20,000 appear in Warsaw at services for teen-ager

May 20, 1983

Some 20,000 people turned out for the funeral of a Warsaw teen-ager who Solidarity activists said was beaten by paid torturers of the government. At the service for Grzegorz Przemyk, mourners broke into applause when the Rev. Bronislaw Dembowski read a message from former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa vowing that the sacrifice of his life would not be forgotten. Allegedly, Grzegorz died from injuries sustained while he was in police custody.

Moscow, meanwhile, made clear it was deeply concerned about the situation in Poland. It summarized a Polish magazine article in the theoretical journal Kommunist that warned that Poland still faced the threat of a counterrevolution.