Messengers of the Free Word
The book presents an important and well known but so far not described episode in the history of banned books in the communist Poland – the activity of the so-called Tatra climbers. They were students and scholars from Warsaw, who initiated a risky cooperation with the centre of Polish political emigration in Paris – Kultura monthly. Inspired by the Prague Spring they tried to develop cooperation between the students from Eastern Bloc countries, smuggled books through the Polish-Slovak border, and gathered texts critical about communist rulers. After a few months, their activity was stopped by the Polish political police. The monograph shows the circumstances and motivations behind this dangerous activity of young people, traces the police investigation against them, and describes the mock trial in 1970.
Bartosz Kaliski PhD, born 1977, is assistant professor at The Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences. He is specialized in political history of Poland in the 20th century (especially the history of the democratic opposition against communism), the history of the Catholic church, and the Solidarity movement.