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Zapiski Historyczne
|
2020
|
vol. 85
|
issue 4
5-24
EN
What is commonly referred to in Poland as ‘December 1970’ was one of the most important and most tragic moments in the history of this country after the Second World War. Then, a violent suppression of workers’ revolts in several Polish cities on the Baltic coast, by the Citizens’ Militia and the army, and the subsequent changes in the leadership of the Polish United Workers’ Party took place. After fourteen years in power, the First Secretary of the Central Committee, Władysław Gomułka, was replaced by the former member of the Politburo and also the First Secretary of the Voivodship Committee in Katowice, Edward Gierek. The military operations on the Polish coast, alongside the Citizens’ Militia, involved some 27,000 soldiers and 550 tanks, 750 armoured carriers and 2,100 cars. Also, 108 aircraft and helicopters, as well as 40 vessels of the Polish Navy were deployed. Apart from the period of martial law (1981–1983), never during peacetime has the Polish Army been put on standby on such a scale and used to such an extent to pacify the society. According to official data, a total of 45 people were killed and 1,165 wounded on the Baltic coast. Although over 80 books and brochures have already been published on ‘December 1970’, we still do not know the answers to all the questions. The role played by the Soviet authorities at that time has been researched the least. However, without free access to the post-Soviet archives stored in Russia, which seems hardly possible in the near future, it will be difficult to make new findings on this issue.
Zapiski Historyczne
|
2020
|
vol. 85
|
issue 4
25-53
EN
This article examines the social protest movement against the socialist regime in the Baltic port cities of Szczecin and Gdańsk, in particular between 1970 and 1981. It intends to discuss the impact of these strikes on the formation of a regional and national political culture, which is widely connected to the concept of civil society, in a longer perspective. While Szczecin, after the bloody clashes with the regime’s law enforcement in mid-December 1970, saw a longer-lasting period of strikes, which led to an intervention by First Secretary Edward Gierek, these protests remained limited to the community of workers and did not yet challenge the rule of the Polish United Workers’ Party. They contributed, however, to the formation of a local Polish identity from below. However, in Gdańsk and, in a broader perspective, in the entire Polish Tricity (consisting of Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot) a close cooperation between workers and intellectuals emerged during the 1970s, which proved to be decisive during the strike of August 1980. In Szczecin, the similarly strong strike movement of summer 1980 lacked the national (and international) resonance of the protests in Gdańsk. In addition, the political impact and the collective commemoration (as well as the scholarly research) of the workers’ protests in the case of Szczecin remained mostly a local issue even after the fall of the socialist regime. Which stands, once again, in sharp contrast to the situation of Gdańsk.
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