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Celebrations commemorating heroes of Bydgoszcz March ’81, photo: Tomasz Czachorowski/eventphoto for the Marshal’s Office of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region
Regionalne uroczystości upamiętniające bohaterów Bydgoskiego Marca’81, fot. Tomasz Czachorowski/eventphoto dla UMWKP

Bydgoszcz March ’81 – We Will Not Forget!

Forty-five years ago, the courage and determination of farmers’ activists from Kujawy and Pomorze gave rise to the events of Bydgoszcz March ’81 and led to the creation of Rural Solidarity – the first independent rural organisation in Poland after World War II. Regional commemorations honoring the heroes of those events began on Monday. Today (19 March), a ceremonial session of the regional assembly is taking place in Bydgoszcz.

“By joining the great Solidarity movement, the Polish countryside consciously also joined the great struggle to preserve our national identity, culture and historical truth. The Polish countryside, with its attachment to ancestral land, traditions and the faith of our forefathers, has always been a pillar supporting the independence of the Republic of Poland. The Independent Self-Governing Trade Union of Individual Farmers ‘Solidarity’ was therefore an expression of the centuries-old aspirations of Polish farmers for subjectivity and self-determination,” said Marshal Piotr Całbecki today during his speech at the ceremony held before the regional assembly session, near the obelisk commemorating the events of Bydgoszcz March ’81.

Today’s ceremonial session of the regional assembly is the main event of the Year of the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union of Individual Farmers “Solidarity” and Bydgoszcz March ’81 commemorations.

During Monday’s ceremony of laying flowers at the plaque commemorating the 1981 farmers’ strike, participants included Dariusz Kurzawa, a member of the regional executive board, as well as parliamentarians, local government officials, representatives of state administration and other invited guests.

The organisers of the commemorative events are:

  • the regional self-government of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region,
  • the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivode,
  • the city government of Bydgoszcz,
  • regional structures of the Solidarity trade union,
  • and the local branch of the Institute of National Remembrance.

Beata Krzemińska
Press spokesperson of the Marshal’s Office

13 March 2026
Last updated: 19 March 2026