{"id":12647,"date":"2025-10-24T12:24:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T10:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/praha\/?page_id=12647"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T15:48:08","slug":"daily-courage-polish-czech-and-slovak-women-in-anti-communist-dissent-1968-1989-2-leaders","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/praha\/daily-courage-polish-czech-and-slovak-women-in-anti-communist-dissent-1968-1989-2-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily Courage. Polish, Czech and Slovak Women in Anti-Communist Dissent 1968-1989 \/ 2 Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An important part of the anti-communist dissent was made up of women. They were involved in all stages of the opposition struggle and played a significant role in key historical moments. In 1968, they participated in student demonstrations in Poland and in Czechoslovakia protesting against the Warsaw Pact troops occupation. They were involved in human rights movements, be it the Czechoslovak Charter 77 and the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted (VONS) or the Polish Workers’ Defense Committee (KOR). In August 1980, also thanks to the courage and determination of these women, independent trade unions \u2013 Poland’s Solidarity were formed after a strike at the Gdansk shipyards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They co-authored samizdat publications, organized secret meetings and gatherings, and helped the persecuted ones. They had political intuition, the gift of speech, and endured persecution and harassment by the regime. Among them were Marta Kubi\u0161ov\u00e1, spokesperson for Charter 77, Zdena Tominov\u00e1, member of the Bratislava Five, Hana Ponick\u00e1, while the members of Solidarity Anna Walentynowicz, Joanna Duda-Gwiazda, and Barbara Labuda formed Catholic dissent like the nun Bernadeta P\u00e1n\u010diov\u00e1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zdena Tominov\u00e1: „I threw myself into it voluntarily. I knew I had an advantage, because I didn’t belong to any political group and could go around to different sections and seek the consensus that was so important for the Charter 77.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hana Ponick\u00e1:\u00a0 „I can no longer bear to be ashamed that I am allowed to publish while others are not.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana N\u011bmcov\u00e1: „We all assumed that, as members of a state or national entity, we were responsible for the social and political environment in which we live.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joanna Duda-Gwiazda: „Our mission was to liberate Poland from the Soviet Union, to gain freedom and democracy.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Anna Walentynowicz during the strike at the Gdansk shipyards in August 1980. Her unfair dismissal from work sparked mass strikes and led to the creation of Solidarity. The workers wanted her to lead the protests. She replied: „I can’t, if a woman is at the forefront, no one will take the whole thing seriously.” Lech Wa\u0142\u0119sa thus became the face of the strikes, but it was thanks to Anna Walentynowicz and Alina Pienkowska that the strike did not end with an agreement after a few days.
Source: Archive of O\u015brodek KARTA, photo by Witold G\u00f3rka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The signatories, and especially the spokeswomen for Charter 77, were severely persecuted in Czechoslovakia. Zdena Tominov\u00e1 became the second woman to serve as spokesperson after Marta Kubi\u0161ov\u00e1 in 1979. She was constantly monitored by the secret police and was attacked by an unknown assailant.
Source: Archive of Libri prohibiti, photo by Ji\u0159\u00ed Bedn\u00e1\u0159<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Among the founders of the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted in 1978 were Otta Bedn\u00e1\u0159ov\u00e1, Jarmila B\u011bl\u00edkov\u00e1, El\u017cbieta Ledererov\u00e1, Dana N\u011bmcov\u00e1, Anna \u0160abatov\u00e1, and Gertruda Sekaninov\u00e1-\u010cakrtov\u00e1.
Source: Private archive of D. N\u011bmcov\u00e1, 1963<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Nun Bernadeta P\u00e1n\u010diov\u00e1 secretly led the nuns, worked with young people, and participated in the samizdat publication. In 1975, she founded the association Family of the Immaculate, which focused on caring for the sick and disadvantaged, an area where the communist state was failing.
Source: Archive of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent of Satu Mare<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
One of the most famous faces of the Slovak dissent was the banned writer and signatory of Charter 77, Hana Ponick\u00e1, a member of the so-called Bratislava Five.
Source: TASR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Joanna Duda-Gwiazda was a member of the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee and helped formulate the 21 demands presented by the Polish opposition to the communist government. In the photo: Joanna Duda-Gwiazda, Bogdan Lis, and Lech Walesa during the strike in August 1980.
Source: O\u015brodek KARTA archive, photo by Zbigniew Trybek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An important part of the anti-communist dissent was made up of women. They were involved in all stages of the opposition struggle and played a significant role in key historical moments. In 1968, they participated in student demonstrations in Poland and in Czechoslovakia protesting against the Warsaw Pact troops occupation. They were involved in human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":12702,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12647","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nDaily Courage. 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