The Public Education Office of the Institute of National Remembrance organizes international conference entitled “Second Circulation of Publications in the Polish People’s Republic (PRL) against the History of Samizdat in the Countries of the Soviet Bloc after 1956”. The conference will be held on 31 May – 1 June, 2012 in Warsaw in the IPN’s Educational Center “Przystanek Historia” at 21/25 Marszalkowska Street.
The aim of the conference is to reflect on the history of independent publishing movement in Poland, in the 70s and 80s, as compared to other Soviet bloc countries. Participation of researchers from the Polish and foreign scientific centers, representing various disciplines, will allow to describe the role of books and magazines, which were published in the second circulation, on the way to democratic change in 1989.
Second circulation publishing was one of the main forms of activity of the opposition in Poland in the 70s and 80s. Rarely, however, this phenomenon aroused wider interest of historians and other researchers. It is worth considering what role the illegally printed magazines and books played in the history of the democratic opposition and Solidarity Movement. One can also look from a broader perspective on the phenomenon of the second circulation publishing, examining them against the background of the history of samizdat in Central and Eastern Europe after 1956. The comparative perspective will allow to reflect on the similarities and differences in the functioning of the second circulation in each country. Particularly interesting are case studies, focusing on specific phenomena and mechanisms.
The conference will be held in Polish and English (with simultaneous translation). Admission free.
Additional information: anna.piekarska@ipn.gov.pl
PROGRAM
31 MAY 2012
9.00–9.05 – Opening of the conference – Dr Łukasz Kamiński – President of the IPN
9.05–11.00 – SESSION I - THE SECOND CIRCULATION AND THE OPPOSITION
Chair – Dr Małgorzata Choma-Jusińska (Poland)
1. The second circulation. Samizdat, illegal publications (“bibuła”), underground publications – around the definitions from the perspective of lexicography – Dr Dorota Pazio-Wlazłowska (Poland)
2. Piłsudski, Miłosz, Arendt... What was the opposition reading? – Natalia Jarska (Poland)
3. The underground press in the system of social communication during the Martial Law – Dr Roman Wróblewski (Poland)
4. Distribution of the underground press as a form of an opposition activity (1981–1989) – Jan Olaszek (Poland)
5. “A cardboard box with illegal publications”. Private collections of the second circulation magazines as a source for research on the distribution network. Selected examples – Beata Szmytkowska (Poland)
6. Discussion
11.00–11.15 – Coffee break
11.15–12.30 – SESSION II – CASE STUDIES (part 1)
Chair – Dr Grzegorz Waligóra (Poland)
1. „Biuletyn” and „Informator” – publications of the “Ruch” organisation (1969–1970) – Piotr Byszewski (Poland)
2. „Biuletyn Informacyjny” of the Workers' Defense Committee (KOR) 1976–1980 – Prof. Andrzej Friszke (Poland)
3. Independent student press (1980–1981) – attempt at characterization – Kamil Dworaczek (Poland)
4. Discussion
12.30–12.45 – Coffee break
12.45–14.00 – SESSION II – CASE STUDIES (part 2)
Chair – Dr Grzegorz Waligóra (Poland)
1. Vega Printing Groups. Underground publishing in Kielce in the years 1983–1985 – Prof. Włodzimierz Batóg (Poland)/Andrzej Karyś (Poland)
2. “Słowo Podziemne” (1982–1984) and Edward Kirpluk, its creator – Andrzej W. Kaczorowski (Poland)
3. Communist second circulation? Publications with no right of circulation of the dogmatic trend in the PZPR (Polish United Workers' Party) – Przemysław Gasztold-Seń (Poland)
4. Discussion
14.00–15.30 – Lunch break
15.30–16.40 – SESSION III – THE WEST AND EMIGRATION (part 1)
Chair – Dr Paweł Sowiński (Poland)
1. The reception and impact of Polish émigré periodicals and books in communist-ruled Poland in the 1960s and early 1970s – Prof. Alfred Reisch (Hungary)
2. Free word from the West. The program of book distribution behind the Iron Curtain on the example of Poland (reconnaissance study) – Dr Małgorzata Choma-Jusińska (Poland)
3. Role of the Literary Institute (Instytut Literacki) in Paris in the formation of the second circulation of publications in Poland – Urszula Kowalczyk (Poland)
4. Discussion
16.40–16.50 – Coffee break
16.50–18.00 – SESSION III – THE WEST AND EMIGRATION (part 2)
Chair – Przemysław Gasztold-Seń (Poland)
1. Dollars for the illegal publications. American financial aid for the second circulation of publications in Poland (1982–1989) – Dr Patryk Pleskot (Poland)
2. U.S. support for the Solidarity underground press: the role of organized labor and the National Endowment for Democracy – Arch Puddington (USA)
3. Before the Internet, Facebook, and Twitter: How Solidarity used Western technology to defeat communism – Benjamin B. Fisher (USA)
4. Discussion
18.00–18.15 – Coffee break
18.15–20.00 – SESSION IV – SECURITY SERVICES ON THE TRAIL
Chair – Dr Patryk Pleskot (Poland)
1. Security Services’ attitude towards the independent publishing movement in the years 1976–1980 – Dr Grzegorz Waligóra (Poland)
2. Security Services’ attitude to the second circulation and the operational activities undertaken against it in the 1970s on the example of the “Constitution of 3 May” Publishing House – Justyna Błażejowska (Poland)
3. Security Services towards magazines and publications of the second circulation in the years 1980–1990 – Grzegorz Wołk (Poland)
4. Security Services’ operations against the second circulation in the period of the Martial Law on the example of Gen. Nil-Fieldorf Publishing House – Dr Cecylia Kuta (Poland)
5. Science at the service of the Security Services – forensic examination of documents – Igor Kordas (Poland)
6. Discussion
1 JUNE 2012
9.00–10.15 – SESSION V – SAMIZDAT (part 1)
Chair – Dr Jan Skórzyński (Poland)
1. Samizdat in the academic in USSR in the second half of 1950s and the first half of 1960’s – Alexander Zhidchenko (Russia)
2. The annotated edition of the „Chronicle of Current Events” and new possibilities for studying the phenomenon of samizdat – Gennady Kuzovkin (Russia)
3. Samizdat – Russian Jews, and encounter with the West – Prof. Dmitry Shlapentokh (USA)
4. Discussion
10.15–10.30 – Coffee break
10.30–12.00 – SESSION V - SAMIZDAT (part 2)
Chair – Prof. Vilem Precan (Czech Republic)
1. Czechoslovak experience: Second circulation, samizdat publications, exile publications. Dangers of clandestine transportations in, from and to Czechoslovakia – Dr Marie Neudorflova (Czech Republic)
2. Hungarian samizdat culture and the state Security Services – Alexandra Botyànszki (Hungary)
3. The organization and functioning of samizdat network in Lithuanian SRR – Monika Kareniauskaitẻ (Lithuania)
4. Circulation of forbidden books and manuscripts as a form of intellectual resistance of the Soviet ethnic minorities (a Kyrgyz experience) – Prof. Osmonakun Ibraimov (Kyrgyz Republic)
5. Discussion
12.00–13.30 – Lunch break
13.30–15.30 – SESSION VI - COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
Chair – Dr János Tischler (Hungary)
1. Polish and Ukrainian opposition publications and the fight for freedom of speech (1956–1989) – Katarzyna Litwin (Poland), Kamil Szpyt (Poland)
2. The women of samizdat –Karolina Mendrela (Poland)
3. The political thought of samizdat – Piotr Wciślik (Poland/Hungary)
4. Reframing Europe: The ascent of underground narratives into official public spheres – Dr Christian Domnitz (Germany)
5. Why Poland? Factors which affected the underground publishing movement in PRL - Katarzyna Ziętal (Poland)
6. Discussion
15.30–15.45 – Coffee break
15.45–17.15 – SESSION VII – SOCIAL MOVEMENT
Chair – Prof Andrzej Friszke (Poland)
1. The second circulation of publications in 1970s and 1980s as an element of the social movement – the application of sociological theory of social movements to analyse the opposition in Poland – Dr Adam Mielczarek (Poland)
2. The underground market. The second circulation of publications in 1980s in view of the new economic sociology – Mateusz Falkowski (Poland/Germany)
3. The second circulation of publications and the official sphere – points of contact and complications – Dr Paweł Sowiński (Poland)
4. Independent publishing as a way of life in the final period of PRL. Is there a need for historical research and demystifying the second circulation? – Jarosław Malik (Canada)/Grzegorz Miernik (Poland)
5. Discussion
17.15–17.30 – Coffee break
17.30–19.30 – Panel discussion: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SECOND CIRCULATION OF PUBLICATIONS IN PRL
Chair – Jan Olaszek
Participants: Prof. Andrzej Friszke, Dr Jan Skórzyński, Dr Paweł Sowiński, Dr János Tischler, Dr Grzegorz Waligóra
19.30–19.45 – Recapitulation of the conference