The “Revolt in the Empire” exhibition, prepared by the Kraków branch of the Institute of National Remembrance, was created to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Student Solidarity Committee, which brought together the anti-communist opposition community in Kraków in the 1970s.
The subjects of the exhibition are students of Jagiellonian University who no longer wanted to accept the methods used by the communist regime to exercise power and, several days after the murder of Stanisław Pyjas (a fifth-year Jagiellonian University student) by the Security Service, established the Student Solidarity Committee.
The exhibition presents operational photographs taken by SB officers of people who came to light candles at the site of Stanisław Pyjas’s death, as well as portraits of SKS activists.
Stanisław Pyjas’s body was found on 7 May 1977 on Szewska Street in Kraków, and his funeral turned into a student demonstration. At that time, the so-called “Black March” passed through the streets of Kraków. A statement announcing the establishment of the Student Solidarity Committee was read out under Wawel Castle. One of the aims of the SKS’s activities was to oppose the communist authorities.
The exhibition in front of the Bolesławiec town hall can be viewed until the end of February.
(UM/GA information)