Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Lecture at the conference on "Charisma", June 26, 2026
“Each of you,” says Dostoevsky’s Pyotr Verkhovensky to his fellow conspirators, “owes a higher accounting. You are called to renew the cause. … your whole step is towards getting everything destroyed: both the state and its morality. We alone will remain, having destined ourselves beforehand to assume power.” The cynicism of this declaration alone should have shocked the listeners and provoked their revulsion. Instead his successful control of his secret cell and the continued allegiance of its members are probably the most vivid literary depiction of the destructive power of revolutionary charisma. And yet revolutionary charisma need not necessarily be associated with appeals for violence. Indeed, some of the most compelling charismatic figures, from Gandhi through Mandela to Wałęsa inspired as much loyalty and enthusiasm by advocating non-violence. I will try to understand what makes charisma work by suggesting that violent charisma is often exercised by leaders who are idols, while the non-violent kind is the domain of leaders who are role models. I will conclude with observations on what happens to charisma after victory—and after defeat.
Konstanty Gebert is an author, journalist, lecturer, and political activist based in Poland. He was a prominent figure in the democratic opposition in the 1970s and 1980s and cofounder of the unofficial Jewish Flying University (1979), and the Polish Council of Christians and Jews (1980). He published articles for various underground publications under the pseudonym Dawid Warszawski and served as a war correspondent in Bosnia for Gazeta Wyborcza. Gebert is the founder of Midrasz, the first Polish-language Jewish periodical in postcommunist Poland, and has published twelve books, most recently the prize-winning Final Solutions: The Work of Genocide, which compares mass murder in many countries, including Bosnia, Arme-nia, Namibia, Rwanda, as well as the Holocaust. He is as member of the Advisory Board of the Einstein Forum.
Lecture at the conference on "Charisma", June 26, 2026
“Each of you,” says Dostoevsky’s Pyotr Verkhovensky to his fellow conspirators, “owes a higher accounting. You are called to renew the cause. … your whole step is towards getting everything destroyed: both the state and its morality. We alone will remain, having destined ourselves beforehand to assume power.” The cynicism of this declaration alone should have shocked the listeners and provoked their revulsion. Instead his successful control of his secret cell and the continued allegiance of its members are probably the most vivid literary depiction of the destructive power of revolutionary charisma. And yet revolutionary charisma need not necessarily be associated with appeals for violence. Indeed, some of the most compelling charismatic figures, from Gandhi through Mandela to Wałęsa inspired as much loyalty and enthusiasm by advocating non-violence. I will try to understand what makes charisma work by suggesting that violent charisma is often exercised by leaders who are idols, while the non-violent kind is the domain of leaders who are role models. I will conclude with observations on what happens to charisma after victory—and after defeat.
Konstanty Gebert is an author, journalist, lecturer, and political activist based in Poland. He was a prominent figure in the democratic opposition in the 1970s and 1980s and cofounder of the unofficial Jewish Flying University (1979), and the Polish Council of Christians and Jews (1980). He published articles for various underground publications under the pseudonym Dawid Warszawski and served as a war correspondent in Bosnia for Gazeta Wyborcza. Gebert is the founder of Midrasz, the first Polish-language Jewish periodical in postcommunist Poland, and has published twelve books, most recently the prize-winning Final Solutions: The Work of Genocide, which compares mass murder in many countries, including Bosnia, Arme-nia, Namibia, Rwanda, as well as the Holocaust. He is as member of the Advisory Board of the Einstein Forum.
