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I wanted to smash communism

Stanislaw Zolkevich

A native of Pnikut near Mosciska, he expatriated to post-war Poland in 1958 as a Przemyśl social activist and national-radical activist. Widely known for organizing two high-profile projects in Przemyśl: The reconstruction of the Monument to the Eaglets of Przemyśl, which was demolished by the Germans and Ukrainians in 1940, and the organization in 1991 of the defense of the Monastery and Church of the Discalced Carmelites from being turned over to the Byzantine-Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as well as leading a few years later to the removal of the dome on the same church and the restoration of the reconstructed historic signature tower from 1630. In 1980, Eng. Stanislaw Zolkevich worked as deputy director of the Provincial Directorate of Urban and Rural Development, later renamed the Provincial Directorate of Investment. As part of the WDI, he was the head of the provincial Office for the Revitalization of Monuments in Przemyśl.

Establishing Solidarity in the region

I organized the Office of Historic Restoration myself, came up with the statute, all those attachments needed to set up the company, and together with the City Historic Preservation Officer we started working there. It was 1980, and the Solidarity trade union was founded. I became very involved in organizing union structures in our province, although by no means from purely union motives. I simply sensed within Solidarity an opportunity to oppose the communist authorities, and in the long run a chance to smash communism.

I participated in the first founding meetings at various workplaces. Anyway, at the Bureau of Historic Revitalization, which employed a dozen workers and of which I was the head, I founded Solidarity myself, despite the opposition of the WDI general manager. Soon, at a general union meeting, I was elected chairman of the Solidarity Regional Election Commission, and as chairman I organized the election of union authorities in all the larger workplaces, and in the smaller ones my deputies did so. The Election Commission had to watch over the formal correctness of the establishment of Solidarity in workplaces and the election of union authorities throughout the then Przemyśl province, so that the communists would not accuse the union of acting in violation of the union's statutes. Typically, 70 to 90 percent of workers at workplaces signed up to become Solidarity members.

I once came to the Housing Management Company in Przemyśl, where the president was Mr. Miśkiewicz (later president of the Polonia Sports Club). I asked him to call a general meeting of employees and suggested signing up for Solidarity. I had known Mr. Miśkiewicz before, although he was on the "other side" because he was a committed PZPR activist. I circulated a list, the crew began to sign in, and at the end it turned out that 70 percent of the workers had joined Solidarity. Chairman Miśkiewicz, who was sitting next to me, was against the establishment of the Solidarity trade union from the beginning, but when he saw at the end how many workers had signed up on the list, he stood up and called out: "Crew, if that's the case, I want to be with you too!" And he also signed up. And later he even became an activist of the Solidarity Region. In this way, quite a few party members were converted.

 Elections regional Solidarity authorities

After a period of spontaneous establishment of Solidarity in various workplaces in the Przemyśl region, it was time to elect the union's statutory regional authorities. And this moment proved to be the most difficult, as it threatened conflict and schism.

As is well known, since the establishment of the Przemyśl province, relations between Jaroslaw and Przemyśl were, to put it mildly, not good. The conflict was mainly due to Jaroslaw's unsatisfied ambitions for political domination in the newly created province. These ambitions had some justification in the fact that Yaroslavl nevertheless had an advantage over Przemyśl in terms of industry and central location. Well, this earlier conflict now spilled over to some of the Yaroslavl Solidarity activists, who did not like being subordinated to the regional Solidarity authorities in Przemyśl.

They were well organized and managed to set up Solidarity union structures earlier than we did in Przemyśl. The national authorities of Solidarity didn't have any single nationwide election ordinance, so I created an ordinance here in Przemyśl. When I started going to Jaroslaw and trying to get our structures to merge, it finally came to the unification of these two Election Commissions: the Przemyśl one and the Jaroslaw one.

In Yaroslavl, the chairwoman of the Solidarity Election Commission was Judge Anna Sierpinska. She approved this ordinance of mine and put me forward as chairman of the newly formed Provincial Election Commission of the "S", and she herself became my deputy. We selected activists from Jaroslaw and wanted to organize elections of the Region's authorities, but it turned out that not everyone in Jaroslaw came to terms with this. There were sharp disputes, including at the first General Meeting of Delegates.

Before we merged our Election Commissions into a single provincial one, it was a lady judge who elected the Jaroslaw delegates contrary to the rule set by the national authorities that there was one delegate per 500 union members. I in Przemyśl conformed to this rule, which, by the way, I was the author of, and it in Jaroslaw allowed for the election of one delegate when the workplace had, for example, 150 or 300 people. And it was necessary to combine plants so that one delegate per 500 members could be elected. So it came out that it had too many of these delegates. So we had to reduce the number of delegates, so to speak, "from behind the desk." I was afraid that someone might challenge this, but overall everything was already in line, because there was only one delegate for every 500 Yaroslavl members.

During the first Delegates' Convention at the High School on Slowackiego Street in Przemysl, this conflict between the two cities surfaced again: half of the delegates from Jaroslaw, under the pretext of a difference of opinion on some issue, left the hall, leaving the Convention, while the other half stayed. Thus, the Yaroslavl Solidarity was in danger of splitting into two camps. Especially since among those who left the Congress were some very prominent Solidarity members who had founded the Union and exposed themselves. They did not want to belong to the Solidarity Region in Przemysl, but intended to join Rzeszow. On the other hand, those Yaroslavl delegates who remained in the hall demanded that I continue the meeting and elect the authorities. However, I interrupted the congress, because I wanted to avoid a split and give the union a chance to unite.

Before I called the next Delegates' Convention, I went to Yaroslavl and had a series of conversations with these "splitters." I assured them that I would propose a candidate for Regional Vice-Chairman from among them. Well, and I managed to convince them to remain in the Przemysl Region. Admittedly, later those Jaroslaw delegates who did not leave the Congress resented me, but the most important thing was that there was no compromising split.

At this reunion, the election of the Region's authorities was successfully held, but it was not without some grumbling. Well, before the elections took place, the Przemysl railwaymen put forward my candidacy for chairman of the Region. Meanwhile, I didn't want to and, by the way, couldn't run for this position, because I wasn't a delegate, but the chairman of the Election Committee. However, they had the argument that since the highest authority is the Convention, it can, through voting, give me the authority of a delegate, and I will be able to run for Region chairman. In the face of this pressure, I had to say to them, certainly unpleasant for them, that I was not interested in union activities at all. I only wanted to organize Solidarity in the area, to get it moving, but only to contribute to the overthrow of the Commune. Besides, my person was not suitable for this function, because I was, after all, deputy director, and headed the Office of Historic Restoration. Besides, I liked my job and wanted to devote myself to historic preservation, not union activities.

Well, at that time, Czeslaw Kijanka from the State Machinery Center in Bircza was elected as the chairman of the Region. The election was quite unexpected, because he was barely elected in the third round as a delegate representing, by the way, several POMs. Because I combined the POMs of Przemysl, Bircza and a few others as part of the election, so that three delegates could be elected for every 1,500 employees. After the election, he came to me and confided that because of my meticulousness about the finer requirements of the vote, he was convinced that I intended to perpetuate it. Meanwhile, this attention to detail on my part was simply due to my concern lest someone from the Communist authorities later question the correctness of the election.

His counter-candidate was a railroader from Zurawica, Eugeniusz Opacki, who served as chairman until the election. I had no major objections to him, but I was nevertheless opposed to his candidacy, because he had previously been a member of the PZPR and I found it hard to believe in his sudden conversion. And Kijanka was clean in this regard. Later, however, it turned out that Opacki had genuinely converted. He was a very committed activist and we even supported each other.

Martial law

As for martial law, it began for me the way I saw Jaruzelski announce it on TV. To be honest, I didn't expect this, because I wasn't in close contact with the main Solidarity activists, and I know from later information that they were warned about this possibility. I was not told this by anyone. In any case, I turned off the TV and rushed to the Region headquarters.

I run into the Stone Bridge, and there is already a group of people sitting there, and they start making a list of activists who were interned. So I say, "Gentlemen, what are you doing! Now there is no time for this, because the most important thing is to hide all the documents." And I ordered the accountant to immediately take out the documents from the desk and hide them well. I did not know at the time that the accountant, Krystyna Sowinska, was cooperating with the secret police. I appointed someone else to hide the banner of the Southeastern Region of Solidarity. True, I was a rank-and-file member and held no position in the union, but everyone knew me as the chairman of the Regional Election Committee, so they respected my instructions.

Incidentally, it may seem strange that the SSB did not manage to take all this away yet, especially since, as it later turned out, in all other cities the Solidarity headquarters were ransacked in the morning. Well, the Przemysl Solidarity had an office on the second floor of a building on Stone Bridge, and on the fourth floor was a Solidarity duplicating room with printing presses. And in the morning the militiamen just broke in there, secured the printing machines and even arrested the people there. And they didn't even enter the office on the second floor, probably in the belief that the office was where the machines were.

But in the midst of this "governing" of mine, the Vice Chairman of the Region, Wojtek Klaj, came into the office, listened for a while to the instructions I was giving, and then declared: "I'm the vice chairman here, and I'm taking charge from now on. We will declare a strike in all workplaces." After that, they formed a committee, issued a protest to the authorities threatening a strike, and Klizh and Pudlinski went with it to the governor. Well, and of course they locked them out. This was extreme naivety, because you knew who you were dealing with.

 Organizing the Solidarity underground

Instead of a formal protest doomed to failure in advance, it was necessary to organize people for underground activities. And that's exactly what I initiated by getting some activists together for a secret meeting at Kmiecia. I think only Marek Kaminski was there from the Regional Board, and it was with him that we began to organize people. Mietek Zrajko, the founder and chairman of the Crafts Solidarity, joined then. A very decent and dedicated man, he helped us a lot, even though it was risky for him, because he had some business of his own. There was also Staszek Wilk, then head of the Przemyśl ChSS, who was also heavily involved and helped a lot in the beginning. Among other things, he edited a magazine with the title he invented, "No," which we began to publish. I told him now that Urban could be taken to court for plagiarism. Of course, at the time it was about "No" to martial law. And we published this magazine for several months. I wrote under various pseudonyms. There were so many that I don't even remember some of them, and I recognize my articles only by their content. Of course, the printing of the magazine was handled by Marek Kaminski. There were also with us: Stanislaw Trybalski, a great patriot and very valuable to us, because he was a dispatcher at the PKS and arranged for the delivery of shipments when necessary, and he probably hated the Commune even more than I did; Zygmunt Majgier, who after he was thrown out of his job at the housing cooperative began to work as a cab driver; Rysiek Buksiński, who was also very dedicated, risking being thrown out of his job at the Zurawica Armaments Plant. Some more joined us, from time to time, but our core group was the ones I mentioned. The rest of the Solidarity activists were either interned or did not get involved at all.

Zygmunt Majgier often demanded that elections be held for the chairman and vice-chairman of our underground group, and Marek Kaminski sometimes supported this. I, on the other hand, did not want this, because in the event of some mishap, people could go soft and betray the entire structure. To be honest, I was mainly afraid that Zygmunt Majgier, however good a person and dedicated to the cause, could unwittingly tell his friends, because he was very talkative and liked to talk to people a lot about everything. And in underground activities this is always risky. So it was safer not to have a formal structure, a chairman, a board of directors. In fact, however, it was I who directed the activities of the group, and everyone was aware of this.

As I mentioned, we published a magazine called "No" during martial law, and after it ended I proposed changing the name of the magazine to "Busola." For now it was more about setting a positive course of action. That is, it was necessary not only to deny, but also to set the perspective of achieving a free Poland. We made leaflets for various current occasions, such as the anniversaries of the August Agreements or the anniversaries of the declaration of martial law.

 Printing machines from Kijanka

Czeslaw Kijanka, as chairman of the Region, was interned at the outbreak of martial law. After he left, I decided to make contact with him, because I knew that he had two printing machines in the Region office. I guessed that he had managed to hide them somewhere. And we in our underground activities had only modest duplicators. So I went to Bircza and said: 'Czesiek, you have to return these machines to us.' He says: "What machines?" And I firmly: "Well, those two union ones, what you hid them."

In fact, I wasn't sure if he had actually managed to "zamelin" them, but I pretended to know. Well, he admitted that he had hidden them: "But not here in Bircza, but in Dubieckie Przedmieście."

The next day, my brother-in-law and I arrived with my "little car" at the indicated address in Przedmieście Dubieckie. Czesiek, however, did not show us the hiding place, but drove somewhere himself in our Fiat and brought two rather large machines folded in the back seat and covered with a blanket. I said, "Czesiek, you left your driver's license on the table. Any roadside check and there would have been a slip-up. And he says: What are you going to do if you get caught on the way to Przemysl? Good question, because it was just after the end of martial law and there were still controls on the city's corners. But in answering, I joked: "I'll say that Kijanka told me to take something there, and I don't even know what it is." He got terribly upset, so I had to reassure him that, after all, I was joking, and in case of a slip-up, of course, I won't even mention that I was with him and that I know him at all.

In fact, if I had actually come across a traffic control, I had intended not to stop at all, after all, I would have fallen into a tailspin and would have been threatened with imprisonment. But fortunately, I managed to luckily reach Przemyśl and it was already possible to print good-quality leaflets, which, by the way, Marek Kaminski was already in charge of. And Kijanka soon emigrated to the U.S., earned well there as a salesman of cars imported from Europe, and never returned to Poland permanently.

 Our first "scramble"

We organized our first major "scramble" on the Stone Bridge in August 1982, on the anniversary of the Gdańsk August Agreements. There was a huge demonstration, militia, tear gas. I organized this demonstration and planned it in such a way that delegations from individual workplaces were to descend on the Stone Bridge in processions. Unfortunately, that didn't work out, because the esbice thwarted us. But still, a lot of people came individually, and only maybe in a couple of cases in groups. Someone spoke and we laid flowers at the door of the former Solidarity headquarters. I also laid a bundle.

At this point, the secret police took pictures of the people laying flowers. Later they summoned more than 30 of us for questioning, and then directed us to be fined heavily by the College of Infractions. As a result, everyone in turn was fined except me. These fines, by the way, were paid with money received from various sources, mostly foreign.

I remember what my interrogation in front of a couple of SS men looked like. First the question, "Were you there? Because we have evidence here. "I answer: 'Of course I was, and I was laying flowers to commemorate the historic Gdańsk Accords, the legal agreements of Solidarity with the authorities of the Polish state. So what is the point? And they: "Yes, but you organized it and gave the order for people to come with flowers." I was a little surprised that they knew that. But I stiffly quipped, "You can see from this that the lieutenant probably wasn't at this demonstration. Because if you had been, you would have seen the same thing I did, that people spontaneously ran to a nearby flower shop on Jagiellonian Street, bought flowers and then placed them on the Stone Bridge. When I saw this, I too ran, bought flowers and laid them. The lieutenant seemed to doubt the power of his accusation: "So you say it was spontaneous? All right, but what did you do when the militia called on people to disperse?" I thought it was necessary to be careful here: "I didn't hear such a call." The lieutenant became nervous: "What, do you have some hearing problems?" I said, "No, my hearing is good, but I didn't hear such a call." The esbeks couldn't stand it: "What do you mean, everyone heard, only you didn't hear?" I firmly: "Yes, I didn't hear." And then one of them, probably the dumbest: "It was you, I think, who must not have been there already, after all, we called for dispersal." I eagerly kept up the conjecture: "Indeed, it could have been that I had gone home earlier and therefore did not hear."

Well, and at that point the interrogation ended, with no referral to the college. All my colleagues at the hearing were frank and answered in the affirmative when asked if they had heard the call to disperse. And as a result, the college fined them. And I did not tell the truth, because I thought it was a pity to waste thousands of zlotys from the underground solidarity fund on paying fines, because it was better to spend them on organizing more actions.

 To Czestochowa with an album and money

With Mietek Zrajka we sometimes did various actions. Once, it was shortly after martial law, Mietek says to me: "Listen, there is a Craft Solidarity Convention in Czestochowa. We have to go there, but not empty-handed, because from different regions craftsmen will contribute to support the activities of our craft union." Well, and we started collecting hard, both on our own and with the help of our underground group. We collected quite a lot of money, and we also made such a commemorative album, in which donors inscribed themselves. The album looked nice, because a certain painter painted a beautiful picture of the Virgin Mary on the first page. With this album I went to Fr. Bishop Tokarczuk asking him for an entry, and he wrote, right behind this picture, words of his support and blessing.

Well, and we go with this album and with these collected donations to Czestochowa as a delegation - Mietek Zrajka as the main organizer, me and someone else there as a third. As for that money of ours, we were a bit intimidated, because after all, a lot of delegations came from regions much richer than Przemysl. In Czestochowa, for example, it's those craftsmen aplenty, gold products, religious souvenirs. The same with Cracow or Warsaw - there is no comparison with our poor Przemyśl.

And what a pleasant surprise we had when, during the solemn mass, the bishop announced the totals of donations collected from each region: Czestochowa collected the most, followed immediately by Przemysl in second place, and Cracow and Warsaw somewhere behind us. We collected the second largest amount in all of Poland, which undoubtedly testified to the great generosity of the people of our city. In addition, the bishop praised us for this beautiful album with an inscription of support from Bishop Tokarczuk. No one else had something like that, because probably no other bishop would have dared to support Solidarity so openly. In a word, Mietek Zrajko made a furore, because it was mainly to his credit, as head of the regional Solidarity of Craftsmen, that the event was organized.

 Contacts with "S" Regions... and beyond

My underground activities included contacts with other regions. I traveled to Gdansk, Warsaw, Cracow, Katowice, among others. I had contact with those "underground" activists and we agreed on various joint activities. When I traveled in the direction of Cracow, I always stopped in Tarnow at the house of the Ordinary of the Diocese of Tarnow, Fr. Bishop Ablewicz, who after the war was our last priest in Pnikut before displacement. He did not want to go to post-war Poland in 1945, but the Soviets expelled him. A delegation of our parishioners traveled all the way to Moscow with requests that they not deport him, but in vain. They gave him a deadline to leave the USSR and an ultimatum: either he would go to Poland or Siberia. My father drove him to the border on horseback, with some modest possessions, including the miraculously famous painting of Our Lady of Perpetual Help from the church of the Redemptorist Fathers of Mościska. Well, so I entered Bishop Ablewicz to talk and listen to his advice.

I remember the first such contact with the bishop after martial law. I was just returning from Wroclaw and got off the train in Tarnow. It was late, however, and I had doubts whether it was appropriate to bother him at that hour, but seeing that he was glowering at the Bishop's Curia, I rang the doorbell. I was opened by a secretary who knew me, but asked to wait because the bishop had a meeting. The meeting was getting prolonged, so the secretary came in and told the bishop that I was waiting and would like to see him. Bishop Ablewicz immediately invited me in, and when I walked in, I simply couldn't believe my eyes: there were 10 people sitting behind the table, and they were all my friends from the Solidarity Region in Tarnow. I thought it was unusual courage for a bishop to hold a meeting of activists at his office. He was a very wise man. The comparison that imposes itself on me is that Bishop Tokarczuk was extremely sharp and ferocious in his actions, while Bishop Ablewicz acted more with his mind.

When we spoke one-on-one later, the bishop revealed an astonishing thing to me. He says: And you know, Mr. Stanislaw, that on the afternoon of December 12, 1981, a certain general, Jaruzelski's envoy, came to see me and says that martial law will be declared at night. So I ask him, "Mr. General, in view of this what do you want to hear from me? You don't expect me to praise it, do you?" And he says: "Father Bishop, I was only going to pass it on." What was Jaruzelski's purpose in doing this? It is not known. If it was an attempt to gain some support, it did the general no good, and of course the bishop immediately warned the Solidarity activists.

On one subsequent visit to Bishop Ablewicz, I highly praised our Przemyśl diocese and Bishop Tokarczuk for illegally building more than 300 churches. To this Bishop Ablewicz modestly replied: "We also built some here, but legally." Well, I ask: And how many churches did the bishop manage to build legally? And he answers: "Somewhere around 400." I was stumped and thought I was being a bit silly.

 To meet the Pope in Tarnow

Another contact I had with the Tarnów diocese was during the visit of Pope John Paul II, when perhaps 2 million faithful descended on Tarnów to meet him. This was after martial law. At that time I undertook the organization of a pilgrimage from Przemyśl.

Anticipating that there might be problems with transportation, six months earlier I had privately ordered an entire train from the Railway Directorate in Zurawica, pre-paying for the course from Przemyśl to Tarnów for the day of the Holy Father's visit. They necessarily wanted to know what organization was ordering, and I replied that he was ordering privately Stanislaw Zolkevich of Przemysl, 3 Ujejskiego St. They turned their noses up at me, but finally they wrote up a contract with me detailing: for how much, on what day and where the train was to be substituted, where it was to arrive, and what compensation would be paid to me if PKP withdrew from the contract.

Just before the Pope's visit, it turned out that the Commune did not allow the PKP to assign trains for pilgrims. No parish from Przemysl and the surrounding area, including Rzeszow, got a train. And they couldn't refuse me, because it would involve a large compensation. So, in accordance with the agreement, they substituted a special train at the Przemyśl Railway Station, only with an engine driver and manager, without conductors. I had previously organized a team of people with armbands on their sleeves, whose task was to guard order on the train.

Well, and in Przemysl it began. One parish priest comes and asks: "Mr. Stanislaw, I need 30 seats." I say: "No way, I don't have any." And he said, "Well, maybe at least 20." What could I do - I agreed. There were more situations like that, and already in Przemysl there were more pilgrims than seats on the train. In Yaroslavl some more people got on, and in Rzeszow there were so many that it was terrible. The train was so stuffed that it was simply impossible to squeeze in any more. But oh well, on we go.

We arrive in Tarnów at night, and here it turns out that they put us off in the suburbs. Surely on purpose, so that we had to walk a few more kilometers. I had prepared banners, flags, everything as needed. Well, so we form a procession and go. At the front a large banner: "Solidarity of labor," then I with the priests, and behind us numerous parish groups of pilgrims, a few thousand people in the far-flung "tail" of the procession. Suddenly I got a signal that some part of the pilgrims at the very end had broken away, as the militia directed them to some side swampy road. Well, so I stopped the front with the banner and ran to that rear. I turned back that group and very sharply scolded the militiamen. I arrive at the front of the march, and there is no main banner. "What happened to the banner?" - I call out angrily. I hear in reply that the militiamen have taken it away: "Oh, that's where they are loading it into the car!" I ran to him and blasphemed the militiamen from the thieves. One of them tried to explain that the banner had a forbidden Solidarity inscription on it. So I said: "Listen, asshole, I don't think you know how to read, because it doesn't say Solidarity, it says 'Solidarity of the world of labor'!" I snatched the banner from him and gave it to those at the head of the march, whom I loudly, so that the militiamen could hear, forbade to give it back to "those assholes." Along our route there were militiamen spaced every few meters. And there also stood a militia lieutenant. When I passed by him, he leaned over to me and said: "You've very well chided those assholes."

Well, and we continued walking at night to the place of the meeting with the Holy Father, carrying, among other things, 12 banners with the villages of the pre-war deanery of Mosciska: "Mosciska parish, Pnikut parish, Krukienice parish, etc. This was, of course, a sham, although there were quite a few of us repatriates among the pilgrims.

We also had an unusual gift for the Holy Father, which, by the way, I had earlier taken with a delegation from Przemyśl to Bishop Ablewicz, so that he would present to the Pope on our behalf. Well, a few months earlier I had ordered from embroiderers in Przemysl and Yaroslavl two identical, large (about 200×100 cm), hand-embroidered wall mats with a depiction of what looked like a map of the pre-war Moscow deanery. There was an embroidered Przemysl cathedral and parish churches in Mosciski, Pnikut and in 10 other localities of this decanate - the names of these parishes were also visible. Also visible was the embroidered road in the direction of Lviv, and the railroad on which the train with Polish coal traveled eastward. All this embroidered together with the inscription: "Pilgrims of the Mosciska decanate - as a gift to the Holy Father." In fact, I ordered two of the same macatas, in case one was lost for some reason. One was given to John Paul II, and the other was left with Bishop Ablewicz. When we handed them to the bishop, he smiled and said: "All these gifts that people bring to the Pope, the Holy Father distributes to various parishes. But this gift, Mr. Stanislaw, it is John Paul II who will surely take it with him." At the meeting with the Holy Father, we were quite visible in the crowd of pilgrims thanks to our banners. People asked with interest what parishes, what deanery, and we said, "This is a pilgrimage of Poles from Ukraine."

All in all, it was a very great and successful event for us Thoughtful people, although it was terribly crowded on this train. As it turned out, it was the only "private" special train with a pilgrimage to meet the Pope.

 48 hours in custody

Before the softening of the communist regime and the Round Table talks in the late 1980s, I and my colleagues from the Solidarity underground were locked up for 48 hours several times. Searches were also conducted.

On one occasion I was taken from work for questioning. I, at the time, worked at the Railway Works Company. This was after martial law. At home, no one knew about it. I was interrogated in the railroad station until the evening, and then in the middle of the night they order me to get dressed, take me out of that detention center, put me in a car accompanied by two militiamen and drive me somewhere. It was a bit of a scare. I ask where they are taking me. They answer that they have orders to escort me to Jaroslaw, but they don't know what for.

In Yaroslavl I was put into a basement cell in a militia jail, where three men were already in custody. One of them greeted me particularly warmly, was eager to confide in me about his criminal activities, and apparently hoped for reciprocation. I immediately sensed that this was a planted spy, but I didn't let it show. The other two detainees, good-hearted residents from some village, gave me signs not to talk to him. I pretended not to know what was going on and naively reciprocated his sudden feelings of friendship toward me. When he asked what they had put me in jail for, I replied that it must be some kind of misunderstanding, because although I had once been an ordinary member of Solidarity, but now I do not get involved in any illegal activities.

In the morning they took him seemingly for questioning. And then the two from the village started reproaching me for talking to this guy, who "is definitely a spy." I had to reassure them that I knew who he was, and I knew what I was doing. When the "spike" returned, that's when they took me in for questioning. Then he confided in me about his course of action, so I too had to truthfully recount what they suspected me of and what they asked. But of course, I confided in him that someone must have lied to them about me, because, after all, I'm not in the Solidarity authorities and I'm not active in any Solidarity underground. Thus, the stunt with the spy didn't work out for them.

As you know, after 48 hours of detention they were obliged to release me or present me with a specific charge and criminal sanctions. Meanwhile, the investigator called me in and announced that the prosecutor would talk to me. I replied to him that this was very good, because the prosecutor knows the law very well, so after talking to me he will surely come to the conclusion that I am innocent and order me to be released. The optimism and lack of fear that I manifested - sort of "clobbered" him. I, of course, realized what "talking to the prosecutor" meant, but I was bluffing.

When 48 hours had passed, I firmly demanded to be released from custody. For a while they still bargained that 48 hours had not passed since I was brought to the Jaroslaw jail, to which I argued that the arrest counted from the moment I was arrested, handcuffed, and taken out of Przemyśl. After a while I was free. That day happened to be the anniversary of the August Agreements, which, by the way, I had organized earlier. Now I was able to take part in it, if, of course, I managed to get to Przemysl on time. Apparently, they locked me in two days too early. They were probably mistaken, because they usually closed just in time for the anniversary.

While I was waiting at the Jaroslaw station for a train to Przemysl, I noticed that two SS men, a man and a woman, were walking behind me. I immediately told the man that enough was enough and to get the hell away from me. It was harder for the woman to accuse him of following me. I had half an hour to get to the train, so I quickly ran to some apartment block near the station. She, of course, ran after me and stood in front of this block, as if not knowing which door I had entered. Then I got out and told her that I had had enough of her following me, and that she should consider her service for the day finished.

I got rid of these ubiquitous people, and noticed another "guardian angel" on the train. When the train stopped at Zasan and was already moving back, I pretended that I was lost and wanted to get off at the last minute. As I opened the door and walked down the steps, I noticed that this ubek got off from the other end of the carriage, and then I jumped back into the carriage. He also tried, but didn't make it anymore. Well, I calmly made it to the Central Station, then ran to the cathedral, where the anniversary Mass for the Fatherland was starting. When I went inside, my name was just being read from a long list of activists locked up by the police. I shouted: "I am!" And I was happy to have arrived on time despite everything.

 Undercover agents and search in the workshop

The Esbice often made my life miserable, at the same time in a rather primitive way. More than once while walking down the street, I noticed that I was being followed. I, moreover, already recognized some of these spies and usually managed to lose them.

Once the militia called me in for questioning and they ask me what I was doing on such and such a street (Walowa and three other streets were mentioned), on such and such a day. At first I did not know. what they meant, but I was immediately "surprised" that it was in these places that I lost those SSB "tails" that followed me. From Wałowa Street, for example, I went through the double gate to Jagiellońska Street and escaped them. Well, I told them straight to their eyes that "that's where I lost your spies". And I immediately added that they could learn some smarter methods, use some radios, and not so brazenly follow a man. They were clobbered, well, and let me go.

Once, walking down Grunwald Street, I see one of them. I turn into a side street, he follows me. But he couldn't go too close, of course, so I managed to move away. However, I noticed that he stopped, turned around and held a radio phone to his ear. He was obviously transmitting something. So I turned around, quietly approach from behind and pat him on the back. He, surprised, turns around and quickly, like a thief, hides the radio. And I laugh and say, "Well, you finally got some technology." He is offended: "What are you saying!" And I continue: "Well what? Did you notify the one in the toddler to follow me? You tell him that I'm here." A veritable comedy. In a word, they teased me, and I reciprocated. Maybe harmlessly, but it annoyed them.

Well, and once they "appreciated" this attitude of mine. After I was kicked out of the Office of Historic Restoration from the director I was becoming a craftsman (I think it was in 1983), having made my way - with the help of the ingenious Mietek Zrajka - through all those formal requirements (e.g., I had to have proper education and practice with chemicals, of which lectures in chemistry at the Silesian University of Technology and work as a construction technician in the Bieszczady Mountains proved to be a sufficient substitute). After completing all the formalities at the Crafts Guild, I had just registered my business with the Department of Commerce, when suddenly a major of the SB entered the department and roared to the manager: "By what right do you give this dangerous Solidarity activist permission to do business!" And the manager, a wise woman who, by the way, knew everything that was going on, calmly answered him: "Mr. Major, a year ago we got our business permit from Mr. Klizh, vice-chairman of the Solidarity Region, and at that time none of you came here and protested. And Zolkevich was, after all, an ordinary member and did not hold any position in Solidarity." And the major said: "Ma'am, Klaj's former function is a cinch compared to Zolkevich's current anti-state stance!"

Apparently, I spiced up the esbeks and they must have hated me very much. Fortunately, the major did not manage to intimidate the brave and clever manager. There were no formal grounds for revoking the permit, well, and I became a craftsman. I set up a workshop for the production of car bumpers (initially, by the way, in Mietek Zrajka's garage) and did quite well.

However, the secret police did not give up. Soon someone broke into the workshop and, admittedly, did not steal anything, but destroyed many things. Another time an inspection came to my workshop seemingly from the Tax Chamber, from the Tax Office, a whole committee together with a uniformed militiaman. In fact, they had no formal basis for the inspection, because by law I was exempt from tax for the first two years and was not required to keep records of production and sales.

The head of this commission, by the way, was an employee of the Tax Chamber, whom the SS murdered his brother during interrogation (from Przemyśl he was probably the only person murdered by the SB). Well, I began to legitimize each member of the Commission. When it came to the militiaman, he introduced himself as an officer of Operation "Sektor" (dealing with the prosecution of economic crimes among craftsmen, among others). And I said to him, "It must be you who got something wrong, because you are, after all, from the Security Service. And you brought this commission to persecute me," And to the head of the commission I said that he should be ashamed of serving the esbice that murdered his brother. He became confused, and I made a condition that I could talk to the commission, but "without this gentleman in uniform." After a long moment of silence, the esbek, angry as hell, left. And the head of the commission timidly asked if I kept records and had them in the workshop. I answered him that yes I have full documentation, although formally I am not obliged to do so for the first two years, but I keep it at home, because someone breaks into the workshop and looks for something. After which, at his request, we drove up to the house (but already without the esbek), I showed him full documentation from the purchase of raw materials, from the sale of bumpers. They said everything was fine and left.

What was my surprise when, a few days later, I learn that the Tax Chamber is preparing a criminal protocol. I thought: "This means that the SSB wants to destroy me." I had nothing to lose. I went to the head of the Tax Chamber, who at the time was my former colleague Panczak, by the way a fairly decent man, but for the position he was in the party and served that power. The secretary tells me to wait, because there is a meeting in his office, just about me. And without a second thought I jump in and start sharply: "You know very well that I keep records, although I don't have to. The Esbekja ordered you to make a criminal record on me, even though there is no basis for it. If you do that, I won't give it to you. I know some of your scams, and I'll do everything I can to get you fired from your post the next day."

Well, and the criminal record was gone. But the secret police still followed me. And when I drove bumpers to Warsaw, I was strangely often stopped and controlled by the "volatile" militia, the ones in white caps.

Once, already after the June elections in 1989, while walking along Grunwaldzka Street near Constitution Square, I noticed in a group of women waiting for the bus a Security Service officer who had once been to my place for a search and behaved extremely insolently. Thinking little, I said to these women: "Listen, this man - this is a secret police officer who was with me for a search and tried to intimidate me. Remember him!" Oh, how these women jumped on him. They scolded him so much that he just ran away. And I had a bit of satisfaction and a sense of real change in the political situation in the country.

 Citizens' Committee

After I organized the election of Solidarity authorities in the Przemyśl region, my contacts with the region's authorities - if you don't count the period of underground activity, because it's like a different card - were rather only social. In 1988, we came out of the underground. Marek Kaminski became chairman of the reborn Solidarity in the Przemyśl Region. And in the spring of 1989, the idea of creating a Solidarity Citizens' Committee under Lech Walesa arose, and well, these committees in the field began to form.

This was an almost exclusively political activity, so I was very interested in it. After all, this was directly about the political struggle against the Commune. I very much wanted to get involved in this activity. And since the creation of Civic Committees was within the competence of the regional Solidarity authorities, so I told Marek Kaminski about it. He was very happy about it and included me in organizing the provincial Civic Committee in Przemyśl.

I proposed that people from the larger factories be selected for the Committee, and to this end I established contacts with Solidarity activists from these factories. I asked for candidacies from people who were trusted and not stupid, but who did not hold positions in the trade union. In this way, we recruited the first 15 people to formally establish the Solidarity Provincial Civic Committee. Later, more people co-opted. Well, and in this group elections of the Committee's authorities took place. The head of the Solidarity Regional Board proposed my candidacy and I was unanimously elected chairman.

It was written somewhere that I was that chairman for only one day. This is nonsense. After all, as chairman, I went to Warsaw many times and dealt with many issues. I don't remember exactly how long this period was, but this can be checked. Maybe there are some documents. I think it lasted for weeks, if not months. In any case, I held this position until the later formation of the city's Solidarity Civic Committee in Przemysl.

I, by the way, was against its separation, because, after all, there were not that many of these really active people at all, and I believed that we should not disperse. But in the end it was created without my consent, on the initiative of Marek Kuchcinski, to whom, by the way, I resented it at the time. After all, why create this duality when there was already a Provincial Civic Committee. I was all the more opposed to it when I learned that Mieczyslaw Napolski, who had not previously been involved in opposition activity at all, had become chairman of this municipal committee. I ask Kaminski, and who is this Napolski, and he answers that Kuchcinski found him somewhere. I was afraid of involving such people from nowhere, untested neither in Solidarity structures nor in opposition activity. Later, by the way, Napolski, pushed by Kuchcinski, became the mayor of Przemyśl. In this Przemyśl committee, I did not participate, and in fact I was never invited there. I don't think Marek Kaminski was thrilled either, and if he somehow participated, it was only passively, for the sake of sanity. After the formation of the Przemyśl Civic Committee, I resigned from the chairmanship of the provincial one, and Zbigniew Bortnik became the head of the Przemyśl one.

 Selection of candidates and who took dollars from the Curia?

Somewhere, probably at the beginning of May 1989, I was conducting a meeting of the Provincial Civic Committee of the "S" in "Orzechówka" (the historic Orzechowski mansion near the cathedral), at which we were to appoint our candidates for the Sejm and the Senate. And in the adjacent room in the same "Orzechówka" there was a meeting of the Solidarity Regional Board chaired by Marek Kaminski. Well, we were thinking about electing candidates, and there - as it turned out later - Zygmunt Majgier officially made an accusation against me that I had supposedly appropriated some dollars donated by the Bishop's Curia. I didn't know about this allegation, but apparently others, including in the Civic Committee, knew, because Majgier managed to spread the word. During the meeting, I hoped that someone would notice me and propose my candidacy, because it would be a good instrument for me to continue the fight against the Commune, well, and I felt the temperament of a politician in me. Unfortunately, no one proposed my name. Instead, there were proposals to nominate Musial and Ulma as candidates in the Senate elections. Later, after the meeting, Rev. Krzywinski pressed me to nix Musial, and that I should run for the Senate instead of him. But I answered him: "The priest sat at the meeting and did not speak, so now it's too late." I could not agree to this proposal, because for me such an "unscrewing" would be dishonorable.

I soon learned from people about the allegation spread by Majgier against me, and then I understood why no one put forward my candidacy. Then I remembered: well, actually, I took some money, but not from the Curia, but from Zbigniew Kuchcinski (Marek Kuchcinski's father). He was in Belgium, and I think he and his brother priest did some kind of collection there, well, and he sent me Swiss francs, 900 dollars in conversion. I used it to buy a TV, a player for Solidarity. In fact, I made an accounting of what I spent the money on. At the same time, I paid for my trips around the country with my own money. When I wrote about this, Zbyszek Kuchcinski said: "You Staszek don't have to explain yourself, because I gave you this money privately for your activities and you could spend it at your own discretion. And what kind of equipment you bought, everyone can see."

Agitated by Majgier's accusations, I went to Fr. Krzywinski and said, "Please, priest, what's going on, they are charging me with misappropriation of money taken from the Curia. And I got it from Zbyszek Kuchcinski and accounted for it. I have invoices for everything. And Fr. Krzewinski: "Mr. Stanislaw, that's not the point." I didn't understand: "What do you mean it's not about that? After all, I didn't take any other money." And the priest said: "But Marek Kaminski took $2,000 from me for activities, and he certainly spent it on Solidarity."

 I never investigated this, what Marek spent this money on. Certainly for the purposes of Solidarity, but I nevertheless have a grudge against him, because after all he led that meeting at which Majgier accused me of misappropriating "dollars taken from the Curia," and did not even speak up in my defense. And yet, as head of the Region, he could have said that this was untrue, or, for example, announced that "we will invite Staszek to explain whether he took those dollars." Meanwhile, I could not defend myself, because I was not there. And I didn't even know that there was such money at all. Well, Majgier, as was often the case with him, heard something somewhere, but not quite, he added the rest to himself and told everyone. Later, by the way, in a conversation with me, he explained that someone had "let him in". And he asked me: "Was the money there or not?" And I said: "It turns out that there was, only that I wasn't the one who got it from the Curia and I wasn't the one who spent it."

All in all, this unfair accusation, as well as the duplication of the Civic Committee - the provincial one by the Przemyśl one - discouraged me. So I resigned as chairman and withdrew from this social activity.

 In the office of the deputy governor

At the beginning of 1990, Marek Kaminski urged me a couple of times to run for the post of deputy governor of Przemyśl. Initially, I absolutely refused to accept it. I was bitter, I had a lot of resentment for this underestimation of my opposition activity in typing up candidates for the Senate and for this conspiracy against me. Besides, I still didn't know about this money from the Curia at the time. And moreover, I was still running this "bumper business" of mine, in which I was doing well and earning good money. I was even persuaded by Musial, but I had already heard that he was preparing to become governor. And I told him this. And he said: "But no, we want you to become deputy governor now, and then governor."

Well, I finally agreed, and as a result of a sort of internal competition, I was selected from among seven people and proposed by a special committee from the Solidarity Regional Board and the Przemyśl Civic Committee as the best candidate for deputy governor. I must add here that this committee selected me despite my condition that, as deputy governor, I would have the right to make decisions independent of the position of the trade union.

Immediately on the second day after the government appointed me deputy governor, I had a conversation with Governor Wojciechowski, who received me in a very friendly manner and said that he was glad that I had been chosen for this position, because he believed that I knew my stuff. And our relationship was businesslike, sincere and a partnership throughout my time in the post.

At first, the former first secretary of the KW PZPR, Drewniowski, often came to his office for a chat, which somehow reached the Solidarity Region and was frowned upon there. Well, I just frankly told him this, and he thanked me for the warning, and Drewniowski had no more access to him.

Governor Wojciechowski worked so well and constructively with me that I was even delighted and respected him very much. We played open cards honestly. He knew that he would have to step down sooner or later, but we both wanted to work together loyally to do what we could for our Przemyśl. The thing is that he had a lot of acquaintances in various ministries, where a lot of existing officials were still working. And thanks to these acquaintances of his, it was possible to informally and quickly arrange many important matters for the province.

And all of a sudden Wojciechowski "does not like" the Board of the Region "S". And there is talk of replacing him. So I ask them: "What specific charges do you have against him? What has he done, what crime has he committed, that you want to remove him? After all, he is completely loyal and we work very well together." A couple of fierce activists cited the "allegation" that he had built himself a house near the cemetery in Zasan, having a cooperative apartment. I said: "People, stop it! What kind of crime is this? So many years a man works, earns quite well, then he has a right to it. And anyway, have you seen this cottage? Because I wouldn't want it for free." And they: "But it's not allowed to have two apartments!" I couldn't stand it: "Then what system are you defending? Because it was in the commune that you couldn't have two apartments." But no arguments went to them. Only: "It has to go away and that's it!"

Soon they all gathered at the headquarters of the Przemyśl Civic Committee - headed by Onyszkiewicz, Musiał and Ulma, well they call me on the phone. I come, and they read me a letter to Prime Minister Mazowiecki, more or less saying that "Wojciechowski should be dismissed and Zolkevich should be appointed as governor of Przemysl." I protested that this is not only dishonest, but also foolish, because I have good relations with him and he is still needed to function efficiently, because he is a decent man, he has good connections in ministries and he will do everything for the good of Przemysl and the Przemysl province.

Oy, what an outcry was raised. I also got hit for defending him. Well, then, what was I supposed to do? I agreed to my candidacy in the Solidarity letter to the prime minister.

 Competition for provincial doctor

They managed to send a letter to the prime minister, and in the meantime I had to conduct that ill-fated competition for provincial doctor, where I actually "trounced" the Solidarity-backed Dr. Stabiszewski, which consequently ended my political career.

Well, Dr. Stabiszewski was a candidate of Solidarity, but at the same time president of the Przemyśl branch of the Union of Ukrainians in Poland. And this organization was never friendly to Poland, because it never condemned the genocide committed by the OUN-UPA against the Poles; on the contrary, it considered Bandera and the UPA bandits as Ukrainian heroes. In fact, therefore, it was difficult for me to accept it on a political level. And since, moreover, he answered the questions of the selection committee (composed of two representatives from Solidarity, two from the OPZZ and myself, having, in effect, a casting vote) most poorly, I cast my vote for the better-responding OPZZ candidate. However, this one quickly resigned from the position, because Solidarity at the hospital threatened him with a strike. In the end, therefore, I appointed a third candidate as provincial doctor, Dr. Boguslaw Dawnis, incidentally also supported by Solidarity, who presented the concept of his tenure far better than Stabiszewski. Incidentally, Dr. Dawnis proved himself, as he performed the function of provincial physician superbly.

It soon turned out that the level of answers in the competition was invalid, and only the choice of the designated Solidarity candidate counted. One day Senator Musial meets me in the city and says: "You made a political mistake and you will suffer the consequences." This mistake was supposedly this "fixation" by me on Stabiszewski.

And indeed, that letter to the Prime Minister in support of my candidacy for governor, signed by "all the saints" headed by Onyszkiewicz and Musial, was rescinded, and Senator Jan Musial became governor of Przemysl.

In this situation, I had no choice but to honorably resign in a letter to Prime Minister Mazowiecki. I waited for this appeal and after four days received it. In the letter, I explained that this was why I did not want to be deputy voivode Musial, because this man, however very decent, was simply unfit to manage the province. The letter, of course, had no effect, because at that time who appreciated competence and organizational skills?

 Rescue attempt and liquidation of PPB

My assessment of Governor Musial's competence was confirmed if only when, without sufficient grounds, he liquidated the Przemyskie Przedsiębiorstwo Budowlane, which employed more than 400 workers, where, by the way, I was working as deputy director at the time.

Admittedly, there was a conflict in the PPB because former director Mielniczek's foreign contract ran out and he wanted to return to the director's position, already occupied, however, by Ms. Plum. So Mielniczek made propaganda among the staff to bring down Director Plum. And since this didn't work, he started an uphill job against the company to harm the director. I alerted the governor that Mielniczek was trying to wreck a well-functioning enterprise, so it is necessary to react and cut the situation. Unfortunately, to no avail.

In the absence of new orders from PSM for construction work, as well as orders for new construction, the company was indeed facing a serious crisis in the near future. But the governor did not support my attempt to save PPB's prospective situation.

Well, I found out that a gas company in Lviv is looking for a contractor to build two multi-story employee blocks. With a slightly "inflated" construction cost estimate, prepared in our PPB, I went to Lviv, and in talks with the heads of the Ukrainian company, spiked with vodka, of course, I further increased the price by 250 percent. Well, and this company distributing Russian gas accepted this inflated cost estimate without a problem, even agreed to settle in dollars, but on the condition that the bill would be paid not in cash, but with an additional amount of gas, attached to the gas supply for Poland. So I went to Warsaw and got approval at the ministry for such an agreement to send from Ukraine to Poland, as payment for the construction, an additional quantity of gas, the value of which would then be paid by the ministry to PPB. This was complicated, of course, but represented a chance for our company to survive. Unfortunately, Mielniczek apparently set Governor Musial's mind negatively on these plans.

When I returned from Lviv and Warsaw with the good news, I found a strike on the Knights estate, where we were still building. I guessed who might have initiated it among the crew. I immediately ordered the construction manager to take down the flags and break the strike under threat of being fired. The next day Marek Kaminski comes to me and says: "I didn't expect that you would break the workers' strike, that you would be against the union." My hands dropped. I say, "Marek, but against whom and why is this strike? For now the company is not in bad shape, because there is still work at the Knights, and in the near future it can start lucrative construction in Lviv? After all, I arranged it all!"

Unfortunately, the governor did not approve this project to save the company. He liquidated the company and more than 400 people lost their jobs.

 Evaluation of 26 years of independence

These 26 years are far too many to have come to what we have today. I can't say that these are completely lost years, but certainly not the best use of them. It simply takes too long to rebuild a country destroyed by communism.

The first biggest mistake, and the biggest stupidity, was the so-called "thick line. It was necessary to hold all those communist functionaries and secret collaborators consistently accountable. This, of course, does not mean to put them in jail, but at least to show them up, condemn them morally and ban them from holding public office. But as PiS tried to do during its first two years in power, the elite of the Third Republic did everything to prevent it.

I am convinced that it was necessary to follow through and smash communism to the end. But on the other hand, I have sometimes wondered why it didn't happen? Where did the "thick line" come from? Where did these further actions come from as if diluting responsibility? Why, when this "bad" Ziobro appeared in 2005 with the Kaczynski brothers in the lead, they were met by a large part of the post-Solidarity elite with such immense hatred? What was the issue here?

And I came, unfortunately, to the sad conclusion that most of the people in this elite were in one way or another "sullied", had an impure conscience. And that is why it was not to their liking to make a harsh reckoning with the communist past. They were simply afraid, and some are still afraid, that something bad from their resumes would come to light and they would have to leave this power elite in disgrace.

And hence we were losing. That's why there was a lack of consistency and will to change this arrangement. That's why honest and unstained people always lost, because they were in the minority in this power elite. And that is why I believe that the greatest crime of those 26 years was the "thick line" invented and uttered by the circles of Mazowiecki, Gieremek, Michnik, Kuroń and a number of others.

And on top of that, there were also these various shady deals, these certain parabanks, these fraudulent companies stealing state assets. First the post-communists from the SDRP milieu and later the SLD enriched themselves, because they bought up state assets mostly for nothing and became a layer of the richest people in Poland. This was already sheer thievery tolerated by much of the Third Republic's power elite. And then the Civic Platform, which was not an ideological party, but a party of power. Its goal was to stay in power at all costs, in order to reap various profits.

In a word - many lost years for Poland. I, of course, also have a critical judgment of these or other PiS politicians. But now I tremble that this Law and Justice government will succeed in changing this system and these systems. God grant it!

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The interview was conducted and compiled by Jacek Borzecki