Tom Stoppard Plays 3

by Tom Stoppard

  (The INTERCOM on the desk announces …)

  INTERCOM: His Excellency the Soviet Ambassador is here.

  61. INT. KANIA’S OFFICE. ANOTHER SECTION. DAY

  KANIA leads the AMBASSADOR into the room, shows him to a chair. They sit.

  KANIA: Good morning, Ambassador.

  AMBASSADOR: Good morning, Comrade. You’re looking tired.

  KANIA: How can I help you, Ambassador?

  AMBASSADOR: Comrade Brezhnev wishes to inform you that a meeting of the leaders of the Warsaw Pact is to take place in Moscow in eight days’ time. Comrade Brezhnev asks me to convey his fraternal greetings and looks forward to seeing you on December 5th.

  KANIA: (Examining his diary) I’ll have to cancel a lunch. I accept with pleasure, of course. I ask you to return my greetings when you have an opportunity.

  AMBASSADOR: I have many opportunities, Comrade First Secretary. Comrade Brezhnev is taking a very close interest in events here.

  KANIA: Naturally. We are grateful for his interest.

  AMBASSADOR: The situation is interesting. The Warsaw strike. The general strike which is due to begin in four hours …

  KANIA: There are no Warsaw strikes this morning. There will be no general strike either.

  AMBASSADOR: That is very good news. It is very important to us that the Party should not show weakness.

  KANIA: Quite so.

  AMBASSADOR: And your two prisoners?

  KANIA: Prisoners?

  AMBASSADOR: The saboteurs arrested a week ago.

  KANIA: You have been misinformed, Ambassador. Two men were detained on suspicion but the suspicion proved unfounded. The men were released very early this morning.

  AMBASSADOR: I see.

  KANIA: It is delightful to have seen you again.

  AMBASSADOR: You won’t forget? Moscow, December 5th.

  (The AMBASSADOR stands up and leaves the room.)

  62. INT. KREMLIN. DAY

  This is the meeting of the Warsaw Pact leaders. BREZHNEV is chairman. The Polish group consists of KANIA, PINKOWSKI (the last-seen prime minister), BARCIKOWSKI and OLSZOWSKI and JARUZELSKI. There is a little Polish flag on the table in front of them. At intervals around the large table there are the flags of Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia. The only person standing is one of the Germans, who is half-way through a tirade, backed up by a pile of documents, including a sheaf of Solidarity magazines. He is referring to these one by one.

  GERMAN MINISTER: Item – a blatant attack on the person of the Regional Chairman of the Party. Item – a blatant attack on the office of the Public Prosecutor. Item – a blatant attack on the principle of peasant collectives. And so it goes on. These publications, openly printed and distributed by Solidarity, are an attack on socialism, an attack on everyone here, and I tell you this, Comrades, if the day comes when we in the German Democratic Republic allow the publication of filth like this, then you are free to assume that we objectively agree with it.

  (He sits down. Pause. BREZHNEV speaks without standing up, in a fairly friendly manner, looking straight across at the Polish leaders.)

  BREZHNEV: You know, we had our very own Soviet free trade union. I forget his name. He is in a lunatic asylum now, poor fellow … You see, a Communist Party which cannot defend itself is no damn use, that is the problem. If it cannot defend itself, it must be defended.

  63. EXT. BUNKER. DAY

  All we see is a group of perhaps half a dozen very high-ranking

  MILITARY OFFICERS dressed in cold-weather greatcoats, standing at a vantage point, their attention on events in the distance, events characterized by the sounds of military vehicles and high explosives. It is a relaxed group. One or two of them may be smoking. Each of them has a pair of binoculars which he uses occasionally. The uniforms belong to the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries. We are concerned with GENERAL JARUZELSKI and MARSHAL KULIKOV, who are standing next to each other. They are cold. They raise their binoculars.

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) During these December days reservists were called up in the Baltic Soviet Republics. Soviet troops camped under canvas on the Polish border, and Soviet warships were visible from the coast. The United States Intelligence announced that Russian invasion plans were complete.

  (KULIKOV lowers his binoculars.)

  KULIKOV: Well, I don’t know what all this is doing to the Poles but it’s scaring the hell out of the Americans.

  JARUZELSKI: We can deal with our own problems, Marshal.

  KULIKOV: We all hope so, Wojciech.

  64. EXT. THE GDANSK MEMORIAL INAUGURATION. NIGHT

  A crowd of people holding candles. It is snowing. There is the sound of the ‘Lacrimosa’ from Krzysztof Penderecki’s Chorale.

  The floodlights illuminate the Solidarity banners.

  We see WALESA dressed up for the winter cold. He wears a brown anorak. Around him, casually but warmly dressed, are other WORKERS and LEADERS of Solidarity. There are also the men of Warsaw in heavy overcoats. There is a GENERAL in uniform and an ADMIRAL in uniform. There are PRIESTS.

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) On December 16th, the rulers and the ruled came together to inaugurate the Gdansk Memorial to the dead of 1970. The Solidarity banners were consecrated by an archbishop. There was an army general, an admiral, a deputy member of the Politburo, a government minister and the Head of State, the ageing Professor Jablonski. There were diplomats of many foreign countries. There were 150,000 people gathered outside the gates of the Lenin shipyard. Lech Walesa, unknown six months before, now leader of a union of 10 million workers, lit the flame. It was the first time in a Communist country that a government had erected a memorial to workers who had rebelled against the state. The First Secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party and the Soviet Ambassador did not attend.

  3

  Congress

  65. INT. CONFESSIONAL. DAY

  WALESA, with his ear pressed to the grille, is listening intently and rapidly making notes in a notebook.

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) In the middle of January Lech Walesa went to Rome … and, according to Prague Radio, got his instructions straight from the Pope.

  (Caption: Courtesy of Prague Radio)

  WALESA: (Muttering) Yes, Father, attack the principles of socialist construction, very well, Father …

  66. INT. SOLIDARITY MEETING ROOM. GDANSK. DAY

  A large, disorganized, rowdy meeting of Solidarity people. They are members of the National Commission and we know a few of them.

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) Solidarity was in fact in endless dispute with the Government, which seemed unable or unwilling to concede what had been agreed in Gdansk. The Government had back-tracked on the five-day week, access to the media, censorship, and the right of private farmers to set up a Rural Solidarity of their own. There were strikes and sit-ins all over the country. The National Commission tried to tidy all this up by calling for a one-hour general strike …

  (The meeting has suddenly pulled itself together, the background noise stilled as everybody there raises one arm in the air.)

  … while ordering an end to local strikes. But the second part of that had no effect …

  (The meeting once more disintegrates into dispute and noise.)

  The country seemed bemused and helpless in the face of all these demands. As always, there was a Polish joke for the occasion.

  (Caption: Polish Joke)

  (The meeting is suddenly stilled as a WORKER shouts.)

  WORKER: I move that from now on we only work on Tuesdays!

  (The meeting agrees by acclamation. However, the WITNESS, who is present, raises his hand and the meeting goes quiet again to listen to him.)

  WITNESS: Do you mean every Tuesday?

  67. INT. OFFICE (PRIME MINISTER). DAY

  WALESA and PRIME MINISTER PINKOWSKI are putting their signatures to a document.

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) Walesa went into a twelve-hour meeting with the Prime Minister, who at this time and for several days to come was
called Mr Pinkowski. They reached an agreement which pleased neither side. On February 9th, Pinkowski was replaced. In Poland such a change was normally cosmetic, but this time it looked different.

  68. EXT. STREET. DAY

  An official car draws up and a fawning FUNCTIONARY comes up to open the rear door, out of which comes PRIME MINISTER GENERAL JARUZELSKI.

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) The new Prime Minister liked to make unannounced visits …

  69. INT. FOOD SHOP. DAY

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) … sometimes to shops.

  (There is busy activity in the shop. Groceries of all kinds are being hastily unpacked from boxes and placed on empty shelves. When the shelves look fairly full, the PRIME MINISTER and his ENTOURAGE are seen to enter the shop. There is much handshaking and smiling as the GENERAL passes through.

  JARUZELSKI: And how is the food distribution?

  PARTY OFFICIAL: It is working very well, Comrade.

  JARUZELSKI: Good, good.

  (He passes rapidly through. As soon as he has gone all the groceries are quickly removed and repacked.)

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) Jaruzelski began by asking for a three months’ suspension of strike action – for, as he put it, ninety peaceful days. He got thirty-eight.

  70. EXT. STREET. NIGHT

  The cut is to a fight. Smoke bombs. Crowds scatter. RULEWSKI and other men are being beaten up by a group of plain-clothes SECURITY POLICE.

  71. INT. HOSPITAL VESTIBULE. NIGHT

  A group is walking purposefully along the corridor towards us.

  WALESA is in the lead. A PRIEST is behind him.

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) The trouble happened in Bydgoszcz, where the farmers, with the support of the local Solidarity leader, Jan Rulewski, staged a peaceful protest against the authorities’ refusal to allow an independent farmers’ union. The uniformed militia were called but there was no violence until the plain-clothes state security police moved in. Rulewski was badly beaten up.

  PRIEST: Wisdom. Not vengeance. Wisdom.

  72. INT. HOSPITAL WARD. NIGHT

  The injured RULEWSKI is in bed. WALESA and the PRIEST enter the ward and come to the bed.

  RULEWSKI: Yes – I heard you had a priest now.

  WALESA: Jan. How are you feeling?

  RULEWSKI: No – you talk.

  WALESA: A warning strike within the week. A general strike after that if we don’t get satisfaction.

  RULEWSKI: Somebody ordered it. This was an attack on Solidarity by the Government.

  WALESA: No. It was an attack on the Government’s agreement with Solidarity. That’s the best way to play it. We’ll announce a strike in support of the Government of General Jaruzelski.

  73. INT. OFFICE. NIGHT

  JARUZELSKI holding a telephone.

  JARUZELSKI: Tell him not to do us any favours.

  74. INT. PARTY HEADQUARTERS (VESTIBULE). NIGHT

  MIECZYSLAW RAKOWSKI is holding a telephone to his ear, listening.

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) Jaruzelski’s first appointment was to make Mieczyslaw Rakowski Deputy Prime Minister, with special responsibility for the unions. From now on, Rakowski, the editor of an influential political weekly, was going to do most of the talking to Solidarity.

  (RAKOWSKI has meanwhile put the phone down and approached WALESA, who, we now see, is standing in the lobby.)

  RAKOWSKI: While we’re standing here the armies of the Warsaw Pact are conducting exercises on Polish soil. Your warning strike was the greatest disruption of work in the history of this country.

  (WALESA looks surprised.)

  I mean in the history of the Polish People’s Republic. If the general strike goes ahead we could end up with Soviet tanks lined up in the square outside.

  WALESA: You’ve played the Russian card too many times. Blood has been spilled. Twenty-seven citizens of the Polish People’s Republic who were not breaking any law have been injured in an assault by the state police in the city of Bydgoszcz. Three of them are in hospital. Does this have your approval?

  RAKOWSKI: There will be an investigation, of course.

  WALESA: Another card.

  RAKOWSKI: We’ll punish those responsible for the assault. You may have my guarantee. But the strike must be called off.

  WALESA: It’s not my decision. But your offer is not enough.

  RAKOWSKI: All right, we also guarantee that the question of the farmers’ union will be examined by a parliamentary commission. And you know what that means with this parliament. It’ll only be a matter of time. But we can’t move faster than the Party lets us. You understand. The Party must have the leading role. That is Communism.

  WALESA: And independent unions, is that Communism?

  RAKOWSKI: Don’t underestimate Polish Communism. We’ve got less than twenty-four hours before the strike goes ahead and all this is put at risk. What are you going to do?

  75. INT. SOLIDARITY MEETING ROOM (GDANSK). DAY

  WALESA is there with GWIAZDA and MODZELEWSKI. GWIAZDA is angry.

  GWIAZDA: No.

  WALESA: We’ve got most of what we wanted.

  GWIAZDA: It’s not up to us. The National Commission decided on the strike. If it’s going to be called off, the National Commission has to meet to vote on it.

  WALESA: (Desperately) There isn’t time for that. We have to make it an executive decision.

  MODZELEWSKI: You mean your decision. This whole business has been about as democratic as a Pharaoh’s court. You’re taking too much upon yourself, Lech.

  WALESA: Nobody wants this strike. Do you want it?

  MODZELEWSKI: I don’t want the strike. I don’t want any part of this decision. We went to a lot of trouble to make a democratic union. This is just getting to be Walesa’s circus. I’m going back to Wroclaw to teach my students about democracy – you can get yourself another press officer.

  WALESA: You’re making a dogma out of procedure. Right and wrong is more important. A strike now would be wrong. And there isn’t time. I’m putting this to the vote of the Praesidium. Let it be on my head. When the National Commission has time to meet, they can have it on a platter.

  MODZELEWSKI: Right. I resign. (To GWIAZDA) How about you?

  WALESA: (To GWIAZDA) You can only resign once, Andrzej.

  (MODZELEWSKI starts to pick up his briefcase to leave.)

  GWIAZDA: They’ve split us.

  76. INT. POLITBURO. DAY

  Everybody is there and the mood is buoyant.

  RAKOWSKI: (Triumphantly) We’ve split them!

  (RAKOWSKI is being slapped on the back by JARUZELSKI …)

  KANIA: That’s it! Get them at each other’s throats!

  (But this picture freezes and tears itself in half like a piece of paper with the sound of tearing paper.)

  77. INT. CAFE. DAY

  The NARRATOR is scribbling at a table. He stops and crumples up the paper and throws it away. He is being watched by the WITNESS.

  WITNESS: Try the other one.

  78. INT. POLITBURO. DAY

  As before.

  RAKOWSKI: (Gloomily) We’ve split them!

  KANIA: (Gloomily) How can we control them if they’re at each other’s throats all the time?

  (The picture freezes and tears itself in half like paper with the sound of tearing paper.)

  79. INT. CAFE. DAY

  NARRATOR and WITNESS.

  NARRATOR: I don’t understand who’s winning.

  WITNESS: Or who’s being split.

  NARRATOR: (Interested) Is that it?

  WITNESS: These people aren’t smart. They’re Party bosses.

  80. INT. POLITBURO. DAY

  As before.

  KANIA: They’ve split us.

  WITNESS: (Voice over) That’s the one.

  KANIA: In Torun there’s a big Party meeting which we haven’t sanctioned which wants to speed up reform. In Katowice there’s another meeting which thinks Stalin is alive and well and is practically begging the Soviets to come in and save Communism. I’ve got hundred
s of complaints from the rank and file. People want to know why we haven’t punished the police who did the beating up. They want to know why we haven’t expelled more Party members for bribery and theft, although we’ve expelled thousands. They demand an emergency Party Congress and I can’t stop it. They will elect to the Congress hundreds of people we can’t rely on. In the grass roots of the Party there are meetings between workers in different factories, different cities. Lenin called it the sin of horizontalism. He organized the Party on vertical lines, control from top to bottom. This is why. I’m getting demands for secret voting for the Party Congress, unlimited candidates, limited terms of office, accountability to the base instead of to the leadership. How long do you think we’d last if that happened? How long would Comrade Brezhnev and his colleagues last if it started to spread?

  81. INT. KREMLIN. DAY

  BREZHNEV is dictating a letter. There is a SECRETARY taking it down.

  BREZHNEV: To the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Dear lads. Let me spell it out for you. You were elected by the last Party Congress under Gierek, and quite obviously you’re going to be out on your neck when the next Party Congress meets four weeks from now, so this is your last chance. When Kania and Jaruzelski were here in December they kept agreeing with me but ever since then they’ve let the Party drift into open democracy, make that bourgeois democracy, and look what happened to the Czechs just before they had their emergency Congress in ’68 – say no more.