Monument to the murdered Antoni Browarczyk

Technique: bronze cast, bas-relief

Dimensions: approx. 170 × 120 cm

Object: The monument is in the form of a commemorative plaque placed in the ground and covered with decorative paving stones. The bronze cast plaque features a bas-relief depicting the figure of the dying Antoni Browarczyk – he is lying on his back with outstretched arms and bent knees. The figure is partially covered with the Solidarity flag, and a stylised scarf in the colours of the Lechia football club is visible on the right. On the left side of the plaque is an inscription in gilded letters, reading “This is where, on 17 December 1981, Antoni ‘Tolek’ Browarczyk died from a shot to the head”, and in the lower part of the plaque: “To the victims of martial law – citizens of Gdańsk 2016”. Antoni Browarczyk was the first and youngest victim of martial law, a 20-year-old electromechanical apprentice and Lechia Gdańsk fan from Zaspa, Gdańsk. He was fatally shot near Targ Rakowy, straight to the head, during a crackdown on a demonstration in front of the headquarters of the Voivodeship Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party in Gdańsk. The protest was a reaction to the pacification of a strike at the nearby Lenin Gdańsk Shipyard. Other victims of the Gdańsk protests and martial law were: Wacław Kamiński (born 1950 – died 28 November 1982), employee of the Lenin Gdańsk Shipyard; Piotr Sadowski (born 1950 – died 31 August 1982), employee of the Port Authority in Gdańsk; and Jan Samsonowicz (born 27 March 1944 – died 30 June 1983), employee of the Gdańsk Medical Academy. The figure of Browarczyk inspired Robert Kwiatek, chair of the Association of Fighting Youth Federation, to commemorate the victims of martial law through a statue. The sculptor Gennady Yershov contacted the monument’s initiators with a sculpture design. According to the artist, the bas-relief form is meant to resemble the figure of crucified Christ. The monument was officially unveiled on 13 December 2016, on the 35^th anniversary of the declaration of martial law.

Place: The monument is located near the place where Antoni Browarczyk was shot. The bas-relief plaque is even with the ground level, which renders the lying figure all the more poignant. The monument is a symbol of suffering and commemorates the victims of martial law who lost their lives during strikes and street protests near Targ Rakowy.

Information about the author: Gennady Yershov was born on 12 July 1967 in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, into a Polish-Ukrainian family. As a repatriate, he was able to obtain Polish citizenship, he moved to Poland with his family in 2000 and has been living in Gdańsk since 2001. Yershov comes from a family of doctors; he graduated from the Basic Medical Secondary School in Chernihiv (1982–1986), obtaining a medical assistant (felczer) diploma, and spent some time working in a hospital. In 1985, he won the “Little medal of a winner”, a prestigious award for amateur artists in the Soviet Union. Between 1986 and 1988, he attended the sculpture studio of Georgi Husid in Kyiv, where he was preparing for the entry exams to the Academy of Fine Arts. Between 1988 and 1991, he studied at the Lviv State School of Decorative and Applied Art under Prof. Emanuil Myśko at the Department of Architecture and Decorative Art within the Faculty of Monumental Sculpture. In 1991–1995 he studied at the Faculty of Sculpture at the Ukrainian Academy of Fine Arts in the studio of Prof. Vasyl Boroday and Valery Shvetsov. After graduating in 1995, he obtained an MA-equivalent degree and is now a member of the National Association of Ukrainian Artists and the Association of Polish Artists and Designers. Between 1996 and 1999, he was a junior lecturer trainee and doctoral student at the Ukrainian Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv. In 2000–2001, he worked as a lecturer at the Shevchenko Pedagogical University in Chernihiv, and in the 2003/2004 school year, as an instructor at the Art School Complex in Gdynia. He is the owner of GaleriaFART, a private company dealing with the construction of monuments. He has managed his own Art Gallery since 1996. In 2014, together with his children, he founded the Atelier Yershov Foundation, which promotes artists by creating a cultural bridge between Poland and Ukraine. He works with religious and monumental art, cooperating with representatives of various denominations (Catholic, Greek Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant). He is the author of numerous monuments, including Mrongovius at the University of Gdańsk, St. Vladimir in Gdańsk and prelate Jankowski (monument removed).

Condition of the object –

Owner/guardian: Gdańsk Road and Greenery Authority

Author of the entry: Kora Kowalska