Day 85: Sightseeing Gdansk

September 24, 2024

Self Guided Shipyard Tour

After seeing a lot of the “new” old town yesterday today our main goal is to visit the shipyard where the ship yard workers put a crack in communism. We walk to the old town first, have some coffee and pastry on the way and change some more euros to zlotys. Gdansk is much more expensive than the other part of Poland we visited.

We keep going through the part of town that used to be the old-town. It was thoroughly destroyed by the Red Army in 1945 and it was mostly rebuild in the Soviet style. On the other side is the Lenin Shipyard. Large ships are no longer built here, but there still is a lot of activity going on. It is surprising that tourists are allowed; to a certain extent, to just wander around. There is a map of the route the workers took.

On the left, a piece of the Berlin Wall. On the right part of the wall that Walesa climbed starting the Solidarity Movement in 1981

For this is Gate Two of what was once the Lenin Shipyard. It was near here that electrician Lech Wałęsa scaled the wall on 14 August 1980 to organize a strike by workers against Poland’s then-communist government.

“This is where the most important events took place,” said Dr Jacek Kołtan, deputy director for research at the ESC. “Wałęsa appeared here to talk to the people, then the strikers waited two long weeks here, before finding a solution in talks between Solidarity and the government.”

Solidarity was the independent trade union formed by the workers, and its initial push for a wage raise evolved into wider demands for free trade unions, freedom of speech and the release of political prisoners.

After negotiations faltered, strikes spread across Poland and the government was forced to cave in. It wasn’t yet evident – a decade of repression, including the imposition of martial law, was to follow – but the regime had signed its death warrant and that of European communism.

After free elections in 1989, Poland effectively left the communist bloc. Soon after, the Berlin Wall fell, to be followed by communist regimes across the continent The shipyard that changed humanity (bbc.com)

There is a dry-dock and several large steel cranes. The M-3 is open to the public. Patrick gets a ticket and start climbing the steel stairs up into the behemoth. It is too open and not possible to ignore the height. About halfway is a good view of the port for some pictures, but then he turns back.

We walk along side the old derelict buildings. Some are still in use, some are abandoned and a few have been restored. At the administration building is where the iconic photo of Lech Walesa on the shoulders of his fellow workers was taken after Solidarity’s demands were accepted.

Soon after, the government declared martial law and they had to wait ten more years for freedom. Across the street is a nice museum with exhibits about the labor movement and the ships that were built here.

Martial Law declared and independent trade union banned so it went underground

We walk back to the city, as if we'd not eaten enough sandwiches while touring, we get tempted in to eating a subway sandwich. Then we stop again at a Polish restaurant for beer and pirogie, meat filled dumplings that are a bit bland but go good with beer.

Then back to our apartment with the intention of going out for dinner later. We ate so much already though that that won’t be necessary.

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