It has been observed by Timothy Garton Ash, among others, that many who were seen as courageous patriots in the Communist eighties came to look like crude petty nationalists in the post-Communist nineties. I exist only in the past. Time plays funny tricks and old enemies start to seem less polarised. He has no problem with billionaires, he says, only with exploitation. Indeed, listening to Mr Jaru elski talk about poverty is not so different from listening to his old Polish nemeses, Lech Wa sa and Pope John Paul.
Winners seem likely to emerge from the new spirit of enterprise.
Now landmines and fuel spills have been cleared, and a new community of 3,600 has arrived. A complete social mix, growing at the rate of 500 every year, has been attracted by low costs and the beautiful setting, and there is an adventurous and productive spirit at large. A far less happy use for an ex-Soviet base, and a far less happy story of transition, reached the UK from further east. Filling the front page was the pitiful picture of a 13-year girl who has lived in a cage since she was a toddler. Tellingly, the newspaper's editorial could only offer words of despair.