188
an essay called The Power of the Power-
less was born. This essay was foreseen
as an exit point for a collection of texts
about freedom that would be written
by Polish and Czechoslovak intellectu-
als. Their co-operation was not yet insti-
tutionalised and it was based mainly on
personal contacts, but there was an on-
going exchange of information and cor-
respondences. Also, translators played an
important role. Because of their profes-
sion, they were in frequent contact and
would often meet during conferences
and got to know each other quite well.
What surely was a huge blow to our co-
operation was what happened with the
Czechoslovak opposition in 1981 when it
became a victim of repressions institut-
ed by the authorities in reaction to the
situation in Poland. As a result, many
oppositionists emigrated from Prague.This co-operation became institutional-
ised in 1981 upon the initiative of the Polish
Lower Silesian division of Solidarity when
the Polish-Czech Solidarity (later Polish-
Czechoslovak Solidarity) was established.
Yes, however two months later Mar-
tial Law was introduced in Poland and
until the mid-1980s our co-operation was
slowed to a snail’s pace. It was limited to
sending each other VHS cassettes and
literature. There were occasional mes-
senger trips between Poland and Prague.Where was the literature kept?
In the buildings of Wrocław’s Os-
solineum (The National Ossoliński In-
stitute). There, hidden among millionsof books, it could not be found by the
Secret Police.Were the messengers smuggling mate-
rials in their backpacks through the moun-
tains?
On a few occasions, yes. But for two
or three years we had problems with
regular contact.Why?
It only became clear in 1986 when, mi-
raculously, I got a passport allowing me
to travel to socialist countries. I went to
Prague and there we found out why our
contacts had failed. It turned out that on
both the Polish and Czechoslovak maps,
the Borówkowa Mountain, which was
a meeting place, was marked in differ-
ent places. Thus, our messengers would
show up in two different places, while
in their letters to each other, both sides
were convincingly writing that their peo-
ple had made it to the agreed location.How many oppositionists, on both sides,
were then engaged in this co-operation?
Initially, there were just a few of us.
But since the mid-1980s there were doz-
ens of activists. Thus, we could assign
tasks to each other as well as sections of
the border through which we smuggled
objects. We operated in a few centres:
Warsaw, Wrocław, Brno and Prague.
After 1987 we were operating on a large
scale. The number of initiatives and ideas
was constantly increasing and new cen-
tres were being established. We devel-
oped a code system which allowed mes-Poles and Czechs across generations A friendship that bore fruit, Interviewer: Zbigniew Rokita