Country Profile:

http://www.country-data.com/frd/cs/pltoc.html

See here for a timeline with photos: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1054724.stm

See here for some amazing lectures on Polish history at Professor Anna Cienciala’s online course:

http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/

http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/lect18a.htm

http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/lect19a.htm

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” The Painful road to Freedom “http://www.warsawvoice.pl/printArticle.php?a=19146

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1939 – Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia invade Poland see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Poland_(1939) and  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Poland

1941 – Germans begin building concentration camps

1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising – Jewish resistance that opposed Germans’ effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp

(note – the date we originally posted, 1944, is an error. 1943 is the correct date)–

1944 Warsaw Uprising against German occupation

Here are some resources for information about the uprisings:

1943: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?ModuleId=10005188

1944: http://www.warsawuprising.com/

http://www.1944.pl/?lang=en and  http://www.1944.pl/index.php?a=site_text&id=12146&se_id=12223

July 1944 – Communist-dominated government established in Lublin

May 1945 – World War II ends

1947 – Poland becomes a Communist People’s Republic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Poland_(1945–1989)

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1956 – Worker protests in Poznan lead to the Polish October http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_October

Władysław Gomułka allowed to take power as the First Secretary of the Communist Party.

Hopes for full liberalization eventually prove to be false as Gomułka‘s regime becomes more conservative. Gomulka later  supports censorship, persecution of Jews, students, some workers, and intellectuals.

He participated in the Warsaw Pact intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968.

1960s and 70s – Poland begins experiencing increasing economic, as well as political, difficulties.

In December 1970, widespread price hikes lead to a series of protests in Gdańsk, Gdynia, Elbląg and Szczecin.

A number of workers are killed during the strikes, forcing Gomulka’s resignation.

The 1970 Protests: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_1970_protests

1970s-80

Edward Gierek replaces Gomulka, but the 1973 oil crisis leads to more shortages and economic woes.

In 1976, Gierek is forced to raise prices, which sparks another series of protests.

June 1976 Strikes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_1976

For the rest of the 1970s, resistance to the regime grew in the establishment of student groups, a “flying university,” and the publications of the underground press.

1976 The Workers’ Defense Committee (KOR) forms to defend and provide assistance to workers prosecuted by the Communist authorities for their participation in the 1976 strikes.

Adam Michnik becomes involved in KOR activities:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704795604574519463075074956.html

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AUGUST, 1980 Anna Walentynowicz is fired from her job at the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk.

This event sparks the strikes that eventually led to the creation of Solidarity-

A Solidarity Timeline: http://www.warsawvoice.pl/view/9119/

read about Anna here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Walentynowicz

a documentary film about her: http://www.logtv.com/films/anna/

Anna Walentynowicz, whose dismissal was the real reason for the August 1980 strike in the Gdansk shipyards, has been marginalized in accounts of political dissent and the Solidarity movement in Poland.

SOLIDARITY -1980   1980 A strike by 17,000 ship builders at the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk saw Solidarity (Solidarność), led by shipyard electrician Lech Wałęsa, recognized as the first non-communist trade union in the then Soviet Eastern Bloc

Read The Birth of Solidarity – http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/special_report/1999/09/99/iron_curtain/timelines/poland_80.st

August 30, 1980 Led by Walesa, workers sign an agreement with the government to end the strikes. The workers were granted the right to form independent trade unions and the right to strike. This meeting sparks the popularity of Solidarity as a national movement

Key Figures in Solidarity:

Anna Walentynowicz ( see above)

Adam Michnik (see above)

Tadeusz Mazowiecki: one of the initial principal organizers of the 1980 strikes and the first editor of Solidarity Weekly. Mazowiecki served as mediator in the talks between Solidarity and the government. The first non-Communist prime minister in Eastern Europe since the 1940s.

Barbara Labuda: a prominent KOR and Solidarity activist imprisoned for over a year under martial law

Barbara Labuda and Lech Walesa

Jacek Kuron: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jun/18/guardianobituaries.michaelsimmons

Bronislaw Geremek: a Solidarity activist and adviser who played a crucial role in the round table debates between Solidarity and the Communist authorities

Lech Walesa: http://www.yachtingnet.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/walesa.html

Independent Students’ Union (NZS): The student wing of Solidarity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Students_Union

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October 1981 – Defense Minister Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski named First Secretary of the Communist Party.

On December 12–13, the regime declared martial law, under which the army and ZOMO riot police were used to crush the union. Virtually all Solidarity leaders and many affiliated intellectuals were arrested or detained

Read about the controversy here: General Jaruzelski Goes on Trial for the Imposition of Martial Law:  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4742093.ece

February-April 1989: After years of alternating periods of amnesty and repression, a destabilized Communist Polish government agrees to Round Table discussions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Round_Table_Agreement

Only two women were invited to participate in the round-table talks between Solidarity and communist officials in 1989.  These talks led to the parliamentary election in June 1989 and the election of the first non-communist prime minister in August 1989.  The minimal representation of women at the round-table talks is one of the taboos in accounts of the Solidarity movement.

The agreements conducted here lead to major wins for Solidarity in the legislative elections of 1989, which lead to the fall of Communism in Poland

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June 4, 1989 Solidarity candidates win an overwhelming victory in the election to the Parliament