Radom, June 1976: books on the workers' protest

In brief

• From June 1976 Bogumił Studziński, a legal adviser, gave legal help to workers persecuted after the protests in Radom and Ursus^1,2.
• The first accounts and documents were published in 1981 by Solidarity — in Radom the anthology „Radomski czerwiec '76”, in Warsaw a “report of a crime” compiled by the Radom rehabilitation commission^3,4.
• The public library in Radom publishes the bibliography „Czerwiec '76”: the first volume came out in 1996, later ones cover 2006–2021^5,6.
• In English: the bilingual album „Zaczęło się w Radomiu = It started in Radom” (2019) and the IPN volume “Cities of revolt in the Soviet Empire” (2026)^7,8.

After the workers' protests in Radom and Ursus in June 1976, the Workers' Defence Committee began its activity with an appeal of 23 September 1976⁹. This list covers books on June 1976 in Radom from the National Library of Poland catalogue: accounts and documents published in 1981, underground prints, source editions and studies from the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), a biography, bibliographies and albums. They are ordered by year of publication. The descriptions give the title, publisher, length and subject headings according to the National Library catalogue; we do not review the books. Apart from the two noted, all are in Polish. Help for the workers and the Movement for the Defence of Human and Civic Rights, which Studziński co-founded in 1977, are covered in our article “ROPCiO 1977”.

1. „Radomski czerwiec '76” (1981)

Radom's June '76: a 20-page brochure with facsimiles and photographs, published in Radom by the Inter-Enterprise Founding Committee of the Solidarity trade union. The National Library catalogue describes it as an anthology of memoirs³.

2. „Czerwiec 1976. Cz. 1, Radom: doniesienie o przestępstwie” (1981)

June 1976, part 1 — Radom: report of a crime. The material was collected and edited by the “June 1976” Rehabilitation Commission set up by Solidarity in the Radom region. Published by Wydawnictwo Związkowe “Mazowsza” (Warsaw 1981, 201 pages); the National Library catalogue describes it as a source edition⁴. A second, revised and expanded edition was prepared by Wiesław M. Mizerski (Lublin: Norbertinum, 1991, 230 pages, with facsimiles and photographs)¹⁰.

3. „Płonie komitet” (1982)

Full title: „Płonie komitet: (grudzień 1970 – czerwiec 1976)” (The committee is burning: December 1970 – June 1976). Published by the Instytut Literacki in Paris in its “Biblioteka »Kultury«” series (1982, 198 pages) under the pen name Marek Tarniewski; the author was Jakub Karpiński¹¹. Further editions appeared in Poland, among others in Łódź in 1986, published by “Solidarność Walcząca”¹². According to the National Library authority file, the author was a writer, sociologist and historian, in exile from 1978¹³.

4. Ursyn Radomski, „Czerwiec 1976: protest i propaganda” (1984)

June 1976: protest and propaganda. Published by Maraton in Warsaw (1984, 45 pages); the National Library catalogue describes it as an illegal publication¹⁴.

5. Mirosław Chojecki, „Czerwiec 1976 w Radomiu” (1984)

June 1976 in Radom: a text published together with „Nobel dla Lecha Wałęsy” (A Nobel for Lech Wałęsa) in one brochure (Warsaw: Głos Wolny, 1984, 16 pages)¹⁵.

6. Krzysztof Dubiński, „Rewolta radomska” (1991)

Full title: „Rewolta radomska: czerwiec 76” (The Radom revolt: June 76). Published by Magad in its “Czarne Plamy PRL” (Black spots of the Polish People's Republic) series (Warsaw 1991, 16 pages, with photographs)¹⁶.

7. Maria Kaczmarska and Ewa Ukleja, „Czerwiec '76: bibliografia” (1996)

A bibliography published by the Provincial Public Library in Radom (1996, 48 pages)⁵. Further volumes were published by the Józef A. and Andrzej S. Załuski Municipal Public Library in Radom: for 2006–2011 (2011), 2011–2015 (2016) and 2016–2021 (2022)^17,18,6.

8. Tadeusz Andrzej Janusz, „Ks. Roman Kotlarz – męczennik robotniczego protestu »Czerwiec '76«” (1996)

Father Roman Kotlarz, martyr of the June '76 workers' protest. Published by the Diocesan Publishing House in Sandomierz (1996, 111 pages and 8 pages of plates, with photographs); the National Library catalogue describes it as a biography, with the geographic heading Radom¹⁹.

9. „Czerwiec 1976 w materiałach archiwalnych” (2001)

June 1976 in archival records: a selection of documents with an introduction, edited by Jerzy Eisler, published in the Institute of National Remembrance “Dokumenty” series (vol. 4; Warsaw: Volumen, 2001, 279 pages and 16 pages of plates)²⁰.

10. Paweł Sasanka, „Czerwiec 1976: geneza, przebieg, konsekwencje” (2006)

June 1976: origins, course, consequences — a monograph published by the Institute of National Remembrance in its “Monografie” series (vol. 25; Warsaw 2006, 451 pages, illustrated)²¹. In the same year the IPN published an album of sources, „Czerwiec 1976: Radom, Ursus, Płock”, by Paweł Sasanka and Sławomir Stępień²².

11. Arkadiusz Kubisiak and Grzegorz Kapla, „Ukarane miasto. Radom, Czerwiec '76” (2016)

The punished city: photographs by Arkadiusz Kubisiak, texts by Grzegorz Kapla; published by the photographer (Radom 2016, 116 pages and 99 pages of plates, with colour illustrations, 22 × 28 cm format)²³.

12. „Zaczęło się w Radomiu, czerwiec '76” (2019)

Full title: „Zaczęło się w Radomiu, czerwiec '76 = It started in Radom, June '76” — a bilingual Polish-English edition. The historical part was prepared by Aneta and Michał Musialik. Published by Unitex (Bydgoszcz 2019, 103 pages, with photographs, facsimiles and a map)⁷.

13. „Czerwcowe kwiaty” (2022)

Full title: „Czerwcowe kwiaty czyli (Nie)ciche bohaterki radomskiego czerwca '76” (June flowers: the (not so) quiet heroines of Radom's June '76), by Karolina Słowińska, Agnieszka Tokarska and Anna Wrochna. Published by the Radom office of the Institute of National Remembrance (2022, 51 pages, with photographs); the National Library catalogue describes it as reportage²⁴.

14. „Cities of revolt in the Soviet Empire” (2026)

Full title: “Cities of revolt in the Soviet Empire: contexts of the June 1976 protests in Radom”, edited by Arkadiusz Kutkowski and Sebastian Piątkowski — a volume in English. Published by the Institute of National Remembrance (Lublin — Warsaw 2026, 286 pages); the National Library catalogue describes it as a collective work and conference proceedings⁸.

Where next

Bogumił Studziński came from the Radom region, and in 1951 he was sentenced by a military court sitting in Radom^2,1; books on the underground in that region in 1944–1956 are collected in “The Radom and Kielce underground, 1944–1956: books”. Books on ROPCiO, founded in 1977, are described in “ROPCiO in books”.