Fighting Solidarity

Since 22 May 2021 the Museum has shown the exhibition “Fighting Solidarity”, presenting the wide range of anti-communist opposition activity in the Polish People’s Republic and the work of Fighting Solidarity structures abroad. It is a multimedia exhibition, which makes it easier to sense the atmosphere of an underground print shop or an anti-communist demonstration, and to hear broadcasts from a radio station transmitting illegally.

The exhibition is laid out in 18 prison cells of the former General Pavilion. They hold, among other things, documents belonging to Kornel Morawiecki, the leader of Fighting Solidarity, including his passport annulled by the communist authorities, and patriotic jewellery made underground by the sculptor Ludwika Ogorzelec. Also shown are underground newspapers, books, photographs, stamps and postcards published outside censorship, duplicators, matrices, screen-printing and offset equipment in a specially arranged underground print shop, devices used for intercepting communications, and an M3A1 submachine gun made illegally in Gdansk.

The exhibition came about thanks to Roman Zwiercan of the Pomeranian Historical Initiative Foundation and the Fighting Solidarity Association.

What to expect

Eighteen former cells of the prison’s General Pavilion, close to 400 m² in all according to the Pomeranian Historical Initiative Foundation, which co-created the show. Each cell takes one theme, from the organisation’s origins and its leader Kornel Morawiecki to counter-intelligence, radio and street protests. The last four recreate an underground publisher’s workshop: darkroom, duplicator, screen printing and offset.

• Kornel Morawiecki’s passport, cancelled by the communist authorities - the museum counts it among the most valuable exhibits.
• An M3A1 submachine gun built illegally by the underground.
• Counter-intelligence listening gear that Fighting Solidarity used to listen in on the conversations of secret police and militia officers.
• Patriotic jewellery made in hiding by the sculptor Ludwika Ogorzelec, herself a member.
• Broadcasts of Fighting Solidarity’s radio and footage of street demonstrations, played in the cells.

The museum also offers a virtual walk-through of the exhibition. It is worth a look before you go, or instead of going if your dates in Warsaw do not match the tour schedule.

Context

In the 1980s Poland’s Solidarity trade union was banned under martial law and went underground. Fighting Solidarity (Solidarność Walcząca) split from it in Wrocław in June 1982, founded by Kornel Morawiecki, father of the later prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

With about 2,000 members it published 134 underground periodicals and ran its own weekly radio broadcasts from Wrocław until 1989. It wanted the communists out of power altogether, so in 1989 it rejected the Round Table deal that part of the opposition signed. Morawiecki himself was held in the Rakowiecka detention centre after his arrest in 1987, then expelled from Poland in 1988 and smuggled himself back: this show sits in a building its central figure knew from the inside.

Tickets and time

• Free. The museum charges nothing for admission or for its guided tours.
• Guided tours only. You cannot walk the site on your own.
• Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 10:00-18:00 (10 AM - 6 PM), closed Mondays, last entry 16:00.
• Tuesday-Friday: booking required, for individual visitors too. Saturday-Sunday: Polish-language tours at 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00 with no booking for individuals; groups over 10 must book.
• English tours always need booking, on any day.
• How to book: phone +48 22 547 96 07 or +48 693 010 380, or email zwiedzanie@muzeumrakowiecka37.pl, Monday-Friday from 8:30. Your visit is on only once the museum confirms it.
• The one thing to remember: the museum asks you to say in your booking that you want to see the “Fighting Solidarity” exhibition. If you join a weekend tour without booking, ask the guide about it at the start.
• How long: the museum puts the whole tour at 1.5-2 hours, part of it outdoors.
• Age: the exhibition page says entry is for visitors over 13; the museum’s FAQ allows younger children with a parent.
• Access: the historic buildings are not adapted for wheelchair users or blind visitors. No parking; the street is in Warsaw’s paid parking zone. Take metro line M1 to Pole Mokotowskie, a short walk away in the Mokotów district south of the centre.
• English on site: guided tours in English on request; the museum does not say whether the exhibition captions are translated.

Who it is for: visitors who want to see how an underground movement actually worked - the print shop and the listening gear say more than any panel. If your time is short and you came for the post-war resistance and the cells of Witold Pilecki and General Fieldorf, the standard tour covers those, and you can skip this one.

What the press says

No English-language coverage found so far.

• Polish Press Agency (PAP), on dzieje.pl (22.05.2021): a report on the opening, attended by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Historians quoted there describe Fighting Solidarity as one of the most radical and best-concealed opposition groups of communist Poland - article, in Polish
• Radio Szczecin (22.05.2021): exhibition coordinator Roman Zwiercan says this is the first permanent display about the organisation since 1990, and says the show also holds the passport Morawiecki used to slip back into Poland in August 1988 - article, in Polish

See also

• Museum of Cursed Soldiers and Political Prisoners - the museum profile: Pavilion X, the cells of Pilecki and Fieldorf, and how to get there.
• “Freedom Is Within Us” - the same museum’s martial-law exhibition in Pavilion XII, covering the very years in which Fighting Solidarity was born.
• Museum of Blessed Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko - in Żoliborz, the other face of the same decade: the Solidarity chaplain murdered by the secret police in 1984.