12): pk.edu.pl Krzysztof Rozycki Civil Engeneering Department (KR33): limba.wil.pk.edu.pl Computer Centre (KR30): oeto.pk.edu.pl (M) Krzysztof Rozycki Electrical Department (KR32): edison.pk.edu.pl Laboratory L-9 (KR31): twins.pk.edu.pl UNIVERSITY OF MINING AND METALLURGY (KR29): agh.edu.pl Szymon Sokol Central Library (KR27): biblio.agh.edu.pl Ewa Lankosz Department of Electrical Machines (KR21): kme.agh.edu.pl Grzegorz Krawczyk Department of Telecommunication (KR20): kt.agh.edu.pl Miroslaw Gajda Department of the Theory of Metalurgic Process Engineering (KR19): ktipm.agh.edu.pl Marcin Zembura Faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Environment (KR23): geol.agh.edu.pl Tomasz Ulatowski Faculty of Materials Engineering and Ceramics (KR22): ceramika.agh.edu.pl Stanislaw Komornicki Faculty of Physics and Nuclear Techiques (KR08): ftj.agh.edu.pl (M) Marek Ciechanowski Institute of Automatics (KR09): ia.agh.edu.pl Wojciech Chmiel Mail: earth.ia.agh.edu.pl biocyb.ia.agh.edu.pl Institute of Computer Science (KR06): ics.agh.edu.pl Andrzej Krol Mail: crocus.ics.agh.edu.pl daisy.ics.agh.edu.pl lily.ics.agh.edu.pl rose.ics.agh.edu.pl tulip.ics.agh.edu.pl (KR18): icsr.agh.edu.pl Jacek Niwicki (KR17): icslab.agh.edu.pl Jacek Niwicki Institute of Design and Construction of Mines (KR24): ipbk.agh.edu.pl Jan Jasiewicz Institute of Elektrotechnics (KR26): zet.agh.edu.pl Maciej Ogorzalek Institute of Metallurgy (KR10): metal.agh.edu.pl (M) Krzysztof Wilk Institute of Underground Mining (KR25): zgp.agh.edu.pl Marian Branny University Computer Center (KR07): uci.agh.edu.pl (M) Szymon Sokol LODZ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LODZ (LO04): lod.edu.pl Piotr Wilk MEDICAL ACADEMY (LO03): am.lod.edu.pl TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF LODZ Institute of Computer Networks (LO01): p.lod.edu.pl Piotr Wilk Mail: zsku.p.lod.edu.pl UNIVERSITY OF LODZ (LO02): u.lod.edu.pl or uni.lod.edu.pl krysia.uni.lod.edu.pl = PLUNLO51.BITNET Department of Crystallography Piotr Sobczynski Department of Solid State Physics Marian Bieniecki Institute of Cosmic Radiation Mail: zpk.u.lod.edu.pl LUBLIN -------------------------------------------------------------------- LUBLIN (LU04): lublin.pl ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURE (LU03): ar.lublin.pl CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF LUBLIN (LU05): kul.lublin.pl LUBLIN TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY (LU02): pol.lublin.pl MARIA CURIE SKLODOWSKA UNIVERSITY (LU01): umcs.lublin.pl Piotr Rozmej Mail: zio1u.umcs.lublin.pl plumcs11.umcs.lublin.pl = PLUMCS11.BITNET POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Institute of Agrophysics (LU06): ipan.lublin.pl Mail: demeter.ipan.lublin.pl OTWOCK -------------------------------------------------------------------- INSTITUTE OF ATOMIC ENERGY, COMPUTER CENTRE CYFRONET (OT01): cyf.gov.pl (M) POZNAN -------------------------------------------------------------------- FRANCO-POLISH SCHOOL OF NEW INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES (PO08): efp.poz.edu.pl (M) Jan Glinski INSTITUTE OF NATURAL FIBRES (PO05): ikwn.poz.gov.pl Dobroslawa Gucia MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY Institute of Heavy Organic Synthesis (PO07): icso.gov.pl Mail: icm2.icso.gov.pl POZNAN TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY (PO01): poz.edu.pl, tup.edu.pl, poz.gov.pl Mikolaj Lubiatowski Mail: oippuxv.poz.edu.pl Fac. of Electrical Eng., Dept. of Control, Robotics and Comp. Sci. (PO02): oinov.poz.edu.pl, pol.poz.edu.pl Krzysztof Kosarzycki Fac. of Electrical Eng., Inst. of Electronics & Communications (PO03): ieitpp.poz.edu.pl Rafal Krenz Mail: cygnus.ieitpp.poz.edu.pl Fac. of Electrical Eng., Inst. of Informatics (PO04): tu.poz.edu.pl Ryszard Jezierski Mail: perseus.tu.poz.edu.pl UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS (PO06): ae.poz.edu.pl Michal Walczak Mail: uci1.ae.poz.edu.pl novci1.ae.poz.edu.pl nvlig.ae.poz.edu.pl TORUN --------------------------------------------------------------------- NICOLAUS COPERNICUS UNIVERSITY (TO01): ncu.edu.pl, torun.edu.pl Zbyszek Szewczak Tomasz Wolniewicz Mail: cc.ncu.edu.pl Astronomical Observatories: Observatory of the Institute of Astronomy and Torun Radio Astronomy Observatory (TO06): astro.torun.edu.pl (M) Andrzej Marecki Maciej Kaminski Computer Center (TO03): cc.torun.edu.pl (M) Maja Gorecka vm.cc.torun.edu.pl = PLTUMK11.BITNET Institute of Astronomy (TO05): astri.torun.edu.pl (M) Jerzy Borkowski Institute of Mathematics (TO02): mat.torun.edu.pl (M) Tomasz Wolniewicz Institute of Physics (TO04): phys.torun.edu.pl Jacek Kobus Darek Dyl Mail: risc.phys.torun.edu.pl University Library (TO07): bu.torun.edu.pl Andrzej Kaczor Marek Czubenko WARSAW -------------------------------------------------------------------- ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY MANUFACTURING INC., (ATM) (WA01): atm.com.pl (M) Leszek Zieniuk Host: ikp.atm.com.pl Mail: ikp.atm.com.pl CENTRAL PLANNING OFFICE Data Processing Center (WA26): cup.gov.pl Mail: ci1.cup.gov.pl COMMITTEE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH (WA31): kbn.gov.pl NASK - RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC COMPUTER NETWORK The NASK Foundation administering the National Network. (WA02): nask.org.pl (M) Tomasz Hofmokl dir. Irek Neska op. Janusz Motoszko op. Andrzej Zienkiewicz Wiktor Krzanowski gandalf.nask.org.pl has a protocol converter to access other services and networks: EARN, Decnet via VAX. Login and password: guest. In EARN you can reach PLUMCS11 through PVM from CIUW. NASK SERVICE (WA33): nask.com.pl (M) PALACE OF YOUTH (WA36): pm.waw.pl (M) POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES High Pressure Research Centre "Unipress", Sokolowska 29/37 (WA40): unipress.waw.pl Mail: iris.unipress.waw.pl Institute of Fundamental Technological Research (WA03): ippt.gov.pl (M) Marek Pokulniewicz Institute of Mathematics (WA28): impan.gov.pl (M) Institute of Physical Chemistry (WA04): ichf.edu.pl Mail: charon.ichf.edu.pl Institute of Physics (WA05): ifpan.edu.pl Jacek Madajczyk Mariusz Olko Mail: sigma.ifpan.edu.pl beta1.ifpan.edu.pl Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology (WA27): nencki.gov.pl (M) Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center (WA06): camk.edu.pl (M) Maciek Kozlowski Zbyszek Loska Zbyszek Markiewicz Andrzej Kaczorowski SOLIDEX LTD. (WA41): solidex.waw.pl (M) Marek Cyzio WARSAW UNIVERSITY Astronomical Observatory (WA09): astrouw.edu.pl Andrzej Udalski Michal Szymanski Mail: sirius.astrouw.edu.pl orion.astrouw.edu.pl Departments of Biophysics and Biochemistry (WA30): biogeo.uw.edu.pl Antek Laczkowski Mail: asp.biogeo.uw.edu.pl Department of Chemistry (WA32): chem.uw.edu.pl (M) Pawel Lukomski Department of Psychology (WA29): psych.uw.edu.pl Mail: psych1.psych.uw.edu.pl psych2.psych.uw.edu.pl Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Mechanics (WA10): mimuw.edu.pl (M) Staszek Kurpiewski Jerzy Wrobel Heavy Ion Laboratory (WA35): slcj.uw.edu.pl (M) Institute of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (WA19): appli.mimuw.edu.pl (M) Wojtek Sylwestrzak Mirek Nazaruk Institute of Botany, Department of Plant Taxonomy & Geography, (WA39): bot.astrouw.edu.pl (M) Wojciech Borkowski Institute of Botany, Department of Phytosociology and Plant Ecology (WA39): bot.astrouw.edu.pl (M) Tomek Wyszomirski Institute of Physics (WA07): fuw.edu.pl (M) Rafal Pietrak Michal Jankowski Marcin Gromisz Jacek Blocki Mail: hozavax.fuw.edu.pl - VAX-4000/VMS, ibmna35.fuw.edu.pl - IBM-RISC/6000 Aix, ccfs1.fuw.edu.pl - Sparc Station, thfs1.fuw.edu.pl - Sparc, zfja-gate.fuw.edu.pl - Nuclear Physics Institute WARSAW TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY (WA38): pw.edu.pl Roman Adamiec Central Administration (WA20): ca.pw.edu.pl Computing Center (WA11): coi.pw.edu.pl (M) Roman Adamiec Andrzej Szymanski Faculty of Chemistry (WA21): ch.pw.edu.pl Faculty of Civil Engineering (WA17): il.pw.edu.pl Faculty of Geodesy and Cartography (WA22): gik.pw.edu.pl WARSAW TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Eng. (WA24): meil.pw.edu.pl Institute of Automatics, Fac. of Electronics (WA12): ia.pw.edu.pl (M) Jerzy Sobczyk (WA37): iem.pw.edu.pl Institute of Basic Electronics (WA14): ipe.pw.edu.pl (M) Institute of Electron Technology (WA34): ite.waw.pl Wojciech Lewandowski Mail: opto.ite.waw.pl vax5.ite.waw.pl Institute of Informatics (WA15): ii.pw.edu.pl (M) Institute of Micro- and Optoelectronics, Fac. of Electronics (WA25): imio.pw.edu.pl (M) Institute of Physics, FTiMS (WA16): if.pw.edu.pl Institute of Radioelectronics, Fac. of Electronics (WA23): ire.pw.edu.pl (M) Institute of Transportation (WA18): it.pw.edu.pl Institute of Telecommunication, Fac. of Electronics (WA13): tele.pw.edu.pl (M) Leszek Wronski WROCLAW ------------------------------------------------------------------- TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF WROCLAW Computing Centre (WR03): ci-pwr.wroc.edu.pl Jozef Janyszek Tomasz Trubisz Jerzy Pankiewicz plwrtu11.ci-pwr.wroc.edu.pl = PLWRTU11.BITNET Faculty of Chemistry (WR02): ch-pwr.wroc.edu.pl Krzysztof Rohleder Mail: kchf-1.ch-pwr.wroc.edu.pl kchk-1.ch-pwr.wroc.edu.pl Institute of Control and Systems Engineering (WR06): ists-pwr.wroc.edu.pl Mail: i17unixB.ists-pwr.wroc.edu.pl Institute of Electronic Technology (WR08): ite-pwr.wroc.edu.pl Zbigniew Helak Institute of Material Science and Technical Mechanics (WR05): immt-pwr.wroc.edu.pl Wojciech Myszka Mail: ldhpux.immt-pwr.wroc.edu.pl ldscoux.immt-pwr.wroc.edu.pl Institute of Mathematics (WR04): impwr.wroc.edu.pl Krzysztof Szajowski Institute of Mechanical Engineering and Automation (WR09): itmapwr.wroc.pl (M) Wieslaw Caban Institute of Technical Cybernetics (WR01): ict-pwr.wroc.edu.pl Witold Paluszynski Mail: ict.pwr.pl (mail only) Institute of Telecommunication and Acoustics (WR07): ita-pwr.wroc.edu.pl Zygmunt Krawczyk BRANCH OF T.U. WROCLAW IN JELENIA GORA Maciej Pawlowski ENGINEERING COLLEGE IN ZIELONA GORA Waldemar Wozniak 3. Fidonet ############################################################### _________________________________________________________________________ |Node: Name: Location: Sysop: Phone: | |_________________________________________________________________________| 2:481/1 SM-Net Bydgoszcz Mariusz Boronski 48-52-411222 2:481/3 POLSUNG Bydgoszcz Dariusz Bagnucki 48-52-229402 2:481/4 ATR BBS Bydgoszcz Piotr Michal Kruza 48-52-438629 2:480/5 BG-EDU BBS Bydgoszcz Pawel Krause 48-52-415810 2:481/2 Technical Univ. Gdansk Mariusz Matuszek 48-58-472109 2:480/25 PiK'us BBS Gliwice Wojciech Apel 48-32-374848 2:486/7 NEXTER BBS Katowice Klaudiusz Staniek 48-32-586007 2:480/34 THE VERBUM BBS Katowice Marek Gorny 48-32-586903 2:486/1 MIKROKOMPUTERY SA Krakow Maciej Piotrowski 48-12-218777 2:486/2 MIKROKOMPUTERY SA Krakow Maciej Piotrowski 48-12-217210 2:486/4 Peter's BBS Krakow Piotr Walczak 48-12-362222 2:486/5 BitART BBS Krakow Tomasz Polys 48-12-335486 2:486/6 QUMAK BBS Krakow Jacek Piotrowski 48-12-216273 2:486/8 COMEX BBS Krakow Marcin Gonet 48-12-365054 2:480/11 SNOOPY BBS Lodz Jan Waliszewski 48-42-336573 2:480/6 RBMeteo_BBS Poznan Jaroslaw Bernatowicz 48-61-496107 2:480/3 PlUUG Warszawa Andrzej Mazurkiewicz 48-2-6415876 2:480/4 MONTH BBS Warszawa Andrzej Bursztynski 48-22-291578 2:480/7 FTI BBS Warszawa Michal Szokolo 48-2-6355904 2:480/10 Home of PCQ Warszawa Jan Stozek 48-22-410374 2:480/13 Spectrum BBS Warszawa Tomasz Bursze 48-22-256965 2:480/16 USERS' BBS Warszawa Jacek Marczewski 48-22-213224 2:480/19 Bajtek BBS Warszawa Michal Szokolo 48-2-6284594 2:480/21 AKME BBS Warszawa Pawel Miesojedow 48-22-315889 2:480/23 Galaxy BBS Warszawa Jarek Wojcik 48-2-6431010 2:480/24 G.B.L. Medlink Warszawa Michal Szokolo 48-22-497632 2:480/30 IMPERIAL Warszawa Krzysztof Mlynarski 48-22-176658 2:480/31 OPEN_THE_SKY #1 Warszawa Andrzej Bacinski 48-22-250263 2:480/32 Acces BBS Warszawa Darek Pruchniak 48-22-580417 2:480/33 Home of Amiga Warszawa Rafal Wiosna 48-22-339649 2:480/35 POST BOX No 1 BBS Warszawa Tomasz Kepinski 48-22-424599 2:480/36 ZWK@LAB_BBS Warszawa Zbigniew W.Kaminski 48-22-465692 2:480/37 TIME BBS NODE 1 Warszawa Sebastian Streich 48-2-6796457 2:480/38 Opus BBS Warszawa Robert Trzeciak 48-22-188465 2:480/39 RAINBOW BBS Warszawa Krzysztof Korczak 48-22-198337 2:480/40 The Pal. of Youth Warszawa Krzysztof Halasa 48-22-203372 2:480/41 Time BBS Node 2 Warszawa Radoslaw Labanowski 48-22-188048 2:480/20 Mehama BBS Wroclaw Ludwig Schuette 48-71-218943 The node addressing is given in Fido style, . Mail is gatewayed to internet, and the equivalent domain style address is where a,b,c,d are the corresponding point, fidonode, network and zone numbers. The point is optional and defaults to p0 if not specified. For example an address to the user Jan Kowalski with an account in BitART BBS in Krakow is: . 4. Publicly accessible sites and servers ################################# Gophers: Select the Gopher from the world gopher list, or use your gopher client with one of the addresses below: galaxy.uci.agh.edu.pl University of Mining and Metallurgy, Cracow gleto4.gliwice.edu.pl Silesian Technical University gopher.ae.poz.edu.pl University of Economics, Poznan gopher.atr.byd.edu.pl Academy of Technology and Agriculture, Bydgoszcz gopher.fuw.edu.pl Warsaw University, Physics Dept. gopher.ia.pw.edu.pl Warsaw Univ. of Technol., Inst. Automatic Control gopher.torun.edu.pl Nicolaus Copernicus Univ., Inst. of Math., Torun ldhpux.immt-pwr.wroc.edu.pl Inst. of Material Science and Technical Mechanics mvax.ci-pwr.wroc.edu.pl Technical University of Wroclaw plearn.edu.pl Warsaw University plumcs11.umcs.lublin.pl Maria Curie Sklodowska University srv1.tu.kielce.pl Kielce Technical University usctoux1.cto.us.edu.pl Silesian University, Katowice vm.cc.torun.edu.pl Nicolaus Copernicus University, IBM4381, Torun volt.iem.pw.edu.pl Warsaw Univ. of Technology, IETiME Anonymous ftp sites: login as anonymous, give your E-address as password alfa.camk.edu.pl - Pigulki, GUST archive cc.ncu.edu.pl - KA9Q, telnet copernicus.astro.torun.edu.pl frodo.nask.org.pl - main Internet router statistics, Pigulki ftp.cc.torun.edu.pl ftp.fuw.edu.pl - Donosy archive ftp.ia.pw.edu.pl - unix docs. galaxy.uci.agh.edu.pl - Gopher, Pigulki, books, journals, humor, more. jetta.if.uj.edu.pl - various programs and docs. ldhpux.immt-pwr.wroc.edu.pl merkury.atm.com.pl sigma.im.uj.edu.pl sirius.astrouw.edu.pl - Acta Astronomica archive titan.coi.pw.edu.pl zfja-gate.fuw.edu.pl - PA0GRI zsku.p.lod.edu.pl - Pigulki Listservs:send E-mail with the word HELP in first line to obtain instructions. listserv@ia.pw.edu.pl listserv@if.uj.edu.pl listserv@plearn.bitnet = listserv@plearn.edu.pl listserv@plpotu51.bitnet listserv@pltumk11.bitnet = listserv@vm.cc.torun.edu.pl listserv@plwrtu11.bitnet = listserv@plwrtu11.ci-pwr.wroc.edu.pl listserv@uci.agh.edu.pl polip-request@camk.edu.pl ----------------- Many thanks to Andrzej Smereczynski for updates on EARN and to Wieslaw Caban, Jacek Piskosub, Mikolaj Barylko, Andrzej Udalski, Wojciech Borkowski, Gotfryd Smolik, Staszek Kurpiewski, Mirek Nazaruk, Krzysztof Kosarzycki, Ireneusz Nowokunski, Krzysztof Rozycki, Bogdan Banecki, jsk@icso.com.pl, Ryszard Jan Barczynski, Krzysztof Snopek, H. Marciniak, Tomek Wyszomirski, Ryszard S'wieboda and Marek Cyzio for help in updating the Internet list. Please send changes and corrections to Rafal Maszkowski . ======================================================================== Networks Cyberspace Chronicle PIGULARZ ADDRESSES NETCON Pigulki's Marek Zielinski addressed the NetCon'93 conference held in NYC over Memorial Day weekend (May 28-31). NetCon is an annual gathering of people who are operators and other avid users of Bitnet's RELAY. It provides its participants with a chance to meet face-to-face with people otherwise known only by their RELAY nicknames. Zielinski presented a perspective on the development of Polish Cyberspace and its future, including the reliance of online conferencing on Relay by the EARN-Poland Link Discussion Group, an early network of activists promoting connection of Polish universities to Bitnet/EARN. ======================================================================== The Back Page Jurek Klimkowski Travelog: HOMETOWN, WINTER 91/92 The snow on the ground was really cute, but it was there day after day. The sun was low, and the nights were long and cold. Days were short, therefore I had very little time to take care of many pressing matters. After so many years spent in the U.S., I wanted to reacquaint myself with my Hometown and once again roam the streets of my City. I felt an urgent need to check whether the images already etched in my memory were still up to date. Usually they were and this was my great joy. Visiting places was like a gentle massage of the cortex of my soul where the good and the wonderful were deposited in the sarcophagus of my youth. In spite of rather harsh realities around me, I tried to savor every moment, delaying the reality check. Subconsciously, I felt that my image of the City was essentially baroque and my elation was coming to an end. Urgent family business was forced upon me. My problems grew and grew consuming an ever-growing share of my time and energy. Ultimately, I had to focus on the paperwork and legal aspects of my problem. This forced me to ask: what was the legal reality of my surroundings? Was it possible to take up things where I have left them years ago? What were the new tricks and the new clues? My understanding of the situation was far from complete, until I entered the District Government Office, in the decaying building on the street renamed "Father Kropotowski." * What I saw there frightened me. The place was dirty. Arrogant clerks virtually ignored countless people who were waiting to present their case to an "official." Visitors seemed to belong to two distinct groups. The first one, the "iconic" group, consisted of people who were projecting their sorrow in the way Byzantine, or Russian-orthodox paintings did. They had these somber faces, sad eyes and, in a sublime- ritual fashion, displayed their pain publicly. In a schematic idiom of early-Christian Saints, these "Holy Faces" came to ask for material things. Some quite visibly needed help, most probably did not, but this was beside the point. What was being shown by them was a folklore-based, pre-Magna Carta relations between the governed and the government. The essence of their approach would not have changed had there had been a raffle of an all-expenses paid trip for two to Cancun. Members of the other group, the "pelted ones", were perhaps more affluent. They moved around, protesting the long lines and inertia. Their motions were quite slow due to the great weight of heavy furs they were wearing that winter. A magnificent display of grunts and barely audible sounds of electrostatic discharges of mink and fox pelts were heard when they sheared against each other in the narrow corridors of the building. From underneath their outlandish, furred headgears parts of faces were barely visible; sometimes chins, mostly noses, oftentimes smoke or vapor was billowing from nostrils. Their looks and movements were reminiscent of yaks or musk oxen, and as if they wanted to expand on their pack rituals, brief incidents of crude forms of ritualized aggression were on display. These events were triggered whenever a rude clerk, upon hearing a complaint, delivered a new proof that the system was completely immune to their grumblings. Yet, amazingly, each time after the display of their outrage, the "pelted ones" kept returning to their slow motions and grunts. In effect, by holding on to their ground, in an obvious way, they muscled in on the system. * * Trying to be more inventive than the rest of the pack, I first tried my boyish smile on several officials. I got very mixed results: the clerks seemed to be out of their element, my politeness was making them edgy. My willingness and ability of an immediate procurement of every possible kind of document they have thought of was very circumspect. Finally, it all came to the simple fact that I couldn't procure Polish ID and my passport was not enough. ID reinstatement was governed by old and obsolete regulations which no expatriate could honestly fulfill. Seeing the end of my rope, I yelled at a supervisor provoking a real shouting match in public. That was obviously a mistake, because my yelling at her put me on an alien ground, which was unfortunately very familiar to my oppressor. So I kept yelling, thinking very fast how to send signals that would return me to a more familiar pasture. In my tirade, I could spot some subliminal accents of self-serving patriotism, which alarmed me enormously. In desperation, I finally improved upon my act, my statements became more conciliatory and I wound up with an appeal to the common sense and a boyish smile of a completely lost, nice boy. Something moved in this office matriarch. She gave me a wink, of sorts. I was shoved into her office, she closed the door, turned to me with an air of sympathy. Free of prying eyes of other employees she said: "Can you imagine how many people came back from the West to see these changes here? I've seen hundreds of them! Right here, in this office. They tried and tried to understand, to reconnect, to readapt and... left, all of them. They went back because they feared for their children, or because they decided to choose the lesser evil! The old, the infirm, the crooked and all the losers will stay here, don't waste your time trying to understand. Unlike us, you still have a choice." I was weighing what she has said. The statement about who stayed in Poland certainly wasn't entirely true. I knew that, because my close relatives generated impressive amounts of profits remaining squeaky- clean, as always. Besides, I didn't come to discuss the possibility of my return. I counterattacked: "Oh, come on, some people here are doing just fine. Some always will. Return, or no return, I only wanted to secure my property in Poland, but you are all bound by conflicting regulations. I only wanted someone to give an executive order. What is wrong with that? Why is everyone so hostile?" She hunched in her seat. Gave me a haggard look, pulled a pack of cigarettes, offered me one. I took it. It was a gesture of peace, and surely, some piece of wisdom was to follow, so I sat and waited for the rite of the initiation. She begun: "OK, not everyone in this country is on the losing side. Yet the mess here will continue for a long time. The key to the whole affair, what makes, among others, your problem so insolvable, is this game you must remember from your childhood. Musical chairs, you must remember. "Whenever the music stops, players need to find chairs to sit on, and the one without a chair is out of the game. Now, when we had one party, then the party was the key, once we got many parties, the party key became the key. The problem is that these so called "parties" are like tadpoles, only heads and not much else. Therefore, this political shuffle, coalitions - that is - change all the time. What you see is, politicians frantically looking for new chairs to "sit on," no real professionals and havoc on a local level." * * * I left the office fully "initiated". Yet, something was amiss, for I walked slowly past impressive cars parked at the curbs. Visibly, very affluent people were getting in and out some Citroens, Fords, Audis and Mercedes. Many town homes in the area were spruced up. Solid signs of prosperity came to this once quite poor district. My keen eye followed quality goods on store displays. Small fortune here, wealth there... Avoiding going home, I went toward brown bear display, in front of the ZOO. Looked at them for a while, then turned my eyes to the River. It was covered with ice and so incredibly majestic. Approaching the river bank, I thought of several generations of my ancestors, Left Bank flood plain dwellers, whose lives were paced by this magnificent River. The vista, in front of me, read like an open book. Every inch, brought my memories of places "...some are gone and some remain. All those places had their moments with lovers and friends, I still recall." Even if I was the first, in many generations, not to live my entire life close to the River, She will always remain my hourglass. Like the painting Canaletto once made at approximately the same spot, She will forever be me. For what more can I do, anchored in new, economic realities of the wide-open World? Oh, River, one famous Viking cut off his hand, so that he could have claimed the land upon throwing his hand on the shore, I already left my heart on Your bank. * * * * The screech of unadjusted brakes interrupted my meditations. Reality came back in a shape of a thirtish male, sprawled inside a second-hand Mercedes Benz. This man was rather coarse-looking. His leather jacket was of good quality, so was the sweater, underneath. His talk was quite direct, even forceful; shades of a friendly smile circled around corners of his mouth. He was trying to make eye contact. This man wanted to get to a bridgehead of the Syrenka Bridge and was asking for directions, but I just couldn't stop gaping at him. My ear was capturing subtle errors in the way he was pronouncing some words. He was using dialectic, or provincial expressions. Finally, after I had enough of taxing him, I closed my open mouth with a clank and uttered some instructions waving my hands in the air and feeling quite stupid. Upon receiving directions, man smiled, gave a cheerful salute. The car drove away in clouds of diesel-oil fumes. I turned my head toward the street. Slowly my eyes focused on cars passing me by. There was a stream of foreign-made, often secondhand, luxury cars and each driver inside looked almost like the one I'd just spoken to. Amazingly, the parade of all these coarse-featured drivers looked kafkaesque. Like mannequins, silent and expressionless, they slowly filed just in front of me. This leery, halloween spectacle was a manifestation of an ascension of a new, business class. Yes, these were the sights of an ongoing social revolution! The homogeneity that riveted me was clearly a result of a one-track, rapid and brutal asset-stripping aspect of that revolution. It had to produce these faces molded into one shape. To an impartial observer, like me, it all looked as if there was once this "mitochondrial Felek", or a "pra-Stasiu", whose genetic code had overwritten genes of a large, perhaps until then, quite respectful population. Complimentarily, there could have been once a group subjected to a random change. Worse than that, this could have been a very serious disfiguration event which, after the end of communism, turned out to give this wretched subspecies an advantage. Ridiculed and ignored during the earlier historical formation, they came out of their ecological niche and started multiplying unchallenged by predators. Maybe, looks always deceiving us, these moneyed people descended from a group of essentially normal men and women, which due to uncanny sexual practices, went through a process of severe chromosome elimination. Through a massive suppression of genes they might have been denied certain refined qualities, which were hitherto considered to be essential. Now they were, quite obviously, overgrazing and I was standing on a curb and pounding Darwinian aspects of their reproductive success. * * * * * Tired of my sarcastic intellectualism and self-serving rumbling, I got into my car, started the engine and just drove on a parkway rimming the River. My day was already emotionally wrenching, I didn't want to get excited about anything anymore. I just watched new buildings along my itinerary... one nice church, another pretty church... a small building, like a refectory, yet another church... I must be in Heaven, I thought, for church towers lined the street as if this was Stonehenge. Apartment buildings around me were mostly drab, only a very few were recently built, school buildings looked awful, but new churches were everywhere. This was quite new to me. I never knew that people in my Homeland sinned so profusely. Even if this became the case since I have left for the US, it was quite apparent that just a small fraction of churches recently built in this City would have saved Sodom and Gomorrah. There was, of course, the issue of repentance and forgiveness, I recalled, so all sinners could have been recycled by now and lot less space was needed to accommodate the ones going for their seconds. Furthermore, even if no recycling was taken into the account, or the religious dogma has become more exacting then before, the immensity of the space given to the faithful surpassed any reasonable needs of the current population. For no matter how strong are ones beliefs, Salvation does not depend of the amount of space potential sinner occupied on Earth, or even in the church. (As a matter of fact, the faith I grew up with stipulates an inverse relation between the two.) Unless the new faithful resolved to lay the cross on the temple's floor (on account of their already dismal record), the sacrifice needed to construct all these new places of worship had to have some long-range goals in mind. Driving through the church-lined streets of my Hometown, it finally hit me: I was observing the birth of an industry. This was a well- planned corporate effort. These church buildings were its factories and the people were its raw material. As a matter of fact, with the behemoth expansion underway, the focus was already on the pre-born faithful. It had to be, not solely because it had roots in the religious doctrine, but primarily because of the scale of this undertaking. Without a guaranteed, massive influx of new souls, this gamble was doomed to fail in two or three decades. It also meant that all human zygotes in this Country would have to be protected by an armed, larval police, or the state police, if the State acquiesces. Finally, the Reproductive Gulag that would result from such policies would have to be fortified by special legal or even constitutional provisions guaranteeing that the process of religious education remains universal and strictly Markovian. * * * * * * I turned back on the other side of the River. My car was taking me home. To my right, snow on the surface of the icebound River reflected the sunlight. Slowly my mind regained its "cool," this delirious day was coming to its close. It was time for conclusions. First, I was not some "Lighthouse Keeper" forced to live overseas, only someone temporarily sharing His emotions. I was free to choose one rat-race or another, just like any middle-class person does every day, all over the world. Similarly, my wisecracking about the situation in this Country did compensate for the guilt I felt, because of the choice I once had to make, but was also laden with a coffee-shop intellectualism pounded into my social caste. Second, my non- participation in the ongoing processes implied some miscalculations, yet it also gave me a good vantage point to weigh new opportunities against new dangers, all quite clearly present here. What I needed was a mechanical model, combining the observed, social darwinism with the corporate attitude of the Church. Additionaly, the view resulting from my earlier observations collided with my fundamental belief in the impartiality of macroscopic processes observed in the Wild. For, in its purest form, devoid of chutzpah and fat, societal change in Poland was plainly analogous to the rat-tyrannosaurus situation of the late Mesozoic era. Just as the theory of the punctuated equilibria postulates, the improvements of dinosaur species were produced by minuscule mutations and refinements occurring during the centuries of quasi-stability, whereas the ecological catastrophe brought the suppressed, rat-like mammals to the top. Only then, could these ugly, dripping snouts of mammals have reached the bountiful food supplies. In effect "the oppressed masses" got a chance for a new life. My paleontological analogy was breaking down only at one point: the Great Tyrannosaurus, proudly standing on their hind legs, did not place their front paws on the counter top of someone else's power, whereas an amazing amount of refined people in Poland did just that! Consequently, their newly-discovered impotence deprived the economic revolution of many, very important qualities. And here my corporate analogy was kicking in, because the things that were missed the most was the civic society and its representative administration, nourished and led by sufficient numbers of wise men. In the absence of the critical mass of these wise men, people were led, this is a corollary, by unwise stand- ins, toward less-than-civic society. Into this vacuum the Church stepped in, unprepared just like everyone else. In essence a triple deflation - financial, intellectual and spiritual - existed in this Country. So there was a demand which will have to be satisfied by the nascent market of enterpreneurship, elective politics and ..., not too fast. We already know material demands will have to be satisfied, political errors rectified... and, now lets contemplate the Church? Well, the basic message of Christianity is non- coercive; accounting for that leads to a reform of the NEP-inspired, current expansion - a failure to recognize that problem: to Reformation. jurek klimkowski ======================================================================== NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS Marek Cypryk (mcypryk@plearn.bitnet) is a scientist (polymer chemistry) in the Centre of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lodz, Poland and a contributing editor of PIGULKI. He was a co-founder and editor of POGLADY, Solidarity magazine of Lodz (1980-81). Jurek Klimkowski (jleleno@cabell.vcu.edu) lives in Glen Allen, VA. His "travelogues" graced the POLAND-L list in 1990. He is Pigulki's Back Page Editor. Rafal Maszkowski (rzm@mat.torun.edu.pl) graduated this year from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun. His speciality is astronomy, his hobby - travelling the Netland. Presently he works at the Onsala Space Observatory at the Chalmers Polytechnic in Goteborg. He is also the sysop of the NCU BBS in Torun. Dave Phillips (davep@acsu.buffalo.edu) is a Research Associate at the Great Lakes Program at the University at Buffalo and a doctoral candidate in geography at UB. He was a cofounder of the EARN/Poland Link discussion group and is a co-editor of Pigulki. He lives in Kenmore NY, is a Macintosh partisan, and is interested in how the Net will reshape where and how (and whether) people will live and work. Jacek Ulanski (julanski@plearn.bitnet) is a physicist and philosopher. He works in the Polymer Institute of Lodz Politechnic and is a contributing editor of Pigulki. Marek Zielinski (zielinski@acfcluster.nyu.edu) of Rego Park, NY is a chemist and a contributing editor of Pigulki. He was a founding member of the EARN-Poland link discussion group in 1987, and was co-founder and editor of POGLADY, Solidarity magazine of Lodz (1980-81). On Irc he is known as Pigularz. ========================================================================= ABOUT PIGULKI Editors EMAIL Marek Cypryk (Lodz, Poland) mcypryk@plearn.bitnet Jerzy Klimkowski (Glen Allen, VA, USA) jleleno@cabell.vcu.edu Dave Phillips (Kenmore, NY, USA) davep@acsu.buffalo.edu Jacek Ulanski (Lodz, Poland) julanski@plearn.bitnet Marek Zielinski (Rego Park, NY, USA) zielinski@acfcluster.nyu.edu Production Editor, Postscript edition Wojtek Hempel (Rego Park, NY, USA) PIGULKI Authorized Distributors North America: Dave Phillips (davep@acsu.buffalo.edu) Oceania: Marek Samoc (mjs111@phys.anu.edu.au) Europe, Africa: Marek Zielinski (zielinski@acfcluster.nyu.edu) PIGULKI is also available from the NCU BBS in Torun, located in the Student Government of the Nicolaus Copernicus University. Its sysop is Rafal Maszkowski, ; the BBS is accessible 24 hours at 48-56-14252 (2400, N81, MNP5) POSTSCRIPT EDITION: PIGULKI is available in ASCII and in printable POSTSCRIPT forms. The ASCII version is distributed by E-mail, the Postscript edition is available by anonymous ftp, by E-mail and using Gopher. For instructions see below under Back Issues. BACK ISSUES: * ANONYMOUS FTP: The sites at alfa.camk.edu.pl, galaxy.uci.agh.edu.pl, info.in2p3.fr, laserspark.anu.edu.au, poniecki.berkeley.edu and zsku.p.lod.edu.pl store back issues in subdirectory /pub/pigulki. Log in as 'anonymous' and give your E-address as password. ASCII files have extension pub, Posctscript files have extension ps. * MAIL: Send mail to netlib@alfa.camk.edu.pl with the line 'send index from pigulki' to obtain the list of available files, and with the line 'send pigulk15.pub from pigulki' to obtain eg. the current ASCII issue. For Postscript substitute ps for pub. * GOPHER: In your Gopher's list of Other Gophers locate "University of Mining and Metallurgy, Cracow", or "Uniwersytet Kalifornijski, Berkeley", and look for Pigulki. Or connect directly to , or (experimental) using your gopher client. Pigulki archives are also mirrored in the CIC gopher together with all other E-periodicals and books. PIGULKI's editors are grateful to the following people for making space available to archive Pigulki: * Andrzej Kaczorowski of the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center in Warsaw , * Jaroslaw Strzalkowski of the University of Mining and Metallurgy in Krakow , * Wojtek Wojcik of the Centre de Calcul of Lyon , * Marek Samoc of the Australian National University in Canberra , * Darek Milewski from the University of California at Berkeley , and * Konrad Pilch from Lodz Technical University . LEGAL BITS: PIGULKI is distributed electronically free of charge to masochistic readers who request it from an authorized distributor or ftp site (above). Signed articles are Copyright (c) 1993 by their authors. PIGULKI may not be copied or retransmitted without prior permission by the editors and notification of your local public health authorities. FAIR USE: Permission to excerpt is granted in advance for academic use, provided there is full attribution and concurrent notification of the editors. REPRINTING: You must obtain permission to reprint a signed piece from the author(s), who must in turn notify a listed editor that they have so granted permission. Further, a reprinter must supply one copy of the reprinting to the Pigulki editors. Your articles, letters, threats, denunciations are welcome; please send them to any editor you can find who'll admit being one. We reserve the right to edit for brevity. ==========================================================================  .