COURAGE

povezivanje zbirki

Polish Catholic Church was one of the most important organisations fighting against socialist regime. With a percentage of Catholics in socialist Poland never less than 90%, the Church was the only force that the authorities were afraid of before the formation of the Solidarity movement (however the relations between the Church and the Solidarity were very close and in some cities inseparable). With the choice of Karol Wojtyla as a Pope in 1978, and his clear discontent with communism, the position of Church only strengthened. Priests were often under surveillance and persecuted, with the killing of Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko as the most tragic example.

Throughout the decades Polish Catholic Church engaged in various activities to diminish regime's power: from helping the persecuted and their families or organising aid during the martial law, to quite direct actions, like holding the masses during the strikes in Gdansk Shipyard. The Church offered both moral and material support for the opposition members, engaging ex. in dissemination of underground publications.

In 1975 within Church first Week of Christian Culture (WCC) was organised: an event gathering intellectuals and artists in common discussion and exhibitions. It proofed to be a great success and the event expanded to numerous Polish cities where it is still organised. Shortly after the first WCC, Artists' Priesthood was formed. It has become a platform for exchanging ideas and a basis for organising cultural opposition, not only of religious nature.

Polish Film Institute is a state organisation founded in 2005 in order to promote Polish cinematography and help local film-makers via funding, substantive, and technical support. It offers help with distribution and promotion, especially to debutants. Big part of Institute's duty is to promote Polish films abroad, mostly on international festivals.

Polish Film Institute cooperated with European Solidarity Centre in Gdansk to create several documentaries, e.g. "Swietlik. Altitude Services Cooperative" by Jacek Knopp.

The Institute was set up in May 1945 and named after General Władysław Sikorski (1881-1943), the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army and Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile, as the General Sikorski Historical Institute. It was created after an agreement between Helena Sikorska, General Sikorski's widow, and the organizing committee, which included senior commanders of the Polish Army and members of the government in exile. To avoid any political pressure from the British government and the communist regime in Warsaw, the Institute was established as a trust and later received charity status. The Institute acquired its present name in 1965 when the General Sikorski Historical Institute merged with the Polish Research Centre. In 1988 the Institute also incorporated the Polish Underground Movement Study Trust. The PISM consists of the Archives and the Museum, which also includes the photographic, film and sound archives. The archival holdings pertain to the Polish war effort in the Second World War and contain files created by the Polish government, Polish Armed Forces, resistance movement, individuals and institutions.

During the period of communist rule in Poland, the role of the Institute was safeguarding Polish history and culture. It was also a beacon for free and unfettered access to Polish archives and education. Through its research, publications and exhibitions, the PISM contested the propaganda and historiography of the communist regime. After 1989 that role has changed. The Institutes remains probably the single most important source of Polish history in the Second World War, definitely outside of the borders of Poland. It cooperates with the Royal Air Force Museum, the Imperial War Museum in London, Polish state archives, the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw, the Polish Navy Museum in Gdynia, the Polish Library in Paris and the Polish Institute in Rapperswil in Switzerland.

Set up in 1942, the Polish Library in London operates as a library, archive, research institution and a cultural center serving the needs of the Polish community in Greater London and United Kingdom. It is the second largest Polish library outside Poland next to the Biblioteque Polonaise in Paris.

During World War II, it constituted a library department of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Education of the Polish Government-in-Exile. In 1945, it acquired the name of the Polish Library and passed under the administration of the British authorities. From 1942 to 1973, the Library was directed by Maria Danilewicz. It became part of the Polish University College in 1947. After the dissolution of the College in 1953 the Library was placed under the tutelage of the Polish Research Centre. The British government announced its plans to liquidate the Polish Library and transfer its collections to the Department of Russian Studies at the University of Birmingham in 1965. However, due to the unprecedented mobilization on the part of the Polish community in Great Britain the Library was saved. The authorities transferred its ownership to the Polish Social and Cultural Association POSK.

During the 1970s and '80s, the Polish Library POSK in London systematically expanded its collections and staff. It also participated in the distribution and shipment of books published in exile and by Western publishers to People's Poland using legal and illegal means. The origins of this initiative dated back to the 1950s when the Congress of Cultural Freedom and the Central Intelligence Agency began of the largest Cold War cultural offensives, the distribution of anti-communist books to Eastern Europe. Throughout the 1970s and '80s, the book distribution program continued under the nominal guidance of another CIA-sponsored organization, the International Literary Centre (ILC) in New York. The Polish émigrés actively participated in all stages of the operation with the Polish Library POSK in London becoming one of the major distribution centers next to Paris, Rome, Stockholm, and Cologne.

During the 1980s, Zdzisław Jagodziński, the Library's director from 1973 to 2001, also started collecting Polish underground publications printed by opposition groups in People's Poland. These and other activities of the Polish Library POSK in London before the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe make one of the most significant centers of cultural opposition to the party state in exile. At present, the Library continues its threefold mission, service to the Polish community in Great Britain, to Poland, and to United Kingdom. It collects Polonica of different formats and origins, promotes Polish culture and history, and cooperates with Polish, British, and other émigré archives, libraries, and museums.