On June 5, the main office of the Institute of National Remembrance in Poland was visited by a Cuban delegation of dissidents, who are visiting Poland at the invitation of the Lech Walesa Institute Foundation.

The Cuban guests were guided around the Institute’s archives by the Director of the Office for the Preservation and Dissemination of Archival Records dr. Rafał Leśkiewicz, who presented the scope of archival works carried out at the IPN, concentrating on materials preserved from the communist security services and describing the methods of their editing. The guests were interested in a short film showing, depicting national visits of communists officials from Cuba (including Fidel Castro) in Poland.

Next, the Cuban guests were invited to a meeting with the Director of the Public Education Office – dr. Andrzej Zawistowski, who outlined the structure of the IPN and described in detail the activities of each section of the Institute. After that, there was time for questions, which concerned both the history of Poland as well as IPN. The Cuban visitors were especially interested in the history of the murder of the blessed father Popiełuszko and the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II (these were the two most important events, which the guests associated most with Poland). They were also interested about the effectiveness of the Polish justice system in sentencing the communist perpetrators for the crimes committed during the existence of People’s Republic of Poland – this matter they have also considered crucial for the future of their country.

Another important matter to our guests, were the archival works and how they’re carried out – their collection, editing, verification and publishing. The Cubans were wondering about the process of verifying reliability of the documents and the ways to detect falsified information. They were inquiring about the possibility of accessing the IPN archives and about their worth – aslo in a historical sense.

At the very end of the meeting, each one of the guests received a gift of a copy of the “Kolejka” board game, which is the finest and most popular product of the IPN abroad Poland. These were presented by Director Zawistowski, who also used this opportunity to tell the story of the game’s development as well as present it as a modern and functional form of education.