The Eve of the Great October Revolution: Chronicle of a Happening in Wrocław

The Eve of the Great October Revolution Cbronicleof A Happeningin Wroclaw Wojciech Marchlewski PREPARATIONS START SEVERAL weeks before the planned happening. The activists of The Orange Alternative meet in the apartment of one of them, as they had done while working on previous happenings. They determine the course of an event, its frame in time and place. The gathering transforms into an auction of ideas. When one of the participants presents his vision of an event others make comments, adding new details; they laugh. Each new concept sounds funnier but also much less possible to realize. The experience of the past events is taken advantage of, the militia's reactions analyzed, and the events discussed. By the end of the meeting, certain proposals, and those responsible for their realization, are decided upon. A group of organizers is then formed. They make decisions about the props which will be utilized and slogans to be shouted. Another group called "the propaganda group" prepares a flier which will be passed out in public places before the happening. It reads: The truth will free us. Comrades, The day commemorating the outbreak of the Great October Revolution of the Proletariat is the day of the Great Event. Today the Revolution's Holiday does not have its Eve. Comrades, now is the time to overcome the passiveness of the masses! Let's start cel43 ebrating the Eve of the October Revolution. Let us meet on Friday, November 6 at 4 p.m. on Swidnicka Street, under the clock of history. Comrades, put on your festive clothes, dress in red. Wear red shoes, a red cap, a red shawl. If you don't have at least a red band or any other piece of clothing, borrow a red purse from your neighbor. Then, if you lack a red flag, paint your fingertips red. In case you don't possess anything red, buy a red hotdog with ketchup. All of us red ones (red hair, slacks and lips) will gather that day at 4 p.m. at the clock. Comrades, let's meet at the rally to honor the revolution!!! LENIN'S and TROTZKY'S IDEA AND PRACTICE ALWAYS ALIVE!!! The Council of Peoples' Commissioners Bring your dog; at 4:15 p.m. at the clock there will be an exhibition of pure-breed and mixed-breed dogs: "Dogs for the sake of revolution." Red bows at dog-leashes are very welcomed. HAU !!! HAU !!! The holiday will conclude at the bar "Barbara" where the rally's participants will consume a meal from one bowl: red borscht and other proper dishes. November 6, 1987 A few days earlier the organizers have moved to their friends' apartments near Swidnicka Street. The morning of November 6 passes by completing props and fixing a final schedule of action. Someone throws out the fliers from a tramway on Kazimierz Wielki Street. About 11 a.m. a group of young people post fliers along the streets in the Old Town area. Swidnicka Street isflooded with fliers scattered down from thehighest floors ofapartment buildings. At noon the first patrols of (actual) militia show up. They start checking the documents of young, suspicious-looking passersby. Soon the first militia 's radio cars block the Old Town's square and Kazimierz Wielki Street. Some of them park in front of the bar called Barbara. At 3 p.m. a sign appears in its window: "closed due to failure of an installation." Half an hour later the crowd on Swidnicka Street rapidly thickens. The functionaries urge passersby to leave the area for their own safety. At the same time the crew of the "armored-ship Potemkin" gathers in Stadion, the sporting goods store. Four boys bring to the store paper boxes with openings in the bottom; they will serve as the ship's sides. One box 44 has a poster of Lenin on its side. Folded, it shows Lenin's caricature: his head attached to the legs. The crew of the ship "Aurora" meets in a store called Mercury on the opposite side of the street. A girl in advanced pregnancy comes to the store. Without creating any suspicion, she reaches the fitting rooms. The crew of Aurora...