The Future of the Polish Winter

The 16 months of revolutionary euphoria in Poland—sandwiched between the Gdansk accords of August 31, 1980 that gave rise to the first independent trade unions in a Communist country and the proclamation of martial law on December 13, 1981—seem now a long, long time ago. Today the Poles are told that they have to learn to “live with reality” and that the Solidarity period was just a dream, beautiful but unreal, like all dreams. Poles “on the street” are preoccupied...