|
Poland's Solidarity
uprising in pictures, a catalyst to the fall of the Soviet
Union
by James Mayfield (Chairman, European Heritage Library)
 Print
this Article • About
the Author • Bibliography/Sources
This is a gallery of various
famous photos from the Polish uprising against the Communist
regime of the Polish People's Republic under the Solidarity
movement of 1989. It was a significant movement that contributed
to the fall of the Soviet Union in that it created a rippling
effect of revolution throughout the Warsaw Pact, the USSR's
semi-vassals of Eastern Europe.
After being liberated from
the German domination of Poland by the Soviets, Poland became
a semi-independent Soviet vassal known as the Polish People's
Republic. To countervail the political and military union
of Western Europe, NATO, Nikita Khrushchev organized the formation
of an Eastern European Communist equivalent, the Warsaw
Pact. Despite being superficially a Soviet puppet, Poland,
Romania, and Albania pursued highly independent policies from
Soviet dictate, but were nonetheless firmly entrenched in
Marxist ideology. Poland was controlled by a strict and exclusive
regime of the Communist Party of Poland. Under Bolesław Bierut,
Poland pursued a strict campaign that espoused forced collectivization,
political sensorship, the gradual dissolution of the Catholic
religion from Polish society despite the strong religiosity
of the Polish people that remains to this day, and a campaign
of de-Stalinization that pursued its own course. Poland's
First Secretary Władysław Gomułka strengthened the hold of
the Communist regime over Polish society, and even cracked
down on the influence of the ethnic Jewish (Ashkenazim) minority
that had endured the Holocaust only a decade prior. The
government freely imposed price and salary regulations that
choked an already-indebted Polish public, and the inability
to form trade unions prevented workers from protecting their
own interests. For this reason, the Polish resistance to the
Soviet authorities centers around the workers' and trade unions'
rights conflict. Nonetheless, the government granted free
primary, secondary, and university education, as well as limited
forms of free health care. This was appealing for a population
rife with poverty, instability, and still grieving after the
loss of more than 10 million people in Poland during the war
(though mostly non-Poles).
Polish propaganda during the Communist period
My photo of Stalin's Palace of Culture in Warsaw, a legacy
of Soviet rule
Our EHL map of the Warsaw Pact. Poland was a semi-independent
puppet of the Soviet Union (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Khrushchev standing alongside First Secretary of Poland Gomulka,
signifying the partial foreign hegemony over Poland
The Polish Communist Party
officially controlled and regulated all salaries, trade unions,
and workers' programs. As Poland tumbled into bankruptcy and
obsolescence, Polish workers found their rights increasingly
trampled upon despite the mantras of workers' protection that
Marxist doctrine espoused. As a result, trade unions and workers'
councils became the vehicle for social criticism for a long-awaited
economic and political reform. The election of Pope John Paul
II to the Pontificate in 1978 empowered this ancient fervently
Catholic nation with a drive for what it perceived as a renewed
social justice and political autonomy from the hegemony of
the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, despite Poland's long
history of independent policies from Moscow's directive. Although
the Polish government seldom enforced atheist Communist policies,
they intensely cracked down on rabid criticism by highly respected
Catholic priests in this religious society that emboldened
the divide between state and people.
Mass strikes and riots blazed
throughout Poland, particularly in factories and dockyards.
The largest revolt occurred at the port of Danzig (renamed
Gdansk after its transfer from Germany after WWII), led by
electrician and labor leader Lech Wałęsa (pronounced “Lek
Vaw-yensa”). The opportunity for change resulted in a national
coalescence of workers and workers rights defense committees
that became so pervasive that harsh government attempts at
crackdown failed. For the first time in the Soviet world,
the government was forced to negotiate with the revolting
population. The negotiation signed in Danzig in 1980 between
the government and the workers (represented by Wałęsa) granted
reforms that significantly disabled the government's stranglehold
on public life. Censorship was liberalized, trade union formation
was legalized, government domination of private industry and
labor was assuaged, and civic rights associations were now
permitted. Wałęsa formed Solidarność (Solidarity,
pronounced 'Soli-darno-sh-ch), a major labor union bloc that
evolved into a political reform movement. Solidarity became
a voice of reform behind which diverse political groups collectively
marched to see the destruction of the Communist regime and
a drastic reform, including liberals, reactionary conservatives,
anarchists, and Catholic clerics. The concessions of the government
were a domino effect: new unions and civic organizations appeared
throughout the unsatisfied nation as the already-indebted
government tumbled out of control. The increasing tumult borne
of the public resistance to growing government resilience
only amplified Solidarity's public support.
John Paul's election energized the Poles to seek a more autonomous
government
Solidarity-supporting Poles rally in favor of reform (BBC)
From BBC
 
Formal martial law was imposed
in 1981, and the opposition was imprisoned, Solidarity was
abolished, dissent was violently quelled and punished, and
government powers were reinforced at the expense of social
rights and permission for public organization. Predictably,
this only agitated public sentiment. By 1987, Poland was in
shambles, its government prostrate, its economy in ruins,
and its public in chaos. The Soviet Union under Gorbachev
was also experiencing the same decline, and was forced to
undergo the drastic reform of Glasnost and Perestroika under
Gorbachev that only opened the floodgates for more unrest
and dissent among constituent Warsaw Pact vassal states. Romania,
which is equally responsible for causing Communism to fall
in Eastern Europe, had been pushed to far into bankruptcy
by Nicolae Ceausescu that the government was overthrown by
force and its dictator was executed in the streets by mobs.
The momentum of public resistance became so strong that in
1989, the Communist government agreed to meet with the underground
Solidarity and its affiliated groups in the so-called Roundtable
Talks. In an unprecedented event in Soviet-dominated Eastern
European history, the monolithic Communist government allowed
limited multiparty elections, lifted formal martial law, further
liberalized social regulations, and legalized Solidarity as
a political party in the opposition. In the subsequent Polish
elections, the Communist party was bitterly defeated and the
Solidarity party reigned triumphant. Government attempts at
reasserting the Communist Party's position failed, and Lech
Wałęsa became president of Poland under the Solidarity Party
after the Communist leader Jaruzelski abdicated in 1990. The
Communist Party was ultimately abolished and restructured,
and the People's Republic of Poland was dissolved to form
the Republic of Poland.
Most Poles proudly take credit
for creating a continental tsunami of independence and reform
movements that led to the fall of the hated Soviet Union.
In reality, both the Romanian and Polish revolutions catalyzed
the fall of Communist regimes in the Warsaw
Pact states of Eastern Europe rather than the Soviet Union
altogether.
Polish Pope John Paul kisses Lech Walesa, an immortalized
symbol of the significance of the Catholic Polish people and
nation
________________________________________
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
James Mayfield is a historian
and the Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I have
a Cum Laude BA in History with a Minor in Germanic Studies
(language and history), am presently working for my Masters
in History, and plan to immediately progress to my PhD Doctorate.
I have a special academic interest in Europe's diverse ethnic
identities, languages, and cultures, and the political struggles
of native European and immigrant minority identities. See
my staff entry for more information.
BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES
USED:
-none of these images is
our property. It is difficult to isolate the original owners.
When known, the source link has been given. If you find your
property has been used without credit, feel free to notify
us.
National Geographic's Visual History of the World
-Lukowski, Jerzy, and Hubert Zawadzki. A Concise History
of Poland. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
-The official website of
the Solidarity party here.
|
• 
