Located at the Polish Library of the Polish Social and Cultural Association (POSK) in London, this collection contains approximately 600 posters, calendars and leaflets produced by the Solidarity movement in Poland, and its collaborators and sympathizers in Western Europe from 1980 to 1990. Of particular value are posters printed in France, United Kingdom, Belgium, Norway, Sweden that document the activities of Solidarity outposts in exile, demonstrate grass-root initiatives in support of the Solidarity union in Western Europe, and provide examples of visual, artistic, and satirical projections of anti-communist opposition in communist Poland and Eastern Europe.
Location
London King Street 238-246, United Kingdom
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Languages
English
French
Polish
Name of collection
Solidarity Posters Collection
Provenance and cultural activities
The origins of Solidarity Posters Collection in the Polish Library in London go back to the 1980s when Zdzisław Jagodziński, director of the Library, collected Polish independent publications and samizdat on massive scale. Continuing the work of his predecessors and other émigré libraries, bookstores and presses, Jagodziński supplied institutions and individuals in People's Poland with books published in exile and by Western publishers. The Polish Library was one of several distribution centers that participated in the Cold War project coordinated by the International Literary Center (ILC) in New York and secretly sponsored by the CIA. This inititive resulted in the shipment of some 4 million books to Poland and 10 million to the entire Soviet Bloc. From the early 1980s Jagodziński collected books, serials, leaflets and posters released by opposition groups in Poland and smuggled abroad. At present, the Polish Library POSK in London holds one of the largest collections of Polish independent publications outside Poland. The Library also collected numerous posters that documented rallies, public protests and other actions that took place in Western Europe to express support for the Solidarity Union and other opposition groups in Poland. These ephemera do provide a glimpse of the popular visualization of workers' revolt, struggle for human rights, and communist authoritarianism by professional and amateur artists. Of particular importance is the fact that targeted audiences were citizens of Western European nations. Regardless of their artistic value, items in the collection demonstrate ways in which the West internalized the conflict between opposition and the General Jaruzelski regime. The geographical scope of the collection also shows the international impact of the Solidarity movement and its place in the discourse of anti-Communism of the 1980s. The Solidarity poster collection has never been processed, catalogued, and properly displayed. As a result, it has been rarely used by researchers. At present, it is stored in the Joseph Conrad room of the Polish Library. The collection is available for viewing by appointment. There are currently no plans to digitize it in the near future. The absence of funds which would allow such action endangers the very physical survival of the collection.
Description of content
The collection contains posters, leaflets, calendars and other ephemera that promoted the Polish Solidarity movement and other opposition groups in People's Poland and Western Europe in the 1980s. It demonstrates the interwoven impact of Solidarity and Martial Law on public opinion, defenders of human rights, and anti-communist circles. The collection also projects the internalization of the political struggle in Poland by professional and amateur visual artists in places like France, Great Britain, Belgium and Scandinavia.
Platt, D., Sienkiewicz, J. W., Halikowska, T., Smith, A., Polish Social and Cultural Association, & Polish Library POSK (Londyn). (2014). Wspólny wysiłek - wspólny sukces: 50 lat POSKu : wystawa = Community effort, community achievement : 50 years of POSK : exhibition. Londyn, United Kingdom: Polski Ośrodek Społeczno-Kulturalny.
Suchcitz, A. (2003). Dr Zdzisław Jagodziński (1927-2001). In Zdzisław Jagodziński jakim Go pamiętamy (pp. 11-14). Londyn, United Kingdom: Biblioteka Polska POSK.
Platt, Dobrosława , interview by Kunicki, Mikołaj, May 16, 2016. COURAGE Registry Oral History Collection
