Start of the sale:
Sunday, December 25, 2011 at 7:27 AM
Item n°155484272
Sale ends:
Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 7:06 PM
3 publications of the Polish underground/emigre press in exile were: Kultura (published in France), Kontact and Libertas.
These stamps commemorate the establishment of a free press in Poland which helped the Solidarity movement and acted as a catalyst against the Communist authorities.
A legendary Polish journalist, Witold Luczywo´s low-technology publishing innovations fueled the popular Solidarnosc (Solidarity) uprising that brought an end to Communist rule in Poland.
One of the most remarkable things about Solidarity was that it was that it had to be very innovative. Communication was a basic problem for them and Solidarity´s members had no access to the official media. They essentially had to do everything on their own, and their newspapers were crucial.
Until the late 1970s, the Polish underground opposition could only reproduce printed materials with typewriters and carbon paper. But in 1978, Luczywo developed a sort of primitive silkscreen printing method that allowed presses to be assembled from household materials. For ink, the printers used shoe polish. Suddenly a Solidarity activist could turn out thousands of copies of articles critical of the Communist authorities and government.
As Solidarity grew in size and influence, underground newspapers flourished. In the 1980s, there were more than 2,000, produced and sold in factories, universities and high schools, despite periodic government crackdowns and the imposition of martial law.
These publications were printed and distributed in secret. The editors might make themselves known, but the printers couldn´t. Their equipment could be seized, and they could be jailed. This did in fact happen to Luczywo, an original member of Solidarity who founded and published several underground newspapers in the 1970s and ´80s. He was arrested and jailed overnight more than two dozen times, and his house was searched repeatedly by secret police.
The Polish underground publishers faced many physical restrictions often writing their stories on typewriters wrapped in towels to muffle the noise and cleaning their press screens in a shower between press runs.
THIS PROPAGANDA STAMP SET WAS ISSUED BY THE POLISH UNDERGROUND SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT AS A DIVERSIFICATION STATEMENT AGAINST MARTIAL LAW WHICH HAD BEEN DECLARED BY THE COMMUNIST AUTHORITIES IN POLAND. IT IS A VERY RARE AND COLLECTABLE ITEM . THE UNDERGROUND MEMBERS WHO ISSUED THIS STAMP RISKED A LOT, BECAUSE IF CAUGHT THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPRISONED WITHOUT TRIAL.
THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO OWN A UNIQUE PIECE OF HISTORY. IT IS A MUST FOR EVERY SERIOUS HISTORIAN AND COLLECTOR OF THIS PERIOD AND WILL MAKE AN INTERESTING ADDITION TO YOUR COLLECTION.
General Wojciech Jaruzelski announced the introduction of martial law in a speech first broadcast on radio and television at 6:00 am on December 13, 1981. In order to isolate members of the opposition (from the Solidarity movement), 52 internment centers were created. A total of 10,132 internment orders were issued against 9,736 people during the period of martial law.
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