A vendor on a Warsaw street sells Polish flags with the coat of arms to celebrate the country’s Constitution Day. (May 3, 2017)
An exhibit just opened in a former secret police prison in Warsaw, Poland, describes the activities of a well-known underground organization during the years of communist rule. The secret organization was the first in Eastern Europe back then to openly proclaim its intention to overthrow the Communist regime by nonviolent means and successfully predicted the collapse of Communism there.
Polish Prime Minister Was Member, Father Was Leader, Mother Attended Opening Ceremony
The free life Poland enjoys today was achieved by the tireless efforts of thousands of Polish heroes and activists who worked as hard as they did to weave a wire mesh, Polish Prime Minister Leonid Morawiecki said May 22 in the capital, Warsaw. In this woven free Poland, he said, behind every thread are the stories and destinies of activists. He said that in those unusual years of communist rule, these opposition figures made the right choice and their activism was admired for its dignity.
Morawiecki made the remarks at the opening of a permanent exhibition that day. The exhibition is called “The Memorial of ‘Combat Unity'”. “Combat Solidarity was a secret underground organization born after the suppression of the Solidarity movement 40 years ago.
The exhibition is located in the “Memorial to Polish Political Prisoners and Indomitable Soldiers of Poland”. The memorial was opened in a notorious prison in the abandoned city of Warsaw. The prison was used by the Polish Communist regime’s secret police to persecute political dissidents. The entire exhibit occupies 18 cells.
The exhibit includes many propaganda materials, books, and photographs. The most valuable exhibit, however, is considered to be the equipment used by members of the Combat Unity to tap into the conversations between the secret police.
Prime Minister Morawiecki was a member of Combat Unity as a university student. “The leader of Combat Solidarity was Prime Minister Morawiecki’s father, the late Polish political figure and former dissident, former Senator Morawiecki Sr.
Prime Minister Morawiecki’s mother also attended the opening of the exhibition on Saturday. The exhibit also includes Morawiecki Sr.’s identity card, which was canceled when he was forcibly expelled from the country by Polish security agencies.
Birth of the darkest period of repression
In the summer and fall of 1980, a nationwide workers’ strike broke out in Poland, and the Solidarity movement, centered on the Gdańsk shipyards, emerged. The communist regime that ruled Poland at the time was forced to give in for a time. However, by December 1981, the Communist regime in Poland began to impose military rule. Many leaders and activists of the Solidarity movement were arrested, workers’ strikes and popular protests were suppressed by the military and police, and the Solidarity movement went underground at a low point.
The elder Morawiecki, a key member of the Solidarity movement, was a leader of the protests in the historic city of Wroclaw in southwestern Poland. But when the military crackdown began, Morawiecki Sr., a physicist who taught at the local university, managed to escape arrest by the military police.
By the spring of 1982, some of the organizational structures of the Solidarity trade union movement began to be gradually restored. Many people, however, were not satisfied at the time that the ideas of some core members of the Solidarity trade union movement were too moderate. In this context. Morawiecki Sr. formed the “Combat Solidarity” force.
First to propose the overthrow of the communist regime and successfully predict the collapse of communism
“Combat Solidarity is considered to be the most radical force in the trade union movement and the most opposed to compromise with the communist regime. “Combat Solidarity was also the first political force in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to openly advocate the non-violent overthrow of the Communist regime.
Moravitsky Sr.’s 1982 book “Who are we? What are we fighting for?” in his programmatic manifesto of 1982 called “Who are we?”, which called for the elimination of the communist system in Poland, the regaining of Poland’s independence from Soviet occupation, the building of a united and democratic self-governing society with a predominantly Catholic ethos, and the promotion of freedom of speech and the press.
Of particular interest to many historians is the fact that Combat Solidarity predicted that the fall of the Communist Party was imminent and that the Solidarity movement should not only be limited to Poland, but that the struggle against the Communist regime should extend from Poland to all of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and even to the rest of the world.
“Combat Solidarity later established contacts and interactions with opposition forces in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, the former Soviet Union in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova and the Baltic Sea region. “Combat Solidarity provided these opposition groups with propaganda printing equipment and taught them about the struggle. “Combat Solidarity members also participated in the 1991 protests against Soviet rule in Vilnius, Lithuania. The organization also focused on human rights issues in Tibet at the time.
The fight against communism, compromise and round tables
By the late 1980s, communist rule in Eastern Europe was faltering. When the Solidarity movement began secret contacts with the Polish communist regime and the Polish political forces later began roundtable dialogue meetings, Combat Solidarity was the only force in Polish politics that did not recognize the results of the roundtables and opposed dialogue with the communist regime.
After the democratization of Poland, Combat Solidarity also opposed the shock therapy in the economic sphere at the time, advocating more attention and solutions to social and livelihood issues in Poland. “In particular, Combat Solidarity advocated the complete liquidation of communism in Poland and criticized the collaboration of some members of the Solidarity movement and intellectuals with the former communist bureaucrats during the transition to democratization in Poland.
Members are mostly intellectual elites who can tap secret police phones
Unlike Wawansa’s Solidarity, whose members were mainly miners and workers, many members of Combat Solidarity were university teachers, economists, engineers, programmers, university students, clergy of the Catholic Church and others. The old city of Wrocław, where Old Morawiecki is located, is home to many Polish institutions of higher learning.
With technical experts in many fields, Combat Solidarity was able to tap communications and calls between Polish security agencies and the local police, which prevented the Polish secret police from sending informants into the organization for a long time. Morawiecki Sr. was not arrested by the authorities until 1987, but no propaganda or other evidence of his anti-government activities was recovered.
By 1987, Gorbachev had promoted open activism in the Soviet Union, and the political climate in Eastern Europe was beginning to change. After Morawiecki Sr.’s arrest, the international community began to show strong solidarity, and Polish authorities held him for only six months before forcibly deporting him to Italy, but Morawiecki Sr. secretly returned to Poland a few months later.
“Combat Solidarity has a strict discipline, and new members need to be introduced by two members and take an oath to join.
“The radical and uncompromising stance of Combat Solidarity led to a number of failed presidential and parliamentary campaigns by Morawiecki Sr. long after the democratization of Poland. However, this political force still enjoys the admiration and respect of Polish society. In 2010, the Polish government created two special medals, the Cross of the Order of Combat Solidarity and the Cross of Honor of Combat Solidarity, and many members of this organization have since been honored by the Polish government.
A long-term vision not limited to boosting resistance at Poland’s lowest point
Russian current affairs commentator Nikolski says the workers’ mass strikes were the most crucial force in the collapse of the Polish Communist Party. But in any case, what happened in Polish society at the time had a huge impact on both the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries.
ACT-1, Nikolski: “All the people supported the party, as had been said in the propaganda of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union for decades, and the propaganda of the Eastern European countries and the Soviet Union were very similar to each other at the time, but what happened in Poland was a sudden awakening to the fact that the seemingly strong, unbreakable communist regime actually had no base of support.”
“Although not the dominant opposition in Poland at the time, Combat Solidarity was considered a key vanguard of the opposition. What is most significant, according to many analysts, is that Combat Solidarity was able to articulate a particularly clear and unambiguous program of opposition activity, as well as a broader and more far-reaching vision of Polish opposition activity as part of a larger wave of democratization in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
“There were two main ways in which Combat Solidarity operated at that time. First, it printed underground publications and engaged in underground radio broadcasts to create propaganda. The second was to organize street protests. At the height of the repression, the activities organized by Combat Solidarity gave people a sense of continued opposition activity and a sense of confidence in the future.
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