Igor Janke

It was a post-communist editor’s office: those corridors, smells, rooms, that atmosphere. Then, suddenly, we moved to the Klub Cinema on Plac Na Rozdrożu. We were bought Macintosh computers, networked them, they employed the best Italian graphic designer, I think his name was Mauroni. He designed a new layout for the newspaper, it was probably the most beautiful newspaper in Europe, very elegant. A team of fantastic graphic designers took care of the smallest detail; extraordinary importance was placed on this. I do not think there is such a beautiful newspaper today. The money was amazing, all of a sudden we were getting huge raises. It was a different world, it was a leap from the 19th to the 21st century.

Suddenly everything changed, everything opened up. This city simply exploded. It was something extraordinary, a new life had begun. I would never have thought I could become a journalist, because journalists back then collaborated with the system. My colleagues did not think they would be creating political parties. Many of them started businesses and they were very successful. I was born in 1967, many people my age were very active then. It was a watershed year. Many have gone on to have major careers in various fields. The reason most of them did not graduate was because we were supposed to finish studies around 1990 or 1991, and at that time the regime was collapsing and everyone was busy acting, building new things, fighting, so everyone was dropping out.

We were a bit exotic for the church, but we were accepted. I used to go on regular church pilgrimages before. Our hippy pilgrimage was only different in that it was more loosely organised and everyone had long hair and clothes and sang different songs. The music was different, but with religious themes. We were different in how we entered the church - and it was fun. We were charged with good energy. A local priest would welcome us, our priest Andrzej Szpak would came out to greet him. We had some vey talented musicians playing some fierce tunes in which we praised the Lord by dancing, shouting and singing. We behaved differently than the usual church-goers. Local people were looking forward to pilgrimages, it was an important event back then, they dressed in their Sunday clothes. And there we were, a bunch of ragamuffins. At first they were distrustful, you could see they gave strange looks. We would start clapping and then they would say, 'well that's for God too'. Slowly smiles and acceptance started to appear. I do not remember anything bad happening. Maybe there were some negative reactions, but I did not experience them. We did not treat the Church as an adversary, we felt we were a part of it, but the better one. When we entered Czestochowa, everyone wore white, I think I got some sort of bedsheet. We wore wreths on our heads, there was dancing, guitars, singing.