1968 Polish Political Crisis - Polish Student and Intellectual Protest

Polish Student and Intellectual Protest

At the end of January 1968, on behalf of the communist government, Zenon Kliszko banned the performance of a play by Adam Mickiewicz, (Dziady, written in 1824), directed by Kazimierz Dejmek at the Polish Theatre in Warsaw, on the grounds that it contained Russophobic and "anti-socialist" references. The play had been performed 14 times, the last time on January 30. Dejmek was expelled from the Communist Party and later fired from the National Theatre. – He returned to his job in Warsaw as an artistic director only 5 years later.

The Warsaw Writers' Union condemned the ban on March 2, followed by the Actors' Union. A crowd of some 1,500 students protesting at Warsaw University on March 8 was met by attacks by the riot police. Within four days, protests spread to Kraków, Lublin, Gliwice, Wrocław, Gdańsk, Poznań, and Łódź. Bands of Communist party "worker-squads" from ORMO (Volunteer Reserve Militia) attacked the students at the university halls, followed by police in Warsaw and Lublin. Mass student strikes took place in Wrocław on March 14–16, Kraków on March 14–20, and Opole. A call for a general strike was issued from Warsaw on March 13. A hardline speech by Władysław Gomułka on March 19 cut off the possibility of negotiation. Further student protests, strikes and occupations were met with the mass academic expulsion of thousands of participants. National coordination by the students was attempted through a March 25 meeting in Wrocław; most of its attendees were jailed by the end of April. At least 2,725 people were arrested for participating. According to internal government reports, the suppression was generally effective, although students were able to disrupt the May Day ceremonies in Wrocław later in the year.