The “Long Telegram” by the American Ambassador in Moscow, George Kennan, which was sent on 22 February 1946, heralded a reorientation of the war alliances. The position of the Soviet Union as the main enemy was clear and obvious in this arrangement but the Americans did not know how to treat its satellite states. Introducing communism was not a result of a decision of those concerned, yet no one wanted a new armed conflict to break out. A new war began, a “cold war”, where social attitudes in the countries of the Eastern Bloc were to play an important role. Yet, for this to happen, the West had to break through the information blockade by way of which communist authorities separated their citizens from the world. For this purpose, Radio Free Europe was established in 1949 and in 1951 the Polish Section was created within its structures, with Jan Nowak-Jeziorański as its director.
The concept was not new, the BBC played an analogous role during World War II. In its Polish section Jeziorański himself apprenticed, which gave him an advantage over his competitors when the director of the new Radio Free Europe section was selected. On 3 May 1952, he delivered a radio speech to inaugurate the broadcasting of the Polish Section. For the next 37 years it was the most popular and most frequently jammed radio station in Poland. It ceased its activity already after the country became free, in 1994. It was one of the key centres of cultural life in exile and it diligently pursued the objectives set out by Nowak-Jeziorański in his speech.
The director of the Polish Section knew that the new position put him on the front line of the fight. His point of honour was to provide his fellow countrymen with objective news from the world, to ensure free, unhindered by censorship, access to culture and information from Poland, which were provided by his colleagues in the country. Radio Free Europe, together with its sister, Radio Liberty, turned out to be one of the most important tools which, all in all, contributed to the destruction of the “Iron Curtain”.
