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The first trend of resistance

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The story of Ela the 'pious' ZMP devotee
Jacek Kuroń Social activist
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I think that the division into the older members who had a sense of solidarity with the people, and the new ones who lacked this sense of solidarity marked the genesis of this whole October movement of renewal, the October thaw. That conflict at times took on very drastic forms. I recently met a girl who used to be the head of the school council in my old school. Her name was Ela. She was telling me something that she hadn't graduated from her course because she hadn't been a member of ZMP. So I said, 'Ela, as far as I remember, you were the head the school council.' But she said, 'That's true but my family wasn't working class.' 'But if I'm not mistaken you do come from the working class', I said. 'Yes, but someone wrote in my application report...' and I could see by her eyes how upset she was because she'd repeated this so many times that she'd come to believe it herself and had completely erased that part of her life. 'But', she said, 'someone wrote in my applications report that I was 'pious'.' I was about to dismiss this as another example of mystification when I remembered an incident. We were in the toilets having a cigarette while Ela was out there somewhere in the corridor. Someone said, 'Listen when it comes to doing the...' - these were the old activists who functioned in a given district and were bullied by the new ones in the school, but we were in that district and we were important, and all reports had to be verified by us before being sent to particular universities. So one of us said, 'Gentlemen, we will write in her report that she's a pious ZMP devotee.' I remembered that. So perhaps someone wrote that she was a devotee, but it seems that they must have written a 'pious ZMP devotee', and somewhere along the way, someone must have decided that didn't make sense, so they crossed out the ZMP leaving the description of pious devotee and so the poor girl didn't get accepted into medical school.

Ja myślę sobie, że według tego podziału na starych, którzy mieli takie poczucie solidarności z ludźmi, na nowych, którzy tego poczucia solidarności nie mieli potem się zaczął jakby rodzić ten cały ruch odnowy październikowej, odwilży październikowej. Tamten konflikt przyjął niesłychanie nieraz dramatyczne formy. Niedawno spotkałem dziewczynę, która była przewodniczącą zarządu szkolnego w mojej szkole, Elę. I ona mówi do mnie coś tam, coś tam, że ona nie skończyła studiów, bo przecież nie była w ZMP. Ja mówię: "Elu, ja pamiętam ty byłaś przewodniczącą zarządu szkolnego." Ona mówi: "No tak, ale nie miałam pochodzenia robotniczego." - "O ile ja pamiętam to miałaś pochodzenie robotnicze." - "No tak, ale napisali mi w opinii" – i widzę przerażenie w jej oczach - ona to tyle razy powtarzała, ona sama w to już uwierzyła, skreśliła sobie cały tamten kawałek z życia. Powiada: - "No tak, ale napisano mi w opinii „dewotka”, na uczelnię." Właściwie to chciałem to uznać za kolejną jej mistyfikację, ale przypomniała mi się scena. W sraczyku siedzimy, palimy papierosy, a Ela gdzieś grasuje po korytarzu. Ktoś mówi – "Słuchajcie, jak będziemy robić...." – a bo to był stary zarząd, stary aktyw działał na dzielnicy, w szkole był gnojony przez nowy, ale myśmy byli na dzielnicy, myśmy byli ważni no i przez nasze ręce miały ich opinie iść potem na uczelnie. I któryś mówi: "Panowie jak będziemy robić jej opinie, to napiszemy dewotka ZMP-owska." To mi się przypomniało. I teraz, może ktoś napisał dewotka, musiał ktoś napisać „dewotka ZMP-owska”, gdzieś po drodze ktoś uznał, że ZMP-owska dewotka to niewiadomo o co chodzi, to skreślono ZMP-owska, zostało „dewotka” i nie dostała się biedna dziewczynina na Akademię Medyczną.

 

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: ZMP

Duration: 1 minute, 50 seconds

Date story recorded: 1987

Date story went live: 12 June 2008