W prezentowanym artykule omówiona została ewolucja ideowo-polityczna Stowarzyszenia PAX w pierwszych miesiącach tzw. „festiwalu Solidarności” (sierpień–grudzień 1980). Przedstawiono podstawowe założenia ideologii i programu ruchu katolików postępowych w okresie, gdy kierował nim nieprzerwanie do zakończenia II wojny światowej Bolesław Piasecki, i ich rewizję po jego śmierci. Skoncentrowano się zwłaszcza na lansowanych przez stowarzyszenie koncepcjach „socjalizmu całego narodu”, samorządności, demokratyzacji, poszerzenia „bazy rządzenia”, wypracowania płaszczyzn do porozumienia narodowego (od Ruchu Porozumienia Narodowego do Wielkiej Koalicji). Analizie poddano również relacje pomiędzy PAX a niezależnymi związkami zawodowymi (NSZZ „Solidarność) oraz aparatem partyjno-rządowym. W programie PAX „Solidarność” nie była typowym związkiem zawodowym, ale społecznym (ogólnonarodowym) ruchem rewindykacji praw obywatelskich, dlatego przewidywano, że powinien on uczestniczyć jako podmiot w podejmowaniu decyzji państwowych, tworząc nową „oś pionową” struktur państwowych. W okresie „festiwali Solidarności” z niezależnymi związkami zawodowymi związało się wielu członków PAX. Stowarzyszenie włączyło się czynnie w pomoc przy zakładaniu struktur związkowych.

“Defending Your Own Convictions” – Community and Political Work of Adam Pleśnar (1935–2013) until 1977

The article is an attempt to scratch the biography of Adam Plesnar. The analysis was subjected to the activity of the protagonist until 1977. Plesnar was an active member of the Club of Young Catholics at the University of Wroclaw, co-founder of the Young Democrats (ZMD). Already in the sixties he was convicted for opposition activities. In the seventies he was an activist of Polish Esperanto Association. He participated in protests against changes in the Constitution of the PRL. Since 1977 belonged to the members of the Movement in Defense of the Rights of Man and Citizen (ROPCiO) and the leader of the Movement of Free Democrats (RWD), an activist of the Wroclaw opposition. Within the Movement sought to participation of the opposition in legitimate forms of political activity, including in the elections to the Sejm PRL, while remaining critical of the existing system.

The activities of the opposition and dissident movements in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the journal “Obóz”

The activities of the democratic opposition in the former Soviet republics and in the countries dominated by the USSR under the post-war Yalta agreements had a chance to emerge only in the late 1980s, i.e. when the framework of the geopolitical balance of power in Europe was determined by the democratization processes in the Eastern Bloc. Only then, on the wave of perestroika and glasnostia, the voice of circles contesting the existing order of things had a chance to resonate and be heard by the international community. However, not only the structures of the political opposition, but also dissident movements, equally interested in systemic change, marked their presence in the public space of states ruled by communist parties. Thus, the pages of the magazine “Obóz” discuss the groups and milieus constituting a political opposition in the classical sense, as well as groups which, due to their previous connections, of various nature, with the collapsing communist regime, should be considered dissident movements in the strict sense of these words.

General Zbigniew Nowek – social activist, commander of the special services (1959–2019)

Zbigniew Nowek (1959–2019) – since the late 1970s, an activist of the democratic opposition. In 1980–1981, he was the chairman of the Independent Students’ Association of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. Co-founder of the independent publishing house «Alternatywy». During the period of martial law, he was the publisher and printer of huge amounts of leafl ets and underground newspapers in Gdańsk, as well as books, postcards, posters, etc. In 1998–2001, head of the State Protection Offi ce, in 2005–2008, head of the Intelligence Agency, elevated to the rank of general, in 2010 r. deputy head of the National Security Bureau.