Liliana Batko-Sonik (1954)

On 7 May 1977, Stanisław Pyjas was found dead in one of the townhouses in the city centre, near the university campus. The circumstances of his death remain unclear to this day. However, most political activists of the opposition that were plagued by the Security Service agreed that it was the SB that was to blame for Pyjas’ death. Regardless of the student’s cause of death, the tragic events of 7 May had far-reaching consequences. First, it motivated his friends and acquaintances to launch protests. A boycott of the Juvenalia student festival, the annual celebration of Kraków students, was announced. An Anti-Juvenalia Committee was established, and public mourning was declared. Flyers and obituaries were distributed, meetings were organised at student organisations, and candles and flowers were placed in front of the building where Pyjas died. The so-called “Black Juvenalia” student festival was the spark that ignited the emergence of the Student Committee of Solidarity. The aim of the organisation was to help victimised students, as well as to cooperate with other organisations of the opposition, such as the Workers’ Defence Committee.

During these events, Liliana Batko’s flat turned into a centre of operations for opposition activities and the handling of mourning arrangements. That is where the Student Committee of Solidarity was established. Batko was its co-founder and ombudsman. On many occasions, she would emphasize the following in interviews: “For me, it’s really significant that back then, many years ago, it was we who used the word ‘solidarity’ for the first time. After all, it was a word that cardinal Wojtyła would frequently use in his social writings back in his Lublin days. It was a word that seems obvious now. It can be heard everywhere in the world in various social or political discourses. But back then, it was something entirely new.”[1]

Batko would also highlight the significance that coming out of the shadows and clearly declaring the establishment of an organisation with oppositional aims had for the student opposition: “For the majority of us it was clear that openness was the best form of protection. (…) We wanted to underscore our distinctiveness, academic character, and independence.”[2]

Batko’s activity with the Student Committee of Solidarity mainly involved maintaining contact with curia and university professors. She sought permission to access books banned at the Jagiellonian Library, as well as to have restrictions on access to passports waived. Beginning in 1978 she was also involved in the activities of the underground university, namely, the Scientific Courses Association, where she helped arrange lectures and seminars. In the same year, following a lecture by Adam Michnik, Batko was detained and brutally assaulted by the Citizens’ Militia.

[1] Ibid.

[2] https://przystanekhistoria.pl/pa2/teksty/81241,Studencka-solidarnosc-odpowiedzia-na-zamordowanie-Stanislawa-Pyjasa.html

In 1986 Liliana Batko and her husband Bogusław Sonik emigrated to France, where they lived until 1996. During that time, Liliana worked as a journalist for Radio France Internationale and Deutsche Welle. The Sonik family continued their efforts to help Poland. Liliana was the secretary of the SOS Aide aux Malades Polonais association, which arranged financial aid for Polish hospitals, internships for Polish doctors, and the provision of treatment to Poles abroad.

Upon returning to Poland, Batko-Sonik worked as a publicist with leading Polish newspapers and Telewizja Polska (“Polish Television”). In 2007, she held the position of programme director at Telewizja Polska. In the years 2011-13, she was the deputy president of TVP Info and then the advisor to the management board and the president of TVP. In 2014 and 2018, she was elected a city councillor of Świątniki Górne.