KATARZYNA UCZKIEWICZ * Centrum Historii „Zajezdnia”/ Uniwersytet Wroclawski (Polska) Rewolucja porzucona przez własne dzieci, czyli o paradoksie niepolitycznej polityki widzianym z Polski Revolution neglected by its own children, or the paradox of unpolitical politics as seen from Poland. Te events taking place during the Autumn of Nations 1989 transformed Central Europe so signifcantly that — though in the majority of Eastern Bloc countries it happened without bloodshed — the change may be called revolutionary. Later fate and life choices of the leaders and participants of the 1989 revolution in Poland and Czechoslovakia have been as diferent as their ways to democracy. Diference is a source of mutual fascination, which in Poland has centered mostly around the person of Václav Havel. Why did the citizens of Czechoslovakia — who at the end of 1989 had organized mass demonstra- tions and a general strike throughout the whole country, and who had been ready to take a great risk to express their disapproval of the government’s policy — having achieved instant victory, peacefully return home and leave the political scene to ofcials and technocrats? Why did the ethos and discourse of the Velvet Revolution remain alive only in a narrow circle of intellectuals — former dissidents? Why did the new elite reduce its signifcance to the role of an efective gadget for the purpose of the Western media? Te article presents the fate of the “children of the Velvet Revolution” as seen from the Polish perspective. Keywords: Velvet Revolution, 1989, Václav Havel, dissidents, political system reconstruction, Solidarity, unpolitical politics, Parallel Polis, Autumn of Nations Revoluce, opuštěná vlastními dětmi anebo o paradoxu nepolitické politiky nahlíženém z Polska. Události Podzimu národů roku 1989 proměnily Střední Europu zásadním způsobem. A proto — i když ve většině států * Adres do korespondencji: Ośrodek Współpracy Polsko-Czesko-Słowackiej UWr, ul. Pocz- towa 9, 53-313 Wrocław. E-mail: katarzyna.uczkiewicz@uni.wroc.pl. Miscellanea Posttotalitariana Wratislaviensia 3/2015 © for this edition by CNS