On the one hand, the supreme authorities generating social norms and customs in the Nowa Huta community on the basis of the Marxist-Leninist orientation, and shaping the face of the town being born according to the structures of the socialist system. On the other - resistance from the incoming population, arising from principles of world view deeply rooted in a tradition of many generations, in the sociological sense, and its refusal to yield to the new ideological currents and customs: these are examples of the incoherence of factors which, almost from the dawn of the forming of this strange and uncodified organism, were embodied by the inhabitants of Nowa Huta. And it is worth remembering that these phenomena constantly appeared and grew sharper.
Over the whole span of time in which the new political system was taking shape, the contradictory ideas colliding with one another foretold the disturbing diagnosis of a conflict being born.
For the time being, the wisdom of the Nowa Huta newcomers, aware of the unique chance of using a wide offer of cultural and intellectual goods, well-paid work and professional and social advancement, meant that the people of Nowa Huta concentrated more on the aims of everyday existence. So the extraordinary appetite of the new community for knowledge in the field of culture and for forms of education deserved high marks and special recognition. And to show that we are not dealing here with confabulation, I will use an example from a category that requires of readers - towards the writer of these words - a certain measure of indulgence.
In the phase when the outline of the foundations of the town under construction was only just appearing, the workers, whatever their category, were housed in barracks. In these buildings, after the hardships of heavy work, by way of relaxation and out of a wish to spend their time usefully, the building fraternity took advantage of the events on offer surprisingly willingly. These were, among others, programmes made up of satirical texts, sometimes with an admixture of poetry, music and songs.
The performers who made up the artistic group working under the aegis of "Artos", in order to reach their potential listeners, were forced to wade through puddles of mud and to overcome obstacles arising - to put it euphemistically - from the lie of the land. None of us complained, to be sure; the kindly reception of what the programme offered fully made up to us for our sacrifice.
From today's perspective we even feel satisfaction. Because to some degree we can feel that we took part in the process of creating the new town whose name is NOWA HUTA.
As time went by, the changes in the Nowa Huta landscape became more noticeable and reached an ever more effective scale. The processes of development in the sphere of culture became especially promising. As new housing estates were built, institutions and centres sprang up which were concerned with spreading educational knowledge.
The building of the first workers' hostels went together with the possibility of organising on their premises the so-called "red corners". They served as a place where the builders met lecturers of every kind. They passed on knowledge from a number of disciplines, and also shared their experience of creative work.
The instructors appointed to cultural and educational work, while organising within the "red corners" talks and meetings of various kinds - at the same time ran a library point and also a reading room for books and the press.
The town, expanding step by step and already at the stage of housing estates being built - created greater possibilities of obtaining premises intended for holding cultural and educational events on a wider scale and with more effective access for the public.
At the same time it must be said openly that the scale of demand, especially from working-class circles, for a truly wide range of information from various fields of knowledge and experience of life, allowing them to satisfy their curiosity and above all to enrich their own personality, was incredibly great.
Moreover, each successive year in this community had to be marked by new offers from the sphere of culture and forms of education. And the point was not that forms of this type should be proposed and popularised only in their standard shape.
By a happy coincidence NOWA HUTA often attracted individuals marked by the ambition of creating and popularising innovative values of culture. For these had, a priori, by their substance as well as their form, to win over their potential audience.
And the forms that arose, unique for those times, were for example: cabarets with a peculiar stage form, jazz bands playing music that came from Western culture, the "Youth of the World Club", whose contacts and exchange of experience were not limited only to the camp (as it was then defined) of the people's democracies. The club's programme also took Western countries into account.
In the context of these threads it may come as a surprise that the main seat where the formations mentioned were practised was the "Ognisko Młodych" of the HiL steelworks. More than that! - the Jazz Club, in which concerts of syncopated music and jam sessions took place, was "honoured" by the presence of a member of parliament - Zbigniew Jakus.
And these are not the only examples of the anomalous phenomena defined in the title of this text. At the Ognisko Młodych of the ZMS there was also the Amateur Film Club, working on unprecedented principles. And not only because of its character, unmatched in the country, and its extraordinary vigour. This elite film group won enormous successes in film contests and at film festivals. With spectacular achievements to its name, as a consequence of its impressive activity it gained professional status. Several ex-members of the club found employment in Kraków television as film producers: Krzysztof Konarzewski and Krzysztof Kwinta.
Another film-maker with an established reputation is Jerzy Ridan. He has made a number of films of his own, and for many years has worked with Kraków television: TV often broadcasts his chronicles documenting the most important events from the sphere of culture, and also from other fields of the life of the inhabitants - in Nowa Huta these develop dynamically and constantly evolve.
One of the most outstanding film-makers and directors at home and abroad, Krzysztof Zanussi, began his great career precisely at the Amateur Film Club. And these are not the only examples of significant individualities who won here the spurs of future renowned film-makers.
Continuing the thread connected with the phrase that opens this description makes it necessary, in turn, to face an extraordinarily difficult task: an illustrative example confirming the ideological paradoxes was also the Teatr Ludowy (People's Theatre). And especially the ideological and artistic assumptions of the productions staged.
In that era this highly respectable temple of culture, on Nowa Huta ground, was undeniably an exceptional source of pride and satisfaction for the inhabitants.
But before a more evident sense of satisfaction became theirs, they had to wait patiently for the adversities that arose to be overcome. For the birth of the Teatr Ludowy was preceded by the earlier concept of building a Grand Theatre at the Central Square. As a result of financial upheavals its construction was abandoned, and a project of a chamber character was carried out instead. On top of that unfortunate abandonment came the even less favourable location of the theatre (not in the town's view) and the lack of technical facilities.
If we accept that the initial phase of the activity and development of the new institution did not shine in full splendour, the further course of time clearly brought out positive trends.
Its constantly widening and growing popularity, and also its ever higher artistic level, were heading almost for the peak.
It could not be otherwise, for the stewards of this institution of culture and art were such individualities as: Krystyna Skuszanka - director and artistic director, Jerzy Krasowski - stage director, Józef Szajna - stage designer, and Stanisław Skrowaczewski - music.
So the inauguration of the artistic activity of the Teatr Ludowy became an extraordinarily dynamic impulse for the historic cultural march in that autonomous town which Nowa Huta then was.
Yet the expected scale of that event was duly belittled by political factors and by a small part of the critics and journalists who kept to servile positions, which was bound to have certain implications. The originally more ambitious intention of the Artistic Board, to prepare the play entitled "Księżniczka Turandot" by Gozzi, was called into question. The result was that the Teatr Ludowy had to open with the premiere of "Krakowiacy i Górale" by Wojciech Bogusławski.
The interpretation of this situation should be derived from the name of the theatre sanctioned by the party authorities: ludowy - of the people.
Krystyna Skuszanka- even before the official opening, in the pages of "Dziennik Polski" - no doubt expecting repercussions of a kind in the form of directives from above of a political nature - expressed her doubts as follows: "..I do not know whether it was for the best that the new theatre was given the name "ludowy", like a periphery of culture; "folk art" often becomes a synonym for folklore, and more broadly and more historically it is explained as the plebeian current in culture..".
All these understandings of "ludowy" in relation to a theatre being created in the first socialist town would today be an obvious misunderstanding..
Reading the biographies of outstanding creators and artists provides fascinating knowledge of their exceptional talent, their wide horizons of thought in the field of art, their thorough creative craft grounded in vast reserves of imagination, their refined vision of an ever-changing world.
And finally! - of enormous willpower and extraordinary consistency in action. Affirming the fact that these qualities of personality marked the Management Team of the Teatr Ludowy, one would have expected that all doubts concerning the choice of productions staged, the manner of interpretation and, above all, the artistic formula of each item of repertoire - would be dispelled. Reality, however, did not confirm this in any measurable way.
The discussions and polemics in the media, not infrequently of a rather stormy and extremely aggressive character, did not cease. A group of certain opponents, not hard to identify, quite consistently refused to admit to their minds that obvious truth which the majority of significant critics and journalists stood for. And above all - theatre lovers. At times one could only indulgently regret the attitude, especially of those adversaries for whom the main motive of criticism directed at the theatre's creators was the semantics of the word: ludowy. On that account they probably expected banal though communicative solutions, and perhaps productions poor in means of artistic expression. Hence this supposition comes to mind: some critics had probably lost from their field of awareness the ability to understand logically the laws of the sociological development of a new population in a new environment.
This state of affairs did not, it is true, create an atmosphere favourable to creative work, but as the further history of the Teatr Ludowy proved - perhaps by way of retort - it gradually strengthened the artistic backbone of the refined helmsmen of this institution and of its acting company, with its wide range of stylistic variants of interpretation.
The constant attacks of the media, never weakening in their ostracising tone and directed at the principals of the theatre, not only came up against their astonishing resilience, but also - which may be the most surprising impression - provoked a perverse reply.
Each following year of the theatre's activity brought a series of new premieres. The productions were given an innovative face. In the manner of interpretation and in the concepts of stage design, elements reflecting avant-garde art were introduced. The level of this theatre marked a considerable renown. Its resounding popularity rang out loudly both at home and abroad. And the widening range of its qualities gave the theatre a distinction that had no parallel in many institutions of this type.
So the institutions of culture bestowed on the ambitious and highly distinguished creators and artists of the Nowa Huta stage various forms of recognition, prizes and also additional emoluments. In this context the question arises whether those examples of recognition were adequate to the scale of their artistic achievements and accomplishments in the work of giving the new community of inhabitants a proper status of civilisation.
In showing this string of distinctions, it is fitting to stress the presentations of productions, bringing significant successes, on the stages of theatres in Kraków, Warsaw and a number of others located in great urban centres.
An important test raising the Teatr Ludowy onto a high pedestal was its confrontations with prestigious theatres at international festivals. An extremely significant example of the ennoblement that fell to the theatre was its participation in the International Theatre Festival of C.Goldoni in Venice. We find confirmation in the review by Italian critics of the production entitled "Sługa dwóch Panów".
P.E.Poesioin his press article "Goldoni po polsku" gave this opinion: "..the artistic language wants to be new, to reach directly both the unprepared worker from Nowa Huta and the humanist from Kraków..". An attempt which, although on the one hand it might cause displeasure among traditionalists, on the other aroused the interest of those who, at the international festival of the plays of Goldoni, look for the more valuable aspects of present-day theatre in Europe.
In the review by Gastone Gerono, perhaps somewhat glorifying the impressions received, we read: "of all the interpretations of Goldoni that could be seen in the last twenty years, none was so decidedly revolutionary as the production of "Sługa dwóch panów" presented by the State People's Theatre from Nowa Huta". And to this one more short but so praiseworthy supplement: "..the applause at the end was long and enthusiastic..".
No smaller success was won by the Teatr Ludowy at the Theatre of Nations Festival in Paris. The reflections after the festival and the reviewers' assessments were in a similar vein. Georges Lerminier, in the newspaper "Le Parisien Libere", in one of his sentences on the production of Gozzi's "Turandot", expressed the quintessence of what characterised the Teatr Ludowy with extraordinary accuracy: "the audience of Nowa Huta is fortunate to have an artistic theatre so little conformist, in which freedom of search shows itself with such force and is combined with such quality of repertoire".
On the basis of the materials contained in the monograph published for the 50th anniversary of the Teatr Ludowy, one could go on quoting for a long time the words of recognition and delight of a number of French journalists. But I resort to widening that circle to include correspondents from outside France, which may enrich the resonance of impressions and assessments expressed from a wider perspective.
Andre Calas- "Plays and Players": "..The Theatre of Nations also gave us a fascinating production by the Polish theatre of Nowa Huta, which presented Gozzi. It was not the old Italian play, a sunny comedy, cheerful and rather silly, but a drama inspired by German expressionism. This is not a reproach: in reality it is a highly original work by Polish artists who set to work in a way that agreed with their temperament. They are a young, intelligent company, led by two directors full of ideas and dynamic energy, Krystyna Skuszanka and Jerzy Krasowski..".
And for the sake of a fuller range of responses to the productions staged by the artists from Nowa Huta, let us quote the review by the representative of "Die Welt" - Gerhard Weber, who, drawing a kind of analogy between the production of the Greek theatre and ours, reported his impressions as follows: "..if the Greeks, who opened the season, showed by the example of Sophocles and Euripides the roots of European theatre, then the Theatre of Nowa Huta, opened three years ago in an industrial centre near Kraków, gave us, to close the season, the quintessence of the art of modern theatre. Wishing to describe the style of the production of the fairy tale by Gozzi, "Turandot", one could say, to simplify: an updated, surrealist commedia dell'arte with an expressionist tendency and a Slavic colouring.. a demonstration of the absurdity of our world..".
In the play by Franz Werfel, too, "Jakubowski i Pułkownik", one followed from beginning to end the same intention, that incomparable comedy of pursuit amid pantomime scenes, tricks and gags, a comedy as lively as can be imagined.
What was missing in the staging of the Moscow Art Theatre was found in the Poles - a pointer to the direction of the future".
Did the further positive reflections and forms of recognition from foreign reviewers, addressed to the Teatr Ludowy from Nowa Huta, teach anything: especially to those most hardened, though unfortunately home-grown, critics and journalists? Or perhaps they actually changed their views on this stage, already then of great merit and winning ever greater successes. The answer invariably and unequivocally was: no!
For the force of conformist attitudes decidedly dominated them, and some of them were immeasurably possessed by servility towards their "paymasters", in the name of careerist aspirations. To sum up, one might add that any attempt to verify the views they proclaimed and published simply had no place in their doctrinaire calculations.
Fortunately, an encouraging counterweight, and one not without an important impulse for those who carried on the theatre's artistic ideas, was created by the opinions voiced and published by competent critics and journalists of respected periodicals. Their publications and statements were marked by substantive knowledge, accurate argument and a rational message.
In this train of opinion - somewhat by way of anticipation - one can accept the following concept: if any theatre-goer, on the basis of his own rich experience of contact with the Teatr Ludowy and of systematically following the reviews in the Polish and foreign press, allowed himself to give special prominence to its artistic successes and its achievements in the sphere of development and of civilised culture in the Nowa Huta community, he would not only not be guilty of abuse, but would actually obtain a licence for unchallengeable truth and - not without significance - a place in the pantheon.
Moving towards the conclusion that closes these reflections, sketched in brief form, on the fascinating and very rich history of the Teatr Ludowy and its artistic achievements, one may optimistically assume that it will be right to make use - to some degree - of a panegyric addressed to the Creators of the Teatr Ludowy, doing so on account of its exceptional successes, won already within three theatre seasons.
The authors of the fragment of text - wrapped in that aura of praise - were the authorities of the District National Council in Nowa Huta: "..three years ago the Teatr Ludowy began its work here with heartfelt and unfeigned fear in the face of this concrete desert and of people as yet unknown.
The staging of this so extraordinarily avant-garde item of repertoire is visible proof that the psycho-sociological knowledge, the high qualifications of artistic competence and the heroic courage with which the animators of the Nowa Huta stage were endowed opened an ever wider road to turning completely raw spectators - in a relatively short space of time - into ever more experienced recipients of theatrical art.
In the context of the facts outlined one cannot fail to see that the rationally conceived activity of this exceptional centre of culture brought with it momentous values of cultural status for both sides.
For since the spectator drew from the productions such attributes as: truth, moral postulates, humanist ideas, modern canons of artistic vision, and aesthetic and emotional experiences, the thesis that the Teatr Ludowy fulfilled its civilising function in the most momentous way could not fail to gain its full right to exist. And not only in the community of the young Nowa Huta population which embodied that phenomenon of cultural transformation.
To widen these reflections on the rational choice made by the main animators of the Nowa Huta stage - an artistic path based on introducing modern aspects into the productions, and sometimes elements bordering on avant-garde values - this theatre on the one hand entered a sphere of contradiction with the name "ludowy", and on the other gained coherence with institutions of the type that cultivated a similar artistic current.
Shaping the Teatr Ludowy in the categories of modernity - despite the need to overcome barriers of opposition of various kinds - was, as its successes both at home and abroad proved, right in every respect.
The justification of that profile, perhaps in a somewhat pretentious way, will be found in a few examples drawn from first-hand experience.
What, then, were the impressions of a young, inexperienced individual in contact with a modern, or downright avant-garde, field of art? What experiences were aroused by attending the performances of the Rhapsodic Theatre, and what reflections? - hard to define, one might say. Comparing those experiences with the reception of abstract painting, of the first jazz concert in the cool style, of the avant-garde musical works of Bogusław Schaeffer, or of J.Cage - the repercussions were similar.
As a result of gradual contact with the individual fields of art and with styles of various kinds, perception came to resemble - to put it trivially - the easy digestion of a favourite dish.
The conclusion from the comparisons presented appears clearly and unequivocally: in growing familiar with, and truly experiencing, even the most avant-garde artistic work, the factors that favour and shape this are surely: the span of time and the frequency of contact. For they unfailingly make the experience easier.
To round off the history of the Teatr Ludowy, it is hard not to mention this fact: the peak of its artistic development, its unique face and its one-of-a-kind stage - at the moment when the greatest and most deserving creators, Krystyna Skuszanka and Jerzy Krasowski, left its management team, this institution lost for ever its extraordinary character, its unique colour and its considerable position both at home and abroad.
And so the rich artistic output which raised the Teatr Ludowy to uncommon heights of popularity, and Nowa Huta as a town made famous by the radical change of its culture-creating landscape, found themselves trapped in a closed era.
In truth the theatre continues to develop and to fulfil a very important mission - as far as the changing management teams allow, and the ever-fluctuating opportunism in the field of culture in our country.
Yet - without running away from analogies - it is hard to resist the conviction that the ideological and artistic assumptions of the Teatr Ludowy were marked by a refined arrangement of theatrical qualities, set in a modern current and sometimes an avant-garde structure, both in form and in interpretation and expression. And at the same time they gave the productions a harmonious shape, the only one of its kind, and a clear character.
Nowa Huta, once an autonomous town - today a district of Kraków - is extricating itself with enormous difficulty from its "inglorious" past.
The negative opinion formed about it does not easily yield to revision. In the past era Nowa Huta was treated by the authorities of the day as a kind of antidote to the Kraków bourgeoisie, especially reactionary - in relation to the totalitarianism of the Polish People's Republic. And setting the people of Kraków against the new community in this way could not be without certain repercussions.
The people of Nowa Huta were condemned for a long time to an odium hard to bear. All the more so because the authorities above sanctioned this formula: Nowa Huta would be the first socialist town in Poland. This fact stood in clear contradiction not only to the political orientation but above all to the doctrine of faith of the decided majority of the new inhabitants.
It is hard, then, to be surprised that when the cup of bitterness overflowed, various forms of protest and signs of discontent occurred. And this confirmed that thesis unequivocally and most convincingly, and subsequently led to a sharp confrontation.
The incoming population forming the new community came, after all, from small towns and villages.
So it became understandable that its traditional customs, that is, the need to satisfy its spiritual bearings, began to show themselves with extraordinary expression.
This obvious fact soon found particularly clear reflection in the place consecrated by the symbol of the Cross, a legible sign announcing to one and all that a magnificent church was to rise here.
The building of a supermodern church was decided by the Will of the People of Nowa Huta and with the approval of the Kraków Metropolitan Curia.
Taking advantage of the generally favourable climate of the time, the result of the political events of October in the country, a significant body of the faithful constituted the Church Building Committee, and then with enormous determination took up the battle to overcome all the bureaucratic barriers connected with it. It is worth stressing that it did so with excellent results.
In the initial phase of the formal efforts the representatives of the committee received the consent of the provincial authorities of Kraków.
They also obtained a further important consent from the Office for Religious Affairs. And what must be considered the most significant success in this matter was the approval of the project by the head of state: Władysław Gomułka. The consistent lack of objection from the relevant authorities to the building of the church the main initiators owed also to a competently prepared basis in the form of legal acts, suitable infrastructure, an architecturally interesting design of the church and financial resources. The extremely optimistic course of affirmative events, proving irreversible processes of preparation for the creation of a new sacred building in Nowa Huta, aroused among its inhabitants a genuine euphoria of happiness. And the conviction that no force would any longer be able to stop the running current of decisions made.
And yet, contrary to that conviction, the excessively drawn-out time spent on overcoming the difficult ruts on the long road of formal obstacles managed to cause, at the various levels of the party committees, a surprising change of political mood, which as a consequence worsened relations between the church and the party decision-makers.
The implications of this state of affairs appeared in the near future in an unimaginably surprising way. On the order of the Social and Administrative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, not only was the building of the church halted, but - o extreme paradox! - the administrative bodies at the level of the province, in a manner of downright ruthless action, appropriated the financial resources collected by people faithful to the idea of building the church.
In the context of the appearance of such far-reaching radical changes, which both the political and the administrative authorities began to demonstrate ostentatiously, their next actions were easy to foresee. So before long the further steps of the decision-makers were already of an extreme character.
In the first stage they consisted in the decision to remove the Cross. And when it came to the execution of that vile decision, it met with enormous resistance from a sizeable group of inhabitants of the blocks situated closest to the scene of the event.
At the same time it must be stressed with full force that the influx of a wide crowd of Nowa Huta people proceeded like lightning and escalated into extraordinarily firm resistance to the lava of the forces of order spreading through the crowd, which unmistakably scented a revolt dangerous in its consequences. All the more so as that diagnosis was confirmed by the ever-swelling crowd of inhabitants of Nowa Huta, reaching a number hard to estimate.
In response to the intensifying assault by the intervention forces, the people of Nowa Huta did not fail to bring into play an arsenal of means in the form of pelting their opponents with stones, with bricks torn from cornices, as well as roof tiles and barriers. And on a wave of extreme exasperation women poured hot water on the uniformed units from the windows of the blocks of flats. The culminating act of retaliation may be considered the total smashing of the window panes of the District National Council and the burning of the files kept in its rooms.
As the numbers grew and the desperation and effectiveness of the resistance of the defenders of the Cross intensified, the uniformed attackers not only turned against them water cannon, tear gas and smoke candles but, what is worse, did not hesitate to use guard dogs and to employ, besides the standard item that the rubber truncheon most often is, blunt and sharp instruments as well. Moreover, uniformed drivers drove vehicles at speed into the largest gatherings of demonstrators.
As a result of this shameful conduct a number of inhabitants were severely battered. But what deserves special emphasis is that those vans, the so-called "suki", were overturned and burnt by sturdy men. The range of means used up to then, though often drastic, did not include in its resources the most extreme ones. And yet, when a sense of weakness appeared, humiliation and unspeakable rage among the officers, including the slight to their "honour", they were, as it were, "pushed" into using firearms. The first shots were fired, and the result was many people wounded. Nor did it pass without the most dramatic consequences: loss of life.
Some protesters were deprived of life as a result of accurate fire. Others - as a result of the severe wounds they suffered. There is one more paradoxical fact: the statistics of deaths among the Defenders of the Cross could not be revealed, and still less could they be identified. Revealing the personal details of those who had lost their lives automatically cast a shadow on their families and so threatened immediate arrests.
The current of unbending struggle with the opponent, its embers spreading gradually to further housing estates, soon took in the whole town and, not weakening, consistently went on. That surprising course of events caused increased panic in the ranks of the intervention forces, which led the commanders of the individual units to bring in reinforcements from several other centres of larger urban areas, suitably equipped with instruments of violence. As the cycle of the day - in the biological sense - went by, in inverse proportion there grew, on the part of intervention units of every stripe, including - horror of horrors - a military formation too, the pacifying assault on the people of Nowa Huta, who would not surrender.
With midnight approaching, as a result of the concentration of multiplied intervention forces, the town drowning in clouds of chemical agents, the firing of petards towards the windows of the blocks of flats, and also the use of firearms, the massed units of "order" managed to bring the general situation of the disturbances in the town under control. The tragic conclusion of the "situation brought under control" spoke unequivocally: the officers, during the disturbances, besides smoke candles, tear gas, water cannon, guard dogs, blunt and sharp instruments and rubber truncheons (as archive sources report) - fired 140 shots.
Statistical data concerning the wounded, and unfortunately also the dead, have never been established. The bodies of the forces of order carefully covered up the effects of the bloody events on the side of the injured inhabitants. The inhabitants of Nowa Huta, putting up extraordinarily heroic resistance, undertook an unprecedented fight in defence of the Cross; they risked the loss of work, of freedom, harassment of various kinds, including the worst variant: loss of life. By their attitude they bore witness to deep faith in the ideas which very clearly defined their hierarchy of human values.
The extremely painful balance of the dramatic experiences of the Nowa Huta community, and in the longer run even the most keenly felt effects, did not break the strength of will to fight the ruthless tormentors. Let the conclusion of this description, a fragmentary account of the course of events connected with the defence of the Cross, be crowned on the one hand by the memorable words of a great man, Pope John Paul II, spoken during his Pilgrimage: "I thank Divine Providence that I was able, together with You, together with the whole new system, to build Nowa Huta on the foundation of the Cross of Christ" - and on the other: the magnificent Church dedicated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, which rose on the spot marking the extraordinary heroism of the victorious struggle of the inhabitants of Nowa Huta - a symbol of the absolute supremacy of the power of faith over the atomised matter of nothingness. And then - although after the tragic experiences connected with the defence of the Cross the wounds had not yet healed, nor the painful harassment and persecution of the Nowa Huta population ended, suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, there fell on our country the shattering news of martial law.
This fact was a gigantic misfortune for the whole nation, and for the people of Nowa Huta another challenge in the face of adversity. So, inevitably, against the threat of a new conflagration, it was decided among the steelworks' crew to establish: the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarność" (Solidarity). It is true that already the Pope's first pilgrimage to Poland bore fruit in a number of symptoms of protest against the ever-worsening conditions of life and the lack of civil liberties. And the creation of "Solidarność" at the Lenin Steelworks was without doubt the greatest phenomenon of the workers' movement, both for the community of employees and for the inhabitants of Nowa Huta. The declaration of martial law resulted in the transformation of the Works Commission of NSZZ "Solidarność" into Strike Committees. For they directed the whole resistance movement which, on the grounds of the Lenin Steelworks, stood up to the intervention units of the SB security service, the ZOMO riot police, officers of the MO militia and military formations.
The steelworkers' strike in response to martial law, and also the attempt to blockade all the gates of the steelworks, were sufficient provocation for the intervention squadrons to burst onto its grounds under cover of tanks ramming the defensive barricades. The steelworkers' "Solidarność", demanding the lifting of martial law and the release of all those interned, met with brutal reactions from the political authorities. And yet the expectations of the striking steelworkers amounted only to proclaiming idealistic slogans. So, as could easily be foreseen, the entry of the forces of order onto the grounds of the steelworks meant at the same time an act of pacification. The leaders of "Solidarność" were rounded up, the leaders of the Strike Committees were arrested, and those taking part in the strike were beaten with truncheons.
Yet the unbending heroism of the steelworking fraternity, a fortitude forged in the fetters of glowing steel, in defence of freedom and of the civil rights due to them, was an enormous triumph for the strikers. The grounds which contributed to that victorious epilogue were their stimulating strength of faith and their deeply rooted, unbending attitude. Special attention is due to the spiritual support given to the strikers by various communities. In the foreground were priests and clergy; at makeshift little altars set up in the departments, eucharistic occasions for prayer were arranged, together with the hearing of confession and the giving of communion. They were an essential building block of the missionary message of God and of last things. The strikers received an extraordinarily ennobling gesture and proofs of solidarity from students, who reached the grounds of the steelworks to give them moral support.
And the main source of emotional support for the protesting steelworkers was their closest families, who, faithfully keeping watch at the Gates of the Steelworks over their fate, were united with their sons, husbands and brothers by transcendent bonds.
And so the main threads of this subject, bringing together a number of examples of the heroic struggle of the Nowa Huta community for the liberalisation of religious practice, for freedom and social justice, and also for standards of living that do not humiliate and for human dignity - showed in a truly extraordinary way the deeply humanist mentality rooted in it: a synthesis of the greatest values of human existence and of momentous spiritual needs. From today's perspective - as I believe - nobody should any longer have any doubt that Nowa Huta is immanently bound up with Kraków and, as a district of Kraków, may call itself an organism of fame and glory.
Photographs from the album "50 lat Teatru Ludowego", and lent by Tadeusz Binek from his website and from the book by Jerzy Ridan, "Krzyż Nowohucki"
