Działalność Zagranicznego Komitetu Odbudowy Zamku Królewskiego w Warszawie (1967–1972).
The activities of the Foreign International committee for the Reconstruction of the Royal Castle in Warsaw (1967–1972).

Summary/Abstract: The vast majority of the political elites who had settled abroad had a very negative stance towards the matter of collecting money for the reconstruction of the Royal Castle in Warsaw. In the first half of the 1970s however, several dozen committees and Polish organizations had been established around the world to support this initiative; the majority of these were based in the United States of America, Australia, France and in Canada. The first committee of this type had already been set up in London in June 1967, a few years before the leadership of the Polish People’s Republic had taken the decision to raise the royal residence from its ruins. The Foreign Committee for the Reconstruction of the Royal Castle in Warsaw was chaired by Ignacy Czaykowski. It was made up of members who had not taken part in emigre political life earlier, nor were they known in ‘Polish’ London. And although the Committee considered itself an independent and non-political organization, in reality the people who had established it sympathized with the pro-Poland circles abroad, who criticized those who would not change their stance; they were in favour of cooperating with the communist authorities of the Polish People’s Republic and attempted to create a positive image of communist Poland among the emigres. The main objective of the Foreign Committee was to raise funds for the restitution of the Royal Castle and to urge the communist authorities to establish a Central Committee for Reconstruction in the homeland. Members of the Committee in London contacted Professor Stanisław Lorentz, director of the National Museum in Warsaw who was the main advocate for bringing the former royal residence back into existence. The efforts of the Committee were supported by pro-Polish publications abroad—in London in Kronika and Naprzód, and in Paris in Horyzonty. The political elites abroad strongly criticized the work of the Committee. The authorities in Warsaw who were opposed to the castle’s reconstruction also distanced themselves from its activities. The Foreign Committee for Reconstruction was disbanded in June 1970. In January 1971 when the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish Communist Party, Edward Gierek, announced the government’s decision to reconstruct the Royal Castle, the Committee resumed its activities. Soon after, it transferred GBP 2,000 which had been collected in previous years to the account of the Civic Committee for Reconstruction in Warsaw. After renewing its activities, the Foreign Committee for Reconstruction barely collected GBP 500 in the course of the year, after which it definitively ceased from any further activity.

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