The exhibition "1989 - The Year of Freedom of Peoples - Victory of Free Speech" was inaugurated in the Polish Parliament. The leading motive of the exhibition is to present the phenomenon of the underground publications and their significance in the fight against totalitarianism. It is the largest exhibition of underground prints organized so far, presenting nearly 500 museum objects (prints and machines).

Presented at selected titles of the underground press, the profiles of its creators, anti-communist anti-communist opposition activists, dissidents, and a colorful panorama of the publishing movement is presented in a broad, international perspective. It also presents the evolution of printing techniques printing techniques - from machine punches, the so-called frames, spirit and protein to offset presses and photocopiers.

The objects forming the narrative axis of the exhibition come from from the collections of the Karta Centre, the Sejm Library and from private collections: Mr. Marek Kuchciński, Speaker of the Sejm; Bogdan Borusewicz, Deputy Speaker of the Vice-Marshal of the Senate of the Republic of Poland; Mrs. Małgorzata Zwiercan, MP; and Mr. Jan Malicki (OSW UW).

The exhibits illustrate publishing activity of dissident organizations from various regions of Poland, as well as from Central and Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia). Presented are unique samizdat and tamizdates. It shows the beginnings of the Polish independent publishing movement in the 1970s and its evolution in subsequent decades. It shows the beginnings of the Polish independent publishing movement in the 1970s and its evolution in the following decades. It presents the so-called "carnival bibles" - the the period of legal "Solidarity", as well as underground publications from the period of martial law and the end of from the period of martial law and the late 1980s. This selection is a mosaic of texts extremely valuable for the characterization of the process consolidation of the democratic opposition. It also helps to understand the reasons for the fall of communism, the Communism, the course of the so-called Autumn of Nations and the sources of political transformation in Central and Central and Eastern Europe.

The exhibition was organized by the Sejm Library and the Karta Centre. It is related to the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of parliamentary elections in 1989.

Photo by M. Olejnik