On June 25, 1976, workers from factories located in the city of Radom took to the streets. Large strikes were also recorded in Ursus and Płock. Smaller strikes were staged in other 24 voivodeships of the Polish People's Republic. The protests that took place in the middle of that decade -- when statistically and in propaganda terms, life was supposedly at its best in the entire history of People's Poland -- were caused by the increased grocery prices that had been announced on TV the previous day. The price hikes were drastic, ranging from increases of several dozen percentage points to more than 100%. Radom, an under-invested city, was poorer than other industrial centers, its infrastructure largely inherited from the 19th century.

The authorities were prepared for the possibility of protests, but not in Radom. Only some 70 ZOMO officers [communist-era Poland's paramilitary-police formation] were brought to the city to support the local militia, where by early afternoon, the protesters had taken control of the streets. Before forces could be brought in from other cities, a 20,000-strong crowd had assembled and, unable to meet up with the first secretary of the Voivodeship Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR), managed to break into, demolish and set fire to the local office of the party authorities. The foresighted secretary had managed to leave the Committee’s office well in advance.

By dusk, the city had been pacified and later that same evening the authorities rescinded the decision to raise the prices. However, Edward Gierek, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the PZPR, felt personally affronted by the protests. According to a book written much later, when a different political reality prevailed, Janusz Prokopiuk, first secretary of the Voivodeship Committee of the PZPR in Radom, declared that he had heard direct from Gierek that the ruler of the Polish People's Republic "didn't give a shit" about Radom’s residents. Moreover, in a telephone conference with other provincial secretaries, Gierek said: "Tell the people of Radom how much we hate them -- the more blasphemy you use, the better." It was during this teleconference that Gierek issued orders for rallies to be held across the country in support of the authorities as he condemned the "brawlers" from Radom.

The burning of the local Committee building brought back memories of December 1970. That was when Władysław Gomułka [Gierek's predecessor as first secretary of the Party] lost power and Edward Gierek took office. The burning of the local Committee building must have reminded those in charge that when Committee premises are set ablaze those in power loose out. Gomułka was replaced by Gierek, who may well have been terrified to find himself first secretary between the arsons. To reassure him, the working class gathered in stadiums throughout the country -- a show of support for the new first secretary -- while they noisily condemned the "brawlers" and the "troublemakers". As could be expected, albeit perhaps more allusively, suggestions that events had drawn on foreign inspiration were woven into the speeches.

The authorities' quick reaction, including the cancellation of the price increases for fear of sparking a new December 1970, led to repressive measures taken by the militia and the introduction of the so-called "health trails". Those who were detained were forced to walk the gauntlet formed by two lines of militiamen who beat them with batons as they went by. This treatment applied to those who had participated in the riots as well as to simple passers-by. Several hundred workers were tried in an accelerated judicial procedure which issued sentences of up to one year in jail. Standard court procedures resulted in eight people being sentenced to prison for eight-to-ten years, eleven to five-to-six years, while more than 100 received prison terms of two-to-four years.

What unfolded in Radom and other cities shook Edward Gierek's position. The masses ceased to be at one with the party (whereas previously its propaganda of success had remained effective). The "moral and political unity of the nation" vanished. Nonetheless, those who remember the decade during which Poland was ruled by the first secretary from Sosnowiec [the industrial city in the south of Poland] are agreed that, while "he was what he was", he did not shoot people. Indeed, in June 1976, the authorities' focus was on beating the protesters -- firearms were not issued to the militia charged with pacifying the protests. This probably explains why the authorities were to benefit from a relatively peaceful further four years of feigned national consent -- that is up until the strikes of August 1980.

No one died in the police stations and detention centers as a direct result of the "health trails". However, there were fatalities in Radom. Two workers died under the wheels of a trailer loaded with building materials, an accident caused when the workers sought to use the trailer to attack the ranks of the ZOMO. One Radom resident did die on June 30 having been beaten by a militia patrol, but the death was not directly linked to the protest events. Weeks later, a parish priest, Father Roman Kotlarz, died in hospital on August 18.

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  On June 25 he had been walking through the center of Radom, making his way to a nearby church canteen for priests, when he got caught up in a crowd heading to the local Committee building and accompanied the protesters for several hundred meters. As they passed another church, Father Kotlarz climbed its steps and blessed the demonstrators before leaving the demonstration. Unfortunately, for him, his blessing was witnessed by more than the protesters. It was a time when the Security Service did not limit its vigilance to the largest cities. Service members were everywhere in the Polish People's Republic.

After the events in Radom, back in his own parish of Pelagów, Father Kotlarz voiced his support for the demonstrators in his sermons. This led to a summons to the prosecutor's office in Radom where he was given a warning for his remarks. Party authorities also remonstrated with the episcopal curia in Sandomierz. Meanwhile, parallel to this official harassment, unknown perpetrators were taking other actions.

According to the priest's housekeeper, three men knocked on the rectory door one summer evening in 1976. Letting them in, she led the visitors to the priest's room. Later, hearing Father Kotlarz’s groans, she tried to intervene but one of the "guests" also hit her. The priest told her: "Run, child, run." As was established years later, the visitors wrapped the priest in a carpet and beat him with wooden legs torn from the chairs. At least three such visits took place.

Years later, the priest’s nephew and one of the altar boys confirmed the story of the beatings. The nephew visited his uncle after one of the raids. He was lying in bed. He had blackouts. The altar boy saw Father Kotlarz’s back, which he recalled as being "as black as the priest's cassock".

The method of beating the priest, supposed to leave no visible marks on his body, ultimately proved fatal -- probably intentionally so -- given the damage inflicted on the victim's internal organs. In August, the priest collapsed while celebrating mass and was hospitalized. He was in poor mental and physical condition. His liver, lungs, heart and kidneys were not functioning properly. He suffered from insomnia, general agitation, volatile thoughts. He could not sit still in the doctor's office. He was admitted to the psychiatric ward.

Father Kotlarz had been ill before. Part of his stomach had been removed during one surgical procedure and he had also undergone duodenal surgery and an appendectomy. However, his deteriorating mental state most likely was related to those recent nightly visits by "unknown perpetrators". After a two-day stay in the hospital, Father Kotlarz died at eight o'clock on August 18, 1976. He was 48 years of age. The death certificate stated that the cause of death was hemorrhagic, bilateral pneumonia and the heart failure caused by it.

He was a clergyman the authorities had paid close attention to from the onset of his ministry. In the first seven years of his priesthood, Father Kotlarz worked in six parishes. Pelagów was the last. He served there for 15 years. The bishop of Sandomierz had been transferring him from parish to parish as a result of the intervention of the authorities. In his sermons, the priest had been defending the presence of religion lessons in the schools and condemning teachers for promoting atheism. The first time he was transferred had been as a result of complaints by teachers.

Among surviving fragments of his sermons, he said: "Herod died, eaten by vermin while alive, Hitler died -- woe to everyone who fights with God." In those days, stating the obvious in homily form was like stepping to the bell – the party bell - and it would immediately ring. On another occasion, the priest spoke even more directly: “Do not believe what they tell you in schools: that God does not exist and has not been on Earth. God was, is and will be. It is history that is changeable. Whatever the government that persecutes the Catholic Church is, it will not prevail for long."

Clearly, Father Kotlarz was a figure of interest to the Security Service long before the June 1976 protests in Radom. His sermons were being monitored and recorded in the various parishes where he worked. One of the transfers forced on the bishop of Sandomierz by the authorities even led to the establishment of a social committee, which proceeded to organize a petition of the faithful demanding that the priest be left where he was. Almost the entire village, over a thousand people, signed the petition. It was in Pelagów that Father Kotlarz decided to defend himself against the surveillance and harassment by the authorities in a priestly manner. In 1965 he made the act of giving the parish of Pelagów into slavery to the Mother of God. With this gesture, the priest became part of the millennium celebrations, when the entire Church in Poland was mobilized spiritually.

The protests in Radom, the "health trails" and numerous related draconian sentences led to the creation of an organized opposition in the Polish People's Republic. By September, the Workers' Defense Committee [KOR] was established, and similarly, in Radom, the Movement for the Defense of Human and Civil Rights came into being. In its first communiqué, the KOR cited Father Kotlarz and called for an investigation into his death. However, we had to wait for that first investigation until "Solidarity" times in 1980-1981. Under pressure from the union, the authorities started the investigation but it yielded no results. The next investigation, in 1990, established beyond doubt that the priest had been beaten several times but the identities of the "unknown perpetrators" were not established. Nor did it help when, years later, one of the militiamen working in the militia station nearest to the parish, began to speak out since the Security Service officers he selectively named had been dead for some time.

– Krzysztof Zwoliński

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists

  – Translated by Agnieszka Rakoczy