‘Many generations to come will remember the extraordinary thing that happened in Poland, there appeared a social force able to control those in power.’ Culture magazine, Paris, 1980.

This is the second coming of the Roads to Freedom exhibition and it is a place that should feature on every visitor’s itinerary to Gdansk. Charting the course of events that began with the sacrifice of Poland to the Soviets at the end of WWII and leading through to the formation of the 3^rd Polish Republic in 1989, this subterranean exhibition does a very good job of explaining the events that influenced and shaped the people of Poland and which resulted in the incredible movement that was Solidarity. Starting with a look into what Polish life looked like under communist rule, you are met by the sight of a typical grocery store in late 1970’s Poland. Shelves are empty except for the ever present vinegar and mustard spread around generously in a feeble attempt to make it appear that there was something on the shelves. Rationing existed from 1976 onwards due to ‘temporary lacks of stock’ and the surrounding walls are covered by black and white shots of Poles going about the daily chore of queuing for whatever might become available.

The first room you come to provides you with the background, not just in Poland but throughout the communist block, to the ‘Polish August’ and in particular to the events of December 1970 which resulted in the known deaths of 45 people mainly in the tri-city area. Although 10 years prior to the groundbreaking strikes of August 1980, these deaths of workers, protesting against sharp price increases, at the hands of security services had a dramatic effect on the attitude of the workers of the shipyards in particular and on the way that they were to face the government and security services in 1980. It can be said that it was here that the realization was made that self-organisation and peaceful protest rather than confrontation could provide the path to success.

The first death of December 1970 occurred in Gdansk while the greatest single tragedy took place in neighbouring Gdynia on the 17^th of December 1970 when 18 people lost their lives. This had followed days of clashes with security services which, in huge numbers, had fought running battles with workers in the streets surrounding the exhibition. The party headquarters were severely damaged by fire and the events of these 5 days resulted in the replacement of Wladyslaw Gomulka as leader by Edward Gierek. Incidentally the former party headquarters still stand today and are now offices. Look for the big white building on (B-3) Waly Jagiellonskie opposite the town hall. 

December 1970 is just one of the dates which are ingrained in the Polish memory and which led the Poles to the peaceful protests of 1980. Interactive screens, also available in English, allow you to read and view images of each of these landmark months in Polish history from October 1956 right through to the round table talks of 1989. A cell typical of one in which protestors were held in has also been recreated.

The next stage takes you into shipyards of 1980. It was here that the workers protested by locking themselves into the shipyard rather than taking on the security services outside. The strikes which led to the creation of Solidarity were initially sparked over the sacking of a crane operator, Anna Walentynowicz, 5 months short of her retirement. It wasn’t until a week later that the shipyard electrician Lech Walesa, who had been fired himself sometime earlier for his unionist activity, scaled the walls and made a rousing speech, in the process taking over the leadership of the strike. Initial demands were merely higher salaries to offset the increasing cost of food and necessities and the reinstating of Walentynowicz and Walesa. The protests quickly developed until within a few days delegates from all over the country, which was now in the grip of a national strike, were meeting in the BHP hall of the shipyard to hammer out a collective group of demands. You see the sheets of plywood on which the 21 demands were written in paint and then hung outside the yard gates to communicate to the thousands standing outside what was been put before government representatives. You also get to see mock-ups of the tables which the delegates sat at many equipped with old transistor radios to hear the latest from the outside and overlooking these a picture of Walesa and government representatives signing an agreement to accept the 21 demands which became known as the ‘August Accords’. Further on you see pictures and film clips which give a clear impression of the atmosphere of August 1980 and you get a particular sense of the influence the Polish Pope John Paul II had on the will and faith of the workers and the importance he had to them.

What was to follow was 16 months of freedom not imaginable before Solidarity. Within months 10 million Poles had joined the movement and soon after the Accords were signed delegates from all over the country met in Gdansk Oliwa’s Hala Oliwa to formerly elect Lech Walesa as the leader of the newly created Solidarity trade union. What follows in the exhibition is a room signifying the abrupt removal of these freedoms when General Wojciech Jaruselski imposed Martial Law on the night of the 12/13^th December 1981. The room is entered by passing through rubber curtains showing the massed ranks of the ‘militia’ and you are then met by the smoky atmosphere of a battle ground. Crackly films, again with subtitles, show Jaruselski’s address to the nation and grainy footage of the security services at work including one incident where an army lorry runs straight over a protestor. During what one historian Tim Garton Ash described as the ‘Polish army’s invasion of its own country’ over 5,000 Solidarity activists were rounded up, telephone lines cut and transport stopped. The room, complete with examples of the equipment used and worn by the militias, leaves you with a clear picture of the horror that befell the Polish people that December and which lasted until martial law ended on the 22^nd of July 1983.

Moving on you are given a chronological record of the events which the Roads to Freedom aims to remember. August 1980 was the key moment in the movement and a key point on Poland’s and central and eastern Europe’s Road to Freedom. However it should be remembered as only a stage on a much longer road which can be traced back to the failed Warsaw Uprising of 1944 and which was completed by the success of Solidarity in free elections and the inauguration of Lech Walesa as the first freely elected President of Poland in 1990.

The final stage of the exhibition is set aside for temporary exhibitions which have some connection with the permanent exhibitions theme of freedom. Until the end of February you will find an exhibition entitled ‘Window on Belarus’ (Okno na Białoruś). And from March this is due to be replaced by an exhibition about Tibet.

The Roads to Freedom exhibition is a real must see for anyone interested in the history of Poland and the fall of communism. The incredible achievement of the men and women who made up the Solidarity movement cannot and should never be either underestimated or forgotten. Those who were lucky enough to have seen the exhibition in its original home of the BHP building in the shipyard will appreciate the improvement in the quality and amount of exhibits which now appear in English. However they may also be saddened that while the new venue provides a certain amount of atmosphere with its underground location, the new location doesn’t compare with the historic BHP building itself where the Accords were signed. The exhibition is also a work in progress and new exhibits and additional descriptions are being added all the time. The exhibition is well worth 6zl of anybody’s money and there are a few decent souvenir opportunities in the on-site shop. The exhibition is due to remain in the basement of the Solidarity union’s offices until 2010 at which point it is penciled in for a place back inside the shipyards again.

Admission 6/4zł, Wed 2zł, groups over 10 people 3zł per person, family ticket 10zł.

Roads to Freedom comments

• 01
  June
  2009
  Letitia - Brattleboro
  I went a couple of times to the old exhibit, so I will have to visit the new venue. I was a student in Poland in 1980, so I remember the gathering political storm, the backwardness, the fear, etc. That atmosphere was captured very well in the old exhibit. The demonstration re-enactments were pretty true to life, and produce a shudder of recognition in anyone who lived through those times. The audio to those demonstration scenes is especially unsettling. The old grocery store was a true replica of just how bad things were back in 1980-81 with empty shelves and ration tickets. Too bad no English speaker will get the joke about the notice offering to "x-ray" the eggs (so you wouldn't crack open an egg and find a tiny chick inside.) "Eggs" are also Polish slang for something very male, and the "egg" notices posted in many groceries were fodder for many guy jokes. Hopefully new English subtitles will make the museum more accessible to foreigners.
• 29
  March
  2008
  D Maclure - Manchester
  I was bitterly disappointed not to see the roads to freedom exhibition during my visit to Gdansk as it is currently closed (14th to 31st March 2008) - no reason given.