Independent Publishing House NOWA – Lublin

Fact of the Polish figure „Man of Marble (1977)„

Part of the „Culture against communism„ topic

During the People’s Republic of Poland, censorship was omnipresent. Newspapers, books, films, theatrical performances or festivals. All these were controlled by the authorities to confirm their conformity with the PZPR (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza – Polish United Worker’s Party) line.

In the 1970s, an idea was born in the circles of the Catholic University of Lublin to establish an Independent Publishing House to publish books and scientific works outside the control of the communist authorities. Among its founders were Janusz Krupski, Piotr Jeglinski and Wit Wojtowicz, who also proposed the name for the unruly publishing house. In time, they established contact with the most powerful opposition organization of the Gierek era – the Workers’ Defense Committee – Komitet Obrony Robotników (KOR). Thanks to these contacts, the publishing house’s activities moved to Warsaw where its members became more closely associated with the KOR, although NOWA maintained its independence from the Committee.  

The Communist security apparatus hindered NOWA’s activities by confiscating duplicators, as well as arrests on false criminal charges.

Throughout its activities in the 1970s and 1980s, NOWA published works by Nowak-Jezioranski, Milosz and Suvorov, among others, as well as an important source for researchers – the Black Book of Censorship in the People’s Republic of Poland.