The Rozbrat squat functions since 1994 and since the beginning has been run by a collective. After the World War II the anarchist movement appeared in Poznan only in the late 1980s. At the beginning of the next decade, similarly as in Warsaw, Lublin, Tricity and other cities, it demanded to be offered premises for its activity. In 1990 the anarchists occupied the headquarters of the Polish Socialist Youth Union (Związek Socjalistycznej Młodzieży Polskiej). Two years later, city authorities offered the post-German bunker on Lutycka street. The location was however impossible to be used and was soon abandoned. In 1994, inspired by the autonomous actions in Germany, Netherlands and Italy, Poznan’s anarchists change their tactics and squatted an abandoned building. The chose abandoned space of a former warehouse on Pułaskiego street. Since 1994, the Rozbrat squat has been located there - which makes it the longest operating squat in Poland.

First two years the squat was busy with renovation and adaptation works. In 1995 the first concerts took place there. In 1997 the Poznan Anarchist Library was founded in the squat, and the regular events has become the Freedom Gathering (Biesiady Wolnościowe). Since this year Rozbrat is also an informal headquarter of Poznan’s section of the Anarchist Federation. In 2000 the Anarchist Club was founded. In the 1990s Rozbrat was a center of alternative culture (of concerts, exhibitions, meetings, poetry readings, etc.), however in the 2000s – with the influence of international alter-globalist movement – it started to focus mostly on some socio-political goals. This change should be seen in a broader context of atrophy of alternative culture in the late 1990s and ideological clashes within the anarchist movement in Poland. In the 1990s the individualistic and libertarian attitudes were dominant, and the most important issues were of cultural, artistic and philosophical nature. At the beginning of a new decade, predominance was on the side of anarchists concerned with leftists and social issues, with willingness for political fight. Since then, Rozbrat has been a centre hosting law, ecological, antifascist, and tenant initiatives.

The squat’s collective has been following the rules of self-governance and radical democracy – as a rule rejecting any subsidies, grants, patronages, and commercial activities. The Poznan Anarchist Library is one of many activities conducted in the squat and subjected to decisions of the collective.