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The events in Poznań, June '56
Jacek Kuroń Social activist
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Well yes, of course, aha - and then there was Poznań, June '56. My father was... it's an unbelievably important moment for me because it refers everything, my communism, back to its source. My father was on his way back from somewhere, and his train stopped in Poznań. So he saw it all. He arrived home in the morning, pale, unshaven, shocked, and he said, 'The workers were marching, they were marching in FERSZTALUNGI', he said. My father had regressed here to the times of his own youth, he was talking about the overalls they were wearing as they marched, tearing up the red flags. They were singing, 'To go up in smoke with the blood of our brothers.' I can see it now. I can see my father with the marchers behind him; he's recalling all those marches he used to take me on. He'd seen far worse things there, but this worker's protest with the red flag being torn up was for him a blow at the very foundation of his outlook on the world, his faith. The same was true for me. That's exactly how I perceived this here as well. I remember that we all got together straight away in our discussion group to decide what to do next, and came to the conclusion that under the circumstances where a worker's proletarian revolution was occurring against this system, then we have to take a stand against the system, too. Soon after this, it was funny because on the same day, some time later the KC thesis of the KC secretariate, a letter from the KC secretariate on this matter was read out in which there was nothing. It was an open meeting of an open university Party organisation, and we listened to it and said: they haven't told us anything. A moment later, I was due to sit an exam on historical materialism and Wiatr turned up because I was in Bauman's group but Wiatr was going to be examining us. In any case, many years had passed since we'd last met and talked when he'd been explaining to me that this wasn't a cult dedicated to Stalin. So I went to him to take this exam except that we didn't talk about the exam but about all of these events. There was panic in the corridor because it's a really difficult exam, but he, I remember, was apologising to me for Stalin. And it was somehow at that moment that the idea began to form of taking over the youth ZMP and to turn it into a militant avant-garde in the fight for a change in the social order. And that's when I joined the Party.

No tak, ale oczywiście... Aha, i w tym momencie jest Poznań, czerwiec 1956. Ojciec mój był... to dla mnie niesłychanie ważny moment... jest właśnie dlatego, bo tak jakby odnosi wszystko, całą tą moją... cały ten mój komunizm do źródeł. Ojciec mój był, jechał skądś i w Poznaniu mu pociąg stanął. I on to widział. Przyjechał rano blady, nieogolony, nieprzytomny i mówił: "Szli robotnicy, szli w fersztalungach" – mówił. Tu taki regres nastąpił, wrócił do czasów młodości, że w kombinezonach, mówi: "W fersztalungach szli i darli czerwone sztandary. I śpiewali 'z dymem pożarów, z kurzem krwi bratniej'". I ja to widzę, tego ojca i widzę za nim ten pochód, jakby odwołał się do tamtych pochodów na które on mnie prowadził. On tam widział dużo straszniejsze rzeczy, ale dla niego ten pochód robotniczy, który rwie czerwone sztandary, był takim ciosem w fundament jego światopoglądu, jego wiary. I tak samo dla mnie. Dokładnie tak samo w tym miejscu to odebrałem. Pamiętam, zbiegliśmy się jakoś tak zaraz w tym takim towarzystwie dyskutującym, zastanawialiśmy się co robić i uznaliśmy, że w sytuacji, w której no jakby rewolucja robotnicza, proletariacka się dokonuje przeciw temu ustrojowi, to trzeba przeciw temu ustrojowi wystąpić. Jakoś tak zaraz potem, bardzo zabawne bo tego dnia... aha, bo w jakiś czas potem tezy KC, sekretariatu KC, list sekretariatu KC w tej sprawie odczytano w którym nie było nic. Było otwarte zebranie otwartej organizacji uniwersyteckiej i żeśmy tego wysłuchali i powiedzieli: "Nic nam tu nie powiedzieli". Za chwilę miałem mieć egzamin z materializmu historycznego i Wiatr przyszedł, bo ja u Baumana ćwiczyłem, ale przyszedł Wiatr to odbierać. W każdym bądź razie, że spotkaliśmy się po latach, ostatni raz mieliśmy rozmowę, jak on mi tłumaczył, że to nie jest kult Stalina. No, ja wszedłem do niego na ten egzamin, nie o egzaminie, tylko żeśmy o tym wszystkim rozmawiali. Panika zapanowała na korytarzu, bo to jest bardzo trudny egzamin i on, pamiętam to, że on w sprawie Stalina... i tak przepraszał mnie. I jakoś w tym momencie zaczęło się krystalizować pomysł, że tu trzeba przejąć organizację młodzieżową ZMP i zrobić w niej taką bojową awangardę do walki o zmianę ładu społecznego. I to jest moment, kiedy ja wstępuję do partii.

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: Poznań, Party, KC secretariate, ZMP, Zygmunt Bauman

Duration: 3 minutes, 26 seconds

Date story recorded: 1987

Date story went live: 12 June 2008