Jan Krzysztof Kelus

Who is Jan Krzysztof Kelus?

Jan Krzysztof Kelus, also known by his initials JKK, is a Polish singer, poet, composer, and a member of the democratic opposition in Poland between the 1960s and 1980s. A professional sociologist, Kelus is best known for a number of ballads which gained him a nickname of the Bard of the opposition and Polish Woody Guthrie.

After a brief period at the faculty of law, Kelus graduated from the faculty of sociology of the Warsaw University. After the events of March 1968 he became involved in various groups of the democratic opposition to the Communist regime of the People's Republic of Poland. Arrested in 1969 for his involvement in smuggling books published in Paris by Jerzy Giedroyc's Kultura through the Tatra Mountains, he was sentenced to imprisonment in the so-called Tatra Climbers' Trial. Released from the prison after the advent of Edward Gierek's rule, Kelus was involved in the Workers' Defence Committee where he organized legal and financial aid to workers and labor activists persecuted by the communist authorities.