Zbyszek Godlewski

Portrait photo of Janek Wiśniewski on his grave

Polish 1970 protests in Gdynia: body of Janek Wiśniewski (real name is Zbyszek Godlewski) is carried by the demonstrators on doors.

Janek Wiśniewski [ˈjanɛk viɕˈɲɛvski] is a fictional name given to a real person (Zbigniew Godlewski) in the poem Ballad of Janek Wiśniewski.

The legend and the real person

The name was invented by the ballad's author Krzysztof Dowgiałło to symbolize an 18-year worker killed in the Polish city of Gdynia by the military or militia on December 17, 1970, during the Polish 1970 protests. The image of an anonymous young man's body carried on doors through the cordons of police and tanks inspired Dowgiałło to write the poem. Not knowing his name at the time, the author decided to give him a name that is typically Polish. Later it was discovered the man was actually named Zbigniew Godlewski and lived in nearby Elbląg. In 1970 he was shot dead along with 39 other people.

The music for the song Pieśń o Janku z Gdyni (also known as Ballada o Janku Wiśniewskim) was written by Mieczysław Cholewa. The song, along with the story of Janek Wiśniewski, was popularized when it was performed at the end of the 1981 movie Man of Iron (by actress Krystyna Janda along with Jacek Kaczmarski). After the fall of communism in Poland, a major street in Gdynia was named after Janek Wiśniewski and also a street in Elbląg was named after Zbigniew Godlewski.

External links

• Ballada o Janku Wiśniewskim as sung by Krystyna Janda for Man of Iron