Poland’s underground newspaper

Summary

Witness History – “Poland’s Underground Newspaper”
BBC World Service | Host: Ben Henderson | May 18, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode of Witness History, Ben Henderson interviews Helena Wuchivo, former editor of the underground newspaper Mazovia Weekly during 1980s Poland. Against the backdrop of martial law and communist repression, Helena recounts the struggles, ingenuity, and bravery of the mostly female team who kept the spirit of Solidarity and independent journalism alive, influencing the democratic transition of Poland.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Context: Martial Law and Crackdown on Solidarity

• Backdrop: Poland was a communist state closely aligned with the Soviet Union. In 1980, the Solidarity movement—an independent trade union—emerged, advocating for workers’ rights and political freedoms.
• Martial law imposed: In December 1981, the authorities cracked down with martial law, arresting thousands, censoring information, and using violence to suppress dissent.
  • [01:23] Henderson explains the regime’s tactics: “Martial law involved rounding up thousands of Solidarity supporters, shooting demonstrators, and mass censorship.”

Life Under Martial Law

• Personal Impact: Helena describes her memory of escaping a Solidarity office as the police arrived.
  • [01:36] “Let’s escape...when we were going through the back door of this building, they shouted after us, they are coming in, meaning the police. But we escaped.” – Helena Wuchivo
• Bleak Conditions: The daily hardship, including empty stores and scarcity, is highlighted by the infamous “vinegar shelves.”
  • [02:31] “The only thing you could get in the stores were vinegar... What can you do with so much vinegar?” – Helena Wuchivo

Launching the Underground Paper

• Responding to Censorship: With official media censored, Helena gathered a mostly female team to publish Mazovia Weekly starting February 1982.
  • [03:41] “My husband was the most prominent printer underground...He was a genius...he organized the whole printing and distribution.” – Helena Wuchivo
• Evading Detection: The editorial team operated clandestinely, moving every few weeks and relying on supporters’ apartments for safety.
  • [04:34] “In every neighborhood we needed up to 20 flats...People had very little flats. And to let us...that was crazy...They were really, really saints.” – Helena Wuchivo

The Authorities’ Blindspot – It Was Run by Women

• Notable Insight: The police presumed men headed the operation, allowing the women more maneuverability.
  • [00:32] “They couldn’t believe their eyes when they realized that it was mostly women. They just couldn’t believe it.” – Helena Wuchivo

The Impact of Mazovia Weekly

• Mazovia Weekly became a vital alternative news source, covering strikes, arrests, and giving Solidarity leaders a voice.
• Historians credit it with keeping information flowing and morale up among opposition supporters.
  • [05:24] “Mazovia Weekly became a hugely influential source of uncensored information...it played a major role in keeping the Solidarity movement alive.” – Ben Henderson

The Roundtable Talks & Poland’s Transformation

• In 1988, mass strikes forced the regime to negotiate with Solidarity; Helena participated in the historic Roundtable Talks.
  • [06:05] “I remember that lots of young people gathered outside that palace...they shouted slogans against the talks with the murderers...I thought that they were wrong, that was our only hope...we should achieve some compromise...” – Helena Wuchivo
• The talks led to unprecedented reform: Solidarity was legalized, media censorship relaxed, and partial free elections set for June 1989.
  • [06:41] “The Roundtable talks produced a compromise that changed Polish history…” – Ben Henderson

Aftermath and Legacy

• With democracy on the horizon, the Mazovia Weekly staff revealed themselves and wound down the operation.

  • [07:03] “We said those are the people who made Mazovia Weekly, and we said this is the last issue.” – Helena Wuchivo

• The team quickly pivoted to new legal journalism, founding The Election Gazette—one edition selling nearly half a million copies.

• Assessing their influence, Helena credits both the sheer exhaustion with communism and the mobilizing energy of Solidarity.

  • [07:31] “The most important thing that gave us the victory...was that people were totally fed up with the whole system, with the stores with vinegar, the lack of free speech...People just wanted to live normal lives.” – Helena Wuchivo

• In June 1989, Solidarity’s landslide win in elections ended communist rule, with Tadeusz Mazowiecki becoming prime minister—the first non-communist in over 40 years.

Personal Reflections

• Helena reflects on her past with pride and no regrets.
  • [08:54] “Quite good, I must say. I don’t think I...I certainly didn’t waste my life.” – Helena Wuchivo

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “[When the authorities realized] it was mostly women. They just couldn’t believe it.” – Helena Wuchivo [00:32]
• “It was the saddest Christmas in my memory… the only thing you could get in the stores were vinegar… What can you do with so much vinegar?” – Helena Wuchivo [02:31]
• “To prepare the weekly...we had to move from one place to another every two or three weeks...They were really, really saints.” – Helena Wuchivo [04:34]
• “I thought that they were wrong, that was our only hope, that we should achieve some compromise, because otherwise it was the bloodshedding.” – Helena Wuchivo [06:05]
• “Quite good, I must say. I don’t think I...I certainly didn’t waste my life.” – Helena Wuchivo [08:54]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:32 – Women leading the underground paper shocks authorities
• 01:36 – Helena recalls fleeing police during martial law
• 02:31 – The ‘vinegar Christmas’ and daily hardships under communism
• 03:41 – Founding Mazovia Weekly; her husband’s inventiveness in underground printing
• 04:34 – Moving weekly to elude police; supporters’ sacrifices
• 05:24 – The newspaper’s impact and keeping Solidarity alive
• 06:05 – The Roundtable Talks and controversial view on compromise
• 07:03 – The staff goes public; launching The Election Gazette
• 07:31 – What truly drove Solidarity’s victory in June 1989
• 08:54 – Helena’s retrospective: “I certainly didn’t waste my life”

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Summary & Takeaway

This episode vividly illuminates the courage and resourcefulness of Polish dissidents, particularly women, in the fight for democracy. Helena Wuchivo’s story highlights not only the challenges of life under repression, but also the ingenuity of underground journalism and the collective yearning for freedom and normalcy that brought change. Her pride and sense of purpose reflect the spirit that helped transform Poland.

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Transcript

[Helena Wuchivo]

Foreign.

[Ben Henderson]

Welcome to Witness History from the BBC World Service with me, Ben Henderson. We're the podcast that takes you back to the biggest moments in living memory by interviewing someone who was there. Episodes are just nine minutes long and come out every weekday, so hit subscribe and you'll never miss out in this episode. We're going back to Poland in the 1980s, when an illegal newspaper run by women published dissident news under the nose of the country's authoritarian regime.

[Helena Wuchivo]

They couldn't believe their eyes when they realized that it was mostly women. They just couldn't believe it.

[Ben Henderson]

This is Helena Wuivo. She was editor of the newspaper which was called Mazovia Weekly. Since the 1940s, Poland had been an undemocratic communist state with close ties to the Soviet Union. In 1980, massive strikes erupted in the Polish city of Gdask, and workers banded together to form Poland's first independent trade union called Solidarity, which campaigned for workers rights and social and political freedoms. In response, the authorities imposed martial law in December 1981 in Poland.

[Helena Wuchivo]

It's more than 20 hours since the military took over and a move they said to prevent civil war.

[Ben Henderson]

Martial law involved rounding up thousands of Solidarity supporters, shooting demonstrators, and mass censorship. The night it was imposed, Helena was at the Solidarity office in Warsaw, Poland's capital.

[Helena Wuchivo]

Everybody said that there was something strange, that they got information that there were tanks in the roads, and then they started to. To switch off all the telephones and faxes and so on. And we looked out of the window and we saw that there were quite big number of police troops, fully armed. So we said, my husband and myself, we said that let's escape. And when we were going through the back door of this building, they shouted after us, they are coming in, meaning the police. But we, we escaped.

[Ben Henderson]

Helena and her husband spent Christmas of 1981 under martial law, which lasted until 1983.

[Helena Wuchivo]

It was the. The saddest Christmas in my memory. And Warsaw was gray, was dirty, it was incredibly cold. The shops were empty. At some point, the only thing you could get in the stores were vinegar. The shelves were full of vinegar, just vinegar and vinegar and vinegar. What can you do with so much vinegar?

[Ben Henderson]

Chronic shortages of basic necessities plagued Poland, but vinegar was everywhere, probably because it was easy to produce and few people wanted it. So vinegar became a symbol of the flaws of the communist system.

[Helena Wuchivo]

So everybody wangled something. Somehow people would go to the countryside and buy, let's say, pigs, and would make sausages out of those pigs and so on.

[Ben Henderson]

Before martial law, Helena had edited Poland's first independent newspaper. Now, with communication heavily censored, she gathered a group of mostly female journalists in secret and published the first edition of mazovia weekly in February 1982.

[Helena Wuchivo]

My husband was the. The most prominent printer underground printer in Poland. He was the only engineer in the whole opposition because they were mostly humanists and social science and this and that. Moreover, he was a genius. He was incredibly good at inventing things and he organized the whole printing and distribution.

[Ben Henderson]

The newspaper covered political news, strikes, arrests, and featured interviews with the leaders of the Solidarity movement, which had been outlawed. But it was a mammoth task. The newspaper staff are on the run, adopting new identities and dodging police raids. Historians say they were helped by the authorities, assuming men must be running the paper.

[Helena Wuchivo]

To prepare the weekly more or less safely, we had to move from one place to another every two or every three weeks. So we needed. In every neighborhood we needed up to 20 flats. People had very little flats. And to let us, which was about eight people who were preparing the Mazavia Weekly. And everybody was smoking and we were noisy because we used typewriters, which were extremely noisy. That was crazy. When I think about those people who let us in their flats. They were really, really saints, I was saying.

[Ben Henderson]

Through the 1980s, Mazovia Weekly became a hugely influential source of uncensored information. Historians say it played a major role in keeping the Solidarity movement alive. Meanwhile, the communist system sunk deep into economic disaster. Eventually, pressure on the government began to pay off. In 1988, strikes took place once again, forcing Poland's authoritarian leader, General Wojciech Yarozelski, into negotiations with the opposition Solidarity leaders, known as the Roundtable Talks, which took place at the name Yestnikowski palace in Warsaw. As a leading member of the underground media, Helena took part to advocate for press freedom.

[Helena Wuchivo]

I remember that lots of young people gathered outside that palace where we were, and the top representatives of the government were. And I remember that they shouted slogans against the talks with the murderers, etc. And I thought that they were wrong, that that was our only hope, that we should achieve some compromise, because otherwise it was the bloodshedding.

[Ben Henderson]

The Roundtable talks produced a compromise that changed Polish history. The Solidarity opposition movement was legalized, the power of the Communist Party curbed, media censorship relaxed, and partially free elections were scheduled for June 1989. Mazovia weekly had fulfilled its purpose, and the newspaper staff finally revealed their identities.

[Helena Wuchivo]

It felt quite good, I must say. So we said that the. Those are the people who made Mazavia Weekly, and we said this is the last issue.

[Ben Henderson]

But Helena and her staff wouldn't be taking a break. They set up a new legal newspaper called the Election Gazette. In the run up to the June election, one of their issues sold nearly half a million copies. I asked Helena if she believes it influenced the outcome.

[Helena Wuchivo]

To some extent, it did. The most important thing that gave us the victory in the election, us meaning Solidarity and people against the government, was that people were totally fed up with the whole system, with the stores with vinegar, the lack of free speech. Everything was disorganized and people just wanted to live normal lives. At by normal lives, they understand the western lives. So that was the most important thing. But the other things, you know, there was a huge, huge movement of energy, of enthusiasm that what gave us victory.

[Ben Henderson]

Solidarity won by a landslide in the election. And two months later, in August 1989, the communist monopoly of power in Poland was over.

[Helena Wuchivo]

The Polish Parliament has overwhelmingly elected the Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazawiecki as the country's first non communist prime minister for more than 40 years.

[Ben Henderson]

Helena's election Gazette went on to be one of the most successful newspapers in post communist Central Europe. I asked Helena how it feels looking back on her time in the underground movement.

[Helena Wuchivo]

Quite good, I must say. I don't think I. I certainly didn't waste my life.

[Ben Henderson]

Helena Wuchivo still lives in Warsaw. She was speaking to me. Ben Henderson for Witness History from the BBC World Service. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you want more detail on what it was like living under martial law, just search for our program called Poland's Bleak Christmas and Goodbye for now.

[Helena Wuchivo]

Sporting Witness takes you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there. We weren't going to ask permission. We're. It was such an amazing feeling. It was incredible. He started to write a story about how we came up with the idea for the red and yellow cars. I got to go. We cried a bit, we laughed a bit. It was wonderful. There's a magic during those moments that carries your soul. We were truly blessed to be a part of history. Sporting Witness subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts.