2016-17
Mitra FAMILY GRANT Recipient
Listen, This One’s for You: The Influence of Punk Music in the 1989 Overthrow of the Soviet Communist Regime in Poland
Maya Valluru, Class of 2017
Listen, This One’s for You: The Influence of Punk Music in the 1989 Overthrow of the Soviet Communist Regime in Poland
Maya Valluru 2017 Mitra Family Scholar
Mentors: Ms. Roxana Pianko, Mrs. Meredith Cranston April 12, 2017
Background on Poland’s Ties with the Soviet Union, the Establishment of Communism in Poland, and the Origins of Resistance
After the Bolsheviks, or members of the Russian Social Democratic Party, gained power over Russia during the 1917 October Revolution, Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks, desired to spread communist ideology as formulated by Karl Marx to neighboring European countries through forming a “European Soviet Republic.”1 After the successful overthrow of the bourgeoisie by the proletariat in Russia as delineated in Marx’s Communist Manifesto, revolts also occurred in Ukraine, Belorussia, and the Transcaucasian Federation, which consisted of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.2 Soviet Socialist republics (SSRs) were then established in each of the countries.3 Lenin held a congress in Moscow in 1922 that absorbed the separate republics to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), of which Lenin was appointed the head.4 By 1940, the USSR consisted of 15 countries, as the SSRs of Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kirgiziya, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan were later absorbed into the USSR.5 Several countries in Eastern Europe never officially became members of the USSR but were established as satellites of the Soviet Union.6 These countries included Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, East Germany, and Romania.7
The USSR as one superpower came to play a large role in World War II as one of the Axis powers in conjunction with Germany and Japan. In 1939, the USSR signed with Germany
1 Raymond E. Zickel, "The Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union," Sam Houston State University, last modified 1989.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 The Cold War 1945-1991, Gale, 1992.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, or the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, stating that the two powers would remain neutral towards each other 8 As a part of a secret protocol, the countries also established their spheres of interest, discussing the grounds upon which the Soviets would “partition” Poland.9 After the Nazis invaded Eastern Poland, thereby breaking the pact, the Soviets in turn violated the Polish-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact and did not hesitate to occupy the majority of Poland.10
Poles suffered under the occupation of the USSR during the war. For example, Soviet war generals commanded soldiers to kill their war officers, and only 82,000 out of the 230,000 prisoners of war taken by the Soviets survived.11 In addition, the acts of the Soviets that ensued established that the Red Army now occupying Polish soil would not save the country but rather usher Poles into another era of oppression. The Soviets enforced a “systematic campaign of extermination of the population,” with over 1.6 million Poles were placed in prisons and labor camps in arctic regions such as Siberia. Only 600,000 of those individuals died as a result of malnourishment, starvation, and exhaustion.12
Parallels drawn between the Soviets and Nazis in treatment of Poles during the war with transportation of masses of people to labor camps also included acts of genocide. As explained in 1979 by the Social Self-Defense Committee (KOR), a Polish civil society group formed during communist rule, the Soviets were responsible for the deaths of nearly 22,000 Polish war officers considered the Polish elite while they were being held as prisoners of war in camps in Polish
8 Peter S. H. Tang, "Experiments in Communism: Poland, the Soviet Union, and China," Springer 26, no. 4 (November 1983): 299, accessed April 11, 2017.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid., 298.
12 Ibid.
villages called Kozielsk, Ostazków, and Starobielsk.13 After years of the USSR’s denial of responsibility, it was confirmed in 1952 by the “Katyn commission of the USA state” that the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), one of the secret police agencies of the USSR, led the officers into the Katyn Forest and shot the men into mass graves.14 Originally, the Soviets claimed that Nazis were responsible for the murders, but after finding during the Nuremberg Trials that the Germans were not guilty of the crime, the USSR was more or less confirmed as the perpetrators.15
While the Nazis were being defeated in Poland, the Polish communists cooperated with the Soviet Union in opposition to the Polish government-in-exile so that they could establish a “Soviet-dependent Polish state.”16 Moscow “only allowed the surviving Party members in Poland to reorganize in 1942 following the German invasion of the USSR in 1941” rather than granting Polish communist politicians power as a “Communist resistance movement against Nazis on Polish soil.”17 The group of the surviving Soviet Party members in Poland formed a group named the Polish Worker’s Party (PZPR), avoiding any phraseology including the word “communism” to avoid connoting the new establishment to the Soviets, even though they were the true heads of the organization.18 Rather, the PZPR stressed nationalism and “patriotism,” emphasizing that instead of being a puppet government, the PZPR simply had a “friendship with the Soviet Union, not as the fatherland of the world proletariat, but as the big Slav brother, the
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
16 Matt Killingsworth, Matthew Sussex, and Jan Pakulski, eds., Violence and the State (Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 2016), 58.
17 Tang, "Experiments in Communism," 299.
18 Ibid.
liberator and protector of small nations now struggling against the German yoke.”19 Despite the fact that the atrocities committed by the Soviets closely resembled the deeds of the Nazis, the USSR was convinced that they could win the minds of Poles through somehow portraying themselves as allies in fighting for freedom against the Axis powers.
While portraying itself as the “liberator” of Poles in 1942 with the creation of the PZPR, two years later the Red Army stood inactive on the banks of the Vistula as the Warsaw Uprising took place.20 The 1944 uprising was an effort of the Polish resistance to free Warsaw from the German occupation in hopes to establish Warsaw as one of the first capital cities in Europe to be liberated, but after 63 days without aid from the Soviets and other strategic complications, the Nazis quelled the rebellion.21 The reason for the Soviets’ withholding help from the Poles was the USSR’s “effort to destroy the most active elements among the non-Communist resistance” that consisted of Polish natives.22 As a result of the defeat, the Polish government-in-exile in London “lost prestige and influence,” and “the catastrophe of the London camp considerably facilitated the subsequent Communist assumption of power.”23
The war’s official end in 1945 did not set the Polish people at peace, as the Soviet enemy was only beginning its installation of the PZPR. Attempting to appear as only a partner of the USSR, the Soviets had always intended for the PZPR to act as an instrument with which they could facilitate the institution of communism in one of its satellite countries.24 The Russians
19 Ibid., 300.
20 Ibid., 302.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid., 300.
formed the Polish Committee for National Liberation (PKWN) in Poland as well, which consisted of “Soviet puppet-politicians.”25 But despite their crushing defeat in the Warsaw uprising, the people of Poland did not cease in their fight for freedom from the oppression of European superpowers.
Resistance against the USSR that began in World War II culminated until 1989, when numerous nationalistic opposition groups successfully replaced the communist government with a democratically-elected one.26 One of the often forgotten resistance movements that contributed to Poland’s freedom was the Polish punk rock counterculture, an opposition group parallel to the labor union Solidarity, which actively protested against severe social and economic ills Eastern Europeans experienced under the communist Soviet regime, the Catholic Church, and the sect of Marxist communists who shunned Stalinist ideology. Heavily influenced by contemporary Western artists like The Beatles, The Doors, and The Rolling Stones, young Polish people combined traditional Polish sounds found in folk music as well as elements of European jazz to create their own form of revolutionary music that paralleled the screams for freedom and understanding of the young people in the West.27 Because Western music was banned (as all Western items and ideology were), the genre of punk rock became a coveted symbol of discontent for young musicians.
While citizens of all Eastern Bloc countries were governed by stringent anti-sedition laws, young Polish musicians and student activists slipped through the fingers of authorities; rallying at concerts and writing songs in the name of change, young people found themselves in
25 Killingsworth, Sussex, and Pakulski, Violence and the State, 58.
26 "Life after Communism," CNN, last modified May 19, 2009.
27 Jenn Pelly, "Underground Out of Poland," Pitchfork, last modified August 22, 2013.
the forefront of this historical rebellion. In 1980s Poland, unlike in other countries of the Eastern Bloc, punk music was not suppressed with sedition laws because the art form was utilized as a "safety valve" for youth to express their discontent with corruption and politicization of any group, not only the communist government. The authorities paid no heed to young musicians and students who listened to the music because their efforts lay in crushing Solidarity, causing the Communist Party to misjudge the significance that the music had on the movement for independence.28 In the end, punk music, which most prominently expressed the theme of anguish for Poland's suffering, unified both young people and progressive adults affiliated with the Catholic Church, Solidarity, and a sect of Marxist communists, and successfully undermined the Soviet Regime restoring order and attaining their only goal: freedom.
A Unique “Safety Valve”
To understand the unique dynamic of Polish punk music and its significance, comparing its status of artistic expression with that of other satellite countries of the Soviet Bloc is vital. Because the flourishing of art in Czechoslovakia was similar to that in Poland under communist rule and the suppression of expression in each country was close to opposite, Czechoslovakia proves one significant center of attention in the examination of 1980s media in Poland. While in Czechoslovakia free expression through media such as rock music was suppressed to maintain cultural hegemony, in Poland the state utilized the punk rock scene of the younger generation as a tool to normalize communism.
Czechoslovakia and Poland had similar relationships with the USSR; both governments developed ties with the Soviets after the USSR rid their countries of Germans during WWII. Because the Red Army joined with Czechoslovak forces to liberate a large portion of
28 Raymond Patton, "Screamed Poetry: Rock in Poland's Last Decade of Communism" (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2011), 21, accessed February 13, 2017.
Czechoslovak territory, there was a great deal of Soviet pressure on the rising Communist Party in Czechoslovakia, and it maintained good relations with their “liberator.”29 While Czechoslovakia was not officially a Soviet-run country, deeds like opposing the rearmament of Germany and refusal to participate in the Marshall Plan initiated Czechoslovakia as a member of the Soviet Bloc.30 Consequently, censorship in Czechoslovakia became as full-fledged as in the Soviet Union; the press, works of literature, film, theater and radio were monitored through an organization “comparable to the Soviet Glavlit.”31 The Czechoslovak state also imposed the doctrine of Socialist Realism, a style of visual art approved by the USSR that served as a tool of propaganda through depicting themes of brotherhood and the community in the works.32 Those who disagreed with the themes and subject matter presented by artists commissioned by the state were punished, and such state control of the arts carried over to all other forms of media.33
Twenty years later, Alexander Dubcek rose to power, aiming to introduce a “program of unprecedented economic and political liberalization.”34 Dubcek established an agenda of creating “socialism with a human face” in January of 1968, a plan that entailed reforms in aspects of the economy, politics, and most importantly, free expression.35 He passed a law that abolished restrictions on all forms of media previously under strict censorship, leading to the beginning of the Prague Spring, a time in which the arts, including Western and Czechoslovak rock music,
29 "Czech Republic," in Censorship: A World Encyclopedia , ed. Derek Jones (New York, NY: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001), [Volume 1]: 627.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid.
32 Anna Stoneman, "Socialism With a Human Face: The Leadership and Legacy of the Prague Spring" (PhD diss., Stanford Online University), 2, accessed December 9, 2016.
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid.
35 Ibid.
flourished. Dubcek’s intent through this program was to “revitalize and re-popularize KSC socialism” excluding its most dictatorial aspects, but this action led to almost a year of “utter freedom, characterized by hitherto dissemination and discussion of information.”36 However, the liberalization of the country proved to be a “threat to the unity of the Soviet bloc nations under strict Soviet hegemony, and therefore to the strength of the Soviet Union itself.”37 As the people’s demands for further liberalization grew too un-socialist to handle, the Warsaw Pact forces invaded and brought down Dubcek, reestablishing hardline communism in Czechoslovakia. That same August the signing of the Moscow Protocols reversed almost all of the reform policies that led to the Prague Spring, including the law that banned censorship.38 Once this regressive transition to Soviet communism returned to Czechoslovakia in 1968, the regime continued until 1989.39
The Czechoslovak rock scene suffered a great deal is the ‘70s, as suppressing circulation of punk music stood as one of the top priorities of the Czechoslovak secret police due to the menacing nature of the lyrics and melodies influenced by contemporary Western musicians.40 A 1972 law aiding this censorship of “independent music” stated that “every musician performing any kind of music had to take an examination run by a state artists’ agency.”41 Part of this examination even included an interview in which musicians were interrogated about their
36 Ibid.
37 Ibid.
38 M. Mark Stolarik, comp., The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia (Mundelein, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2010), 50.
39"Czech Republic," in Censorship: A World,1: 627.
40 Marta Marciniak, Transnational Punk Communities in Poland: From Nihilism to Nothing Outside Punk (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2015), 7.
41 Ibid.
political opinions, and if the Party deemed the artists or their work threatening, the musicians “changed jobs, chose to emigrate or joined the bands that performed state-approved pop music.”42 Around the same time during which the Czech secret police was executing this law diligently to prevent the rise of another Prague Spring, Polish punk music began to rise to prominence.43
The Soviets put to rest the music that resulted from the freedom granted by Prague Spring because the art form posed as an immense threat to hegemony in countries belonging to the Soviet Bloc. Cultural hegemony being the concept that the ruling class in a communist society controls and normalizes specific aspects of the society, including the mediums of art, economics, and political structure.44 Because the Czechoslovak people now defined their own cultural identity through art, one that was distinctly different from that of other bloc countries and the USSR, the state assumed control of the media.45
Poland had a similar turbulent history to that of Czechoslovakia. While the Nazis were being defeated in Poland, the Polish communists cooperated with the Soviet Union in opposition to the Polish government-in-exile so that they could establish a “Soviet-dependent Polish State.”46 The Polish United Workers’ Party then formed, and with popular support, maintained its power as a result of the backing of its Soviet allies.47
While the results of the Prague Spring posed a threat to hegemony in Czechoslovakia, the 42 Ibid.
43 Ibid.
44 T. J. Jackson Lears, "The Concept of Cultural Hegemony: Problems and Possibilities," The American Historical Review 90, no. 3 (June 1985).
45 Ibid.
46 Killingsworth, Sussex, and Pakulski, Violence and the State, 58.
47 Ibid.
communist leadership in Poland actually aimed to utilize the art to establish hegemony within their country. Punk lived and thrived in Poland because it was viewed as a “safety valve,” not a threat to power or a potential factor of another Prague Spring.48 It was an avenue through which cultural hegemony could be achieved; communists aimed to neutralize and normalize the youth’s form of expression through allowing its existence and even promoting it. The music acted as an example of incorporating original aspects of the nation’s culture into a communist society. While Czechoslovak punk rockers were “arrested, abused by police, brought to trial and eventually deported to the West…” and could only perform music with subtle hints at discontent with the system, Polish punk rock musicians faced almost no punishment issued by the state for their compositions and performances.49 The reason for such leniency was the aforementioned “safety valve;” the communists believed that punk was not only an acceptable way but also a powerful manner for the youth to expel frustration about whatever it was they cared about, from the poverty caused by the regime to their recent breakup.50
One center of expression that held great significance in this period was the Festiwal Rockowy Jarocin, or Jarocin Rock Festival, which is known in rock communities across the world as the “Polish Woodstock.” As Raymond Patton states, “Jarocin was a place youth could come and experience what it was like living in another culture without ever leaving the country.”51 He also highlights an instance at this festival in 1982, when a band called Dezerter (originally SS-20, a kind of Soviet missile) sang “Aborted Generation,” a piece with charged
48 Raymond Patton, "The Communist Culture Industry: The Music Business in 1980s Poland," Journal of Contemporary History 47, no. 2 (April 2012): 20, accessed August 31, 2016.
49 Sabrina Petra Ramet, "Rock Music and Counterculture," in Social Currents in Eastern Europe: The Sources and Consequences of the Great Transformation , 2nd ed. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995), 219.
50 Patton, "Screamed Poetry," 2.
51 Ibid.
lyrics that called attention to the maltreatment and lack of opportunity for young people:52
No satisfaction, too much frustration,
Here is a picture of my generation, No order, no future, no hope, no freedom,
Stillborn Generation. You want to fight, you want to change something, You want to eradicate evil on Earth, You don’t have a chance motherfucker, Your generation will die.
Stillborn Generation. Watch TV, you know what a crisis is... Your generation is already over Stillborn generation.53
The goal of this song and the majority of underground punk compositions was to express pain rooted in the lack of normalcy, peace, and honesty in Poland rather than directly attacking the Party’s form of governance.
54 Dezerter criticized not only the system in Poland that annihilated the hope of a better life for those in his generation but also brought attention to corruption and destruction in Iran and the West. The title “Aborted Generation” described were already born into a country bereft of values; the generation “is already over,” connoting that being alive in such times was equivalent to not being born at all. Seemingly vague and rooted in
52 Ibid.
53 Dezerter, Aborted Generation, 1982, compact disc.
54 Marciniak, Transnational Punk, 6.
a universal teenage anxiety, the song seemingly disguised a political statement beneath abrasive language simply considered fodder for the uneducated youth.
Bands like Dezerter continued to perform at festivals because the state did not feel threatened by these musicians; the music never posed as a call to arms, but rather existed as a medium for expulsion of frustration.55 In fact, musicians never rallied for parallel opposition movements or directly insulted the state because they aimed to stay true to personal pain without “selling out;” their music was simply anarchic.56 In the eyes of the authorities, the state should not invest resources into quelling screams of young people without true connections to authority or a clear political agenda. According to punk musician Pawel Gumola, he and his contemporaries spoke about the situation and the stupidity of the government, stating, “sometimes it was straight, sometimes poetic, and sometimes humorous.”57 The only instances in which the young people were truly policed were for nudity or use of illicit drugs.58
Jarocin was not only an opportunity for young people to burn music, meet new people, or lose themselves in music; it was a congregation in which they developed a punk rock identity, or a unified culture of kids. This is one example of how the young Polish punks, in the words of Raymond Patton, turned “incorporation” and an attempt to establish cultural hegemony into “resistance” right beneath the noses of the authorities.59
55 Simon Broughton, "R.U.T.A.: Polish punks with fiddles," The Arts Desk, last modified May 31, 2012, accessed September 6, 2016.
56 Ibid.
57 Ibid.
58 Patton, "Screamed Poetry," 20.
59 Ibid., 21.
Punk as a Distinct Movement Treated Differently from Parallel Opposition Movements, Particularly Solidarity
Punk was a distinctly separate movement from the Solidarity movement, which was one of the greatest driving forces in overthrowing the regime in Communist Poland. As a labor party, Solidarity did indeed play an enormous role in proliferation of an ideology of liberation that corresponded with the themes expressed by the youth counterculture. Solidarity was born on August 14, 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland. A group of shipyard workers led by Lech Walesa protested that morning about the recently hiked-up food prices among other contentions against the Communist government.60 Walesa and the protesters rallied for an “independent, self-governing trade union” and to “have the right to strike.”61 With this show of discontent, Miezyslaw Jagielski, the first deputy prime minister at the time, legally granted the protesters’ demands, officially deeming Solidarity the first independent labor union in a Soviet Bloc country.62 Yet again, the Polish government took a risk in allowing freedom to its people in an attempt to establish cultural hegemony within the discontented proletariat: rather than outright suppression of the protests with force, the state attempted to meet the needs of the workers to avoid villainizing the Party. However, the tolerance of worker’s expression of discontent to establish cultural hegemony proved disastrous by the time General Wojciech Jaruzelski, a military general and Communist politician, became prime minister and the Party’s first secretary
60 Jeffery Donovan to Radio Free Europe Newsgroup, "Solidarity: The Trade Union That Changed the World," August 24, 2015, accessed February 13, 2017.
61 Ibid.
62 Meredith Day, The Cold War: A Political and Diplomatic History of the Modern Wolrd (New York: Brittanica, 2017).
the following year.63 On December 13, 1981, Jaruzelski instituted martial law: “...Martial Law was proclaimed, which in its first phase was like a real war for many people: tanks, food crises and rationing, curfews, people arrested, 'accidental' deaths on the streets. Terror.”64 While Jaruzelski was known prior to this deed as a leader holding generally moderate views, the demands of Solidarity “inflicted a series of...strikes to back up its appeals for economic reforms, for free elections, and for the involvement of trade unions in decision making at the highest levels.”65 Such a situation greatly echoed that of Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring: under Alexander Dubcek, the demands of the people grew too great to bear. While in Czechoslovakia a Soviet Invasion put the insurgence to rest, Jaruzelski took matters into his own hands as a loyalist to the Eastern Bloc by outlawing Solidarity and establishing a daily curfew as the primary facets of his far-reaching martial law.
As a result of the gravity of the situation surrounding Poland’s primary labor party, the communist state was focused on the repression of Solidarity rather than on suppressing youth culture. With this oversight, the punk musicians generally flew under the radar of the government’s concerns: “...punk in Poland was ‘allowed’ to develop to a much greater extent than in neighboring ‘brotherly’ countries of the Warsaw Pact because, as the argument goes, the Polish comrades had more pressing problems to attend to than the pursuit of kids in mohawks.”66
However, it is vital to acknowledge the censorship of media aside from music, including works or literature, journalistic publications, scholarly articles, film, and radio. Continually, the
63 "Wojciech Jaruzelski, First Secretary, Polish United Workers Party, 1981 1989." In The Cold War 1945-1991. Gale, 1992. Biography in Context (accessed April 14, 2017).
64 Pyzik to The Quietus newsgroup, "Poor but Sexy: Culture Clashes In Europe East And West, An Extract."
65 Day, The Cold War.
66 Marciniak, Transnational Punk, 6.
Party would address Polish writers themselves rather than make corrections to the hard copies of printed works.67 As censorship destroyed “certain elements of reality” and existed to create a utopian “non-reality,” cultural hegemony was introduced to Poland: “The aim was to make the reader believe that the words and content of the article were the ones of the authors even if a considerable amount of modifications had been made. Journalists, writers and researchers who addressed controversial themes attempted at circumventing the censors...but sometimes they had to compromise their opinion to match the official one.”68 A punk band called Republika, one of the most popular groups in 1980s Poland, wrote about this manipulation of written works to adhere to the communist agenda in conjunction with the proliferation of propaganda by the Party. In their 1991 track called “Lava,” lead singer Grzegorz Ciechowski describes how false information seemed to chase individuals like fire threatening to burn away intellect and truth:
With TVs, lava flows,
From the loudspeakers on the street, lava, And by printers, lava…
Walk down the street, lava flows,
And lava is already catching up with you.
Volcanoes spit their lava,
And one floods another with lava, la-la-lava .
To whom are these words, to whom, whom, whom?
For whom is this lava, for whom, whom, whom?69
67 Gaweł Strządała, "Censorship in the People’s Republic of Poland," accessed December 15, 2016.
68 Ibid.
69 Grzegorz Ciechowski, 1991, M.M. Potocka, 1991, compact disc.
Released two years after the fall of communism, the song made a statement about the lasting impact of the Soviet regime’s dissemination of false information. Ciechowski symbolized propaganda as a malicious and pervasive magma that continued to pursue civilians through avenues of the media, citing television, radio, and newspapers even after Poland gained independence from the regime. Ciechowski asked who the government was truly trying to convince with their falsities, which included lies about treatment of civilians by the state police, abduction of revolutionaries, murder, opening fire on protesting individuals, and scarcity of goods, to name a few.
In contrast to the censorship of other forms of media, expression of discontent through the medium of punk music did not face suppression as a result of the PZPR’s general handle on the media industry. While there existed a great deal of censorship in mainstream forms of media, punks experienced freedom to perform their music as they were not regarded as true threats to the state: “Censorship often taken as the key limitation in cultural production in socialist systems indeed played a role, but its effects were less pervasive and easier to negotiate than more mundane institutional constraints.”70 Because there were numerous facets of the PZPR dedicated to monitoring the media as censors and as investors in the arts (the Department of music, the Committee on Matters of Radio and Television, and the Cultural Committee of the Central Committee of the PZPR, to name a few), the structure of the music industry was too convoluted to monitor or pay a substantial amount of attention to the punk musicians.71 The particular interest of these institutions lay in more established forms of entertainment, such as the popular “soft rock” of the period or theater performances: “Polish show business was not
70 Patton, "Screamed Poetry," 35.
71 Ibid.
interested in punk rock bands since their creation and activities were slightly ‘politically incorrect’...The Polish establishment would rather promote any other type of music…”72 The sheer number of political groups dedicated to monitoring and overseeing the media caused great difficulty for underground bands in obtaining record deals or airtime on radio broadcasts.73 Therefore, these alternative musicians relied mostly on the medium of live performances as well as independent distribution of music, which resulted in the exclusive “underground” youth culture of resistance: “Soon, the unofficial distribution system of punk music occurred. The tapes as well as vinyl records containing the music that could not have been bought in any shop, were given from hand to hand.”74
Poland was also facing an enormous economic crisis during this period. Punk bands were not only being ignored as a result of disorganization among the media institutions and a general disinterest in the details of alternative culture, but also because the institutions knew that no profit would arise from funding the punk musicians.75 Purchasing equipment for the artists and signing them to record deals seemed to be, quite frankly, a waste of time and money.76 However, the state of the economy only continued to worsen. Seemingly out of desperation, the Party determined that actively promoting the sale of punk music could contribute to the rescue of the state: “The PZPR’s need to resolve the economic crisis and the crisis in authority provoked by Solidarity brought about a series of contradictory impulses...that created new possibilities as well
72 Marciniak, Transnational Punk, 7.
73 Patton, "Screamed Poetry," 40.
74 Ibid.
75 Ibid., 39.
76 Ibid.
as limitations in the music world.”77 Similarly to how the Party aimed to make a profit from the counterculture, they began to encourage the production of other goods that they believed would be mass-consumed. While shelves of grocery stores were greatly bereft of basic necessities as a result of the drowning economy, the Party found vodka to be another item that, like music, would prove a solution to the crisis because of its consistent sales and popularity.78 One of the most monumental punk bands of the period called Kult expressed the intent of the government to numb its citizenry with the mass production of alcohol in their 1987 song “Wodka”:
They built factories, they developed a machine, they produce vodka, Yes, so, so, so, so, so, so, so much vodka.
Because the only thing they care about is that You injure himself, you cannot think, you cannot walk. They lined up chimneys, they built ladders Everything is working, is working and poisoning. ...Even smoke chimneys, they produce fumes. They produce vodka.79
This song jabs at the dysfunctionality of the Polish economy and the malicious intent of the government to harm its citizenry, speaking to the long hours of labor by factory workers as a result of the poverty induced by the government’s inability to provide its civilians with basic living necessities. The communists promoted the sales of punk records and vodka because they needed to strike profit off of the sales of what they deemed to be opium of the people: punk music allowed young people to express their discontent within their own spheres of interest
77 Ibid., 34.
78 "Communism's alcohol problem," Christian Science Monitor, last modified March 31, 1981.
79 Wodka, by Kazik Staszewski, S.P. Records, 1987, compact disc.
without protest or direct opposition to the state, while vodka essentially disabled adults. In other words, the communists believed that punk music allowed young people to express their anger amongst themselves without contributing to protest movements of adults, essentially avoiding adult discontent to be further fueled by that of the youth. The Party’s mass production of vodka corresponds with the Marxist theory of the “opium of the people,” which described religion as an instrument of those in power to silently dominate people into blind submission.80 In context, alcoholism was the opium, or the religion disseminated by the Party, used to disillusion and narcotize Poles into believing in their leaders and in newly-established social norms by failing to recognize the truth while intoxicated.81 The band described the working class becoming ignorant as a result of the government attempting to rescue its economy and in turn quelling the voices of those most affected by scarcities in resources.82
To be sure, the theme of punk music was never directed in support of Solidarity or any other parallel movement against the state; it solely served as a manifestation of discontent against the general system of the government, any form of politicization of civil unrest (including Solidarity, in fact), and against the stringent martial law that harmed the protesting laborers and idealogues.83 The language of a unified struggle of all citizens in a bleeding Poland that shone most radiantly through the compositions was clearly demonstrated in a 1983 song by popular punk band Sedes in their song “We All Suffer”:
I cannot accomplish anything because someone is looking in my eyes, I cannot accomplish anything because someone is looking at my hands,
80 Rosie Blau, "What Is the Opium of the People?," 1834 Magazine.
81 Ibid.
82 "Communism's alcohol," Christian Science Monitor.
83 Broughton, "R.U.T.A.: Polish," The Arts Desk.
Everywhere full of people, people who want to complicate my life
Every one of them maliciously gets in my way, disturbs my life.
We all suffer for being alive. We all suffer for being alive.84
In the words of Andy Markowitz, this song acted as “an anthem for the country’s scattered punks, encapsulating the frustration of young people facing a drab, gray future under a repressive, contemptuous government.”85 This song began playing in 1983, during early periods of Jaruzelski’s martial law.86 Rather than a pointed and direct opposition to the government, the language represented the punk movement as a unified and anarchical struggle against the times. But despite the generality of the lyrics and the nonalignment with any particular opposition group, the Party for a short period of time suspected that punk was intentionally developing a culture of opposition: “Because it came from the West, punk was suspected to be secretly connected with the conspiratorial activities of the political opposition, led by Solidarity.”87 In the early 1980s, the authorities did indeed grow concerned with influence from the West entering their state through the avenue of punk music.88 People could purchase American and Western European music, and at one point “punk was viewed by the regime as an anarchist disease from the West and erroneously associated with fascism due to the use of the swastika on clothing and graffiti.”89 But after the state’s investigation of punk culture following this initial scare regarding
84 Sedes. We All Suffer. 1982, compact disc.
85 Andy Markowitz, "Wroclaw Calling: How Punk Happened in a Polish Town," Music Film Web, last modified May 30, 2014, accessed September 6, 2016.
86 "Wojciech Jaruzelski, First Secretary, Polish United Workers Party, 1981 1989."
87 Marciniak, Transnational Punk, 7.
88 Ibid.
89 Ibid.
its political significance, the thought was dismissed. The PZPR comfortably stated that the punks “were not engaged in any explicit political activity.”90
Punk proved again to be an entirely unique movement: it existed as an opposition group based on its unique culture, organization, and treatment by the state. In fact, punk existed and continued to develop when Solidarity did not and could not.91 Not only did the popularity of punk music predate the creation of Solidarity by three years, but also continued to develop when the labor movement was “driven underground” for eight years in the midst of the revolution.92
Scholars of the punk movement generally demarcate 1977 as the year in which the punk movement rose to popularity as an alternative form of expression because in 1976 the country began to see its first “strikes and riots sparked off by the announcement of steep food price hikes.”93 The influence of rock music as explained previously was rooted in Western influence by bands as early as 1960, but the use of alternative music as an instrument of protest arose in the period in which organized protest against worsening living conditions rose to prominence.94
Reflecting back to Jaruzelski’s martial law, the legislation’s curfew aspect played a larger role on the punk scene than in its suppression of the existence of evolving punk.95 Live shows primarily took place at night, when young people were out of class or work. Because communist military officers were responsible for instituting martial law in an attempt to suppress Solidarity, the young people knew that they had to comply and stay out of the way in order to keep their
90 Ibid.
91 Ibid, 6.
92 Ibid.
93 Ibid.
94 Ibid.
95 Eric Bourne to Christian Science Monitor newsgroup, "Poland's youth drown out repressions with punk rock," September 20, 1983.
movement alive.96 A number of individuals were arrested and over 90 individuals were killed as insurgents against the martial law. The curfew lasted every day between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. after its institution in 1981, meaning that people had to stay at the homes of others after performing evening shows to avoid run-ins with cops as to not attract attention to their underground activity.97 Sometimes punk artists were actually “punished” by independent assailants rather than by people sent on order by the party.98
Relationship between Punk, Parallel Opposition Movements, and Punk’s Influence on the Overthrow of the Communist Regime in Poland
Contrary to popular belief, the two opposing sides in the battle to overthrow communism was not simply Solidarity versus the PZPR, or any particular opposition group entirely against the state. Multiple divisions within every major facet of Polish society provided an avenue through which individuals who believed in democracy and capitalism achieved what they desired.99 The true, far-reaching division drew a line between those who believed that punk proved a threat to the state, in other words, that punk had ultimately failed as a form of establishing cultural hegemony and had to be suppressed before it grew out-of-hand, and those who saw punk as a new facet of youth culture and an economic asset in rebuilding Poland.100
Those who opposed punk will be referred to as Group A and those who believed in its utility as Group B. Furthermore, there were three primary social groups that played an influential role in
96 The Cold War 1945-1991, Gale, 1992.
97 Agata Pyzik to The Quietus newsgroup, "Poor But Sexy: Culture Clashes In Europe East And West, An Extract," March 31, 2014, accessed December 9, 2016.
98 Monika Janowski, "Popular Culture in 1970s and 1980s Poland" (PhD diss., City University of New York (CUNY), 2016), 15, accessed December 9, 2016.
99 Patton, "Screamed Poetry," 25.
100 Ibid
Polish society of the period: the Catholic Church and its members, Solidarity, and Communists. Group A consisted of Catholics sided with Pope John Paul II, intellectuals and progressive members of Solidarity, and Marxist Communists; Group B consisted of conservatives both in the Catholic Church and Solidarity as well as Stalinist Communists: “Rock thus foregrounded fracture lines running right through ‘the state’ and ‘the opposition,’ suggesting that the differences within each of these groups were as significant as the divisions between them.101
The role of the Catholic Church in the overthrow of the communist regime began in the 1950s, before the rise of the punk counterculture and Solidarity.102 During this period, bishops and local priests were threatened by the state if they openly preached against communism, but in 1956 “reformers” in the Party chose to put out of practice the cruel tactics of suppression such as murder and abduction as long as “the clergy would stay out of politics and recognize the legitimacy of Communist rule.”103 While this “truce” seemed to acquiesce the situation, there always remained a tacit standoff between the church and state.104 Because the state could not crush the church’s influence, as over 90% of Polish citizens were practicing Catholics, the state attempted to slyly silence the seditious deeds of the clergy through sending spies to observe worshippers or analyze the language of the teachings.105 However, the low-profile conflict became clear when Father Jerzy Popieluszko, who gave anti-communist sermons and openly bolstered the agenda of Solidarity, was brutally murdered in 1984 by three secret service
101 Ibid., 4.
102 Brian Porter, "Catholic Church in Poland," Making the History of 1989, accessed December 9, 2016.
103 Ibid.
104 Ibid.
105 Ibid.
agents.106 Popieluszko’s preaching was immensely popular, being broadcasted on Radio Free Europe, proving him to be an especially large threat to the state.107 Lech Walesa commented on the murder, stating that “Someone wanted to kill the hope that it is possible to avoid violence in Polish political life.”108 News coverage of the tragedy stated that the deeply distraught parishioners were “shrieking and weeping with grief” after hearing news of the murder, and thousands of people gathered at his church to sing the “nationalist church anthem” called “May God watch over Poland.”109 While this tragedy immensely devastated the morale of churchgoers invested in the rise against the communist regime, Walesa made a statement at Popieluszko’s funeral that encouraged people to realize that their fight was not over and that they must continue to fight for the cause that their priest died for: "Solidarity lives because Popieluszko shed his blood for it."110 The killers were later tried in a fake court case in which charges against the killers were dropped, not only causing widespread outrage but also strengthening the Church’s incentive to fight for a free Poland.111
Arguably, even more influential as a religious leader involved in the fight for Polish independence was Polish Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope since 1523.112 Shortly after he was elected to the papacy in 1978, Pope John Paul II, known originally as Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, led an eight-day pilgrimage that acted as one of the many public events that inspired
106 "The Making of a Martyr: The Murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko," Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (blog), accessed February 13, 2017.
107 Ibid
108 "Pro-Solidarity priest is murdered," BBC, 1984.
109 Ibid.
110 Ibid.
111 Ibid.
112 Porter, "Catholic Church," Making the History of 1989.
gatherings of enormous amounts of Poles: “Those who experienced that amazing week report that their lives were forever transformed: for those few days, the Communist authorities seemed to vanish, and an entirely different Poland emerged.”113 With deeds like this, Pope John Paul II formed a powerful confederation of Catholic individuals that further developed a movement that against which the state found itself practically powerless.
Solidarity formed two years after Pope John Paul II was elected, and many attribute the forward thinking and courage that laid the foundation of the Solidarity to the activities of the Catholic Church and civilians’ participation in religious activism.114 It is estimated that “thirteen million people one third of the entire Polish population attended at least one of [the pope’s] public events,” proving the far-reaching influence the Church had in shaping the ideologies and passions of the Polish citizenry.115 In later years, it became known that “Solidarity's underground efforts were also greatly aided by...moral support from Pope John Paul II.”116 In demonstrations against the government, especially those held by Solidarity, individuals bore items of religious significance, such as crosses and portraits of Mother Mary and Jesus Christ.117
With this knowledge, Group A Catholics included Pope John Paul II, Father Jerzy Popieluszko, and clergymen as well as churchgoers who were progressive and supported the overthrow of the regime.118 These individuals found great value in the voices of the “aborted generation.” An appreciation for the arts and a respect for the punks characterized the coalition
113 Ibid.
114 Ibid.
115 Ibid.
116 Donovan to Radio Free Europe newsgroup, "Solidarity: The Trade Union That Changed The World."
117 Ibid.
118 Patton, "Screamed Poetry," 251.
led by Group A, but of course, there did exist the true conservatives who found the young people’s alternative form of expression grossly ineffective and even sinful.119 These individuals belonged in Group B, believing in a separation between church and state or even supporting the status quo of the regime.120
Because there existed a divide in the Catholic Church with regards to support versus criticism of the punk counterculture, naturally one existed one among members of Solidarity, most of whom were practicing Catholics.121 However, the intellectual members of Solidarity who believed in the punk counterculture not only saw value in the art itself, from its artistic merit to its cogency in mobilizing the youth against the regime, but also saw it as a great economic asset.122 This group of intellectuals made up Group A of Solidarity, while Group B somewhat aligned with the conservatives of the Catholic Church in believing that the alternative culture of the youth was not powerful enough to defeat the regime: “Rock separated reformists from hardliners in the communist party and demarcated progressives from traditionalists in the opposition and Catholic Church. It...produced surprising alliances between conservative Catholics and unreformed Stalinists, who could agree on their opposition to the controversial music.”123 Group B aligns with a number of institutions within the PZPR described earlier that dismissed the potential of punk music being a lucrative business because the individuals in government
119 Ibid.
120 Ibid., 4.
121 Ibid.
122 Ibid., 34.
123 Ibid., 4.
themselves, greatly influenced by Socialist-realism standards of art, rendered the alternative music distasteful.124
Lastly, Group A communists, or Stalinists, were those currently in power. Influenced by Russians but still inherently Polish, these government leaders believed in their unique attempt at cultural hegemony through allowing the thriving of the punk counterculture, whereas the Marxist communists viewed the current state of government as a perversion of the intrinsic communist theory as prescribed by Karl Marx.125 The line can’t be drawn between Stalinists and Marxists but rather between communists who believed in the ability of punk to establish cultural hegemony, or Group A, versus those who deemed the allowance of the art scene a threat, or Group B.126 Group B communists are comparable to those who were in control of other Soviet Bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, as described earlier, who aimed to quell and censor any kind of expression that did not directly adhere to communist values.
Acknowledging “the emergence of this new political fracture line,” or the divide between Group A and Group B individuals, is the key to understanding the dynamic of Polish Roundtable Agreement in 1989, which is credited as the talk that ended the regime in Poland.127 Jaruzelski agreed to discuss Poland’s future with Solidarity because the economic situation and political unrest continued to threaten the stability of the government: “Despite Soviet-endorsed attempts to slow the erosion of the regime's grip on power...Poland's worsening economic situation, compounded by further nationwide strikes, meant that the government had no alternative but to
124 Ibid.
125 Agata Ewa Kosuda, The Nature of Polish-Russian Relationships After the Year of 1989 (Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest Information and Learning Company, 2008), 24.
126 Ibid.
127 Patton, "Screamed Poetry," 25.
negotiate a date for free elections with Walesa and the Solidarity movement.”128 On February 6, 1989, Roundtable Talks began, with the oppositions’ goal being legalizing Solidarity as a trade union again and allowing anti-communist politicians to have a place in the government.129 The meetings of the Roundtable Talks were “co-chaired” by Solidarity leader Lech Walesa and Prime Minister Czesław Kiszczak, who served then-President Jaruzelski, also present at the talks.130
After roughly a month of discussion, the Roundtable Talks “[led] to an agreement to legalize the Solidarity trade union, hold partially free elections, eliminate censorship, and in general end four decades of authoritarian rule.”131 The agreement retracted Jaruzelski’s martial law and instituted a more democratic form of government to meet the demands of the protesting bodies. The true role of punk in these Roundtable discussions was in the divide it created: a belief in youth counterculture was automatically paired with a freedom of speech and protest and democracy as well as with those who believed in the possibility of cultural hegemony through a normalization and proliferation of punk culture: “Some party members saw something in rock that could fit with their own reformist vision of socialist Poland.”132 This fact threw communist president Jaruzelski and Lech Walesa both into Group A: supporters of punk rock. As explained through terms of Groups A and B of Solidarity members and communist individuals, Group A Catholics’ participation in the Roundtable Talks was monumental: “...the Church hierarchy was asked to serve as a mediator. The bishops who took part in the Round Table Talks of 1989
128 “Life after,” CNN.
129 Brian Porter, "The 1989 Polish Round Table Revisited: Making History," The Journal of the International Insitute 6, no. 3 (1999), accessed December 9, 2016.
130 Ibid.
131 Ibid.
132Patton, "Screamed Poetry,” 25.
insisted that they were not parties to the debates, but...This was slightly disingenuous it was obvious that their sympathies were with Solidarity.”133
On June 4, 1989, the free elections agreed upon in the talks were held. After the runoffs on June 18, Solidarity won all 169 seats in the lower house of parliament and all but one of the 100 seats in the senate.134 Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a journalist and member of Solidarity, was appointed prime minister.135 A year later, Lech Walesa was elected as president.136 The communist government had become obsolete, and the opposition was now in power.
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, deeming all satellite countries as well as former USSR countries independent, Poland underwent immense economic reform, greatly impacting the lives of citizens who only recently lacked basic living necessities.137 Leszek Balcerowicz, the finance minister of Poland, led the reform program in which the economy transformed from an “inefficient state-controlled system of economic planning” into an “investment-friendly market economy” focused on private ownership, and only a few months later, Poland achieved its goals as prescribed by shock therapy.138 In 2004 Poland joined the European Union and in 2008 experienced an economic boom.139
While Poland experienced a successful economic reform, the lasting social and political impacts continue to haunt the citizenry and the government. Immediately after the fall of the regime, while individuals celebrated their newfound freedom as an independent country, it was
133 Donovan to Radio Free Europe newsgroup, "Solidarity: The Trade Union That Changed The World."
134 "Life after," CNN.
135 Ibid.
136 Ibid.
137 Ibid.
138 Ibid.
139 Ibid.
especially difficult for young Poles to define their unique Polish identity exclusive from its revolutionary potential and thirst for liberty. This frustration was demonstrated in a postcommunist era song by KSU, a prominent punk band that rose to popularity in the ‘80s:
KSU, “Provocation” 1990
It’s increasingly difficult for me
To understand another person.
All the pigs
Around everybody
Provocation a new religion
The whole world
Changes in the jungle.140
This song not only demonstrated the confusion the young people born into an “aborted generation” experienced after becoming what they hoped for, but also hinted at a continuing presence of the regime in Poland, even though it had officially fallen.
Conclusion
The Communist Party of Poland, most prominently Jaruzelski, thought that by agreeing to the incorporation of the opposition into the Party government, without changing the structure of government significantly, communism would strengthen. Instead, allowing the opposition groups to have a piece of the power destroyed the regime. Jaruzelski’s ultimate attempt at establishing cultural hegemony through a normalization of the opposition’s existence proved suicidal. The Party attempted for the past decade to establish hegemony through the allowance of punk music, as they did not understand the revolutionary undertones in the lyricism and the art’s
140 Provocation, performed by KSU, 1991, compact disc.
ability to unify the discontented youth. The Soviets hoped to incorporate the counterculture into the communist society to keep the youth satisfied with their freedom to express what the communists deemed entirely purposeless. The Party similarly hoped to establish hegemony by allowing leaders of Solidarity to take part in the government, not paying heed to the enormous impact those intellectuals and anti-communist politicians could have on the structure of leadership. In both of these instances, the communists miscalculated the gravity and strength of the opposition movement. They failed to recognize the artistic quality of the music that proved to be a unifying factor not only for the youth but also for Group A adults: Catholic progressives, intellectuals of the Solidarity movement, and Marxists who derided the Stalinist interpretation of communist doctrine. Through experimenting with a new manner of implementing communism through allowing opposition to achieve influence, even if it were in times of complete desperation for the Party, the communists themselves destroyed the regime.
Bibliography
BBC. "Pro-Solidarity priest is murdered." 1984. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/30/newsid_4111000/4111722.st m.
This article, written a few days after the murder of Jerzy Popieluszko not only provides historical information about the events of the death of a beloved priest but also details the reaction of churchgoers and the aftermath of the tragedy. The reporter from BBC included facts about the emotional remorse parishioners experienced and their forms of grieving. He also inserted a quote by Solidarity leader Lech Walesa from his speech at Popieluszko's funeral in which Walesa deemed the priest who fought for freedom alongside Solidarity a martyr. This link between the Church and a formal opposition group is vital in understanding how progressives such as Popieluszko and Walesa shared common views about politics and the value of the revolutionary counterculture.
Blau, Rosie. "What Is the Opium of the People?" 1834 Magazine. https://www.1843magazine.com/intelligence/the_big_question/what_is_the_opium_of_th e_people_.
This article in 1834 Magazine describes Marx's theory of religious ideology being the "opium of the people," or the manner in which the government uses religion to opiate and subdue its people into submission. Written for a magazine that is also a branch of The Economist, this article also applies Marxist theory to the present day. This article's description of the theory as well as its application to modern times proved necessary in drawing a comparisons among the opium of the people, vodka, and Polish punk rock.
Broughton, Simon. "R.U.T.A.: Polish punks with fiddles." The Arts Desk. Last modified May 31, 2012. Accessed September 6, 2016. http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/rutapolish-punks-fiddles.
This article on theartsdesk.com contains an interview with the lead singer of RUTA, a band that performed at Jarocin in the '80s and composed quintessential Polish antisystemic music. His interview highlighted the fact that these bands did not directly express their discontent with a particular political group or align their standpoints with those of parallel opposition movements; their music was simply an "anarchic" expulsion of frustration for the youth suffering from general political, economic, and social turbulence.
Ciechowski, Grzegorz. 1991. M.M. Potocka, 1991, compact disc. This song by the band Republika gives context to the manner in which propaganda pursued individuals living under the regime like, as in the title of the song, "lava." Republika is known as one of the major bands of the period that held illegal concerts past the curfew. While this piece was released in 1990, after the regime fell, it proves that direct stabs at the government could usually be found in the lyrics of songs published after the regime fell, since most music produced in the '80s maintained broad themes of discontent to avoid alignment with any particular opposition group.
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This article gives detailed information about the pervasive effects of alcohol, particularly vodka, in Poland. Because alcohol was mass-produced and distributed to the citizenry as per the agenda of the Communist Party, alcoholism proved to be an epidemic that negatively impacted a large proportion of the population. This piece was published in 1981, the same year that Martial Law was instituted and when the resistance movements began to gain traction against the communists. The source is vital in the comparison between mass production of vodka and punk music, both of which were determined by the states as manners in which leaders could narcotize Poles.
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This article in Encyclopedia Britannica provides information regarding the countries that were absorbed into the USSR as well as those that remained satellite countries of the Eastern Bloc. Being published on this reference site as well as being authored by scholars deems this source reputable. It is central in this paper to differentiate between the statuses of countries as members of the USSR versus as satellite countries, one of which was Poland. The widespread absorption of countries into the USSR and the exclusion of others shed light upon the theme of "uniqueness" inherent to some countries in the Eastern Bloc, especially Poland.
"Czech Republic." In Censorship: A World Encyclopedia, edited by Derek Jones, 627-31. 4 vols. New York, NY: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001.
This source brings to light the dire situation in Czechoslovakia before and after the Prague Spring had ended. Derek Jones is the editor of this encyclopedia, selecting works of numerous authors to form a compilation of histories of censorship in countries around the globe. This source has proved greatly useful in comparing the freedoms of people in Soviet Bloc countries other than Poland and proving the uniqueness of Poland's situation in the 80s.
Day, Meredith. The Cold War: A Political and Diplomatic History of the Modern World. New York: Britannica, 2017.
This source provides information on the legalization of Solidarity as the first independent labor union in a Soviet Bloc country. Included in a book about the Cold War, this source provides historical and political context about Solidarity and the forms of opposition in Poland. This source is vital to the paper's arguments about the times in which Solidarity was legal versus when it was outlawed because punk music consisted even during the times this powerful labor union was driven underground when martial law was instated.
Dezerter. Aborted Generation. 1982, compact disc.
Donovan, Jeffery. Jeffery Donovan to Radio Free Europe newsgroup, "Solidarity: The Trade Union That Changed The World," August 24, 2015. Accessed February 13, 2017. http://www.rferl.org/a/1060898.html.
This source provides information on the Solidarity movement, describing how it was formed, how it succeeded and failed, and how it interacted with parallel opposition movements of the period. Radio Free Europe was a radio station reputed even during the '80s to provide accurate and high-quality information to listeners, and now, readers. The factual background behind the Solidarity movement is vital in distinguishing punk and Solidarity as two parallel movements rather than creating an image of punk intentionally supporting the pursuits of Solidarity or any other organized form of protest.
Janowski, Monika. "Popular Culture in 1970s and 1980s Poland." PhD diss., City University of New York (CUNY), 2016. Accessed December 9, 2016. http://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1070&context=bb_etds. This source provided useful details on the curfew that came to be under martial law. As Janowksi explained, the curfew did not necessarily mean that officials from the state would pursue young people who made punk music that seemed threatening or capturing youth who were out past the curfew most of this activity was done by individual groups who favored the rule of the state.
Killingsworth, Matt, Matthew Sussex, and Jan Pakulski, eds. Violence and the State. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 2016.
This collection of works about revolutions, regimes, and political unrest in countries contains a work about Polish "state violence and eliticide" from 1935-1949. The book was edited by three professors at the University of Tasmania, including Jan Pakulski, who wrote the passage I am referencing in my research. Pakulski's piece provides context about the early formations of a "Soviet-dependent Polish state," and exactly how Soviet communism grew to be so pervasive in the post-WWII era in Poland.
Kosuda, Agata Ewa. The Nature of Polish-Russian Relationships After the Year of 1989. Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest Information and Learning Company, 2008.
Kosuda's work gives perspective to the relationship between Poland and Russia after the fall of the regime. This source is a senior thesis by a senior at Iowa State University and the information is reliable and substantiated. I found this source most useful in how there existed distinct kinds of communists in Poland (Group A versus Group B, or Stalinists versus Marxists). Making this distinction is significant, as the divisions among the social groups in Poland, it can be argued, ultimately led to the fall of the regime in that country.
Lears, T. J. Jackson. "The Concept of Cultural Hegemony: Problems and Possibilities." The American Historical Review 90, no. 3 (June 1985): 567-93. http://puffin.harker.org:2076/stable/1860957?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&search Text=The&searchText=Concept&searchText=of&searchText=Cultural&searchText=Heg emony:&searchText=Problems&searchText=and&searchText=Possibilities&searchUri= %2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DThe%2BConcept%2Bof%2BCultural%2B Hegemony%253A%2BProblems%2Band%2BPossibilities%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26a mp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone&seq=1#page_sc an_tab_contents.
An article in the American Historical Review, this source describes the concept of cultural hegemony. I used this information to further substantiate the theory posed by
Raymond Patton in that punk music was used as a "safety valve" in an attempt to establish cultural hegemony an experiment used in Poland that ultimately failed.
"Life after Communism." CNN. Last modified May 19, 2009. http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/09/29/poland.profile/index.html?_s=PM:WO RLD.
This article provides a summary of the events leading to the end of the Soviet communist regime in Poland as well as the manners in which Poland independently recovered from decades of poverty and corruption. Written by CNN, this article summarizes the all of the previous coverage of events occurring in Poland. This information provides details about the transfer of power from the communists to the leaders of Solidarity and the economic as well as political aftermath of the events of 1989.
"The Making of a Martyr: The Murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko." Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (blog). Accessed February 13, 2017. http://adst.org/2015/10/themaking-of-a-martyr-the-murder-of-father-jerzy-popieluszko/.
This source provides a detailed explanation of Father Jerzy Popieluszko's role as both a clergyman and a member of Solidarity during the communist regime. This website's blog post is more factual than the majority of articles written on religious websites, as individuals have claimed miracles as a result of prayer to him, earning him a possible canonization as a saint. Information about Father Popieluszko is vital in describing the significant role of the Catholic Church not only in participating in the movement but also in posing as a major threat to the communist state.
Marciniak, Marta. Transnational Punk Communities in Poland: From Nihilism to Nothing Outside Punk. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2015.
This seminal work delves into detail about why exactly punk culture was allowed to survive in Poland. Marciniak discusses how punk developed in Poland as compared to countries like Czechoslovakia, where the state and the secret police poured all of its efforts into suppressing the voices of rebellion. In Poland, however, "the Polish comrades" were instead focused on crushing Solidarity, a more pressing problem than the punks. Marta Marciniak is a reputed author who grew up in Warsaw and actively participated as a youth member of the punk subculture. The information in this text will play a vital role in explaining the uniqueness of Polish punk: why it was allowed to exist at all as well as the enormous effect it had on the revolution.
Markowitz, Andy. "Wroclaw Calling: How Punk Happened in a Polish Town." Music Film Web. Last modified May 30, 2014. Accessed September 6, 2016. http://www.musicfilmweb.com/2014/05/for-being-alive-wroclaw-poland-musicdocumentary/.
This article gave insight into the kind of music the young punk musicians aimed to produce, in terms of the theme of the lyrics and the message behind the melodies. This article also quotes a punk musician who participated in the movement at the time, providing a great deal of legitimacy and avoiding speculation about how the youth escaped the grip of the authorities with their art.
Patton, Raymond. "The Communist Culture Industry: The Music Business in 1980s Poland." Journal of Contemporary History 47, no. 2 (April 2012): 427-49. Accessed August 31, 2016. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23249193.
This article details how Poland's punk music was used as a "safety valve" by the communists. The music being a "safety valve" meant that the state allowed the music to proliferate among the younger generation because they hoped to keep the youth from becoming even more discontent with the system (in other words, they didn't want both parents and kids to become revolutionaries). This article was written by Dr. Ray Patton, an Assistant Professor of History at Drury University, who is also Director of CORE General Education Curriculum at the school. This source will substantiate the points in the paper expressing why punk was practically encouraged to exist.
. "Screamed Poetry: Rock in Poland's Last Decade of Communism." PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2011. Accessed February 13, 2017. https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/86291/rapatton_1.pdf?sequence =1.
This senior thesis details how Poland's punk music was indeed monumental in the overthrow of the Soviet Regime through forming divisions among a number of social groups in Poland, eventually fooling the prime minister and president into destroying their own communist state. This paper was written by Dr. Ray Patton, now an Assistant Professor of History at Drury University, who is also Director of CORE General Education Curriculum at the school. This source will substantiate the points in the paper expressing why punk was practically encouraged to exist.
Pelly, Jenn. "Underground Out of Poland." Pitchfork. Last modified August 22, 2013. http://pitchfork.com/features/article/9197-underground-out-of-poland/.
This features article provides a great deal of information about the contemporary musicians that influenced unique Polish punk music and the counterculture identity. Describing jazz and western rock music as sources of inspiration for the young Polish artists, the author analyzes during her trip to Poland the roots of characteristics in genres ranging from electronic dance music to heavy metal. This information plays a vital role in this paper's demonstration of the significance of this music in the overthrow of the regime.
Porter, Brian. "Catholic Church in Poland." Making the History of 1989. Accessed December 9, 2016. https://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/exhibits/roman-catholic-church/introduction. Brian Porter describes in this source the role of the Catholic Church not only during the '80s but also prior to the insurgence against the regime. Through his explanation, the reader learns that in fact the Church fought and posed as a threat to the state longer than the punk counterculture and Solidarity did combined. Brian Porter of the University of Michigan, a professor in Polish Studies who has written about this period of Polish history in great amounts, provides information vital to my description of the parallel opposition movements during the '80s and the Church's role in the Roundtable Talks.
. "The 1989 Polish Round Table Revisited: Making History." The Journal of the International Institute 6, no. 3 (1999). Accessed December 9, 2016.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jii/4750978.0006.301/ 1989-polish-round-table-revisitedmaking-history?rgn=main;view=fulltext.
This reference source also provides information about his involvement in the roundtable talks and how the divisions among Catholics, members of Solidarity, and communists broke the PZPR in Poland. Brian Porter, a professor at the University of Michigan, has written numerous articles and essays on Polish history of this time period and provides deep insight into the role of the specific groups in the fight against communism.
Provocation. Performed by KSU. 1991, compact disc.
Pyzik, Agata. Agata Pyzik to The Quietus newsgroup, "Poor But Sexy: Culture Clashes In Europe East And West, An Extract," March 31, 2014. Accessed December 9, 2016. http://thequietus.com/articles/14876-poor-but-sexy-agata-pyzik-extract-polish-80sfuturism.
This website provides an excerpt from the book called Poor But Sexy: Culture Clashes in Europe East and West. The passage provides context on the establishment of curfews by Jaruzelski in December 1981. The author Agata Pyzik is a Polish journalist as well as a cultural critic who writes about cultural themes in Poland. I was able to apply her discussion regarding curfews to the dynamic of Polish punk; the music was not censored, but there was a curfew for the musicians and young activists.
Ramet, Sabrina Petra. "Rock Music and Counterculture." In Social Currents in Eastern Europe: The Sources and Consequences of the Great Transformation, 213-39. 2nd ed. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995.
This piece written by Sabrina Ramet gives color to the punk music of Czechoslovakia. A professor at the Norwegian Institute of Science and Technology, Ramet describes the nature of the lyrics in Czech rock and the manner in which it existed after the Prague Spring had come to a close. Her research is relevant in my work as it discusses the difference in the actual music of the Polish counterculture and how it differs from that of the brutally quelled Czech musicians.
Sedes. We All Suffer. 1982, compact disc.
Stolarik, M. Mark, comp. The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia Mundelein, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2010.
This source provides the information necessary to contrast the situation in Poland with that in other Soviet Bloc countries, therefore proving the uniqueness of the Polish social climate and the reason punk survived. With details of how the Warsaw Pact forces sent by the Soviets quelled one of the greatest triumphs in free expression, this source allowed me to make a strong contrast in the governing styles of each country's leaders in their attempts to establish hegemony among its citizens.
Stoneman, Anna. "Socialism with a Human Face: The Leadership and Legacy of the Prague Spring." PhD diss., Stanford Online University. Accessed December 9, 2016. https://www.nhd.org/sites/default/files/Stoneman_Senior_StanfordUniversityOnlineHigh School_Wisconsin.compressed.pdf.
This source provides detailed information on the flourishing of the media in Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring as a result of Dubcek's election into the presidency. Stoneman analyzes the eras of freedom of speech and expression through a political lens, attributing the social climate to leadership and the influence of the Soviet Union. This source has proved greatly useful in comparing the freedoms of people in Soviet Bloc countries other than Poland and proving the uniqueness of Poland's situation in the 80s.
Strzadala, Gawel. "Censorship in the People’s Republic of Poland." Accessed December 15, 2016. http://www.folklore.ee/pubte/eraamat/eestipoola/strzadala.pdf.
This source gives details about censorship, propaganda, and martial law in 1980s Poland. While mostly factual, this source provides a dire view of the media of the period as the government attempted to instill cultural hegemony through a proliferation of false news and an intense monitoring of avenues of expression, ranging from radio to theater. This source by Polish university professor Dr. Strzadala also provides insight into the role of government in the censorship of music (not necessarily punk) to provide an general perspective of the social climate under the PZPR.
Tang, Peter S. H. "Experiments in Communism: Poland, the Soviet Union, and China." Springer 26, no. 4 (November 1983): 287-370. Accessed April 11, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20099281.pdf.
This scholarly article provides detailed information regarding the relationship between the USSR and Poland during World War II. This source is written by scholar of communism Peter S. H. Tang, a contributor to many journals consisting of pieces regarding foreign affairs and history. Highlighting the abuses of the Red Army against Polish citizens that almost directly paralleled the deeds of the Nazis, this source clearly delineates the roots causes of Polish resistance against the USSR. Explaining the atrocities that Poles suffered under the influence of the communists, this source describes events that demonstrate how decades of pain eventually culminated into a successful overthrow of the regime in 1989.
Wodka. By Kazik Staszewski. S.P. Records, 1987, compact disc.
Wojciech Jaruzelski, First Secretary, Polish United Workers Party, 1981 1989 http://puffin.harker.org:2302/ic/bic1/BiographiesDetailsPage/BiographiesDetailsWindow ?disableHighlighting=false&displayGroupName=Biographies&currPage=&scanId=&que ry=&source=&prodId=BIC1&search_within_results=&p=BIC1&mode=view&catId=&u =harker&limiter=&displayquery=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE% 7CK1605000130&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=. This source provides a detailed biography of general Wojciech Jaruzelski, the man in charge of the state during the regime who famously instituted the martial law in an attempt to crush Solidarity. This reference source also provides information about his involvement in the roundtable talks and how his position in the discussions affected the results. I drew connections between the political standing in this source to confidently
group him into Group A, the group that approved of punk rock, whether it be a safety valve or an economic asset, and in doing so brought down the regime.
Zickel, Raymond E. "The Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union." Sam Houston State University. Last modified 1989. http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/Soviet1.html.
This website provides vital background information regarding the formation of the Soviet Union, from the Bolshevik Revolution to the formation of the USSR. Written by Raymond E. Zickel, a scholar in the domains of the Soviet Union, this work is published on the Sam Houston University website for student as well as outside reference. The political relationship between the USSR and its satellite nations is necessary to understand the roots of Poland's fight for freedom from its "liberator."