A lot is being said in Poland today that this was a time of a prosperity of sorts, especially the first half of the 1970s. But you have to realize that this is a relative characterization. So one indicator of prosperity was the possibility of buying a tiny Fiat automobile after several years of saving and receiving a special coupon. So these were people saving for many, many years, and you have to work for a very long time to buy the smallest automobile manufactured in the world.
The situation was the same with apartments, which in theory you could purchase, but in reality you had to save up for them for many, many years.
Some rare goods you would have to receive a special approval. If this was a car or an apartment, that was a special coupon. You would have to pay, of course, but that was not sufficient – you would need a coupon authorizing this.
And of course much more merchandise appeared in the stores. And all this forms a great contrast with the 1960s. But what I think is that for anyone coming from the West, when they heard that this was called prosperity and they saw what this consisted of, then that resulted in peals of laughter.
On the other hand, as far as [political] pressure is concerned, you could say that on the one hand, in the early ‘70s most of the political prisoners were released. But the oppression was significant, and what is more important is internalized fear among the population was certainly powerful, was dominant even.
One of the essential things which accompanied us when we were beginning our activities as the opposition was to convince people that we were not state agents – the question would be asked, “How is it possible that you are allowed to act freely, and you are not in prison? It is impossible, so this means that you are agents provocateurs.”
This ideological oppression was really not any less than in the 1960s. I had already mentioned about the creation – about the fact that the students were encumbered with an organization which was by now completely ideological [referring to the transformation of students’ unions into socialist students’ unions].
And at the same time, we remember that the constitution was modified with an amendment about the primary role of the Communist Party and the alliance with the Soviet Union [First Secretary of the Communist Party (in Poland) Edward Gierek from 1970 – 1980 was responsible for unpopular amendments to the Polish constitution that institutionalized the leading role of the Polish Workers Party in the state and Poland’s friendship with the Soviet Union.].
In 1977, a censor by the name of Tomasz Strzyżewski escaped to Sweden, taking with him entries from the official Polish Communist Book of Censorship. This could be fascinating reading even for somebody today. For instance, you were prevented from even mentioning the name of anybody who had come into conflict with the authorities; you are not allowed to mention them in any form.
You were not allowed to write about any kind of pollution, any kind of environmental problems in Poland, or about any facts which could be associated with that, for instance that PVC [Polyvinyl chloride – a type of plastic used in construction] panels might have an adverse impact on human health. This was something that was taboo.
Any mention about an accident would have to be coordinated with the authorities, and they would tell you which accidents could be written about and which could not. So I am citing these as examples, because there were an infinite number of these, in order to give you a sense the system. Moreover, this was clear to everyone living in Poland. I did not know any person – and I knew many people in Poland – and I did not know anyone, aside from isolated individuals, who would stand up and defend the system. Even people from the so-called [Communist] Party nomenklatura [a select list or class of people from which appointees for top-level government positions are drawn], whom I sometimes met, they would not defend the system either. They would explain that you cannot go any other way, because this is our geopolitical position, this is the threat from the outside, it was not them, that other, more noxious ones would come. [Wildstein refers to the strong influence of the Soviet Union in Poland at that time.]
There was this really uncanny phrase that was current at the time, the phrase was “they will” – you know, it is “they” who are in power, so when I would meet people who originated from the [communist] system, they would also grin this knowing smile, and say “well, you understand, it is ‘them’ ”.
And I did not know Edward Gierek [First Secretary of the Communist Party from 1970 – 1980], or any of those people at the very top, but I am certain that they also, when talking amongst themselves, would refer to “they”, except then they would be pointing eastward [toward Moscow].
The paradox is that any defense of communist Poland, as a system that was not perfect but had done some good things, only came across after the fall of communism in an independent Poland.
But at the same time, the period of Edward Gierek was the first such period when the communists gradually began to become property owners.
The initial small class of such owners appeared, and of course they were in league with the authorities, they could not have functioned otherwise, so they collaborated somehow with the establishment to create this very strange, perverse Polish business community.
Bronislaw Wildstein was born on June 11, 1952 in Olsztyn, Poland. His father was a military physician and his mother was a member of the anticommunist Home Army, a group created to oppose the Nazi occupation of Poland. Wildstein studied at Jagiellonian University from 1971 to 1980. In the early 1970s, Wildstein joined the Socialist Union of Polish Students, which began his career in the opposition movement. Joining with other students, he printed and distributed anticommunist leaflets, collected money for imprisoned workers, and drafted an appeal to release workers arrested in the antigovernment protests of 1976.
In 1977, Wildstein cofounded the Student Committee of Solidarity, an opposition group formed in response to the unsolved death of student activist Stanislaw Pyjas. Many students suspected Pyjas’ death was orchestrated by government agents. The Student Committee of Solidarity began printing and distributing anticommunist literature in secret. Wildstein’s clandestine printing even landed him in prison for a short time.
In 1980, Wildstein became involved in the Lenin Shipyard strike in Gdansk, a demonstration by workers that attracted national, popular support and forced the communists to the negotiate with the strikers. The Lenin Shipyard strike also resulted in the formation of Solidarity, the first independent labor union in the communist world that transformed into a nationwide freedom movement.
Prior to the Polish government’s declaration of martial law in 1981, which was a means to crackdown on political opposition, Wildstein had secured a passport and left Poland for Western Europe. During his time in the West, he served as an advocate for the freedom movement in Poland and established foreign contacts for Solidarity. While abroad, Wildstein also cofounded Kontakt, an anticommunist periodical, and worked for Radio Free Europe.
After the fall of communism in Poland, Wildstein returned to his country and worked as a journalist for several daily papers, including Zycie Warszawy and Rzeczpospolita. In 2005, Wildstein became entangled in the issue of transitional justice when he obtained and distributed a list (often referred to as “Wildstein’s List”) to fellow journalists containing both the names of collaborators and victims of the communist-era secret police.
Wildstein continues his work as a journalist in Poland.
Poland is a central European country bordered by the Baltic Sea, Belarus, Ukraine, Germany, Russia, Lithuania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Poland has a population of 38 million people; nearly 90 percent are Roman Catholic.
Poles struggled against foreign dominance from the 14th century and the modern Polish state is less than one hundred years old. Polish borders expanded and contracted through a series of partitions in the 18th century. After a brief period of independence and parliamentary democracy from 1918 to 1939, World War II brought occupation by Nazi Germany and the near annihilation of the Jewish population. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Poland’s Jewish population went from over 3 million in 1933 to 45,000 in 1950.
After the war, Poland became a Soviet satellite state and a communist system was imposed. Farms were collectivized, basic freedoms curtailed, and a culture of fear developed under a Stalinist regime. The 1960s brought greater prosperity and some liberalization. Labor protests in the early 1970s tested the communist government’s resolve and prompted modest reforms.
In 1978, Polish Archbishop and Cardinal Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian to hold the position since the 16th century. The pope’s triumphant return to Poland in 1979 saw massive outpourings of public support, shaking the foundations of the government and inspiring the opposition to press for peaceful change.
In 1980, shipbuilders in the seaport city of Gdansk united to confront the government. Their calls for greater political liberties and improved working conditions developed into the Solidarity movement. Solidarity’s leader, Lech Walesa, became the movement’s voice. Protests and unrest spread throughout the country and the communists replaced their leadership. General Wojciech Jaruzelski became prime minister and declared martial law on December 13, 1981. Solidarity was outlawed and Walesa and other Solidarity leaders were imprisoned.
While martial law was lifted in 1983, Poland continued to stagnate. Mikhail Gorbachev’s elevation to leadership of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985 brought new pressures for reform in Poland. A failing economy and continued repression incited workers to a new wave of strikes in 1988. A desperate regime agreed to legalize Solidarity and conduct semi-free elections. In the 1989 parliamentary elections, Solidarity won 99 of the 100 Senate seats and 160 of the 161 lower house seats they were allowed to contest. Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a Solidarity leader, became Poland’s first non-communist prime minister in over four decades. In 1990, Lech Walesa was elected president with 74 percent of the vote. While Solidarity splintered as Poland democratized, a coalition government of anti-communist parties won fully free parliamentary elections in 1991.
Poland transitioned to a market economy and applied for integration into western institutions. Economic dislocation returned the former communists, now social democrats, to power in 1993. Free elections and peaceful transitions in the following decades solidified Poland’s multi-party democratic system. Reforms eventually led to a more robust economy and Poland joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1999 and the European Union in 2004.
In Freedom House’s Freedom in the World 2013, Poland earned the status “Free,” (as it has since 1990) receiving the best possible rankings in the categories Political Rights and Civil Liberties.
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