Walentego Badlaka's well in the market square, Krakow (Katyn)

He gave another spectacular show yesterday. He was reviewing Memorial's complaint against the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office, which had refused to rehabilitate Lt Stanisław Karnkowski. He heard out the military prosecutor's speech, who argued that the officer could not be rehabilitated because no documents had survived from his interrogations and subsequent trial. He heard out the Memorial representative's speech, who pointed out that the Soviet Union leaders had decided in spring 1940 that the Polish POWs would be executed without inquiry or trial. Then, on the basis of those two speeches, Mr Tulenev adjourned the case until the prosecutor's office replied officially whether it had Karnkowski's inquiry and trial files.

loco polacoThreads: 3 Posts: 421 Joined: Aug 5, 08	Dec 8, 08, 14:37 / #
in this place on the day of 21st of march 1980 WB, a soldier of the national army, completed a dramatic act of selfburning in protest agains demoralization of youth, the destruction of art and against the secrecy of murders of polish officers at Katyń by the commy/bolshevik murderers. he couldn't live with lies. he died for the truth.

SeanBMThreads: 41 Posts: 8,726 Joined: Mar 10, 08	Dec 8, 08, 14:45 / #
Thank you, loco polaco. It reminds me of the Buddhist monk who set himself on fire in Saigon to protest a crackdown on Buddhism in 1963. It is that graphic photo that remains in my mind's eye.

celinskiThreads: 83 Posts: 2,800 Joined: Nov 14, 07	Dec 8, 08, 14:50 / #
SeanBM: Here are some photos I took earlier today. Thank you, this is just one more post showing the extrems some went to seeking justice for the victims. If only he were here today to see the movie.

loco polacoThreads: 3 Posts: 421 Joined: Aug 5, 08	Dec 8, 08, 15:05 / #
you're welcome seanBM

KrzysztofThreads: 2 Posts: 1,146 Joined: Jul 26, 07	Dec 8, 08, 15:31 / #
loco polaco: the destruction of art I'd only wanted to point out that 'rzemiosło' meant rather 'small business' (not 'art') under communism. 'Rzemieślnik' is indeed craftsman/artisan, but this term (rzemiosło) was used for small business in Poland (any company - manufacture, services, trade - with less than some fixed number of employees, I already forgot, but I think it was 50 employees, could be registered as "zakład rzemieślniczy". If you wanted to employ more than 50 persons, you needed a cooperative or other government-controlled forms of business, where you weren't the real manager anymore). After a while the commies decided that even this little of "free market" was too much for a socialist country and started troubling them with legislative and administrative counter-measures.

SeanBMThreads: 41 Posts: 8,726 Joined: Mar 10, 08	Edited by: SeanBM Dec 8, 08, 15:42 / #
Krzysztof: After a while the commies decided that even this little of "free market" was too much for a socialist country and started troubling them with legislative and administrative counter-measures. Very interesting. I did not understand that before. I thought it meant craftsmen (the translation given to me earlier this evening) and assumed it meant the destruction of tradition but i was a bit ify on my assumption. Very interesting indeed.

loco polacoThreads: 3 Posts: 421 Joined: Aug 5, 08	Dec 8, 08, 15:56 / #
ok, how about: desctruction of arts and crafts.. the sign was placed there after the commie time not during so it's a bit hard to know exactly what they ment as everything polish was under attack by the darn communists.

SeanBMThreads: 41 Posts: 8,726 Joined: Mar 10, 08	Dec 8, 08, 16:12 / #
loco polaco: how about: desctruction of arts and crafts. I thought Krzysztof's explanation makes much more sence? loco polaco: the sign was placed there after the commie time not during so it's a bit hard to know exactly what they ment as everything polish was under attack by the darn communists. Not any longer. I think some plaques are kind of poetic, to evoke an emotional response rather than a matter of fact statement, no?

KrzysztofThreads: 2 Posts: 1,146 Joined: Jul 26, 07	Dec 8, 08, 20:08 / #
loco polaco: arts and crafts I'm not sure what it would mean in English, but if it's something like home-made pottery, wycinanki etc., then the noun "rękodzieło" (hand-made) was in use.

celinskiThreads: 83 Posts: 2,800 Joined: Nov 14, 07	Dec 9, 08, 06:26 / #
loco polaco: he couldn't live with lies. he died for the truth. From todays paper, Russian courts openly mock the Katyn massacre. Exceeding in this is Igor Tulenev, judge from the Khamovniki district court in Moscow. He gave another spectacular show yesterday. He was reviewing Memorial's complaint against the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office, which had refused to rehabilitate Lt Stanisław Karnkowski. He heard out the military prosecutor's speech, who argued that the officer could not be rehabilitated because no documents had survived from his interrogations and subsequent trial. He heard out the Memorial representative's speech, who pointed out that the Soviet Union leaders had decided in spring 1940 that the Polish POWs would be executed without inquiry or trial. Then, on the basis of those two speeches, Mr Tulenev adjourned the case until the prosecutor's office replied officially whether it had Karnkowski's inquiry and trial files. URL

polishgirltx	Dec 8, 08, 14:40 / #
thanks for posting that....

SeanBMThreads: 41 Posts: 8,726 Joined: Mar 10, 08	Mar 10, 09, 22:51 / #
Ryszard Siwiec (click here, wiki) Ryszard Siwiec "commited suicide by self-immolation in protest against the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. He set himself ablaze in Warsaw during a national harvest festival on September 8, 1968 at the Dziesięciolecia Stadium, and died in hospital four days later. His act was witnessed by nearly 100,000 spectators, including the national leadership and foreign diplomats who had been invited to the festival intended as a vast propaganda spectacle." I think it was a 100 year since Mr. Siwiec was born. i have just heard about him for the first time today.