Jan Józef Lipski - Brutal disruption of nationwide rallies by police (95/215)
To listen to more of Jan Józef Lipski’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzWe1vPVkCbxv3jbj8zoDjS Jan Józef Lipski (1926-1991) was a writer, literary critic, and one of Poland's best known political activists. He fought in the Warsaw Uprising, co-founded the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR), and, from 1987, re-established and led the Polish Socialist Party. [Listener: Jacek Petrycki, Marcel Łoziński; date recorded: 1989] TRANSCRIPT: And so, there was the famous and often-mentioned large scale beatings in the university courtyard. Whether ORMO [Ochotnicza Rezerwa Milicji Obywatelskiej] – the Voluntary Reserve Citizens Militia made up of volunteers in different workplaces and who were organised reservists in the militia – would have moved in any way, is hard to say. However, there's no doubt that they were officially summoned to the university by the university authorities, and unfortunately, two people have passed into Polish history because of this. One is the mathematician, Professor Turski, who was the vicechancellor at the time and who was fairly passive in all of this although he made no effort to oppose what was happening and as vicechancellor, he undoubtedly takes responsibility. The second person was definitely more active and had a more politically significant position, namely, Professor Rybicki, the deputy vicechancellor. He was the individual, the person who, from the point of view of the university and the university authorities, was the most important. In fact, no one knew what would happen next as a result of that beating of the students. As for the student demonstration, you could say it was either a success or a failure, depending on how you looked at it. It was a success in that a sufficient number of students turned up to make it into a demonstration that deserved to be taken seriously. But considering how large Warsaw University is, the number of demonstrators was definitely too low. Because of this, you could think that the demonstration, having been dispersed, was the end of the matter. However, something quite unexpected occurred instead. Not only did this initiate long-lasting protest in Warsaw connected to large student rallies, with the ratification of resolutions and so on, but this wave passed through every city in Poland that had a university. In some places, the protests were quite extreme, in others they were less so, but I don't think there was a single city where nothing at all happened in connection with this. This went on for a good few weeks throughout the entire country. Every demonstration was broken up very brutally. At that time, they were using different methods, they didn't yet have the body known as ZOMO [Zmotoryzowane Odwody Milicji Obywatelskiej] – Motorised Reserves of Citizens` Militia – who looked like medieval warriors with those helmets and shields. However, there were swarms of people from ORMO.
To listen to more of Jan Józef Lipski’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzWe1vPVkCbxv3jbj8zoDjS Jan Józef Lipski (1926-1991) was a writer, literary critic, and one of Poland's best known political activists. He fought in the Warsaw Uprising, co-founded the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR), and, from 1987, re-established and led the Polish Socialist Party. [Listener: Jacek Petrycki, Marcel Łoziński; date recorded: 1989] TRANSCRIPT: And so, there was the famous and often-mentioned large scale beatings in the university courtyard. Whether ORMO [Ochotnicza Rezerwa Milicji Obywatelskiej] – the Voluntary Reserve Citizens Militia made up of volunteers in different workplaces and who were organised reservists in the militia – would have moved in any way, is hard to say. However, there's no doubt that they were officially summoned to the university by the university authorities, and unfortunately, two people have passed into Polish history because of this. One is the mathematician, Professor Turski, who was the vicechancellor at the time and who was fairly passive in all of this although he made no effort to oppose what was happening and as vicechancellor, he undoubtedly takes responsibility. The second person was definitely more active and had a more politically significant position, namely, Professor Rybicki, the deputy vicechancellor. He was the individual, the person who, from the point of view of the university and the university authorities, was the most important. In fact, no one knew what would happen next as a result of that beating of the students. As for the student demonstration, you could say it was either a success or a failure, depending on how you looked at it. It was a success in that a sufficient number of students turned up to make it into a demonstration that deserved to be taken seriously. But considering how large Warsaw University is, the number of demonstrators was definitely too low. Because of this, you could think that the demonstration, having been dispersed, was the end of the matter. However, something quite unexpected occurred instead. Not only did this initiate long-lasting protest in Warsaw connected to large student rallies, with the ratification of resolutions and so on, but this wave passed through every city in Poland that had a university. In some places, the protests were quite extreme, in others they were less so, but I don't think there was a single city where nothing at all happened in connection with this. This went on for a good few weeks throughout the entire country. Every demonstration was broken up very brutally. At that time, they were using different methods, they didn't yet have the body known as ZOMO [Zmotoryzowane Odwody Milicji Obywatelskiej] – Motorised Reserves of Citizens` Militia – who looked like medieval warriors with those helmets and shields. However, there were swarms of people from ORMO.