No Freedom Without Dwarves

No Freedom Without Dwarves

The story of the dwarves in Wrocław begins during the time of martial law in 1980s Communist Poland, where any form of public dissent or political protest was strictly forbidden. The Solidarity labor movement from the shipyards of Gdansk is the most well-known anti-authoritarian resistance of 1980s Poland, but less attention is given to the mischievous and subversive underground art movement Orange Alternative that originated in countercultural Wrocław. Orange Alternative was formed when an art student named Waldemar “Major” Frydrych began spray-painting dwarves over the white spots where the militia had painted over anti-communist graffiti as a form of protest. His thought was that because life under Communism was so absurd, it was a work in itself worthy of showcasing.

Orange Alternative Graffiti

The dwarves came to life as Orange Alternative began organizing counter-events, or happenings, where citizens gathered in various costumes without any overt message of political protest. In happenings like Revolution of Dwarves, Toilet Paper, Breakfast on the Sidewalk, and Help the Militia Beat Yourself Up, citizens were able to create a counterpublic presence by dressing up as characters, singing, dancing, and handing out innocent items without doing anything inherently illegal. Chaos and hilarity ensued as demonstrators were arrested en masse, making the militia a laughingstock as they chased down fairy tale characters, Santa Clauses, and fake secret agents on the streets of Wrocław. More happenings quickly spread to other cities in Poland including Warsaw, Łódź, and Lublin.

Orange Alternative Happenings in Wrocław

Happening Places in Wrocław

Orange Alternative happenings across Poland

  1. Wrocław, origin of of the Orange Alternative and site of 22 happenings.

  2. Łódź, site of 10 happenings.

  3. Warszava (Warsaw), site of 11 happenings.

  4. Lublin, site of 7 happenings.

Happenings and Relevant Events Leading to the Fall of Communism in Poland

  • February 4-11, 1945: The Yalta Conference. Churchill and Roosevlet agree to Stalin’s demands to have Poland under the Soviet Union’s domination, thus marking the beginning of communist Poland.

  • March 5, 1953: The death of Stalin

  • April 8, 1953: Birth of Waldemar Frydrych

  • March 5, 1956: Krushchev’s speech on the cult of Stalin

  • March 12, 1956: Death of Bolesław Bierut. Poland’s Stalinist Prime Józef Cyrankiewicz takes power.

  • June 28, 1956: First mass anti-Coomunist protests in Poznan suppressed with tanks, over 70 deaths. Wladysław Gomulka comes to power.

  • January 5, 1968: The events of the Prague Spring begin in Czechoslovakia.

  • March 8, 1968: The March events.Major student and intellectual anti-government protest in all academic centers followed by violent repression.

  • December 14–19, 1970: Shipyard workers protest at price rise sin the northern port towns of Gdansk, Gdynia, and Szczecin are brutally put down by the Polish People’s Army and the Citizen’s Militia. Forty-two killed and over 1,000 wounded. Gomulka reigns.Edward Gierek’s era of western debt driven development and industrialization begins in Poland.

  • June 24–30, 1976: Worker’s Union protests in Ursus, Radom, and Plock due to planned price rises on basic goods. Workers’ Defense Committee (Komitet Obrony Robotników, KOR) the first major anti-communist civic group in eastern Europe is created by a group of intellectuals to fight official repression of the protesting workers.

  • May 7, 1977: The body of Stanislaw Pyjas, a Krakow student, is found, suspected of being beaten to death by secret services. A “Black March” is organized and the creation in Krakow of the first Student Committee of Solidarity (Studencki Komitet Solidarności, SKS) is announced to protest the regime’s violent methods. Cells soon form in other major academic centers, including Wroclaw.

  • June–October 1978: Archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Karl Józef Wojtyła, becomes Pope John Paul II, head of the Roman Catholic Church. His election and visit to Poland provoke an outburst of anti-communist feeling.

  • December 1979: Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

  • July–August 1980: On July 1, 1980, with the foreign debt at more than $20 billion, the government makes another attempt to increase meat prices. A chain reaction of strikes paralyzes the Baltic coast by the end of August and, for the first time, closes most coal mines in southern Poland’s Silesia. On August 31, workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, led by an electrician named Lech Wałęsa, sign a twenty-one point agreement with the government that ends their strike. Similar agreements are signed elsewhere. The agreements guarantee workers’ right to form independent trade unions and to strike. This marks the onset of Solidarity—the new national union movement.

  • August 1980: Movement for New Culture created at Wroclaw University, as a consequence of that year’s Solidarity upheaval.

  • December 1980: Reacting to the deterioration of the Party’s authority, the Soviet army begins a massive military buildup along the border.

  • February 1981: Defense Minister General Wojciech Jaruzelski assumes the position of Prime Minister of Poland.

  • March 1981: All you Need is Love Peace March organized by the Movement for New Culture and Andrzej Dziewit.

  • April 1981: Major publishes Manifesto of Socialist Surrealism.

  • October 1981: Lech Walesa elected national chairman of the Solidarity union at the first Solidarity national congress.

  • November–December 1981: The Movement for New Culture takes part in student occupation strikes, the first Orange Alternative gazette is published.

  • December 13, 1981:Jaruzelski announces a state of martial law, a representative military government led by the Military Council for National Salvation (Wojskowa Rada Ocalenia Narodowego, WRON). Solidarity disbanded amid mass arrests. Tanks appear on the streets. US and other powers invoke  sanctions against Poland and Russia. The Movement for New Culture officially disbands.

  • May 1982: Foundation of the Ultra-Academy by Major.

  • August 31, 1982: First tactical painting of dwarves by major and Wiesław Cupała. Thousands more appear nationwide in the following months.

  • November 12, 1982: Yuri Andropov becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

  • December 1982: Suspension of martial law. Lech Wałęsa is released from prison, but others remain locked up. Economic crisis deepens.

  • February 13, 1984: Konstantin Chernenko becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

  • February 1986: 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev announces Perestroika.

  • April 1, 1986: Tubes, the first Orange Alternative Happening.

  • April 26, 1986: Nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine.

  • September 1986: Government general amnesty. Almost all prisoners are released.

  • 1987: Solidarity continues to be repressed and its publications are banned; independent publications are censored, street meetings and demonstrations are rendered illegal.

  • April 1, 1987: Millipede happening, Wroclaw.

  • June 1, 1987: Dwarfs happening, Wroclaw.

  • July 1987: Stop Heating Us happening, Wroclaw.

  • October 1 and 15, 1987: Toilet Paper happening, Wroclaw.

  • October 7, 1987: Militiaman’s Day happening, Wroclaw.

  • October 12, 1987: Day of the Polish Army happening, Wroclaw.

  • November 27, 1987: Referendum happening, Wroclaw.

  • December 6, 1987: Eve of the October Revolution happening, Wroclaw.

  • December 7, 1987: Saint Nicolas happening, Wroclaw.

  • April–May, 1988: Wave of national strikes.

  • August, 1988: Further national strikes. A new generation of more radical workers grow disenchanted with the Solidarity leadership.

  • February 16, 1988: Prolet-RIOt Carnival happening, Wroclaw.

  • February 24, 1988: Carnival—Anti-Ministry of Defense and Secret Services happening, Warsaw.

  • March 1, 1988: Secret Agent’s Day happening, Wroclaw.

  • March 8, 1988: International Women’s Day happening, Wroclaw.

  • March 21, 1988: First Day of Spring happening, Wroclaw.

  • March 29, 1988: Major in Court happening, Wroclaw.

  • April 7, 1988: Health Services Day happening, Wroclaw.

  • June 1, 1988: Revolution of Dwarfs happening, Wroclaw, Łódź, and Warsaw.

  • June 19, 1988: The Election Fair happening, Warsaw.

  • August 19, 1988: Brotherly Aid Always Alive happening, Śnieżka Mountain.

  • October 7, 1988: We shall not give up December happening, Warsaw.

  • October 21, 1988: The Little House on Świdnicka happening, Wroclaw.

  • November 6, 1988: Revue of Socialist Fashion happening, Warsaw.

  • November 7, 1988: Anniversary of the October Revolution happening, Wroclaw.

  • November 7, 1988: Galloping Inflation happening, Łódź.

  • November 29, 1988: Big Eat-Out happening, Warsaw.

  • December 13, 1988: Anniversary Martial Law happening, Wroclaw.

  • December 13, 1988: Help the Militia, beat yourself up happening, Łódź.

  • January 20, 1989: The Invisible Army that is Conspiracy above all happening, Warsaw.

  • February, 1989: Round Table Talks begin between Jaruzelski government part of the Polish opposition in the face of the radicalization of the protests.

  • February 15, 1989: All is clear happening, Łódź.

  • February 24, 1989: Pollock Knows How happening, Warsaw.

  • February 24, 1989: Making Froth happening, Łódź.

  • Early March 1989: The fight between buttons and loops happening, Lublin.

  • March 16, 1989: Progress is coming happening, Lublin.

  • March 21, 1989: On the Track of Abandoned Party Membership Cards happening, Łódź.

  • March 22, 1989: Spring Holiday happening, Wroclaw.

  • April 1989: Round Table Agreement signed, providing for partly-open national elections.

  • April 1, 1989: April Fool’s Day happening, Warsaw.

  • April 21, 1989: Living from Hand to Mouth happening, Łódź.

  • May 1–June 4, 1989: Major’s Electoral Campaign happening, Wroclaw (including the June 1 Festival of Present Art).

  • May 1, 1989: Thread of Understanding happening, Lublin.

  • May 9, 1989: The Big Berlin Invasion happening, Lublin.

  • May 10, 1989: Peace Race happening, Łódź.

  • June 1, 1989: Gargamel’s Electoral Meeting happening, Lublin.

  • June 3, 1989: Breakfast on the Sidewalk happening, Lublin.

  • June 4, 1989: First partly-open elections held. Communists lose.

  • June 5, 1989: Hyde Park happening, Łódź.

  • June 19, 1989: General Wojciech Jaruzelski elected by the Assembly Sejm as the first President of Poland.

  • September 21, 1989: First non-communist government formed with Tadeusz Mazowiecki as the first Prime Minister.

✽ In Communist Poland, Surrealism paints you! ☺

✽ In Communist Poland, Surrealism paints you! ☺

The actions of Orange Alternative in Poland fit into a larger carnival of countercultural and subversive art movements that occurred in the late 1980s in Central Europe and played pivotal roles in subsequent revolutions that toppled the communist regimes of Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Ukraine. All of these movements show how humor and mischief can be powerful tools to effect political and societal change. Mapping the spread of Orange Alternative through Poland and the larger spread of countercultural art movements of Central Europe gives the full picture of the bronze gnome statues of Wrocław and their importance in the urban landscape.

Learn More!

This scrollytelling map story was created to invoke the aesthetic and attitude of the Orange Alternative, which was immensely playful, colorful, and humorous. It was intentionally unserious and hilarious, the movement didn’t take itself too seriously and its mission was to point out how absurd and ridiculous Communist life was. Therefore, its entire image and belief was founded on the idea that life was silly and fantastical. Digitized illustrations of actual Orange Alternative graffiti dwarves were used throughout the piece to accompany the viewer on the journey through the classic three-scene story.

It begins in the early 1980s communist Poland with the people against the Communist state. It then leads into conflict starting under Martial Law in 1982 and emergence of Socialist Surrealist Manifesto and dwarf graffiti, building up more tension as Happenings occur through the mid to late 1980s and climaxes with the Polish elections in June 1989. It resolves with the peaceful fall of the communist regime and the last Happening Coronation of Statues in 1990. A timeline from Major’s autobiography is included throughout to help guide the viewer through this progression.

I aimed for a strong aesthetic and theme throughout this piece. It was important to capture the essence and attitude of the Orange Alternative in this work. The movement placed emphasis on mood as it sought to combat existing Communist ideology. In attempting to replicate Snowfall, I sought to visualize the theme and mood of the Orange Alternative as participants experienced it.

Again, as an outsider looking in, I hope I did justice to the story of the Orange Alternative in Wrocław. I used Major’s own autobiography as my primary source of information, and so I hope this is an accurate account.

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The Dwarves of Wrocław

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In Communist Poland, Surrealism Paints You!