A row has broken out in Poland over the celebrations to mark 4 June 1989, which was the day when Poland's first partially free elections took place. The liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza praised this day last Saturday, saying that on this day the dictatorship came to an end without bloodshed. Filip Frąckowiak of the national Catholic daily Nasz Dziennik has no understanding for this position: "I won't be celebrating because on that day my father, Józef Szaniawski, was in prison, and only heard all the racket about freedom from behind bars. He was to remain in prison until Christmas. ... The propaganda about the freedom and human rights that are supposedly tied up with this day is a lie. Those who claim that the Poles ended communism without bloodshed and elected democracy on this day are lying, because it was an entire generation that fought for it. ... The truth is that these Poles shed plenty of blood to bring about the fall of communism." (15/05/2013)
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