great film but don't forget its pro Stalinist government

I'm not 80. I'm not a historian. But I'm a Pole and I finished high-school, I learned a lot about our history and I read a lot of books concerning polish tradition, history and national mentality. I think, GeorgeNewman' s message is closer Wajda's than yours.

I have taken 2 Polish Cinema courses at my university (Univ of Florida) and I can speak confidently on the political position of this film and Wajda's intentions.
Here is the Polish historical perspective: 1) first there is Poland. 2)then Poland is invaded and occupied by the Nazis. 3)The Soviets invade drive off the Nazis. 4)the "liberation" is in fact just another invasion and occupation. The Poles were not communist, it was forced upon them.

ASHES AND DIAMONDS is about the Polish nation's tragic circumstances, and hopelessness. Earlier I wrote about how Maciek and the resistance fighters were heroes-turned-criminals; let me clarify. During the Nazi occupation, the resistance fighters would be considered patriotic Heroes. Then the soviets "save the day," but Poland is once again occupied. Poland was trapped under the heel of their Soviet "saviors" so to resist them would be criminal.
In the film Maciek and Andzrej and the captain want Poland to be completely free of everything and so the mission is to kill the soviet leader, Szczuka.
Also take into consideration that the film is set during the day and night of the end of the war. Everything is in flux. What is patriotic one day is treason the next. This is Maciek's dilemna.

You talk about the film needing to be pro-communist to have been made or released. Wajda gets away with this by having "soviet justice" served in the form of Maciek being killed at the end of the film. He doesn't get away with the murder of a government leader, which stays within soviet morality. But that is a superficial explanation. The truth is Maciek's death exemplifies the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation Poland was in. His death makes the situation that much more grave and tragic. And it was realistic. What would you expect to happen? Wajda wasn't going to rewrite history about some grand Polish victory over soviet oppression. This was the reality: they were screwed.

I think, there is a difference between how polish communists (government) perceived this film and Wajda's idea. However, thhis film is not pro-communism neither anti-communism. Wajda would not make a pro-communism movie because communist killed his parents during the WW2...

In a sense the film follows the line of the Polish government, to build a new Poland instead of fighting - but it's a coincidence. It does not share a communist ideology, only a will to live. Wajda (and author of the original novel), having war experiences, tried to show a tragic fate of young people, who had to fight instead of enjoying life and love. Anti-Soviet resistance made no sense after the war, and it led only to pointless deaths, on both sides. There was a 19th century movement in Poland (partitioned among Russia, Prussia and Austria) called "basic work" - to stop fighting and to teach people, strengthen local economy, introduce modern agriculture and industry etc - and many people after World War II, not sharing communist ideology, chose that way as well. It was communist Poland, but it was the only Poland, and it needed a lot of work to reconstruct it after great war damage. Further deaths had no sense. And films, made by Wajda and others, were also in a way a "basic work", helping to remind who we are, what we were fighting for and what tragic history should not be forgotten and should not repeat. They were the first to show Home Army fighters as positive heroes. Note, that making films of the "Polish film school" was possible only after Stalin's death and crash of stalinism in 1956. By the way, political change in 1956 was really considered a "fresh air" - for some time at least.