The article takes a close look at one female cell in Mokotów Prison in Warsaw, where from September 1949 to early 1950, five women were held together: Sabina Stalińska, Halina Zakrzewska, Tonia Lechtman, Ewa Piwińska, and Vera Szot. Stalińska and Zakrzewska both belonged to the Home Army. Lechtman and Piwińska were both committed and active Communists. Szot was arrested for her participation in the Ukra¬inian Insurgent Army. They spent their early months of interrogation in fearful anticipa¬tion of the coming days. Their interpretation of the situation as well as their allegiance to postwar Poland differed. The varied composition of the cell appeared to be an addi¬tional burden, as if confinement in an extremely overcrowded space was not punishment enough. Yet, the existing sources show that, despite the women’s ideological differences, the cell that they shared became an emotionally and intellectually open space, where at least some of the women attempted to understand each other. Their ideological commit¬ments and Communism were the most neutral topics of their discussions. These talks became their framework of self-exploration, which led to the close relationships that some of them continued years after the release.
This article looks at three interviews conducted with Anna Walentynowicz, an important Solidarity figure, recorded by three different people. The interviews span from the mid-1980s—the peak of the Solidarity struggle—through the 1990s—when Poland was still celebrating its newly regained independence from Communism—to the decision to join the European Union. As such they mark milestones of Polish history in the last two decades. The article describes Walentynowicz’s difficult childhood and proceeds through her professional career in the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk until her active involvement in the Solidarity strikes in the Shipyard in August of 1980. This was essentially the time when, due to her skirmishes with Solidarity Leader Lech Wałęsa, she found herself on the margins of the movement in which she sincerely believed. The article focuses on Walentynowicz’ narratives, more precisely on the important events which drive how she tells her story, as well as key notions that maintain the coherence of her story. She tells her story in a romantic epic mode, in which she is able to combine her personal experience with master narratives of Polish history. It is essentially a redemptive story through which she struggles to maintain the meaning of her life. The way she reconstructs and narrates her past reflects on her attitude towards her present.
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