Shaping Independent Attitudes of Young People Using the Example of the Lecture Activity of the Culture Section of the Catholic Intelligentsia Club

Abstract

In the 1970s, a group of students associated in the Culture Section of the Club of Catholic Intelligentsia in Warsaw created a unique place for weekly discussion meetings. The search for values and patterns is visible while analysing the programme of these meetings. The author describes the role of history and literature in shaping independent attitudes. Members of the Culture Section treated the history (from Romanticism till contemporary period) and the literature created by the representatives of independent culture as a basis for discussion about their own culture and avowed values. Among invited speakers were both participants of earlier independence movements and the current ones. The paper attempts to show one of the ‘oases’ of youth’s free thought and discussions at the time.