Kornel Morawiecki

Kornel Morawiecki

Kornel Morawiecki (born May 3, 1941, Warsaw) was the founder and leader of Fighting Solidarity (Polish: Solidarność Walcząca), one of the more radical splinters of Solidarity movement in Poland, during the 1980s.[1] His academic background is that of a theoretical physicist.[2] He is also a member of Polish Parliament (8th term of office).[3]

He was the son of Michał and Jadwiga (née Szumańska). He graduated from the gimnazjum of Adam Mickiewicz in 1958 in Warsaw. He finished a higher degree in physics at the University of Warsaw in 1958. He finished his doctorate under Jan Rzewuski in Quantum Field Theory in 1970. He worked as a researcher at the University of Wrocław, at first in the Institute of Physics, later in Mathematics. After 1973, he worked at the Wrocław Polytechnic.

In 1968 he took part in student strikes and demonstrations.[4] After the repression of the student protests, together with a group of close friends, he edited, printed and distributed pamphlets which denounced the Communist government for their repressions against the protesting students.[5]

Since 1979, together with Jan Waszkiewicz he became the editor of the Biuletyn Dolnośląski, an underground newspaper. He was a delegate to the First National Congress of NSZZ Solidarity.[2]

At the end of May, 1982, together with Paweł Falicki he founded the "Organization of Fighting Solidarity" which was a unique political opposition organization in Poland and the countries of the Soviet Bloc. This was because it was the only group which from the beginning of its existence called for an end to communism in Poland[2] and other Soviet satellites, establishment of sovereign governments independent from Moscow in them, breakup of the Soviet Union and separation of the USSR republics into new nation states, and reunification of Germany within its Potsdam imposed borders. While eventually all these things in fact happened, at the time this program was seen as quite radical and unrealistic, even in dissident circles.

However, Fighting Solidarity also rejected the use of violence to achieve its aims.[2] After the declaration of martial law in Poland in 1981, Morawiecki became one of the most wanted people in Poland.[6] In 1984, on the directive of General Kiszczak a special team was created in the Ministry of Internal Affairs charged with observing several dozen places in which the authorities thought he could show up.[6]

On the 9th of November, 1987, after six years of conspiratorial activity in the underground, he was caught and arrested by the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (Secret Police) in Wrocław and was immediately transported by helicopter to Warsaw, and imprisoned in Rakowiecka Prison. Despite his capture, none of his associates or those who hid him during the past six years, nor the archives of the organization were captured. At the end of April, 1988 he was given the opportunity by the communist authorities (who at the time were trying to get rid of "difficult" people) to travel to Rome for much needed medical treatment, and his right of return to Poland was guaranteed through mediation of the Catholic Church.[1] After three days he attempted to come back to Poland but his passport was confiscated and he was deported from the airport in Warsaw to Vienna.[1] He managed to illegally come back to Poland in September 1988, by pretending to be a Canadian human rights delegate.[1]

After the fall of communism in Poland, Kornel registered his candidacy for the post of President of Poland in 1990, but in the end he was unable to collect the required 100,000 signatures.[7] During his televised election campaign he symbolically turned over a round table, a reference to the Polish Round Table Agreement which, he felt, compromised too much with the communists.[8]

For his activism in support of an independent Poland, the Polish Government in Exile under president Kazimierz Sabbat awarded him the Officer's Cross of Polonia Restituta (Order of Poland Reborn). In June 2007, on the 25th anniversary of Fighting Solidarity, he refused to accept from the President of Poland the Grand Cross of Polonia Restituta, arguing that the organization he represented deserved the highest possible state honor - the Order of the White Eagle.[9] He was also awarded the Karel Kramář Medal by the Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek, for his opposition in 1968 to the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.[9][10]

He was one of the candidates in the 2010 Polish presidential election, but got only 0.13% of votes and did not get into the second round. In the 2015 Sejm election, he was the first-placed candidate on the Kukiz'15 electoral list of Paweł Kukiz in the Wrocław electoral district.[11] There was a Sejm scandal in April 2016. Morawiecki left his Sejm member card in the voting device when he felt sick and went out from the debating hall and then Małgorzata Zwiercan voted for him. Civic Platform notified National Public Prosecutor's Office. After this he left Kukiz'15 and began to create his own party along with Małgorzata Zwiercan who was expelled from the Parliamentary club.

He is currently working at the Mathematics Institute of the Wrocław University of Technology.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Sabrina P. Ramet, "Social currents in Eastern Europe", Duke University Press, 1995, pg. 98 and 190, ,
  2. 1 2 3 4 JPRS Report, East Europe, June 4, 1990, pgs. 18-21
  3. ↑ "Wybory do Sejmu i Senatu".
  4. ↑ Government of the Czech Government, "August 21, 2008: Premier Awarded Commemorative Medals to Ten Dissidents from 1968", 21. 8. 2008,
  5. ↑ (Polish) Solidarność Walcząca, czyli po niepodległość bez kompromisów Magazyn Obywatel nr 5 / 2005 (25)
  6. 1 2 Artur Adamski, "Czas wielkiej próby" (The Time of Great Trial), Encyclopedia Solidarnosci (Encyclopedia of Solidarity) and Gazeta Polska, June 4, 2008,
  7. ↑ Dominik Gajda, "Poland After the Round Table - The History of the Independent Poland 1989-2007", pg. 4, [www.gloszp.hostingpro.pl/Poland%20after%20the%20Round%20Table.pdf]
  8. ↑ Kornel Morawiecki, "Dlaczego przewróciłem okrągły stolik" (Why did I overturn a round table?), Reczpospolita, 05-02-2009,
  9. 1 2 Bartłomiej Radziejowski, "Czechów powinna przepraszać Moskwa" (Moscow Should Apologize to the Czechs), Rzeczpospolita, 2008-08-23, accessed at
  10. ↑ Výstava 21. 8. - 26. 10. 2008: Za vaši a naši svobodu
  11. ↑ "Wybory do Sejmu RP i Senatu RP" (in Polish). Państwowa Komisja Wyborcza. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  12. ↑ Kornel Morawiecki
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