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Gajka's role in our release
Jacek Kuroń Social activist
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So Gajka would go there, my father went there and someone in the general prosecutor's office told my father to go and see Bardonowa that Saturday afternoon. So Gajka rushed off to see Prosecutor Bardonowa who said, 'I don't know anything.' So she said, 'What do you mean? In the general prosecutor's office, I was told that you implemented legal sanctions against my husband.' 'Well yes, I did', she says, 'but what were we meant to do with him? All we get from your husband is trouble', said Bardonowa. Gajka left and caught a train to Gdańsk. She got to Gdańsk, charged into the hall just as... what happened was this, when she reached the gateway, there was an announcement over the loudspeakers saying this point was being considered. She ran up to someone and said, 'I'm Jacek Kuroń's wife and I have some vital information from Warsaw.' She'd gone to the right person because he immediately realised what was going on and so he grabbed her by the hand and said, 'Come on!' And he ran with her shouting, 'Out of the way! Out of the way!' He opened the door and... he must have had some clout because all of the security guys were letting him pass through to the BHP hall, and he pushed her in there just at the moment when they'd all reached an agreement. And she slid across the floor, even in that film Robotnicy they show her sliding across the floor of that room. She sat down and wrote a note saying that she knows for certain who's been given legal sanctions, and she passed the note to Wałęsa. The note reached Lech, he took it in his hand, glanced at it but didn't read it, just glanced at it and carried on talking to Jagielski and put the note to one side. Luckily, Andrzej Gwiazda picked it up, read it, passed it to Elka Pieńkowska and said immediately, 'Just a moment, Mr Prime Minister, there's still one more matter. We've received news here that...' And so everything went back to Kisiel, to what was his name, all of that, all of this, the whole story of this entire battle when we were thinking, they'll never back down over this. But there was nothing to talk about, these are people who defended us when we were locked up and we will not back down and there will be no agreement. There followed a standing ovation in the hall. Jagielski broke off, went to discuss this, came back - we were released on September 1st.

No i Gajka tam deptała, ojciec mój chodził i ktoś ojcu mojemu w generalnej prokuraturze powiedział, żeby się zgłosić do Bardonowej tej soboty po południu. I Gajka poleciała do pani prokurator Bardonowej i pani Bardonowa mówi: "Ja nic nie wiem", a ona mówi: "Jak? W generalnej prokuraturze mnie powiedziano, że Pani dała sankcje mojemu mężowi". "No tak" – mówi – "no dałam. No a co mieliśmy z nim robić? Mamy z nim same kłopoty, z Pani mężem", powiedziała Bardonowa. Gajka wyszła, wsiadła w pociąg i pojechała do Gdańska. Pojechała do Gdańska i wbiegła na salę w tym momencie... to znaczy to był w ogóle taki... jak kiedy przy... dobiegła do bramy, to już przez głośnik nadawano, że właśnie ten punkt jest rozpatrywany. Dobiegła do kogoś powiedziała: "Jestem żoną Kuronia, mam bardzo ważne wiadomości z Warszawy". No i dobrze trafiła, bo on się od razu połapał co jest grane i znaczył coś, bo złapał ją za rękę i powiedział: "To biegniemy". I po prostu wołał: "Z drogi, z drogi" – biegł z nią. Otworzył drzwi i tak... Ponieważ musiał być jakiś ważniejszy straszy porządkowy, to go te wszystkie straże kolejno przepuszczały do tej sali BHP i ją wepchnął na salę w tym momencie, w którym oni już tam właściwie doklepywali. I ona tak wjechała i nawet na filmie tym Robotnicy jest, jak ona tam wjeżdża na ta salę. Usiadła, napisała kartkę, że ona wie na pewno kto ma sankcje i wysłała tę kartkę do Wałęsy. I ta kartka doszła do Lecha, on ją wziął do ręki spojrzał, ale nie przeczytał, tylko tak spojrzał na nią i coś tu dalej do Jagielskiego mówi, kartkę odłożył. Ale na szczęście wziął ją Andrzej Gwiazda. Wziął ją, przeczytał, podał Elce Pieńkowskiej i od razu mówi: "Zaraz, zaraz, Panie Premierze, jest jeszcze jedna sprawa. Mamy tutaj wiadomość, że..." I to znowu to wszystko jest u Kieśla cały... znaczy u tego... jak on się tam nazywa... cały ten... cała ta historia całej tej walki kiedy my myśleli..."Z tego my nigdy nie ustąpimy. To po prostu nie ma gadania, to są tacy ludzie, którzy nas bronili, kiedy myśmy siedzieli i my z nich nie ustąpimy i tu nie ma żadnego porozumienia". I owacja na sali. Jagielski przerwał, poszedł się porozumieć, wrócił – pierwszego września nas puszczą.

The late Polish activist, Jacek Kuroń (1934-2004), had an influential but turbulent political career, helping transform the political landscape of Poland. He was expelled from the communist party, arrested and incarcerated. He was also instrumental in setting up the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR) and later became a Minister of Labour and Social Policy.

Listeners: Jacek Petrycki Marcel Łoziński

Cinematographer Jacek Petrycki was born in Poznań, Poland in 1948. He has worked extensively in Poland and throughout the world. His credits include, for Agniezka Holland, Provincial Actors (1979), Europe, Europe (1990), Shot in the Heart (2001) and Julie Walking Home (2002), for Krysztof Kieslowski numerous short films including Camera Buff (1980) and No End (1985). Other credits include Journey to the Sun (1998), directed by Jesim Ustaoglu, which won the Golden Camera 300 award at the International Film Camera Festival, Shooters (2000) and The Valley (1999), both directed by Dan Reed, Unforgiving (1993) and Betrayed (1995) by Clive Gordon both of which won the BAFTA for best factual photography. Jacek Petrycki is also a teacher and a filmmaker.

Film director Marcel Łoziński was born in Paris in 1940. He graduated from the Film Directing Department of the National School of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź in 1971. In 1994, he was nominated for an American Academy Award and a European Film Academy Award for the documentary, 89 mm from Europe. Since 1995, he has been a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Art and Science awarding Oscars. He lectured at the FEMIS film school and the School of Polish Culture of Warsaw University. He ran documentary film workshops in Marseilles. Marcel Łoziński currently lectures at Andrzej Wajda’s Master School for Film Directors. He also runs the Dragon Forum, a European documentary film workshop.

Tags: Gdańsk, Warsaw, BHP, Robotnicy, Gajka Kuroń, Wiesława Bardonowa, Lech Wałęsa, Mieczysław Jagielski, Andrzej Gwiazda, Elżbieta Pieńkowska

Duration: 2 minutes, 2 seconds

Date story recorded: 1987

Date story went live: 12 June 2008