Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of December 1970

Technique: crosses made of chromium-nickel, acid-resistant steel plates, anchors made of brass plates, reliefs made of bronze

Dimensions: 42 m (H of the statue), around 7 m × 8 m × 10 m (dimensions of the base of the statue – a triangle with a cross in each corner), 115 cm × 345 cm (dimensions of the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers plaques)

Object: The Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers is one of the elements of the urban layout of Solidarity Square. It consists of three 42-metre high steel crosses (each weighing 36 tonnes) with an irregular, vertically cracked form and brass anchors on the crossbeams (each weighing 2 tonnes). In the lower part, the crosses are fitted with ten bronze bas-reliefs and additionally supplemented with inscriptions. On the south-western (frontal) cross, there is an inscription with the names of the authors of the project: “Bogdan Pietruszka, Wiesław Szyślak”. On the north-western cross, there is an inscription reading: “‘You who wronged a simple man / bursting into laughter at the crime. / DO NOT FEEL SAFE. The poet remembers. / You can kill one, but another is born. / The words are written down, the deed, the date’ CZ. MIŁOSZ” with the signatures of the authors of the sculptures “R. Pepliński, E. Szczodrowska”. On the north-eastern cross are the dates complementing the scenes “1956, 1970, 1980, 1981” and a plaque added later, reading: “In 2000 the shape of the lining of the lower part of the Monument’s crosses / was made according to the original design. / The work was done by / the NOTON GDAŃSK company / November 2000”.

Between the crosses, which are located on a triangular plan and connected at the top by steel ties, there is a gas torch with the diameter of 1 metre, enclosed by a lattice of rods converging towards the centre. The monument is set on a foundation supported by sixteen 18-metre long reinforced concrete boxes. The plinth is an elevated near-circular area with a base made of concrete slabs whose cracks are filled with granite setts; further on, they form concentric circles separated from each other by asphalt pavements. On one of the plinth slabs on the eastern side, there is a steel frame with an irregular inner line that encircles the handwritten inscription “John Paul II” and shoe prints; the text in the frame reads: “IT WAS FROM THIS PLACE / THAT WE WERE BLESSED / BY POPE JOHN PAUL II / ON 12 JUNE 1987”. Near the edge of the elevation of the plinth is another metal plate with an inscription reading “THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE COULD NOT HAVE DONE BETTER, FOR SILENCE IS A SCREAM IN A PLACE LIKE THIS. THIS IS WHERE POPE JOHN PAUL II PRAYED ON 12 JUNE 1987”. The final part of the arrangement is the northern enclosure of the square: a concrete wall with inscriptions adjacent to the Shipyard’s Gate No. 2. Its central part is crowned with the words spoken by John Paul II in Warsaw on 2 June 1979: “LET THY SPIRIT DESCEND AND RENEW / THE FACE OF THE EARTH, THIS EARTH – AMEN / JOHN PAUL II 1979”, as well as the inscription: “THEY GAVE THEIR LIVES SO THAT YOU MAY / LIVE WITH DIGNITY”. In the central part, there are two plaques commemorating the victims of December 1970 in Gdańsk and Gdynia and the victims of the Martial Law in Gdańsk.

In front of the central part of the wall is a representational sculpture of a wounded shipyard worker shielding himself from the bullets whose traces can be seen on the aforementioned inscription plaques. The wall is inscribed with verse 11 of Psalm 29(28) translated by Czesław Miłosz: “THE LORD SHALL GIVE STRENGTH UNTO HIS PEOPLE/ THE LORD SHALL BLESS HIS PEOPLE WITH PEACE. PSALM 29/28/11 TRANSLATED BY CZ. MIŁOSZ”. From the east, the wall is flanked by a concrete cuboid with stone plaques bearing the 21 demands of the August Accords. On the front, from the side of Jana z Kolna Street, there are five inscriptions with representations of shipyard workers, in Polish, German, English, French and Russian, reading: “MEMORIAL / OF THE FALLEN / SHIPYARD / WORKERS 1970 / A TOKEN OF EVERLASTING / REMEMBRANCE OF THE / SLAUGHTER VICTIMS. / A WARNING TO RULERS / THAT NO SOCIAL CONFLICT / IN OUR COUNTRY CAN BE / RESOLVED BY FORCE. / A SIGN OF HOPE / FOR FELLOW CITIZENS THAT / EVIL NEED NOT PREVAIL”.

Place: Plac Solidarności (Solidarity Square). Monument to Fallen Shipyard Workers is the main element of the memorial site, which was initially created in the tram terminus space “in front of the Shipyard” – in front of the former wall surrounding the Lenin Gdańsk Shipyard and next to its main entrance gate marked with no. 2. The main sculpture of the monument was placed so that it could already be seen from the Gdańsk Główny Railway Station. Gate No. 2 is flanked by a gatehouse and a kiosk, and in Doki Street, at some distance from the gate and the gatehouse, by an additional gatehouse built at a time of social unrest. The area of the monument is connected with two buildings standing behind the old wall, on the site of the former plant: the building with the famous OHS Hall (where the historic agreements were signed) and the new building of the European Solidarity Centre (opened in 2008), which is in itself a monument proclaimed by signatories from 22 countries as “a global centre fostering the ideas of freedom, democracy and solidarity”. After Poland’s systemic transformation, the area was renamed Solidarity Square, although its spatial form is still not clearly defined and is marked both by successive memorials and newly constructed buildings.

Information about the author:

Concept of the statue: Bogdan Pietruszka (b. 17 October 1935 in Końskie) is a ship designer and visual artist. He participated in the strikes at the Gdańsk Shipyard in December 1970 and August 1980. Starting from September 1980, he was the chair of the “Solidarity” Department Committee. Pietruszka designed the concept of the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970. He also took part in strikes at the Gdańsk Shipyard in October 1982 (protests against the banning of “Solidarity”) and August 1988.

Sculptors: Robert Pepliński (b. 1 March 1941 in Tczew, d. 9 December 2015 in Tczew) was an artist and sculptor who also worked with painting and architectural designs. In 1980, together with his wife Elżbieta Szczodrowska-Peplińska, Bogdan Pietruszka and Wiesław Szyślak, he created the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970. He was involved in various art projects around Tri-City; his works are held at the National Museums in Gdańsk, Warsaw, Wrocław and Krakow, among others.

Elżbieta Szczodrowska-Peplińska (b. 1921, d. 30 May 2009 in Sopot) was an artist, sculptor and educator. She settled in Gdańsk in 1934 and started studying at Wacław Szczeblewski’s Pomeranian School of Fine Arts in 1937. Between 1945 and 1949, she studied sculpture under the supervision of Prof. Marian Wnuk at the State School of Fine Arts in Sopot (the present-day Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk). She sculpted in metal and wood and also created cast cement works. Her works are clearly defined by her trademark style. In 1980, together with her husband Robert Pepliński, she designed and made sculptures in the lower part of the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970.

Structure: Wiesław Szyślak (b. in Nowy Sącz) is an engineer and architect, author of the architectural concept of the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers 1970.

Street furniture: Jacek Krenz (b. 11 May 1948) in Poznań is an architect, painter and professor at the Gdańsk University of Technology, Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań and Sopot University of Applied Sciences. He co-authored the idea of the Solidarity Square around the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers 1970.

Wojciech Mokwiński (b. 1937 in Kovel’) is an architect, visual artist, fitter and educator at the State School of Fine Arts in Gdańsk (the present-day Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk). He co-authored the visual form of the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers 1970 and the  idea of the Solidarity Square around it.

Founder: Social Committee for the Construction of the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers.

Condition of the object: very good

Owner/guardian: Gdańsk Road and Greenery Authority

Authors of the entry: Jacek Dominiczak, Noemi Etush, Małgorzata Paszylka-Glaza