nr 16–17

2024–2025

Publication date: 15.05.2026

Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0

Editorial team

Editor-in-Chief dr Przemysław Ruchlewski

Deputy Editor-in-Chief dr Jakub Kufel

Secretary Judyta Bielanowska

Additional redactors dr Konrad Knoch, Tomasz Kozłowski, Michał Przeperski

Issue content

STUDIA

Fenomen polskiej opozycji demokratycznej drugiej połowy lat siedemdziesiątych XX wieku

Aleksander Hall

Wolność i Solidarność, nr 16–17, 2024–2025, pp. 8-17

https://doi.org/10.4467/25434942WS.25.001.23621

PDF

Nie zaczęło się w Gdańsku, nie zaczęło się w Lublinie. Żyrardowskie strajki z lipca 1980 roku

Grzegorz Majchrzak

Wolność i Solidarność, nr 16–17, 2024–2025, pp. 18-31

https://doi.org/10.4467/25434942WS.25.002.23622

In July 1980, Zyrardow was one of the most important strike centres in Poland. In this small city practically all the biggest work establishments stopped work at that time. The largest ones, those connected with the textile industry and employing mainly women, were on strike the longest. The reasons for these protests were not only another price hike – introduced on 1 July – but also lower salaries for June this year, as well as the poor supply of basic products (e.g. foodstuffs) to Zyrardow and poor working conditions (e.g. lack of working clothes, poor lighting, leaking roofs) and information reaching – thanks to Zyrardowians employed at the „Ursus” Mechanical Works in Warsaw – about the pay rises won by workers at the capital’s plant. The strikes ended with agreements, concluded mainly with the managements of the workplaces. As a result of these, the protesters won, among other things, wage increases, but often small ones. This was due to the fact that they were not organised – strikes broke out spontaneously and protesters did not form strike committees.

PDF

Działania Służby Bezpieczeństwa wobec „Solidarności” w latach 1980–1989

Grzegorz Majchrzak

Wolność i Solidarność, nr 16–17, 2024–2025, pp. 32-54

https://doi.org/10.4467/25434942WS.25.003.23623

„Solidarity”, both during its legal period (between September 1980 and December 1981) and its illegal (mainly underground) period until 1989, was subject to the activities of the Security Service. SB functionaries kept its activists and individual structures under surveillance. They tried to influence – mainly by means of the agents they possessed – its activities. Between 1980 and 1981, the Security Service did not achieve any serious success in its operations – for this reason the communist authorities decided to impose martial law. It was more effective in its actions against „Solidarity” operating illegally (first underground and then openly). Fortunately, despite – as the officers themselves reported – increasing control over it, there were exceptions when the Security Service was able to control the activities of the Solidarity organs. By far the officers were more successful in gaining information about the plans or intentions of Solidarity and its leaders.

PDF

Andrzej Milczanowski (1939–2024). Szkic do portretu opozycjonisty czasów PRL

Michał Siedziako

Wolność i Solidarność, nr 16–17, 2024–2025, pp. 55-74

https://doi.org/10.4467/25434942WS.25.004.23624

The article discusses the opposition activity of Andrzej Milczanowski during the period of the Polish People’s Republic (PRL). The author presents the Milczanowski’s path to the democratic opposition and the subsequent stages of his opposition involvement: from the so-called pre-August opposition, through legal activity in “Solidarity” in the years 1980–1981, the „Solidarity” underground, up to the late 1980s, when, with the beginning of the political transformations in Poland and the return of „Solidarity” to legal operation, Milczanowski himself withdrew from activity in the union.

PDF

Rewolucja „Solidarności” w relacjach włoskiej i francuskiej prasy komunistycznej

Artur Troost

Wolność i Solidarność, nr 16–17, 2024–2025, pp. 75-89

https://doi.org/10.4467/25434942WS.25.005.23625

This article compares the press coverage by two Western communist parties, specifically the Italian and French (PCI and PCF, respectively), examining their attitudes towards the events of August 1980 and the founding of „Solidarity“. The emergence of an independent workers’ movement and its conflict with the communist authorities placed the PCF and PCI in a difficult position: they struggled to reconcile loyalty to their „brotherly party” with sympathy for the trade union representing the working class, to which Marxist ideology accorded a leading role in the state. The author presents both the reports of developments in Poland appearing in the main communist newspapers and their interpretative efforts, which evolved in tandem with changes in official party positions. In many respects, the narratives of both parties were the same: they similarly explained the sources of the crisis in People’s Poland to their voters/readers and unanimously appealed for cooperation between the authorities and trade unionists. However, there were significant differences, and the article also analyzes these discrepancies.

PDF

Sierpień ’80 na znaczkach poczt niezależnych z lat 1980–1989. Kanon symboli, motywów i tradycji

Jerzy Klimczak

Wolność i Solidarność, nr 16–17, 2024–2025, pp. 90-103

https://doi.org/10.4467/25434942WS.25.006.23626

The article discusses the representation of the events of August 1980 on stamps issued by Underground Post Offices in the 1980s. Starting with the Strike Post Office, through the Internment Post Office, to the Underground Post Office, common and unique motifs referring to August 1980 and the ideas behind it are analyzed. Nearly three hundred stamps from the historical collection of the European Solidarity Center in Gdańsk were analyzed.

PDF

Insurekcyjny anarchizm w Polsce – przypadek Ludowego Frontu Wyzwolenia

Grzegorz Piotrowski

Wolność i Solidarność, nr 16–17, 2024–2025, pp. 104-121

https://doi.org/10.4467/25434942WS.25.007.23627

The regime change in 1989 transformed almost every aspect of life in Poland, and the anarchist movement was no exception. This article focuses on the People’s Liberation Front, the first post-war Polish anarchist group that used violence as its modus operandi. Its actions were widely rejected by the rest of the Polish anarchist movement, particularly by the Anarchist Federation, which became the dominant organization in Poland. The functioning of the People’s Liberation Front was and continues to be the subject of controversy. One of the allegations is that it was a special operation sponsored by the newly created civilian counterintelligence service.

PDF