Ballad of Janek Wisniewski ( Polish Ballada o Janku Wiśniewskim ) - a Polish poem by Krzysztof Dovgyallo put to music about the events of December 17, 1970 in Gdynia , the shooting of workers and the murder of 18-year-old Zbigniew Godlevsky . It became a kind of anthem of the protest movement in Poland. It has remained popular in modern Poland . It is the soundtrack of Black Thursday .
Content
History and Poem
On December 17, 1970, in the process of suppressing protests on the Baltic coast , army units and ZOMO opened fire on workers in Gdynia . In this shelling 13 people were killed, among them 18-year-old worker of the Paris Commune shipyard Zbigniew Godlevsky [1] (who did not take part in the strike and manifestation, going to work) [2] .
In 1980 , with a new wave of workers' protests and the creation of the Solidarity union, architect Gdansk member Krzysztof Dovgyallo wrote a ballad about those events calling for resistance and retaliation. The music for the ballad was composed by Mechislav Holeva (who later turned out to be an informant of state security [3] ).
The author did not know the name of Zbigniew Godlevsky (such information was deliberately hidden by the authorities), therefore the hero of the ballad was named as a collective image by the common Polish name: Janek Wisniewski .
Ballad Text
Chłopcy z Grabówka, chłopcy z Chyloni
Dzisiaj milicja użyła broni
Dzielniśmy stali i celnie rzucali
Janek Wiśniewski padłNa drzwiach ponieśli go Świętojańską
Naprzeciw glinom, naprzeciw tankom
Chłopcy stoczniowcy pomścijcie druha
Janek Wiśniewski padłHuczą petardy, ścielą się gazy
Na robotników sypią się razy
Padają dzieci, starcy, kobiety
Janek Wiśniewski padłJeden zraniony, drugi pobity
Krwi się zachciało słupskim bandytom
To partia strzela do robotników
Janek Wiśniewski padłKrwawy Kociołek, to kat Trójmiasta
Przez niego giną starcy, niewiasty
Poczekaj draniu, my cię dostaniem
Janek Wiśniewski padłStoczniowcy Gdyni, stoczniowcy Gdańska
Idźcie do domu, skończona walka
Świat się dowiedział, nic nie powiedział
Janek Wiśniewski padłNie płaczcie matki, to nie na darmo
Nad stocznią sztandar z czarną kokardą
Za chleb i wolność, i nową Polskę
Janek Wiśniewski padł [4]
In Russian translation:
Lads from Grabuvek [5] , lads from Hyleni [5] .
Today the police used weapons.
We stood bravely, aptly threw.
Yanek Vishnevsky fell.They carried him on the door along Sventoianskaya street [6] :
Towards the cops, towards the tanks.
Ladders shipbuilders - avenge the sidekick:
Yanek Vishnevsky fell.Firecrackers are rattling, gases are creeping.
Blows are falling on the workers.
Children, old people and women are falling.
Yanek Vishnevsky fell.Who is injured, who is beaten.
Blood wanted slupsky bandits.
This party shoots workers.
Yanek Vishnevsky fell.Bloody Kochelek [7] , executioner of Tricity ,
Because of him, old men and women die.
Wait, you bastard, we'll get you!
Yanek Vishnevsky fell.Ships of Gdynia, shipbuilders of Gdansk
Go home - the battle is over.
The whole world knew, but said nothing.
Yanek Vishnevsky fell.Do not cry mother - it is not in vain.
Above the shipyard - a flag with a black cockade.
For bread, and Freedom, for a new Poland
Yanek Vishnevsky fell.
Reflection of Realities
Grabuvek and Khylen are working districts of Gdynia.
Mention in the fourth stanza of the "slupsky bandits" refers to the police school in Slupsk . In the film “ Man of Iron ”, Kristina Yanda sings this fragment differently: Krew się polała grudniowym świtem ( Blood shed at the dawn of December ).
"Bloody Kochelek, executioner of the Tricity", opposed to the main character of the ballad - Stanislav Kochelek , in 1970 a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the PUWP , Deputy Prime Minister of Poland . In December 1970, he was part of a group of senior party functionaries who led the suppression of protests. He was among them the most public person, since he spoke on television. In 1995, Kochelek was prosecuted and in 2013 acquitted, since Kochelek’s defense was able to prove that Vladislav Gomulka , Zenon Klishko and Grzhegozh Korchinsky , who by then were not alive, had to bear responsibility for the criminal orders.
Tricity (literally “Troogradie”, “Triple City”) is an agglomeration consisting of three cities interconnected - Gdansk , Sopot and Gdynia. In these cities, in December 1970, workers rallies were suppressed by the Polish army and police.
Memory. In art
The streets of Gdynia and Pruszcz Gdanski are named after Yanek Vishnevsky as a ballad character.
“The Ballad of Yanek Vishnevsky” (performed by the famous singer Kazimierz Stashevsky ) is the soundtrack of the film “ Black Thursday ” [8] about the December events of 1970. A music video was created reflecting the content of the picture [9] .
Notes
- ↑ Grudzień 1970 / POLEGLI
- ↑ Niech Jaruzelski powie prawdę
- ↑ Sprawa TW Rejtana
- ↑ Ballada o Janku Wiśniewskim Archived on April 2, 2015.
- ↑ 1 2 Grabuvek, Khylenia - districts of the city of Gdynia (satellite city of Gdansk ) adjacent to the shipyard of Gdynia, where events took place that became the subject of this song.
- ↑ Sventoianskaya - the main street in Gdynia leading from the port of Gdynia in the direction of Sopot and Gdansk
- ↑ In the Polish public mind, it was Stanislav Kocielek who was the direct supervisor of the suppression of the workers' unrest in 1970 and gave orders to use weapons to defeat. As a result of the trial, which lasted from 1995 to 2013, Kochelek was acquitted for lack of formal evidence.
- ↑ Czarny Czwartek Janek Wiśniewski padł Cały Film
- ↑ Kazik - Ballada o Janku Wisniewskim