Description

The 1980 general strike in Poland and the establishment of the independent Solidarity movement, which sought to create a state based on the idea of civic society, were symptoms of an extensive crisis of the communist system. On December 13th, 1981, General Wojciech Jaruzelski proclaimed martial law on behalf of the ruling Communist Party, effectively striking down Solidarity. Jaruzelski won the battle, but Solidarity maintained its activities in secret and Poland remained politically destabilized. Elections held in June 1989 ended with the defeat of the communists and the establishment in September of a coalition government in which half of the parliamentary seats went to Solidarity, whose representative was also appointed prime minister. The revolution inaugurated in 1980 by the dockworkers of Gdansk had come to fruition. Revolution and Counterrevolution in Poland, 1980-1989 devotes twenty chapters to fundamental events of the decade in question, with particular emphasis on the martial law period. Drawing on extensive archival research, Andrzej Paczkowski examines the origin and form of the Solidarity revolution, the course of the communist counterrevolution, the final victory won by Solidarity, and its international repercussions. Andrzej Paczkowski is professor of political studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw. Christina Manetti, Phd, is a translator and independent researcher of Polish history.