Identity Statement

Reference Code

HU OSA 300-55-13

Title

Democratic Opposition Related Files

Date(s)

1955 - 1984

Description Level

Series

Extent and medium (processed)

11 Archival boxes, 1.38 linear meters

Content and Structure

Scope and Content (Abstract)

The series represents a highly variegated body of documents related to the activity of political opposition in Poland between 1976 and 1983. It records appeals, declarations, protests, open letters, interviews, reports, sermons, analyses and commentaries issued by or describing the activities of organized political groups, as well as the Polish Catholic Church and the representatives of various social groups including farmers, writers and academics.

Worth singling out are the materials documenting the activity of: the Workers’ Defense Committee (KOR), the Movement for Human and Civil Rights (ROPCiO), the Student Solidarity Committee (SKS), the Society of Scientific Courses (TKN), the Polish Independence Agreement (PPN), the "Znak” Group, the Democratic Movement, Farmers’ Self Defense organizations; the Ósmego Dnia Theatre, the Believers’ Self-Defense Committee, the Free Trade Unions (WZZ), the Confederation of Independent Poland (KPN), NSZZ Solidarity, Rural Solidarity, the “Experience and Future” Group (DiP), the Independent Student Association (NZS), and the Independent Publishing House (NOWA).

Apart from those mentioned above other documents worth mentioning include:
individual testimonies of state repression, including files from court cases; leaked official documents publicized by the democratic opposition, including the classified censorship guidelines that served as the documentary basis of the Black Book of Censorship (New York: Vintage Books, 1984); and letters to Radio Free Europe regarding the image of the various dissident groups as disseminated by RFE.

Accruals

Not Expected

System of arrangement

Originally, the series contained the unclassified documents related to the democratic opposition in Poland, to be later sorted among the relevant subject files. It consisted of two different kinds of arrangement: part of the folders contained numbered documents (some numbers missing), the other part – unnumbered documents sorted – largely, but inconsistently – by year. The contents of the two sub-units overlapped, and various copies of the same document appeared frequently. Rearranged, the first part of the series is now organized according to its original order (by numbers), while the second one is arranged chronologically. Additionally, the following documents, due to their contents, have been filed separately within the series: - Documents of the Martial Law: a considerably large collection of testimonies of Martial Law political prisoners, both individual and in the form of samizdat journals; - Martial Law Poetry and Leaflets; - Documents of Polish Helsinki Committee: two reports from 1980 and 1984; - “The Truth about Polish Counterrevolution” – a copy of an official propaganda publication on Solidarity; - two cases of state repression: Kazimierz Moczarski case from 1955, the monument to General Sikorski from 1978.

Conditions of Access and Use

Conditions governing access

Unknown

Languages

English, Polish

Description Control

Archivist's note

Processed by Piotr Wciślik, June, 2011; revised by Csaba Szilágyi, July, 2012.