Poland

After landing in Poland, I was taken aside at the airport and searched. I had to take all my clothes off and the books I was carrying were confiscated. The situation in the country was also specific with the whole post-war development, the number of casualties, the change in the borders, the division of the country between two aggressive totalitarian regimes and the implied specific relationships with its big neighbours in the West as well as in the East. Jacek Kuron, for instance, explains in his interview why the idea of communism could have appealed to young people after a devastating war in a subverted country. Making the film was interesting in every respect and the meetings with the opposition were often almost warlike. The situation was open. Solidarity, the best-known and most mass opposition movement in the entire Soviet bloc, had won itself extensive concessions, and there was a lot of freedom especially in culture, although the economy was in ruins and caution could be felt everywhere. A debate over how far to push the requirements was under way both in the power echelons and in the opposition. Where are the boundaries of what is possible? One of the considerations of the Solidarity movement in 1980–1981 was even that they could not wish for a complete breakdown of the communist party because the communists had become intermediaries between society and the Soviet leadership, and without that weak intermediary there would be tanks here. Thoughts on how to avoid Soviet invasion were ever-present and in the case of Poland the risk and number of victims would be much higher than it was in the attack on Czechoslovakia in 1968. But we could still shoot film. It wasn’t as easy as in Hungary, as there were places we could get into and others we couldn’t, something was possible and something else wasn’t, but we were able to do it. And money played a certain role here, too.

Jacques Rupnik

Interviews

Lech Wałęsa

Lech Wałęsa18. 10. 1987 | Gdańsk, Poland

Lech Wałęsa (born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, a leading figure in the Polish opposition against the totalitarian communist power and a political prisoner during martial law, the leader of Solidarity Trade Union...

Jacek Woźniakowski

Jacek Woźniakowski?

Jacek Woźniakowski (1920 - 2012) is a Polish art historian, journalist, writer, publisher, curator, translator of literature, a social and political activist, soldier during World War II in Polish Home Army, one of the leading figures in...

Bronisław Geremek

Bronisław Geremek30. 10. 1987 | ?

Bronisław Geremek (1932 - 2008) is a Polish historian, a statesman, one of the leading figures in the Polish opposition against the totalitarian communist power and a political prisoner during martial law, expert and adviser of Solidarity...

Bogdan Lis

Bogdan Lis30. 11. 1986 | ?

Bogdan Lis (born November 10, 1952) is a Polish politician, industrial equipment mechanic, Inter-factory Striking Committee member, Solidarity activist, an organiser of Polish underground during the martial law period, Round Table Talks...

Agnieszka Wróblewska

Agnieszka Wróblewska30. 11. 1999 | ?

Agnieszka Wróblewska (born 16 December 1933) - journalist, studied at Warsaw University. In 1956-1981 a member of Polish communist party PZPR, she joined after October 1956 as a student and resigned in protest against the introduction of martial law...

Andrzej Wajda

Andrzej Wajda20. 5. 1988 | Paris, France

Andrzej Witold Wajda (6 March 1926 –  9 October 2016) - Polish film and theatre director, Oscar laureate (2000), one of the creators of the "Polish Film School". President of Polish Filmmakers Association (1978-83). He supported Solidarity...

Jacek Jan Kuroń

Jacek Jan Kuroń24. 5. 1987 | ?

Jacek Jan Kuroń (3 March 1934 – 17 June 2004) - Polish politician, educator and historian, in People’s Republic of Poland period activist of so-called “Red Scouting,” one of the leading figures in the Polish opposition against the totalitarian...

Leszek Kołakowski

Leszek Kołakowski12. 11. 1987 | ?

Leszek Kołakowski (23 October 1927 – 17 July 2009) was a very prominent Polish philosopher and historian of ideas, writer, prominent scholar at Warsaw University and Oxford, oppositionist to the totalitarian Communist regime, political emigrant...

Leszek Henryk Balcerowicz

Leszek Henryk Balcerowicz21. 5. 1987 | ?

Leszek Henryk Balcerowicz (born 19 January 1947) - Polish politician, professor of economy and lecturer. He was one of Solidarity economic experts.  In free Poland: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finances in the government of Tadeusz...

Józef Czyrek

Józef Czyrek31. 10. 1987 | Warsaw, Poland

Józef Czyrek (20 July 1928, 3 June 2013) - Polish economist, communist activist, peasants’ movement activist (1948 - 1952), Minister of Foreign Affairs from August 24, 1980 to July 21, 1982, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of...

Wiesław Górnicki

Wiesław Górnicki20. 5. 1987 | Warsaw, Poland

Zdzisław Rurarz (24 February 1930 - 21 January 2007) - Polish economist, diplomat, university lecturer, Ambassador of the Polish People's Republic in Japan. 1971 - 1972 one of Edward Gierek's economic advisers. 1973 - 1976 Special Adviser to the...

Zdzisław Rurarz

Zdzisław RurarzWashington, D.C., USA

Zdzisław Rurarz (24 February 1930 - 21 January 2007) - Polish economist, diplomat, university lecturer, Ambassador of the Polish People's Republic in Japan. 1971 - 1972 one of Edward Gierek's economic advisers. 1973 - 1976 Special Adviser to the...

Andrzej Wróblewski

Andrzej Wróblewski19. 5. 1987 | ?

Andrzej Wróblewski (born July 26, 1922 - died March 20, 2002) - Polish journalist, linguist, publicist, popularizer of knowledge about the Polish language. During World War II he was an underground activist, fought in Home Army units and was...

Jan Winiecki

Jan Winiecki18. 5. 1987 | ?

Jan Winiecki (born June 21, 1938 - died June 7, 2016) - Polish economist, PhD in economics, university teacher, member of the Monetary Policy Council in the 2010-2016 term. From 1964 to 1982 he was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party...

Mieczysław Rakowski

Mieczysław Rakowski6. 3. 1987 | ?

Mieczysław Rakowski (born December 1, 1926 - died November 8, 2008) - Polish communist politician, Deputy Prime Minister in Wojciech Jaruzelski's government (1981-1985), the last First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers'...

Jerzy Morawski

Jerzy Morawski?

Jerzy Morawski ( born on March 6, 1932, – died February 4, 2008) - Polish communist politican, one of the leading figures in the Polish communist party PZPR Central Committee in 1955-1960, a member of the PZPR Central Committee Political Office in...

Krzysztof Kieślowski

Krzysztof Kieślowski30. 11. 1999 | ?

Krzysztof Kieślowski (born June 27, 1941 - died March 13, 1996) - Polish film director and writer, member of Polish Filmmakers Association and its deputy President 1978-1981. Since 1990 honorary member of the British Film Institute, since 1995...

Jan Bisztyga

Jan Bisztyga2. 6. 1987 | ?

Jan Bisztyga (born January 19, 1933) - Polish intelligence officer, civil servant, diplomat and party functionary. Since 1953 a member of the Polish United Workers' Party. A long-time employee of the intelligence service, who, among other things,...

Andrzej Potocki

Andrzej Potocki28. 5. 1987 | ?

Andrzej Potocki (ur. 25 sierpnia 1920, zm. 22 października 1995) – polski działacz katolicki, prezes Klubu Inteligencji Katolickiej w Krakowie (1978-1995), tłumacz. 23 sierpnia 1980 roku dołączył do apelu 64 uczonych, pisarzy i publicystów do władz...

Stanislaw Handzlik & Maciej Mach

Stanislaw Handzlik & Maciej Mach30. 5. 1989 | ?

Stanislaw Handzlik (born January 21, 1943) - Polish worker, trade unionist and local government activist, an oppositionist during the Polish People's Republic, MP in the first term. In 1980 he joined the Solidarity movement and was one of the union...

Kazimierz Jancarz

Kazimierz Jancarz?

Kazimierz Jancarz (born December 9, 1947, died March 25, 1993) - Polish Catholic priest, an opposition activist in Polish People's Republic. After martial law was declared in Poland, Father Jancarz became the workers' chaplain. He organized help for...