In 1983, Poland was an even more divided country than now. In August 1980, the communist authorities signed a contract at the Gdańsk shipyard. Lenin reached an agreement with “Solidarity”, which ended a 17-day general strike. As they write Karol Nawrocki and Mariusz Kordek in the book “Lechia – Juventus. More than a match”10 million people belonged to the trade union at that time and behind the Iron Curtain there was hope that there might be a change or at least a softening of the regime.
16 months of hope was brutally extinguished when General Wojciech Jaruzelski introduced martial law and banned “Solidarity”. Opposition leaders were thrown into prison and that seemed to be the end.
Some, however, decided to continue fighting. Gdańsk has always been at the center of the resistance movement, and in this dark time, there were three places where you could freely express your anti-system views. Shipyard, church Saint Bridget. The third one was the Lechia Gdańsk stadium.
The match between Lechia and Juventus was to be broadcast on television, so “Solidarity”, a movement that was forced to go underground, decided to show that it was still alive. Of course, the leader of the movement, its symbol, Lech Wałęsa, had to be at the stadium.
There were to be over 30,000 spectators at the match, so getting there incognito would not have been a problem for Wałęsa. The security services knew that there would be a large turnout at the match and had information that Lech would be there. The authorities were well prepared and divided the city into several zones to control the course of events. The oppositionists turned out to be smarter and tricked the authorities and tricked Lech Wałęsa into the stadium at Traugutta 29. They were mainly people from the Young Poland Movement – Andrzej Kowalczys, Piotr Adamowicz, brother of the late Paweł – president of Gdańsk, Rybicki brothers Sławomir and Aram, whose body was identified in Smolensk because he had a Lechia season ticket with him.
40th anniversary of the Lechia – Juventus match
Another version says that the communists consciously let Wałęsa into the stadium, knowing that by arresting him, they would recognize “Solidarity” and Wałęsa as its leader. Yet the propaganda message said that Wałęsa was a “private person”, so why should he be detained and why?
One more thing should be added – the day before the match, the regime’s public television published a heavily edited discussion between Wałęsa, imprisoned in Arłamów, and his brother, in which the former was presented as very vulgar and only concerned about money. The authorities hoped that Lech would be booed at the stadium.
The communist plan did not entirely succeed, in fact it turned out to be quite the opposite. In the first half, the fans were mainly focused on football, but during the break the situation changed dramatically. Piotr Adamowicz directed the operators of the American NBC and CBS stations to turn their attention to Wałęsa, who was sitting on the straight, more or less straight from the tunnel leading to the pitch.
And that’s when it all started. First quietly, then louder and louder. “Solidarity! Solidarity! Solidarity!”. It seemed that only a handful of people sitting around Wałęsa were chanting, but when archive footage of the match was found, many thousands of fans were chanting. In fact, it was the entire stadium.
It was so loud that the noise reached Lechia’s locker room, which had been specially renovated for this match, where the hosts’ coach, Jerzy Jastrzębowski, said: “When we heard it, it sent shivers down our spines, the entire stadium chanted: ‘Solidarity.’
One of the Solidarity leaders once said: “What happened during the match against Juventus gave us strength for the next five years.”
State television, fearing that the rest of the country would hear the chants, delayed the broadcast of the second half by six minutes and then decided to broadcast it without sound. Lechia’s players fought like Gdańsk lions, but in the end they lost the match 2-3, and the aggregate 2-10, but it didn’t matter, “Solidarity” won something much bigger and more important.
Until the 63rd minute, Lechia was leading 2-1 after goals Marek Kowalczyk and Jerzy Kruszczyński. “Głos Wybrzeża” wrote that the famous Juventus was afraid of losing to the Polish “Cinderella”: “Only the specter of defeat forced the Italians to launch a general offensive, which involved Platini entering the field. The famous Frenchman did not play from the beginning, which may have been due to underestimating the rival. Coach Trapattoni became convinced that the team from Gdańsk had its value. Ultimately, the green and white team left the pitch defeated. However, they lost to the football grandmasters, who – let’s face it – were a bit lucky, although everything was primarily determined by skills. Overall, we lost the match, but the audience left the stadium completely satisfied.”
It was decided that Wałęsa should leave the stadium earlier to avoid getting involved in possible riots. However, there were no problems. Fans felt that something special was happening and they didn’t want to ruin it.
What happened next? In the mid to late 1980s, economic and political stagnation prevailed, leaving people feeling apathetic. Food stamps were introduced and petrol was rationed. There was only vinegar on store shelves. It is estimated that between one and two million Poles left the country in the 1980s. Of the 80 Lechia fans who went to the first match in Turin, only 11 returned.
Slowly, step by step, the system of oppression began to break down. In November 1989, a televised debate between Wałęsa and Alfred Miodowicz (a trade union activist friendly to the regime) ended with a crushing victory for the former, who was in top form.
Finally, in February 1989, the so-called Round Table Talks were organized between Solidarity and the government, which ended with semi-free elections in June 1989 (semi-free because a certain number of seats in parliament had already been “allocated” to the communists).
At the end of 1990, Wałęsa was the president of Poland. Wałęsa was often asked about that night in Gdańsk. – Why did security let me in? he once wondered. “Maybe they thought I would be booed and booed after the TV program they showed? They hoped the nation would turn on me? That would have been the end of me.”
One of the Solidarity leaders once said: “What happened during the match against Juventus gave us strength for the next five years.”
Maciej Słomiński, INTERIA
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