Secret Agents, Informers, and Traitors: Agnieszka Holland’s Fever (Gorączka, 1980)

Abstract The article examines Agnieszka Holland’s film Fever (Gorączka, 1980) depicting the 1905 revolution in Russian Poland. While situating it in various socio-political and cultural contexts, the author examines the significance of the historical event and its parallels to the Solidarity movement. Special attention is given to the fact that both movements were infiltrated and surveilled by the state security apparatuses. Close analysis of the figures of secret agents featured in Fever focuses on their political significance and meanings to reveal how these expressed scepticism and distrust in the possibility of political change. As the author demonstrates, Fever questions the possibility of genuine revolutionary change, yet most importantly it presents the failure as a ‘national defeat’ rather than a crash of political aspirations of the working class and peasantry. Likewise, the Solidarity movement was also appropriated by the national discourse, while class-related political aspirations were marginalized and eventually corrupted. The article concludes with the claim that the figure of a secret agent proves paradoxically crucial in mobilizing and stabilizing national discourse as represented subtly, yet persistently in Fever.

indeed foretold as many claimed -the political turmoil and disappointment caused by the Solidarity movement. 2 In the article, I locate Fever within several contexts to discuss its political and cultural significance.First, I discuss the significance of the 1905 revolution in Russian Poland and its position in the vernacular historical and cultural discourse, specifically its embedding within the nationalist narration, while downplaying its socio-economic significance.I will also examine how the 1905 revolution can be related to the Solidarity movement.In its depiction of the historical event, Fever questions the possibility of revolutionary change, yet it presents its failure as a 'national defeat' rather than the crash of political aspirations of the working class and peasantry.The numerous figures of the Okhrana spies and agents in Holland's film paradoxically solidify this 'national' dimension of the revolution, as the 'enemy' they collaborate with is the oppressor of the Polish nation in the first place and only secondly of the working class and peasantry.Likewise, the Solidarity movement was also appropriated by the national discourse, while class-related political aspirations were marginalized and eventually corrupted.Implementation of martial law in 1981 strengthened this 'national narration' and Solidarity stood for 'Polish people' rather than a trade union.When years later the legendary leader of Solidarity Lech Wałęsa was accused of being an informer of the communist security apparatus, it was presented as betrayal of the nation, not the workers' cause.To summarize, in its depiction of the first Polish revolution, Fever mobilizes and strengthens national discourse.

Forgotten Revolution and Its Contested Legacy
The 1905 Revolution took place in the Russian Poland (Congress Kingdom of Poland).Although it was a part of the Russian Revolution, it had its own specific aims and political agendas.Initially it was caused by the worsening of the economic situation of workers and peasants as well as Russia's military defeat in the war with Japan in which many Poles were conscripted and perished.Later it was also fuelled by the nationalistic aspirations of reconstructing of the Polish state.As the issues concerning its future political system were disputable to say the least, they ultimately caused a conflict between various political parties: the Polish Socialist Party (PPS, led by Józef Piłsudski), PPS -Left faction, and the National Democratic Party ('Endecja' led by Roman Dmowski).PPS advocated for using the revolutionary movement to regain independence for Poland, PPS Left faction was mostly concerned with the proletarian aims, whereas Dmowski's party opted for increasing Polish representation in the State Duma, the Russian legislative assembly, which meant acceptance of the existing social and political status quo.This fracture within the revolutionary movement was crucial in further developments of Polish left-wing politics.
The revolution started with a general workers strike that gave an impulse to rebellious acts undertaken by other social groups such as craftsmen and peasantry.The workers requested: an 8-hour working day, participation in negotiations with the factory owners, social and health care services, and educational facilities for their children.Importantly, they also brought up the issue of sexual abuse of female workers by the factory owners and management personnel.Dmowski's party was eager to fight the revolution from within with its own forces to gain gratitude of the Tsar and Duma.Understandably, this attitude was met with resistance from PPS members and their supporters.The internal conflicts between various parties and ideologies were emerging with great intensity.As Adam Tyszka noted: ' Atomization of Polish society has never been so massive ' ( 2005 , 22).
In November 1906, the Russian authorities introduced martial law and the military forces were entitled to use violence whenever they deemed it necessary.The strikes were slowly expiring, whereas the Okhrana agents infiltrated the PPS units leading to their destruction and gradual demise. 3The revolution entered its decline period: the erstwhile enthusiasm vanished and the number of its participants and members radically decreased.Ignacy Daszyński, a member of PPS and a pre-war prime minister of Poland, bitterly commented that the worst thing occurring during the revolution was 'hostility of the whole Polish society, decline of its spirit, and meanness of Polish patriots' (quoted in Cybulski 1981 , 12).The initial hope instigated by the revolution was eventually replaced by bitter disappointment. 4 Although the number of people who were involved in the revolutionary movements between 1905-07 was much higher than the number of the participants of the national uprisings, the event has never been recognized as an important part of national history and collective memory.Looking for the reasons for this symbolic 'erasure' , one realises its ambivalent political aims seem to be of special importance.Fourth Uprising or First Revolution?, ask Stanisław Kalabiński and Feliks Tych in the title of their book on the 1905 Revolution (Kalabiński and Tych 1975 ).Admittedly, the event has been a contested object throughout Polish history and was frequently appropriated for specific political and ideological reasons.Post-1945 historical discourse downplayed the 'nationalistic' faction of the 1905 revolutionary movements (especially its leader, Józef Piłsudski, as well as the extreme-right-wing politician Roman Dmowski), while emphasizing its international and proletarian aspect represented by the PPS 'Left' faction.There were also attempts to establish a link between the 1905 revolution and post-war state socialism.This ideological adjustment was vehemently reversed after the collapse of communism with a historical narration emphasizing the importance of its 'nationalistic' component.Admittedly, both historical discourses appropriated the event and blurred, or perhaps even annihilated the actual significance of the event that is now regarded as a crucial turn in Poland's 20 th century politics and the basis of modern Polish society in terms of merging national and socio-economic emancipatory aspirations (Blobaum 1995 ).
In his analysis of the 1905 revolution in Russian Poland, Robert Blobaum comments that the initial 'mass mobilizations and demonstrations of political enthusiasm of 1905' were followed with 'the popular apathy of 1907' , but he also indicates its formative aspect: On many future occasions, during the interwar period, the postwar communist era, and in the most recent postcommunist years, a majority of Poles would act in similar fashion.Similar, too, is the subsequent history of polarization and fragmentation, those other phenomena that marked the birth of modern Polish mass politics in the first years of the twentieth century.(Blobaum 1995, 233) In a similar vein, Polish researchers note: The 1905 Revolution in the Russian-controlled Kingdom of Poland was one of the few bottoms-up political modernizations and general democratizations in Polish history, paralleled probably only by the 'first' Solidarity movement in the early 1980s.Both upsurges were similar in that they led to the defeat of popular class uprisings aimed at political recognition and economic alleviation.(Śmiechowski and Marzec 2016 , 437) 5  There is one more parallel between these two revolutionary movements in that both were infiltrated by the state security apparatuses: secret agents of the Okhrana in the 1905-1907 revolution and SB in the 1980s.As Antoni Dudek and Andrzej Paczkowski inform: 'a massive development of the agent network in the wake of the establishment of "Solidarity, " which the SB tried to penetrate, and of the role of TWs [Tajny Współpracownik/Secret Collaborator -EO] in the investigating of underground opposition structures' (Dudek and Paczkowski 2005 , 259).As Paczkowski claims elsewhere, the main aim of these activities was not to collect information but rather to disseminate fake materials to cause the union's disintegration (Paczkowski 2015 , 140).The agents also targeted people who were not directly connected to the SB, yet they left Solidarity because of the radical politicization of the union that they disagreed with (141).After the introduction of martial law, the security apparatus remained very active and would take every measure to discredit the leaders of Solidarity. 6 To summarize, there are many parallels between the 1905-7 revolution and the Solidarity movement, referred to as a 'peaceful' revolution, in that both emerged as a massive rise, yet expired as disintegrated and torn between various political factions.Most importantly, they both merged socio-economic and national emancipatory aspirations.Although Agnieszka Holland's Fever was made before the culmination of the Solidarity movement and as such could not be intended as its allegorical or symbolic representation, its pessimistic perspective on the possibility of radical (revolutionary) change was disconcertingly applicable to the political situation of the later time.As it often happens, cultural production anticipates political phenomena much earlier than these are noted and examined by politicians, historians, and sociologists.One may ponder on Holland's historical and political insightfulness that some critics called 'prophetic' (see: Kłopotowski 1981 ).

Clumsy Agents, Naïve Fighters, and Cruel Leaders
While reflecting on her disillusionment with the Prague Spring, Holland said: It was an experience revealing human nature and its weakness.Defeat of the revolution is one thing, yet how one behaves facing this defeat is another thing.This painful and bitter experience was reflected in Fever , which was made at the peak of hopes raised by the Solidarity movement.(Holland 2012 , 172) 7   Unlike most of the Poles who euphorically participated in 'the Solidarity carnival' believing in national unity, Holland's film presented the revolution as a dire matter.In Fever it is led by cold-blooded manipulative (male) leader who ruthlessly exploit the enthusiasm of their subordinates (women and lower class men) for their own political aims, while a criminal underclass is trying to gain financial profits from acting as double agents of the Okhrana and Polish revolutionary organizations.Fever confirms a statement by Stanisław Brzozowski, a famous Polish philosopher and critic who himself was accused of being the Okhrana's agent: 'Revolutions are the moments when societies learn about their genuine structures' (Brzozowski 1994 , 402).As if to oppose the euphoric mood of 1980, Holland's film excavated the bitter historical lesson of the 1905 revolution.
Fever is based on Andrzej Strug's novel History of One Bullet (Dzieje jednego pocisku ) published in 1910 (Strug 1989(Strug [1910]]), which was three years after the 1905 revolution came to an end.The author presents the historical events from a multitude of perspectives attached to numerous characters.Various lines of the narrative connect to one another by means of the titular bullet, in fact a bomb, that moves from one character to another symbolizing the destructive power of the revolution.Ultimately, and somehow ironically, the bomb explodes in the hands of a mentally ill secondary character, while not destroying the political and social status quo.The disjointed narrative and lack of protagonist reflect on fragmentation of Polish society during the revolution and its aftermath.The novel presents the political reality of 1905 as chaotic and in a state of permanent decay, whereas the bomb serves as a fetish that connects the characters through the structures of desire for political change that will never occur.Thus, it reveals the utopian aspect of the revolutionary project.
Regardless of the frequent alternations of the literary original, Holland's film follows the novel's representational logic. 8The opening shots of Fever evoke the fetishistic aspect of the titular bomb.As a background for the opening credits, there are several close ups of hands assembling an explosive mechanism; the touch is as precise as it is tender.One of the shots shows a protruding element of the bomb as it injures a finger; a big drop of blood fills up the screen.Then, the camera shows a medium-close up of a man who sucks his hurt finger, while his face seems to express almost erotic pleasure.At this point the sequence cuts to a long shot of a gate and then of a poor neighbourhood with a couple of young men apparently waiting for something or somebody.As there is no dialogue, the narrative does not provide sufficient information to comprehend the presented situation.When eventually a police car drives up the street, the men intercept it and rescue the prisoner from the wagon.This dynamic brief scene cuts back to the bomb's constructor.A young woman arrives to collect the bomb.Soon, the woman, whose name is Kama, and the rescued prisoner, Leon, are partners on a terrorist mission designed to assassinate the Russian Governor.Alas, the plan fails.In response, bitterly disappointed Kama succumbs to mental illness and practically vanishes from the narrative.In contrast, Leon, the revolutionary leader, remains in the story, yet his significance diminishes, and other characters gradually get more narrative attention.Consequently, the film lacks a protagonist and there is no specific goal to be achieved.Instead, the narrative establishes a fetish-object, a bomb that is mobilizing, as suggested in the opening, libidinal energy that needs to be released in explosion.Although it moves between the hands of many people, none of its 'owners' are able to release its energy, as if suggesting their political impotence and disconnectedness.The explosion of the bomb finally takes place at the end of the film, yet in the most unexpected and disappointing way, as it is detonated by Russian soldiers as a safe explosion in the river.
Among the various characters represented in Fever, the figure of a secret agent manifests the disintegration of Polish society in a conspicuous way.Admittedly, the film suggests that everyone is a potential secret agent as demonstrated in a public bath scene where Leon, the revolutionary leader, is relaxing after a harsh confrontation with his aristocratic father who was giving a party for the oppressive Russian establishment.When two workers discover him in a bathtub (his pose is reminiscent of Marat from the famous painting by David) and they see shackle marks on his wrists, they instantly decide to call for the police.These two ordinary men are as ready to collaborate with the Russian oppressor as Leon's father; for the former it is an act of obedience, whereas for the latter it is an act of political pragmatism.
When Leon travels to the countryside to touch base with a group of peasant-socialists who are desperate to join the revolution, there are two episodes featuring secret agents.The first one takes place at a political meeting to which a captured local bandit is brought.One of the peasants recognizes in him the police informer who tried to infiltrate their political organization.The young man initially denies it, yet later he confesses that he indeed collaborated with the police while also terrorizing the local community.As he admits, he would associate with any group or force if there was a chance of material profit.To his shock, the impromptu execution squad is assembled with a young man, Wojtek Kiełza, being selected for carrying out the act of retribution.Alas, he proves inept at using the weapon and chaotically shoots at the man's arms and legs, before eventually bursting into hysterical tears and throwing the pistol away.Leon expertly completes the execution like a professional gunman ( Figure 1 ).The figure of the young bandit who 'occasionally' serves as a police secret agent hint at the moral decline of Polish society during the revolutionary times.He represents the ideological indifference and moral apathy of ordinary people; tellingly, even the word 'traitor' , as he is called in the dialogue, is inappropriate, as to 'betray' somebody or something one needs to believe in the values the revolutionaries represent.The character of the casual collaborator echoes Holland's bitter remarks on the moral apathy of the Czechs after the suppression of the Prague Spring.
The moral malady of Polish society during the aftermath of the 1905 revolution is also conspicuously present in the following scene taking place at a railway station.Leon, who is sitting in a waiting room, notices several men in dark coats and hats, that make them stand out among other travellers.They eye him suspiciously and the briefcase he is carefully holding on his lap.No doubt, they are the Okhrana agents who are 'hunting' for revolutionaries ( Figure 2 ).Once the other travellers realise that Leon is the agents' target, they also start looking at him with a persistent curiosity ( Figure 3 ).Thus, Leon becomes an object of a double scrutinizing look: of the Okhrana agents and the crowd.This shared look establishes a subtle yet persistent connection between these two groups, as if suggesting that the civilians are potential informers if the situation demands it.Their passive behaviour testifies to their alienation from larger ideological structures and eventually the national community.Admittedly, they stand for social disintegration and alienation.
The moral decay of Polish society and its disintegration are corroborated by the figures of double agents working for both the Okhrana 9 and the Polish Socialist Party (PPS).The Okhrana's agents and informants as represented in Fever are far from Machiavellian figures that are able to manipulate adversaries for achieving their aims.Instead, they are greedy men who are ready to ally with anybody if it may bring about material profit.One of these shady double agents follows Kiełza, who comes to Warsaw to reconnect with the party.When he comes to the factory, the workers, unlike in the days of the general strike, respond with hostility to any mentioning of political protests.The Okhrana's informer pretends he is a party contact and takes the naïve peasant to his 'comrade' .The mise-en-scène used in the following scene significantly contributes to the agents' characterization; the Russian informer lives in a rather luxurious apartment and his clothes are elegant and most likely expensive ( Figure 4 ).There is a certain, typical of nouveau riches, ostentatiousness in demonstrating all these signs of wealth, which is in sharp contrast to the bare and unadorned party meeting rooms presented earlier in the film.For Kiełza, who is 'new to the town' it does not seem suspicious and he easily agrees to visit the Committee which, to his horror, turns out to be the Okhrana headquarters.He is arrested, whereas his 'comrade' casually chats with another agent who previously arrested Leon.
One of the double agents is a former comrade of another main character, the anarchist Gryziak, who left the party as he was disappointed in its unwillingness or inability to introduce radical social change.When Gryziak visits his former comrade to get his money back, the latter tries to recruit him for the Okhrana with the prospects of material benefits and the joy of playing a double game with the party members ( Figure 5 ).He behaves like a trickster who takes as much advantage as possible from the chaotic and ever changing times of the revolution at its decline.Gryziak rejects his offer and kills him.This can be seen as an act of poetic justice and an effort to restore moral order, yet his motives remain unclear.In addition, his later inability to explode the bomb in the Okhrana headquarters diminishes the anarchistic potential of the character.When he enters the meeting room, he triumphantly demonstrates the bomb's mechanism, whereas the officials frantically hide under the table.After a brief moment, he throws the bomb, yet to his astonishment and their relief it does not explode. 10Soon, the officials violently attack Gryziak.He responds with obstinate laughter which alienates the viewers and prevents them from feeling compassion.
Arguably, all of the characters featured in Fever are inconsistent or opaque in their motivations and as such they evoke the moral chaos emerging from the revolution and its aftermath.In the case of the Okhrana's secret agents, their political cynicism and opportunism prevent them from acting as counter-revolutionaries.They cannot play the role of the traditional antagonist either due to their lack of agency.Instead of well-defined political revolutionary struggle, Holland's film presents its entropy.Importantly, none of the main characters represents positive values that the viewer may identify with.Leon embodies  the figure of a cold-blooded immoral revolutionary who is able to sacrifice everyone at the altar of the political struggle.Kama approaches the revolution with a hysterical excitement and ends up with a mental illness.Kamil, who is secretly in love with Kama, soon abandons his revolutionary activity to take care of her and it is subtly suggested he decides to inform on Leon to protect his beloved.Kiełza is unable to develop his own classdetermined political subjectivity while mechanically repeating revolutionary slogans.His death is not depicted as a symbol of political resistance but rather a clumsy parody of it.Finally, Gryziak is killed in an uncontrolled revenge performed by a mob-like horde of policemen.Importantly, there is no single character to survive and take on the mantle of leading the revolution.The Russians are ultimate victors who are able to disarm the bomb symbolizing the revolutionary spirit.Its 'safe' explosion in the river stands for the 'disarmament' and consequently 'death' of the political struggle of Polish people.
Fever does not reflect on the emancipatory impulses of the 1905 revolution that originated from the masses as claimed by historians (cf.Blobaum 1995).Instead, the film shows revolutionaries representing mostly the middle-class or intelligentsia, who are visibly alienated from the lower class participants of the protest.The latter are only emotionally engaged with the political protest, while not being able to come up with their own political agenda.Finally, there is a large group of traitors and secret agents who often work for both Polish political parties and the Russian secret police.In Fever, the revolution is presented as a massive yet not consistent movement.

Fever -A Revolutionary Film, or a Film about (Lost) Revolution?
Fever -as any film made in Poland during the period of state socialism -had to be approved by the Commission for Film Approval (Komisja Kolaudacyjna) for official distribution.The meeting took place on November 10 th , 1980, which was two months after the agreement signed by Lech Wałęsa, the leader of the Solidarity trade union, and the Polish government.The time following the end of the strikes was marked by political relaxation and, in consequence, censorship also loosened its erstwhile grip.As Holland recollects, at the time of the Commission meeting to approve Fever the censors declared a strike and they did not request any changes to the presented film.As she said, 'It was very funny as he [the censor] gasped at all these moments where he would normally request cuts' (Holland 2012, 175).As a result, there were no censorship interventions to the film.Likewise, the Commission members were unexpectedly appreciative and tolerant, despite the fact that a film depicting Polish revolutionaries fighting a Russian regime would likely to be interpreted as sending an anti-Soviet message.Michał Misiorny, who at that time was the director of the Main Office of Cinematography (Naczelny Zarząd Kinematografii) praised the film for its content and artistic quality.The historian Feliks Tych who extensively published on the topic of the 1905 revolution, admired Holland for making a film about this obscured part of Polish history.Finally, Andrzej Wajda, the film's producer, expressed his contentment with Holland's film as it demonstrated her directorial skills and unquestionable talent (A-344 poz.240).The positive evaluation of Fever was followed by a Golden Lions Award at the Polish Film Festival in Gdańsk in 1981.At the 1981 Berlin Film Festival, Barbara Grabowska who played Kama, was distinguished with the Silver Bear Prize for the best actor.
After its release, Polish film critics praised the film for its formal qualities, yet they often complained about its 'coldness ' and pessimism. 11For example, in his review of the film published in Dziennik Ludowy (Folk Daily), Andrzej Dzięgielewski wrote that the film is 'as irritating as it is depressing.Perhaps this is the reason why people do not want to see the film.The movie theatres are empty' (Dzięgielewski 1981 ). 12 Likewise, Władysław Cybulski noted that: 'when everyone wants a victory, she gives us a film about defeat' (Cybulski 1981, 12).Many reviewers noted parallels between the 1905 revolution and the Solidarity movement; they especially pointed out the similarity of the scene in Fever depicting people gathering at the factory gate to express their support for striking workers to the actual Gdańsk shipyard's gate that became an icon of Solidarity protest (cf.Hellen 1981 , 1;Kijowski 1981 , 7;Prasek 1981 ;Lewandowski 1981 , 34) ( Figure 6 ).Krzysztof Demidowicz even claimed that the 1905 revolution was a covert way to talk about the contemporary political situation and the Solidarity movement (Demidowicz 1992 , 20).As already noted, the film was made well before the Solidarity strikes and, thus, these comparisons demonstrate a frequent critical strategy employed at that time in Poland of searching for 'hidden' subversive meanings regardless of the authorial intentions. 13One of the reviewers, Krzysztof Kłopotowski, suggested in his review published in Solidarity Weekly that Holland's film was an act of prophecy (1981,14), which can be seen as a symbolic inclusion to the Romantic tradition of Polish art.Importantly, this opinion proves still valid to some critics.For example, in his essay written in 2015, Robert Birkholc states: Fever is Agnieszka Holland's film from 1980, whose prophetic quality we can now see.It was created while Solidarity triumphed, and shows the fall of another revolution -the one that took place in 1905 on the lands of the Russian partition.This bitter portrait of the defeat of a national and social uprising had its premiere when a big part of the Polish society was euphoric after the events in Gdańsk Shipyard.Fever is seen as a display of the artist's great intuition, a Cassandric portent of martial law, which was approaching Poland when the film premiered.Yet another experience was the direct impulse for making the film: in 1968 the director witnessed the sad ending of the Prague Spring, after which society entered a long period of impasse.The historical context is not most important though, because Fever is an extremely universal film which can be referenced to any revolution.(Birkholc 2015 ) In the reviews of Fever published after its release, the critics also compared it to another Polish film made in 1980, W biały dzień (In Broad Daylight) by Edward Żebrowski, that was loosely inspired by the case of Stanisław Brzozowski, one of the most important Polish literary critics and philosophers, who was accused of being an Okhrana informer.The film focuses on a young member of PPS who is ordered to execute 'the traitor' , yet eventually he aborts his mission due to -as he explains -his doubts about the traitor's guilt (see Hellen 1981 , andŚrutkowski 1981 ;Janion 1981 ;Boni 1981 ).In both Żebrowski and Holland's films, Polish society is presented as being disintegrated, antagonised, and prone to all kinds of provocation.Most importantly, all decisions made by the characters are politically or morally questionable.Importantly, the two films were not only compared at the time of their release; in his book on the history of Polish cinema, Marek Haltof also notices: 'Both films offer a number of references to the political situation in Poland during the Solidarity period' (Haltof 2002 , 158).
The similarities suggested by film critics were also made by Polish historians and sociologists.While pondering on the heritage of the 1905 revolution in post-WWII Poland, the philosopher and sociologist Andrzej Leder claimed that genuine leftist impulses initiated in 1905 materialized only twice after WW2: in 1956 and 1980.The Solidarity movement, he argues, manifested 'an authentic leftist political subjectivity' , yet 'paradoxically, the largest in Europe workers' movement was doomed to failure' (Leder 2014 , 189).The failure was inevitable because Solidarity fought to join post-industrial Western Europe where there was no space for workers' political subjectivity.Moreover, Solidarity was -as he claims -a 'mask' hiding various political and ideological options and the representation of the leftists was rather low.In the 1980s, the movement's victory was possible thanks to its leader, Lech Wałęsa, who was indeed 'a genuine child of the 1945-1956 revolution' (Leder 2014, 190).Initially, his collaboration with intellectual circles represented by Adam Michnik, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Jacek Kuroń, and others was a symbol of a long-desired alliance of the workers and intelligentsia, however during Wałęsa's presidency his plebeian genealogy prevented him from entering the Polish symbolic universe and acting as a coalescing force for the formation of postcommunist collective identity.Soon after taking on the position of presidency, he initiated the 'war at the top' , conflicting all political parties and circles.His descent from power was finalized when he was accused of being an informer of the communist security apparatus that was registered under the codename 'Bolek' .Although his collaboration remains a contested matter among historians, for some Poles Wałęsa's legend was undermined, which was a symbolic sign of disintegration of the Solidarity movement.As Leder claims, the workers lost their cause, while neoliberalism of the 1990s eventually deprived them of their previous 'symbolic capital' gained during the period of real socialism and the Solidarity movement (Leder 2014, 195).The utopian dream of national unity had reached its bitter end.
Fever presents the 1905 revolution as also reaching its bitter and somehow paradoxical end.However, the film does not present the annihilation of the 'genuine leftist impulses' that were identified by Andrzej Leder and other historians.In contrast, it shows the decline of the revolution as a 'national defeat' , for all of the 'owners' of the bomb who represent various social strata are connected by means of the fetishistic object of the bomb that would destroy the Russian power.They all are enchanted with the idea of the revolution, yet its aim is never clearly explained and accepted by everyone. 14This 'imaginary' alliance of disconnected people represents the illusion of national unity as well as the impossibility or unwillingness to address differences among the members of this 'imagined community' in terms of social class and economic capital.
The secret agents and informers of the Okhrana significantly contribute to the effect of the 'national' embedding of the revolution.They represent various social classes from peasantry to aristocracy and they do not 'betray' the proletarian revolution but rather the 'national cause' .Therefore, the Russian collaborators and informers featured in Fever paradoxically solidify the national dimension of the 1905 revolution while simultaneously downplaying its social aspect.I argue that Fever presents 'the lost revolution' as the 'fourth uprising' rather than failed social revolt.The film does not recognize the 1905 revolution's genuine political emancipatory impulses and as such it parallels the Solidarity movement's development.The latter also began as a worker's protest, yet soon was transformed into the political struggle of the Polish nation against a government dependent of Soviet power.In her film, Holland spoke as a sceptic about the revolution, yet she spoke from within the national community that minimizes its social and economic differences.In her interview published in 1981, she says that the Russian 'occupier' is an enemy not only for the group of terrorists but for the whole of Polish society (Holland 1981 , 14).Interestingly, in her 1981 Polish television film A Lonely Woman, whose action takes place during the Solidarity period, Holland acknowledges the illusion of the concept of national unity.It features a female character that is excluded from the local community, whether it is consolidated around the local Party committee, the Solidarity units, or Roman-Catholic parish.Her alienation from the national discourse is especially manifest in a scene where she delivers a registered letter to an apartment that is being searched by secret policemen.When an agent opens the door, at first she is slightly disconcerted, but soon regains her composure and proceeds to get the signature she needs from the man being interrogated.A minute later, she rejoins her acquaintance and does not even mention what just happened to him.She knows that the dissidents struggle against the system of state socialism and the Soviet oppression, whereas the members of the secret services try to maintain the status quo, yet in both ideological agendas there is no space for her subjectivity and agency.In the euphoric times of the Solidarity protests, she is a lonely woman as any other woman living in Poland at the decline of the period of state socialism.

Conclusion
Agnieszka Holland's Fever engages with the 1905 revolution that expressed both social and national emancipatory impulses and for that reason was frequently compared with the Solidarity movement, that was also challenging economic oppression of the workers as well as dependency on Soviet power.Eventually, both protests were embedded within the national discourse.Although Fever questions the possibility of genuine revolutionary change, it does not challenge the supremacy of the national narrative.Paradoxically, the numerous figures of secret agents contribute to the hegemony of the national discourse as they are presented as collaborators of the Russians, which make them 'traitors' of Poland rather than of the proletarian revolution.Although Holland's film engages with the historical event mobilizing leftist social forces and aspirations, eventually it minimizes socio-economic conflicts within Polish society, emphasizing instead national bonds (as presented through the fetishistic bomb).Arguably, in Fever the revolution is 'lost' not because it eventually fails, but because the proletarian revolution is inevitably subordinated or appropriated by the national discourse.Likewise, the Solidarity movement was appropriated by nationalistic narration, while supressing other emancipatory impulses as still manifested in Polish contemporary political life.dir. Edward Żebrowski, 1980), Knave (Kanalia, dir. Wojciech Wiszniewski, 1990), andProvocateur (Prowokator, dir. Krzysztof Lang, 1995) and all of them feature an ambivalent figure of a double agent or spy.Similarly to Holland's Fever, these films problematize the question of political collaboration and treason, which by many was interpreted as indirectly related to the issue of cooperation with the communist regime.

. In her elucidating essay on the political treasons during the 1905 revolution, Magdalena
Micińska mentions several cases of the political activists who decided to collaborate with the Okhrana.She also notes that the collaboration with the Tsarist secret police was a thematic motif of several literary works whose action took place during the 1905 revolution, such as Marian Gawalewicz's Wir or Andrzej Strug's Z ręki przyjaciela (see Micińska 2005 ).In contrast, Bohdan Cywiński in his famous book Rodowody niepokornych that traced out the origins of Polish postwar democratic impulses in the socio-political discourse created at the turn of the 19 th and 20 th century, claimed that ' A surprisingly low number of people engaged in the revolutionary activities in Poland, decided to collaborate with Okhrana.' As he further claims, 'Genuine activists were able to develop such a high moral discipline that any promises of freedom presented to them during interrogations were in vein' (Cywiński 2010 , 142).
Arguably, the number of Polish collaborators is adjusted to fit a specific ideological agenda and the vision of the Polish nation.Micińska is taking a critical perspective on the nationalistic narrative, whereas Cywiński is strengthening its heroic aspect.4 .For detailed discussion of these disappointments see: Ost ( 2005 ).

. In his book
The Polish Revolution: Solidarity , Timothy Garton Ash mentions his meeting with Bohdan Cywiński 'who developed a striking comparison with the 1905 revolution in Russian Poland (…) But when the time came, in 1905, the intellectuals were amazed by the scale of the workers' demands, and swept away by their actions' ( 2002 , 56). 6 .As Andrzej Paczkowski reports: 'When SB Research Office specialists were preparing activities designed to discredit Wałęsa, they secretly recorded a conversation between Wałęsa and his brother Stanisław, who visited him on September 30 th .In that conversation, during which the brothers indulged in alcoholic beverages, their topics of conversation included family financial matters' (Paczkowski 2015, 213).7 .In his review of Fever , Jan F. Lewandowski suggested that the film was to be linked with Holland's experience of the Prague Spring (1981, 34).8 .In her insightful essay on Fever , Maria Janion identifies the bomb as a fetish (Janion 1981 , 9) 9 .The infamous Okhrana department exceled in provocations aimed at revolutionary movements.Instead of repressions, they invested in disinformation and provocation as the most efficient methods of political struggle.Thus, they would infiltrate various revolutionary groups to divide their members by means of false accusations and information.These methods were later transplanted to the post-revolutionary Soviet Russia and used by the communist secret police (Siemiątkowski 2017 , 16-17).10 .The scene of the unsuccessful terrorist attack is also important because it mobilizes contradictory emotional structures.As Tadeusz Sobolewski claims, the viewers may feel relief that the attack failed ( 1981 , 13).Yet, after 're-processing' of the event, they may reconsider their initial response.After all, the survivors are the oppressors and ruthless persecutors of the revolutionaries and Polish people.11 .For example, Maria Malatyńska called the film 'cold' and claimed that it is impossible for the viewer to emotionally respond to it (Malatyńska 1981 , 2). 12 .In fact, 245 000 viewers watched the film in 1981, which was an average number for the box-office.13 .One of the reviewers writes that in her speech at the Gdańsk Film Festival, Holland said that it was not her intention to make a film about the Polish Solidarity revolution but more about the Prague Spring (I.S 1981 ). 14 .When before his execution Kiełza clumsily shouts ' Away with the Tsar, ' it sounds like a slogan he repeats without really understanding it and it is unclear whether this is a call to end the economic exploitation of tsarist autocracy or Russian oppression of the Polish nation, or both.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.execution of the agent.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. the Okhrana agent in his apartment.

Figure 6 .
Figure 6. the factory gate in Fever.

Notes 1 .
Fredric S. Zuckerman comments on the Okhrana 's significance in the institution of Tsarist police: ' A crucial link in the development of the tsarist police network was the creation of the Okhrannye Otdeleniia or Security Divisions' ( 2003 , 79). 2 .Interestingly, the theme of the 1905 revolution proved relatively popular in Polish cinema of the 1980s and 1990s, which may seem symptomatic compared to the virtual absence of the topic in the previous decades.The following films were made: In Broad Light (W biały dzień,