TheKomandosi (The Commandos) was a name used for a group of left wingPolish students in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[1][2] The group included prominent dissident students such asSeweryn Blumsztajn,Teresa Bogucka,Jan T. Gross,Irena Grudzińska,Irena Lasota,Jan Lityński,Adam Michnik,Henryk Szlajfer,Barbara Toruńczyk, and more. Also, as time passed, some young academic instructors were included, for exampleJakub Karpiński,Jadwiga Staniszkis, andAndrzej Zabłudowski.
The group came into existence at a time when the somewhat older dissidents,Jacek Kuroń andKarol Modzelewski were in prison following their notoriousOpen Letter. Following their release, they once again became something of guides for the rebellious students, and the two were consideredKomandosi too (in a somewhat wider sense).
The name was popular due to the way in which the students interfered and came to control classroom discussions atUniversity of Warsaw on topics which were politically charged from the point of view of standard communist propaganda of the era. The name was introduced however by an academic instructor who actively opposed the dissident students (as explained in court by Seweryn Blumsztajn during a post-March 68 trial of Blumsztain and Lityński) — ironically, the name was meant to sound derogatory.
During theMarch '68 events many of the members of the group were arrested and tried on trumped up charges by the communist authorities. Michnik was sentenced to three years in prison, Kuroń three and a half, Lityński to two and a half, Blumsztajn to two.
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