COURAGE

connecting collections

Donald Tusk is a Polish politician who was engaged in "Solidarity" movement from its beginnings. During his studies at the University of Gdansk he co-organised Students' Solidarity Committee, which was a reaction to the murder of Stanislaw Pyjas by Security Services. After the strikes broke in Gdansk Shipyard in August 1980, he was one of the founders of the Independent Students’ Union. Tusk's activities in the early 1980s focused on copying and disseminating illegal press and literature. He was also engaged in organising help for people oppressed by the regime, especially students. Later he worked as a journalist in several newspapers related to "Solidarity". After 1989 he became an active politician and was regularly chosen to the Parliament, where he held the highest functions. Between 2003-2014 he was the chairman of the Civic Platform party and between 2007-2014 the Prime Minister of Poland. Since 2014 he has been acting as the President of the European Council of European Union.

Film Notation with Donald Tusk focuses on his everyday life and oppositional activities in the 1980s in Gdansk, especially on his work in the Altitude Service Cooperative "Swietlik", which was an organisation founded in 1983 by a group of students - activists from the Independent Students’ Union, gathered students in order to help them make money, what was often problematic in socialist economics. The organisation gathered young intellectuals, activists and Alpinists. In his Notation Tusk speaks about his experiences of being a part of such colourful group. He describes the influence of "Swietlik" on his later life.

The Film Notation of Donald Tusk was used in a documentary about he Altitude Service Cooperative "Swietlik" produced in 2010.

Halina Winiarska-Kiszkis, born in 1933, has been a theatre actress since 1953. During her long career she cooperated with the best Polish Theatres, e.g. in Nowa Huta, Zielona Gora, Rzeszow. Between 1966-2003 she worked in Wybrzeze Theatre in Gdansk. When the strikes broke in the Gdansk Shipyard in August 1980 she openly endorsed the protesters with her colleague actors. Soon they formed their own "Solidarity" union in the theatre. With other cultural workers she co-organised the occupation of the Provincial Office of Gdansk.

After the introduction of martial law on 13 December 1981 she was immediately arrested and kept in the internment camp in Strzebielinek, Bydgoszcz-Fordona and Goldap. After being released she still continued her oppositional activity, mainly in the field of culture, e.g. she co-organised the Weeks of Christian Culture in Gdansk's churches. In free Poland she was rewarded with many several distinctions (like "Gloria Artis" Silver Medal).

In the Notation Halina Winiarska-Kiszkis speaks about the time she spent in the internment camp. She shares her emotions and experiences of being humiliated. However, she also describes the prisoners' strategies of resistance, like mocking the guards and disobeying their orders.

Film Notation with Halina Winiarska-Kiszkis is a part of the first edition of a project "Solidarity. What is left" conducted by the European Solidarity Centre in Gdansk (with technical support of Video Studio Gdansk and financial donation from the National Centre for Culture, through the "Patriotism of Tomorrow" programme). In the same edition Halina's husband, Jerzy Kiszkis - also an actor, cultural activist, and dissident - was interviewed. Since 2008 there has been VII editions of the "Solidarity. What is left" initiative.

Henryka Dobosz-Kinaszewska, born in 1940, is a Polish journalist and film-maker. In 1962 she started working in a publishing house, but soon chose journalism as her career path. Through the 1960s and 1970s she worked in several Polish newspapers, focusing on cultural issues in her writing. 

In August 1980 she joined the protests of the Gdansk Shipyard workers and, along with almost 50 other writers, she signed the statement of Polish journalists endorsing the strike (the working version of this documents is now an exhibit at the European Solidarity Centre). During the martial law she engaged in creating and disseminating underground press and grey literature, which she also edited. After 1989 she continued her journalist career. Moreover, in the 1990s she became involved in the film-making environment. Acting as a director and screenwriter she created several documentaries, mostly focused on political and social activists (e.g. Stanisław Barańczuk and Lech Bądkowski).

In 1983 her family was dragged into the intrigue of Secret Services directed to discredit Karol Wojtyla (the Pope John Paul II). Wojtyla was a long-time friend of Henryka's husband's ,Adam Kinaszewski's, family. Because Adam was raised without a father, the regime's media started the rumour, which claimed that Wojtyla is in fact his father. The information was easily denied and proved to be just a weak attempt of Secret Services to undermine the Pope's authority among Poles.

In the Notation Henryka Dobosz-Kinaszewska shares her personal experiences. Her narration shows a lot of humour, which seemed to help her in the hardest times of the martial law. She also describes her own "dissident awakening": she states that in consequence of her own experiences from 1981 (e.g. arrest of her husband Adam Kinaszewski and her daughter's fear) she started to recognise patriotic feelings and to understand the sense of oppositional activity.

Film Notation with Henryka Dobosz-Kinaszewska is a part of the first edition of a project "Solidarity. What is left" conducted by the European Solidarity Centre in Gdansk (with technical support of Video Studio Gdansk and financial donation from the National Centre for Culture, through the "Patriotism of Tomorrow" programme). Since 2008 there has been VII editions of the "Solidarity. What is left" initiative.

The interview with Herbert Kisza was conducted by Miroslav Vaněk during two sessions in Kadan, Czech Republic. The first interview took place on October 10, 2007 and the second on February 11, 2008. The interviews took nearly two hours together.

Herbert Kisza was chosen as a representative of intelligence as an artist. The interview was conducted as part of the project "Survey of Czech Society in the Period of Standardization, Biographical Narratives of Workers and Intelligence".

In the interview, Mr. Kisza mentions his childhood, studies at the School of Applied Arts, and how he managed to escape military service by having himself put in the psychiatric hospital. He tells of his attitude to Charter 77, which he did not sign in the end, though the secret service was watching him regardless since many of his friends and colleagues were signatories of Charter 77. Much of the conversation with Kirza is about traveling, even during socialism.

This interview is particularly interesting for the detailed information about life during socialism, the possibilities people had and the obstacles the regime placed them. Herbert Kisza was not a forbidden artist, but he was not supported, and in this interview he explains how he managed to continue with his work.