After imposing martial law and particularly since the first radio broadcast (from April 12, 1982) emitted by the underground Radio Solidarność, Zbigniew and Zofia Romaszewski were among the most wanted people in Poland, sought after by Citizens’ Militia the and the Security Service. For several months – to no avail; however, 40 years ago – on July 5, 1982 they were struck by misfortune and they fell into the hands of officials. But the success of the latter was half-and-half.

As it was stated on air at Radio Free Europe: “The chief of security is rubbing his hands. A medal is in the air. It didn’t succeed to catch the husband, at least he’s got his wife”. And it was commented on, not without sarcasm: “It’s a dangerous family. It threatens the empire stretching from Vladivostok to Erfurt, armed with nuclear weapons, missiles, tanks, hundreds of divisions. The Warsaw agency of the Soviet KGB put out an APB on Zbigniew Romaszewski and his wife Zofia – they were placed high on the list”.

By the way, there was nothing unusual about it, as by no means did the guilt of the two restrict to the gloomy martial law era. They engaged in “plotting” against socialism several years earlier, in the Workers’ Defense Committee [Komitet Obrony Robotników – KOR], mostly in the framework of the Intervention Bureau they led. Let’s give the floor once again to RFE: “A young physicist, Zbigniew Romaszewski, committed a crime […] after the court-police revenge against workers from Radom, he dared together with his wife, to set up, as an annex to the KOR, the Intervention Bureau to defend the persecuted and arrested. This insult calls for justice”.

SIGN UP TO OUR PAGE One may ask where the interest of the Soviet security – KGB came from? Behold, in his oppositionist activity Romaszewski didn’t limit himself to the Polish People’s Republic [Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa – PRL] – in January 1979, in Moscow, he met with a top Soviet dissident, Andriy Sakharov, which couldn’t escape the attention of the secret service. As it was ironically commented on air at RFE: “Perhaps they were cooking up something against global peace. Who knows, if didn’t intend to sell the USSR to China”.

Naturally after the creation of “Solidarity” in September 1981 the spouses engaged in its works. Zbigniew, inter alia, participated in the historic First Convention of Solidarity Delegates, during which, as a matter of fact (in October 1981) he was elected to the National Commission.

In connection with imposing martial law on the night of December 12-13, 1981 Zbigniew as well Zofia were to be interned. However, they both managed to avoid this dubious pleasure. Zbigniew was staying in Gdańsk where he participated in a meeting of the National Commission, which took place on December, 11-12, 1981 and ended shortly before midnight. The plan was to arrest him there, but in the last moment he opted not to spend the night in Tricity, but to return to the capital – if it hadn’t been for that he would have shared the vicissitude of other National Commission activists (within the framework of the “Mewa” secret operation) who were interned in Gdańsk and Sopot hotels. That the martial law had been imposed he learnt from “Solidarity” counselors whom he met on a train to Warsaw, in view of which he decided to hide and begin his activity in the underground. Security officers came also for Zofia Romaszewska whom however they didn’t find at home – instead, they decided to intern their daughter Agnieszka who, in turn, was a member of the Independent Students’ Association… Meanwhile, Zofia was in hiding – as was her spouse, with whom, by the way, she quickly made contact and together they joined the organization of the underground Radio Solidarity, of which she became an announcer.

They fell into the hands of the Security Service a few months later – most likely by accident, as a result of an unlucky coincidence. It all started with the arrest of Jacek Bąk and Dariusz Rutkowski on June 6, 1982, after another underground radio program was broadcast – against conspiratorial “health and safety regulations”, they decided to take the transmitter and stumbled upon a police patrol with it. Unfortunately they cracked under the investigation thanks to which the Security Service obtained valuable information concerning, among others, broadcasting locations or training points, as well as personal details of other people involved in independent radio broadcasting in the capital.

The security officers paid particular attention to one of the addresses obtained from them. It was a flat used in May 1982 by the manager of the broadcasting group, hiding under the pseudonym “Teofil”, that is Janusz Klekowski whose surname Bąk and Rutkowski fortunately didn’t know.

Less than a month later – on July 5 – a search was carried out in this apartment, which – as it seemed – ended in failure, as no material indicating illegal activity was found . However, the officers found the owner brother – Zbigniew who was looking after the apartment in connection with Jerzy’s departure to Austria.

It was not a coincidence anyway, as the day was chosen when someone should have been in the apartment due to the renovation works in the block. Apart from Zbigniew Kobyliński, two other people were found there - the women who came there - Beata Śniecińska and her mother. Since the former was registered there, she was arrested.

What is worse – despite the late hour (it was already after 10 p.m.) – the officers decided to search both the apartment of Beata Śmiecińska's mother and Zbigniew Kobyliński. It was unfortunate that, contrary to the rules of the conspiratorial “health and safety regulations”, not only Zbigniew and Zofia Romaszewski were in the latter (at Aleja Stanów Zjednoczonych), but also – as a result of an unfortunate coincidence – Joanna Szczęsna, who was in hiding, just like them. The spouses who celebrated their wedding anniversary on that day invited her for a glass of cognac. As the journalist Włodzimierz Kalicki described it lively many years later: “On the table a bouquet of beautiful roses, next to it a bottle of cognac and glasses set apart. Romaszewski [...] invites everybody for a glass of cognac. Over the cognac, they first discuss business matters […] Then the conversation becomes social”.

To make matters even worse, when the doorbell rang, Zbigniew Romaszewski was sure that it was his colleague Anna Owczarska together with a Belgian citizen, Roger Noel “Babar” (an anarchist involved in independent radio activity in his country since the 1970s, supporting Poles and opposition activists after December 13) with a transmitter for Radio Solidarność. It was smuggled by the Belgian inside another (fifth or sixth) shipment of drugs and medical equipment for Polish hospitals. The equipment was supposed to be delivered to another contact apartment, but unfortunately – it was exceptionally locked by the owner's grandmother (who was watering the flowers), with a usually unused key – it was not possible to open it, because the underground activists did not have one of those. In this situation, Romaszewski made an appointment with them at Kobyliński's, where he was hiding with his wife.

Unfortunately, it turned out that the apartment of Zbigniew Kobyliński was visited not by uninvited guests, but by their enemies – Tadeusz Celewski, senior inspector of the Investigation Department of the Warsaw Citizens' Militia Headquarters, and another officer (a plainclothes policeman) – Jerzy Jurek. As Romaszewski reported many years later: “I hear voices in front of the door. They speak Polish, which surprises me, because we are waiting for a Belgian who does not know the language. But I recognize Kobyliński. I open the door.

Kobyliński tries to lock the door from the outside, but it is in vain. So he enters with two security officers. Only two, because they treated the search at the place of registration as a formality, and in addition just then there was a match [of the FIFA World Cup in Spain - GM] Poland – Italy. I can see that they recognized neither me nor Zosia”.

The officers – clearly calmed down by the sight of a social gathering – politely demanded that the people inside show their ID cards. Zbigniew Romaszewski reacted calmly – he headed towards the hanger in the hall, supposedly to take out documents from his clothes. He passed it though, and, to the surprise of the unannounced guests, ran out into the stairwell.

In the meantime, the owner of the apartment managed to inform him that there were no more officers there. The fleeing head of Radio Solidarność tried to chase Celewski, but once again Zbigniew Kobyliński showed consciousness of mind, as well as courage, and blocked his way, which stopped the officer for a good while. Thanks to this Romaszewski – running away barefoot because he had left his slippers on the stairs – gained a significant advantage over him. And despite the menacing shouts of the officer who was chasing him: “Stop, or I’ll shot”, he disappeared from his eyes between the hedges.

As he later recalled: “I'm losing my breath. I’m already considering whether not to give up. But I turn behind a garage and I see a car. I lie down behind him. The officer doesn’t spot me, runs by. I wait a moment and run the other way. I run to another apartment of my underground friends, in a different part of Saska Kępa [district of Warsaw]. No one’s there. I am waiting at the door, I wonder if the Security Service doesn’t come first, because maybe it is some kind of total “bust”. But eventually the hosts arrive”.

Here, unfortunately, the opposition activists’ luck ran out. Szczęsna, who was also trying to escape, was caught while still in the stairwell and arrested along with Klekowski and Romaszewska, who in turn tried frantically – taking advantage of the resulting confusion – to remove evidence of the underground activity.

By the way, at first, the detainees didn’t fully know who had fallen into their hands – Joanna Szczęsna used an ID card in the name of Monika Niedźwiecka-Grundland and her real personal details were only established at the Warsaw Militia Headquarters. As if that hadn’t been enough, after a few (according to Tadeusz Celewski – literally three) minutes, a woman with a man carrying a heavy bag came to the apartment, that is to say Owczarska and Noel.

As a result, the “catch” – despite the escape of Zbigniew Romaszewski – turned out to be very abundant. Not only because several activists of the underground Solidarity were detained, including the co-organizer of the underground radio, but also a pretext was given to disavow their activities. The Polish People's Republic propaganda used in particular the arrest of a Belgian anarchist with a transmitter to attack the opposition for alleged foreign inspiration.

At the same time, attempts were made to discredit the Catholic Church, claiming that it was allegedly trying to donate this equipment to the basement of St. Martin’s church, for years being a friendly place, asylum for the opposition, and after December 13, 1981, a center of foreign medical aid in the capital and a facility supporting the families of the interned ... This very propaganda was referred to in one of the RFE programs: “We understand the <> outrage at these sinister, dangerous pranks of a stubborn marriage. Such dangerous conspirators, plotters, and troublemakers had already outraged Muraviev, Novosiltsov, and Oberpolice Major Tagiejew, and comrade Beria with Serov, and the head of the Gestapo Müller and his creature Krüger. Everything has already been”…

Unfortunately, Zbigniew Romaszewski hadn’t enjoyed his freedom for too long – less than two months later (August 29, 1982) the Security Service managed to track him down again and – this time successfully – arrested him. This time his exposure was no longer the result of an unfortunate coincidence, but the result of the activities of Sławomir Miastowski, a notorious (later, of course) secret collaborator of the Security Service at the Inter-Enterprise Workers’ Committee of Solidarity [Międzyzakładowy Robotniczy Komitet Solidarności – MRKS]. Romaszewski took part a the MRKS meeting, at which Miastowski was also present. The latter – under the pretext of buying cigarettes – left the underground meeting for a moment to inform his principals from the security service about the fact.

As a result, its officers rammed the car in which the Warsaw Radio Solidarność director was taken away from the meeting. Romaszewski – like the driver Andrzej Machalski – ran away. This time, however, he wasn’t that lucky – he slipped down and was arrested. This doesn’t change the fact that his earlier escape in socks became loud, even legendary – just like the other two of Eugeniusz Szumiejka (down the lightning rod from the roof of a multi-storey block of flats) or that of Zbigniew Bujak, in the case of whom the security officers were left with but a sheepskin.

– Grzegorz Majchrzak
– Translated by Dominik Szczęsny-Kostanecki

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists

The author works for the Historical Research Bureau of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance.