Jacqueline Hayden - Poles Apart: Solidarity and The New Poland

This book was typeset

in 11.5 on 13.5 Ehrhardt by

Seton Music Graphics, Bantry and
first published in 1994 by:

IRISH ACADEMIC PRESS

Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland,

in Great Britain

Frank Cass and Company Ltd
Gainsborough House, 11 Gainborough Road,
Leytonstone, London, E11

and in North America

IRISH ACADEMIC PRESS

c/o International Specialized Book Services,
5804 NE Hassalo Street, Portland, OR 97213.

Transferred to Digital Printing 2004

Jacqueline Hayden 1994

A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

Frank Cass ISBN
0714645893 hbk; 0714641219 pbk

Irish Academic Press ISBN
0716525321 hbk; 071652533-X pbk

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Publisher.

I think that I should start by explaining why I had to write a book about Solidarity and the people that I met in Poland in the summer of 1980. I had gone there in July, well before news of the strikes had impinged on Western consciousness, for all the wrong reasons. I had become involved in a silly argument about latent censorship within the Irish media with a Dublin barrister who was convinced that nothing critical of left-wing governments would be published or broadcast in Ireland. As an eager young freelance I was very anxious to prove him wrong and even more anxious to accept his offer to pay for a flight to the Eastern European country of my choice. Having chosen Poland I found that editors were, perhaps predictably, interested in stories about the Catholic Church behind the Iron Curtain. And so with a brief which I realized in retrospect was somewhat narrow, I set off for Warsaw armed with the names of dissidents, writers and Church activists.

I had done my homework. I knew, or thought I knew, a little of Polands sad history of partition and rebellion against its two imperialistic neighbours. I understood in a detached way the history of worker resistance to food price rises and wage freezes in Communist Poland. But nothing could have prepared me for the drama, excitement and passion of August 1980. Within hours of stepping off the plane in Warsaw, on that sunny day in July, I was listening to the excited explanations of one of Polands leading dissidents, Jan Litynski. Sheer good fortune had brought me to the flat of Jan and Krystyna where foreign correspondents would later flock for information about the progress of the strikes across Poland. Jan and Krystyna changed my life. They brought me on a journey of discovery through the intellectual and dissident opposition movement and introduced me to the circle of workers, including Lech Walesa, who would literally change the course of Polish history; more than that, they accepted me as their friend and broadened my horizons by sharing their personal story with me.

On the night before the Gdansk shipyard strike began I sat with Lech Walesa and the rest of the strike committe as they discussed their plans. Later, in April 1981, when Walesa had become a household name around the world, he told me that I had been the first non-Polish journalist to interview him. Jan and Krystyna had given me a unique window of opportunity from which I could observe the Polish Revolution as it evolved. In Poles Apart I am trying to tell the story of Polands democratic transition through the personal stories of the men and women that I first met in 1980. I hope that by focusing on the experience of some of the key players I can expose aspects of the complex arguments surrounding controversial issues such as the imposition of martial law in 1981, the Round Table agreement between Solidarity and the Communist Party (which resulted in the first semi-free election in 1989) as well as examine the factors which precipitated the defeat of the post-Solidarity parties in the September 1993 election.

In order to get a sense of the story as it unfolded I returned to Poland many times between 1989 and 1993, gathering the political reaction and emotional response of those I had first met in 1980. I hope that in the following pages the reader will gain some insight into Solidaritys struggle, its victory and the factors that have led to the publics disenchantment and rejection of the Solidarity dream.

My debt of gratitude to Jan and Krystyna Litynski is enormous. When they took me into their home in July 1980 they offered both friendship and a window on the dramatic events which were unfolding in Poland that summer. It is impossible to thank them enough for the support and encouragement that they have given me. In dedicating Poles Apart to them I hope in some small way to acknowledge their contribution to my personal and intellectual development.

Polands Ambassador to Ireland, Ernest Bryll, and his wife Malgosia saved Poles Apart from the dark corners of the bottom drawer. At a time when I was losing faith they injected their enthusiasm back into my project. I must sincerely thank both of them for reading and rereading the text and for their comments, notes and helpful additions.

Ambassador Richard OBrien in Warsaw has been a constant help in the compilation of Poles Apart. His advice and suggestions always proved helpful. I am greatly indebted to him for his consideration of the text. Without the hope of my numerous interviewees this book would not have been possible: I am very grateful to all of them.

Many people provided invaluable help in arranging interviews and organizing schedules during my many research trips to Poland. I would particularly like to thank Ms Joanna Lamprecht, Ms Ilonna Wroblewska, Ms Malgorzata Bernard and Ms Maghda Zorawska.

There is a great chasm between the seed of any idea and its ripening; for the day to day encouragement and support that brought Poles Apart to completion I owe much to my friend and partner, Frank Clarke.

At that time, a man was not a man for these people: a man was just a thing.

My most abiding memory of August 1980 is not of the moustached figure of Lech Walesa jumping on to the Gdansk shipyard gates. It is of the diminutive frame of a white-haired old lady, hunched over a typewriter, puffing away on a cigarette, as she types up an underground information bulletin edited by her son, the dissident Janek Litynski. Completely absorbed, she was oblivious to the comings and goings of the mighty men and women of the press, who unceremoniously poured into the tiny flat in Warsaws Wyzwolenia Street, looking for news of strikes and arrests. Looking back now in 1994 I realize that Regina Litynska is a key to an understanding of why what could have been just another round of strikes became the Polish Revolution.

A former young communist with a Jewish background, Regina was jailed before the War for her political activities. Her life mirrors the gargantuan tragedy played on a stage largely ignored by the Western Allies who abandoned Poland to its fate in Stalins hands. Regarding her communist past as her greatest mistake and shame, Regina is dismissive of her suffering in forced labour camps in the former Soviet Union, not wishing to compare her pain with the magnitude of the Holocaust, or the scale of Stalins purges.