History /
What was it like in 1989+ in Poland when the Soviet house of cards fell? [237]
Well, I was there, with my camera (except one picture). Memories dry out. Pictures, and especially back-notes stay.
I will tell you two stories though, since I think they might be at least funny a little bit.
In December 1981, as described above, I was on strike at Politechnika Warszawska, and all Warsaw Universities were on strike, too. I was asked by our Committee to go to the Firefighting Academy to eye-witness events there (some pictures remained). The firefighters were, technically, Cadets and they basically should not go on strike. Their Academy got surrounded by the riot police and a crowd there was awaiting new events. The students there sang "Obława" (The Hunt Chase), a song by Jacek Kaczmarski.
I was there taking pictures with my Start 66S, which was a medium-format, double-lens reflex camera, not small. After taking some pictures of policemen, the police invited me to a police-car for interrogation. I was sure the camera would be opened and the film overexposed. One of policemen asked me if I was aware of my misdeed, taking illegal photos. Then my brain started working very fast. Before those events, I had read the Penal Code because I was interested in the risk level. And I answered calmly: "According to Section this-and-that, Paragraph such-and-such, it is forbidden to take pictures of military, railway, ........., objects. However, the Paragraph does not mention the police action". The guy was shattered. He handed my intact camera back to me and told me to leave, fast! ;-) Of course, I told him a total lie! Given Paragraph definitely
forbid taking pictures of police action ;-) However, I had made the impression I had known the law better than him, so he was not taking any risk to call my cards ;-)
In all fairness, Radio Free Europe used to broadcast different advices, one of them being: "Know Your Rights" and I took their advice very seriously.
By the way, in my presence, the Police assaulted the building using a helicopter, too, and the students were simply sent home after interrogation. A few days after, martial law was announced. The Academy itself got its name changed, new management installed, and went under auspices of The Ministry of Internal Affairs, making the school effectively a military academy.
Next lesson was learned on November 11th, 1982. There were riots in Warszawa. I have to explain the notion of the "Solidarity riot". Solidarity was a non-violence movement. The protesters could be shouting slogans, waving national flag or banners but nobody sane would have ever thrown a stone, a bottle, anything, at the police. The reason for that was: "We are making peaceful protests and in turn we are oppressed by the police, so we have morally won". To be very honest, yes, it was water-cannons, it was tear-gas, it was some arrests but in all honesty, nobody wanted to make any harm to the other side! It was like a street theatre when I think about it today.
On the said Nov 11th, 1982 (the day after Brezhnev died and the day Wałęsa was released), I and my best friend put our suits on and set off to Teatr Polski to see the Wyspiański's "Wyzwolenie" (Liberation). Attending the play was perceived as a patriotic duty for intelligentsia. My best friend was a son of a police-worker (not a policewoman), so he knew many tricks. He told me that we should walk at slow pace, as we were taking a stroll, casual people, and under no circumstance we should look in policemen's eyes. That worked out very well. The first patrol that stopped us and question: "Where are you going to?". "We are going to the theatre", "OK". After the play, we went to see more riots. In the park behind the Arsenal I discovered how fast police cars were when used for chasing people ;-) Yes, we were running in our suits ;-) Getting on the bus, the bus full of tear-gas, so everybody cried. Someone remarked: "So sad that the good guy Brezhnev died, everybody's weeping for him..." ;-) Eventually, friend and I walked downwards on a sloped street towards Vistula River and suddenly I could see the crowd running towards us, very fast. Friend said: "Don't run. We are walking down as if nothing had happened". Then I could see something that made me really shocked. The reason for fear were not any uniformed policemen, no. It was a mob of well-built young men wearing plain clothes, actually disco-style, with shields and bludgeons, smashing their shields with batons and chanting: "GO HOME! GO HOME!" This made me really scared as I realized that secret police really existed, too, and the display of power was overwhelming. Friend whispered "Walk on towards them". Guess what? The "boys"
did not notice us because we were
nobody to them....
Interesting times.
