Legendary dissident Jarosław Hyk passed away at 60

The wife of the legendary dissident, Beata Czuma, informed about his passing in social media on Tuesday. "With deep regret I announce the death of my husband Jarek Hyk, an opposition activist in the PRL era, a legend of Wrocław's Fighting Solidarity. Darling, rest in peace," she wrote.

Jarosław Hyk was involved in the Orange Alternative movement in the 1980s. He was active in the Independent Students' Association and the Academic Resistance Movement in Wrocław. Hyk was also a member of the Fighting Solidarity organisation, where, among other things, he was responsible for publishing of "second circuit" books.

On the anniversary of the August Agreements signing, on August 31, 1982, Hyk took part in Solidarity-organised demonstrations in the area of the May 1st Square in Wrocław (today's John Paul II Square). As martial law was in place, all public gatherings were banned. The militia was quashing the protest, often in a very brutal way. Like on that very day. A camera footage from the crackdown shows a ZOMO (Motorized Reserves of the Citizens' Militia) truck hitting and driving over Hyk. The oppositionist shared his memory of that event in Solidarity Encyclopaedia:

"I spotted a column of MO (Citizen's Militia) prison-vans and decided to throw rocks at it. When I decided to return to my previous location, I saw another truck going straight at me. I was sure that my life would be over in seconds. I remember that moment when the truck's bumper hits me in the abdomen. I fell down, I remember my head hitting the pavement. I also remember the bottom of the truck moving above me. In that moment I probably lost consciousness," Jarosław Hyk said.

The dissident, who was only 20 years old at the time, survived thanks to other protesters. Even though the police was taking over control of the area, a few men decided not to run away, pulled Hyk aside and handed him over to workers passing by on a truck. They took him to a hospital where he received professional help.

In 1998-2002, Hyk ran his own business and later worked for a number of engineering companies, as well as for the Ministry of Regional Development. In 2001, he ran in the parliamentary election on the list of the Solidarity Electoral Action.

In 2011, the then president Bronisław Komorowski decorated Hyk with the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

The Mayor of Wrocław Jacek Sutryk paid his respects on Twitter: "Wrocław will always remember its legends. May he rest in peace," Sutryk wrote.