The Solidarity and the Fall of the Iron Curtain

After the end of World War II, the Soviet Union established communist dictatorships in Central and Eastern Europe. The resulting homogeneity in the social, political and economic life of the countries of the Eastern bloc was based on the Soviet model. The process began with the building up of a political monopoly for the communist party, creating a secret police force, introducing censorship and taking control of the media, vital for propaganda purposes.

The centrally planned economy introduced by the communist government did not tolerate private property in industry or in the service sector. The government’s policies led to losses in profitability and innovation in industry, a decline in the level of services and food rationing. 

Solidarność was born as a result of a nationwide strike in August 1980, started at the V. Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk. The shipyard workers went on strike in a gesture of solidarity with two of their colleagues who had been sacked: Anna Walentynowicz and Lech Wałęsa. They lost their jobs because they were active in illegal trade unions.

Other production plants joined in the strike. A committee of delegates from Gdańsk and neighbouring cities was formed. The strikers wanted to negotiate with the communist government the conditions for the termination of the protest. The Committee drew up 21 demands which put across the conditions. The government eventually agreed to enter negotiations with the strikers. Among the demands were, among others: 1. Acceptance of free trade unions independent of the Communist Party and of enterprises, in accordance with convention No. 87 of the International Labour Organisation concerning the right to form free trade unions. 2. A guarantee of the right to strike and of the security of strikers and those supporting them. 3. Compliance with the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech, the press and publication, including freedom for independent publishers and the availability of the mass media to representatives of all faiths. 4. A return of former rights to: a) People dismissed from work after the 1970 and 1976 strikes; students expelled because of their views. (...) 5. Availability to the mass media of information about the formation of the Inter-factory Strike Committee and publication of its demands. (...) 9. Guaranteed automatic increases in pay on the basis of increases in prices and the decline in real income. (...) 12. The selection of management personnel on the basis of qualifications, not party membership. Privileges of the secret police, regular police and party apparatus to be eliminated.

The ruling communist party (Polish United Workers’ Party) refused to reconcile itself to the gradual loss of power. The political situation in the country was becoming increasingly tense. In the spring of 1981, the defense minister, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, became the First Secretary of the communist party PZPR. On 13 December 1981, Jaruzelski imposed martial law on the country. The State Council suspended civic rights and freedoms, including the right to continue the activities of Solidarity. Overnight, the police, security services and the army seized all the headquarters of Solidarity and interned approximately 10,000 opposition activists. Martial law formally lasted until July 1983, but Solidarity was de-legalised and repression of the opposition continued.

The origins of the “drugi obieg” (the Polish equivalent of samizdat) date back to the late 1970s. However, it was not until the years of martial law (1981-1983) that the clandestine circulation of printed works became the driving force of the opposition. Solidarity members who had escaped detention set up a clandestine network of printing shops and distribution. A wide range of publications was printed to supersede the official and party-controlled media. Books, periodicals, leaflets and posters, even postage stamps and postcards, were printed and widely distributed.

Faced with a growing economic crisis and under the influence of perestroika then under way in the Soviet Union, General Jaruzelski decided to open talks with the opposition. The Round Table talks began in February 1989. These resulted in an agreement to re-legalise Solidarity and to elect members to the Senate and 35 per cent of members to the Sejm (Polish parliament) in free elections.

Shortly after the Round Table Talks had started in Poland, Hungary began its own transformation. In June, the barbed wire stretched along the Hungary-Austria border was removed. In August, the ‘Autumn of Nations’ – a wave of mass demonstrations against communist dictatorships – spread across the remaining Eastern bloc countries.  Germans, Czechs, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Romanians and the nations of the Baltic republics of the Soviet Union openly called for freedom. The Berlin Wall fell. As a result of the ‘Velvet Revolution’, Vaclav Havel was elected to the office of President of the Republic in Czechoslovakia. In Romania, the army sided with the protesters against Nicolae Ceaucescu. The democratic transformation in the former Soviet bloc took place for the most part peacefully thanks to the decision made by Mikhail Gorbachev, who ruled out military intervention in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

1990 began with the restoration of the country’s traditional name, the Republic of Poland (in place of the Polish People’s Republic) by Parliament (Sejm) and the implementation of free-market reforms. In May, the Poles voted in local elections. It was the first fully free election in post 1945 period. In the Autumn the first presidential election took place, and Lech Wałęsa became the country’s president.