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The
years following World War II were extremely difficult
for Poland. The period since 1949 till 1956 was especially
hard, because Stalin introduced intensive Soviet campaign.
The communism in Poland just started. Wartime resistance
leaders were killed, and politicians who hadn't been
killed by the Nazis were arrested. The Soviets held
an elections but when they saw that they wouldn't win
they falsified the results. In 1956, an enormous industrial
strike demanding 'bread and freedom', broke out in Poznan.
Tanks crushed the strike, leaving 76 dead people and
over 900 wounded. After Stalin's death new Polish communists
came to power. The first one was Wladyslaw Gomulka.
His rule was ended in 1970 after the series of strikes
on the Baltic Coast. Then Edward Gierek came to power.
In contrast with his predecessor, Gierek started an
intensive program of modernization the Polish enterprises.
He took foreign loans, estimated at 10 billion dollars.
When the economic situation became terrible, the government
announced that the prices would be increased. Then the
next series of strikes bloody smothered, which overflowed
the country. The election of Karol Wojtyla as Pope Jan
Pawel II (Pope John Paul II) in 1978 and his triumphal
visit to Poland a year later increased political turmoil.
At last in 1980 the Solidarity Movement under the command
of Lech Walesa, broke out with a series of strikes on
the Baltic Coast (Gdansk)and
in the industrial region of Upper Silesia. The more
the Solidarity Movement grew and having still more adherents,
the more government became weaker and weaker. Soon,
80 % of workers became members of the Movement. The
government was no longer in a position to use force
against its opponents.. In August 1980, the Polish government
made important concessions to the workers' demands.
The communists agreed to give more freedom in the public
life. It was a great success and the Solidarity had
an enormous influence on the whole Polish society. Their
charismatic leader, Lech Walesa, was awarded the peaceful
Noble Prize. After a year the local authorities changed
the course with the new communist leader, gen. Wojciech
Jaruzelski. In the early hours in the morning of 13
December 1981, gen. Jaruzelski declared martial law
and interned 10,000 Solidarity activists. His action
was aimed at shoring up the crumbling regime and, allegedly,
forestalling a deadly Soviet intervention. The illegal
Solidarity moved underground but wisely avoided armed
resistance.
The
election of Gorbatchev in the Soviet Union in 1985 and
his perestrojka program gave an important stimulus to
democratic reforms all through Eastern Europe. Again,
Poland was the first country of the Soviet Bloc which
changed the course of history, because after the "Roundtable
Agreements" of 1989 the communists agreed to share
the power with the Solidarity Movement. The opposition
was allowed to stand for parliament and in the semi
- free elections in June 1998, the Solidarity succeeded
in getting overwhelming majority in the upper house
of parliament. Gen. Jaruzelski became the president
of the country, but the noncommunist Tadeusz Mazowiecki
became the Prime Minister. The first real free elections
took place in November 1990 and were won by the legendary
leader of the Solidarity - Lech Walesa. Democracy came
into being.
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