Author: Andrzej Paczkowski Publisher: Central European University Press ISBN: 9789637326967 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 604
Book Description
Presents 95 documents on the months between Au. 1980 when Solidarity was founded and Dec. 1981 when Polish authorities declared martial law and crushed the opposition movement.
Author: Andrzej Paczkowski Publisher: Central European University Press ISBN: 6155211159 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 600
Book Description
95 documents on the events that represent a pivotal moment in modern Polish and world history: 16 months between August 1980 when the Solidarity trade union was founded and December 1981 when Polish authorities declared martial law and crushed the nationwide opposition movement that had grown up around the union. Transcripts of Soviet and Polish Politburo meetings give a detailed picture of the goals, motivations and deliberations of the leaders of these countries. Records of Warsaw Pact gatherings, notes of bilateral sessions of the communist camp provide additional pieces to the puzzle of what Moscow and its allies had in mind. Materials are included from Solidarity, too.
Author: Idesbald Goddeeris Publisher: Lexington Books ISBN: 0739150707 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 322
Book Description
The Polish crisis in the early 1980s provoked a great deal of reaction in the West. Not only governments, but social movements were also touched by the establishment of the Independent Trade Union Solidarnosc in the summer of 1980, the proclamation of martial law in December 1981, and Solidarnosc's underground activity in the subsequent years. In many countries, campaigns were set up in order to spread information, raise funds, and provide the Polish opposition with humanitarian relief and technical assistance. Labor movements especially stepped into the limelight. A number of Western European unions were concerned about the new international tension following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the new hard-line policy of the US and saw Solidarnosc as a political instrument of clerical and neo-conservative cold warriors. This book analyzes reaction to Solidarnosc in nine Western European countries and within the international trade union confederations. It argues that Western solidarity with Solidarnosc was highly determined by its instrumental value within the national context. Trade unions openly sided with Solidarnosc when they had an interest in doing so, namely when Solidarnosc could strengthen their own program or position. But this book also reveals that reaction in allegedly reluctant countries was massive, albeit discreet, pragmatic, and humanitarian, rather than vocal, emotional, and political.
Author: Andrzej Paczkowski Publisher: Boydell & Brewer ISBN: 1580465366 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 405
Book Description
Examines the 1980 Solidarity revolution in Poland, the government's subsequent establishment of martial law in response, in 1981, and the eventual transition to democracy in 1989.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Communism Languages : en Pages : 71
Book Description
In the summer of 1980, Polish workers revolted against Communist corruption and Poland's failed economic system. In a wave of solidarity unprecedented in a Communist state, citizens challenged the government's authority as the legitimate decision making body. Striking workers throughout the country created the Solidarity Union. They demanded personal freedom, legalization of Solidarity, and an input into the government. Polish Communist leaders faced the choice of either executing the wishes of their citizens or preserving its Marxist-Leninist ideology. With the aid and coercion of the Soviet Union, as well as other fraternal states, the government secretly planned military action against its citizens. Within eighteen months of the beginning of strikes and several changes in Polish leadership, General Wojciech Jaruzelski imposed Martial Law, which forced an end to the strikes, imprisoned Solidarity's leaders, and restored the status quo. This thesis describes the conditions that led to the Martial Law crisis. In addition, it examines General Jaruzelski's claims that implementing Martial Law saved the Polish economy, and that it prevented civil war along with foreign invasion. Finally, the theory of securitization examines how the Polish leadership used a desperate situation to legitimize the use of special powers for political reasons.
Author: David Ost Publisher: Temple University Press ISBN: 9780877229001 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 304
Book Description
Based on extensive use of primary sources, this book provides an analysis of Solidarity, from its ideological origins in the Polish "new left," through the dramatic revolutionary months of 1980-81, and up to the union?s remarkable resurgence in 1988-89, when it sat down with the government to negotiate Poland?s future. David Ost focuses on what Solidarity is trying to accomplish and why it is likely that the movement will succeed. He traces the conflict between the ruling Communist Party and the opposition, Solidarity?s response to it, and the resulting reforms. Noting that Poland is the one country in the world where "radicals of ?68" came to be in a position to negotiate with a government about the nature of the political system, Ost asks what Poland tells us about the possibility for realizing a "new left" theory of democracy in the modern world. As a Fulbright Fellow at Warsaw University and Polish correspondent for the weekly newspaper In These Times during the Solidarity uprising and a frequent visitor to Poland since then, David Ost has had access to a great deal of unpublished material on the labor movement. Without dwelling on the familiar history of August 1980, he offers some of the unfamiliar subtleties?such as the significance of the Szczecin as opposed to the Gdansk Accord?and shows how they shaped the budding union?s understanding of the conflicts ahead. Unique in its attention to the critical, formative period following August 1980, this study is the most current and comprehensive analysis of a movement that continues to transform the nature of East European society.
Author: Seth G. Jones Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN: 0393247015 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 320
Book Description
The dramatic, untold story of one of the CIA’s most successful Cold War intelligence operations. December, 1981—the CIA receives word that the Polish government has cut telephone communications with the West and closed the Polish border. The agency’s leaders quickly inform President Ronald Reagan, who is enjoying a serene weekend at Camp David. Within hours, Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski has appeared on Polish national television to announce the establishment of martial law. A new era in Cold War politics has begun: Washington and Moscow are on a collision course. In this gripping narrative history, Seth G. Jones reveals the little-known story of the CIA’s subsequent operations in Poland, which produced a landmark victory for democracy during the Cold War. While the Soviet-backed Polish government worked to crush a budding liberal opposition movement, the CIA began a sophisticated intelligence campaign, code-named QRHELPFUL, that supported dissident groups. The most powerful of these groups was Solidarity, a trade union that swelled to a membership of ten million and became one of the first legitimate anti-Communist opposition movements in Eastern Europe. With President Reagan’s support, the CIA provided money that helped Solidarity print newspapers, broadcast radio programs, and conduct a wide-ranging information warfare campaign against the Soviet-backed government. QRHELPFUL proved vital in establishing a free and democratic Poland. Long overlooked by CIA historians and Reagan biographers, the story of QRHELPFUL features an extraordinary cast of characters—including spymaster Bill Casey, CIA officer Richard Malzahn, Polish-speaking CIA case officer Celia Larkin, Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, and Pope John Paul II. Based on in-depth interviews and recently declassified evidence, A Covert Action celebrates a decisive victory over tyranny for U.S. intelligence behind the Iron Curtain, one that prefigured the Soviet collapse.
Author: Andrzej Paczkowski
Author: Andrzej Paczkowski
Author: Amos Lakos
Author: Amos Lakos
Author: Andrzej Paczkowski
Author: Idesbald Goddeeris
Author: Andrzej Paczkowski
Author: 
Author: David Ost
Author: Seth G. Jones