YEAR OF ISSUE: 1986 ISSUED BY: POCZTA NIEZALEZNA TTP CATALOGUE NUMBER: 704-707G ISSUED IN BROWN RED WITH GUM THE AUTHORS/WRITERS DEPICTED ARE: 1. CZESLAW MILOSZ (top left) 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004 was a Polish poet, prose writer and translator of Lithuanian origin and subsequent American citizen. His World War II-era sequence The World is a collection of 20 \"naive\" poems. He defected to the West in 1951, and his nonfiction book The Captive Mind (1953) is a classic of anti-Stalinism or Communism. From 1961 to 1998 he was a professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1980 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. 2. KAZIMIERZ WIERZYNSKI (top right) 27 August 1894 – 13 February 1969 was a Polish poet and journalist born in Drohobycz, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, and died in London. He was a co-founder, with Julian Tuwim and three other poets, of the Skamander group of experimental poets. His Olympic Laurel (Polish: Laur olimpijski, 1927), which idealizes the grace and fitness of athletes, won the gold medal for poetry at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, and his other early poems also celebrate the joy of living.His later works, written in exile, are more sombre and socially conscious. The Bitter Crop (1933) includes poems about the United States. His Forgotten Battlefield (1944) contains narratives of World War II. 3. WITOLD MARIAN GOMBROWICZ (bottom right) born August 4, 1904 in Małoszyce, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, Congress Poland, Russian Empire – July 24, 1969 in Vence, near Nice, France was a Polish novelist and dramatist. His works are characterized by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and an absurd, anti-nationalist flavour. In 1937 he published his first novel, Ferdydurke, which presented many of his usual themes: the problems of immaturity and youth, the creation of identity in interactions with others, and an ironic, critical examination of class roles in Polish society and culture. He gained fame only during the last years of his life, but is now considered one of the foremost figures of Polish literature. 4. LESZEK KOLAKOWSKI (bottom left) born in Radom Poland October 23, 1927 – July 17, 2009 (aged 81, in Oxford, England) was a Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. He is best known for his critical analyses of Marxist thought, especially his acclaimed three-volume history, Main Currents of Marxism, which is \"considered by some to be one of the most important books on political theory of the 20th century.\" Owing to the German occupation of Poland in World War II, he did not attend school but read books and took occasional private lessons, passing his final examinations as an external student in the underground school system. After the war, he studied philosophy at Lodz University and in 1953 earned a doctorate from Warsaw, with a thesis on Spinoza. He was a professor and chairman of Warsaw University´s section on the history of philosophy from 1959 to 1968. THIS PROPAGANDA STAMP SET WAS ISSUED BY THE POLISH UNDERGROUND SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT AS A DIVERSIFICATION STATEMENT AGAINST MARTIAL LAW WHICH HAD BEEN DECLARED BY THE COMMUNIST AUTHORITIES IN POLAND. IT IS A VERY RARE AND COLLECTABLE ITEM . THE UNDERGROUND MEMBERS WHO ISSUED THIS STAMP RISKED A LOT, BECAUSE IF CAUGHT THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPRISONED WITHOUT TRIAL. THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO OWN A UNIQUE PIECE OF HISTORY. IT IS A MUST FOR EVERY SERIOUS HISTORIAN AND COLLECTOR OF THIS PERIOD AND WILL MAKE AN INTERESTING ADDITION TO YOUR COLLECTION. General Wojciech Jaruzelski announced the introduction of martial law in a speech first broadcast on radio and television at 6:00 am on December 13, 1981. In order to isolate members of the opposition (from the Solidarity movement), 52 internment centers were created. A total of 10,132 internment orders were issued against 9,736 people during the period of martial law.
