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Polish students fought for fundamental issues

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Were the events of March '68 inevitable?
Jan Józef Lipski Social activist
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At the start I said that some political elements in this I found incomprehensible. There is a kind of conviction, a scheme which rationally hangs together. I mean that the political group under the leadership of Moczar – who was the minister of Interior Affairs at the time and a general, having been a communist guerrilla fighter during the war – began to motivate anti-Semitic and anti-intelligentsia responses as he strove to gain power even before the war in the Middle East in '67. Except this was done very carefully and very subtly. But does this explain... did this mechanism work in exactly that way? I'm not convinced. I ask myself the question: what was it that essentially provoked the events at the very start? By that I mean when Dziady was banned after which the first student protests began. The decisions of two ministers were essential there. One was the minister of higher education – Jabłoński – and the other was the minister of culture – Motyka. Both had been in the former PPS [Polska Partia Socjalistyczna (Polish Socialist Party)], both were closely associated with Prime Minister Cyrankiewicz, a person who definitely had never had anything to do with Moczar's group. No one was making suggestions of this kind. Nevertheless, without their participation, I doubt if this provocation would have been a success. Minister Jabłoński had to make these expulsions, these illegal expulsions, so that the students would organise a rally. Dziady could not have been banned from the stage of the National Theatre without the knowledge of the minister of culture, and this to me is an element that lacks clarity. Was there not a role being played by other factional arrangements which caused all of this? Was it not that at some point the situation was made more acute by someone who had nothing to do with Moczar's group, but who believed that in this situation Moczar and his group would trip up and suffer a downfall for example? I have to say, that after several months, that's exactly what happened. So I don't understand everything here and though I don't claim anything for certain, there's a lot here that's unclear.

Już na samym początku mówiłem, że niektóre elementy od strony politycznej są dla mnie niezrozumiałe. Otóż panuje taki pewien – przekonanie – schemat, który racjonalnie trzyma się kupy. To znaczy, że grupa polityczna pod przywództwem Moczara być może, że – Moczara, ówczesnego ministra Spraw Wewnętrznych i generała, a w czasie wojny partyzanta komunistycznego – dążąc do władzy, zaczęła uruchamiać motywacje i antysemickie, i antyinteligenckie, jeszcze wcześniej nim doszło do wojny na Bliskim Wschodzie w '67 roku. Tylko to było dosyć ostrożnie i delikatnie robione. Ale czy to wszystko tłumaczyć – ten mechanizm dokładnie tak przebiegał, to ja nie jestem pewny. Bo ja sobie zadaję pytanie: co było niezbędne do tego, żeby sprowokować to, co się stało na samym wstępie? Na samym wstępie, to znaczy wówczas, kiedy konfiskowano „Dziady”, kiedy po tym rozpoczęły się te pierwsze protesty studenckie. Niezbędny tam był udział decyzji dwóch ministrów. Jeden to był minister szkolnictwa wyższego – Jabłoński, drugi to był minister kultury – Motyka. Obydwaj z dawnego PPS-u, obydwaj ludzie blisko związani z premierem Cyrankiewiczem, z człowiekiem, który nigdy nie miał nic wspólnego na pewno z grupą moczarowską. Co do tego nikt nigdy żadnych takich sugestii nie stawiał. Natomiast bez ich udziału nie wyobrażam sobie, żeby ta prowokacja się udała. Minister Jabłoński musiał zrobić te relegacje, żeby – te łamiące przepisy prawa relegacje – żeby studenci spowodowali wiec. Bez wiedzy ministra kultury „Dziadów” nie można zdjąć ze sceny Teatru Narodowego i to jest dla mnie element niejasny, prawdę mówiąc. Czy tam nie odgrywały jeszcze jakiejś roli jakieś inne układy frakcyjne, które to spowodowały? Czy nie było tak, że w pewnym momencie zaostrzono sytuację, ktoś niemający nic wspólnego z grupą moczarowską zaostrzył sytuację uważając, że na tym Moczar i jego grupa się przewróci, wywróci, na przykład? Co zresztą, muszę powiedzieć, po paru miesiącach się stało. Więc nie wszystko tu rozumiem, nie twierdzę niczego na pewno, ale dla mnie jest dużo niejasności.

Jan Józef Lipski (1926-1991) was one of Poland's best known political activists. He was also a writer and a literary critic. As a soldier in the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), he fought in the Warsaw Uprising. In 1976, following worker protests, he co-founded the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR). His active opposition to Poland's communist authorities led to his arrest and imprisonment on several occasions. In 1987, he re-established and headed the Polish Socialist Party. Two years later, he was elected to the Polish Senate. He died in 1991 while still in office. For his significant work, Lipski was honoured with the Cross of the Valorous (Krzyż Walecznych), posthumously with the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1991) and with the highest Polish decoration, the Order of the White Eagle (2006).

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: Polish Socialist Party, National Theatre, Dziady, Interior Affairs, Władysław Jabłoński, Lucjan Motyka, Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz, Mieczysław Moczar

Duration: 3 minutes, 1 second

Date story recorded: October 1989

Date story went live: 11 March 2011