Cold War 1970-95

Question 1

When did the Solidarity Movement take place?

Answer 1

1980-81

Question 2

What was the Polish name for the Solidarity? What was the alternate name (the fancy one)

Answer 2

Solidarnosc
Independent Self-Governing Trade Union

Question 3

When and where was the Solidarity movement founded?

Answer 3

31st August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard, Gdańsk

Question 4

Who led solidarity?

Answer 4

Lech Walesa

Question 5

Name three political perspectives that encouraged the rise of Solidarity

Answer 5

Anti-Soviet Leftism
Pro-American Liberalism
Polish Nationalism

Question 6

Excluding political cause, name three contributing factors to the rise of solidarity

Answer 6

Economic crisis - the cost of oil and recession in the West - food prices up by 100%
The strikes of ship workers in Gdansk drawing national attention
The leadership of Lech Walesa

Question 7

When, and to what organisation, was Walesa elected president

Answer 7

September 1981
First National Congress of Solidarity

Question 8

Which international power supported Solidarity, and by whose administration? What action was taken?

Answer 8

The USA
Reagan
2 million dollars/a year transferred in secret

Question 9

What were the aims of the solidarity movement?

Answer 9

To establish a self governing Polish republic
Greater political and economic freedom
Wage increases (granted)

Question 10

Which Polish authority figure initiated martial law and when? (3) What rules were enforced? (5)

Answer 10

General Jaruzelski (First Sec of Polish Comm Party)
December 1981
—
Curfew/Regular patrols by Polish People’s Army and Citizen’s Militia/Forbade intercity travel/Censorship of all media/Wiretapping operations by Secret Service

Question 11

Roughly how many opposition activists were imprisoned whilst martial law was in effect in Poland 1981-83. How many were executed?

Answer 11

Thousands
Around 91 executed
Many only released after the general amnesty was issued in 1986

Question 12

Which religious leader openly supported Solidarity?

Answer 12

Pope John Paul II - supporter of human rights, freedom of expression and conscience

Question 13

When did the Wujek coal mine strike occur? Describe the events that took place. (6)

Answer 13

23 Dec 1981

The Comm Polish gov rolled out special units and ZOMO tanks to pacify strikers
9 miners died
As a result the US imposed economic sanctions against the Polish gov and vetoed the Polish application to the International Monetary Fund
At subsequent strikes around Poland, violence, water cannons, tear gas, truncheons etc. were used to subdue protestors.

Question 14

When was Solidarity formally banned in Poland, and what was the organisation’s response?

Answer 14

1982
They moved underground, supported by the US and the Church

Question 15

When was martial law lifted in Poland?

Answer 15

1983 - many members were granted amnesty from imprisonment

Question 16

Describe two incidents (one in ‘85, one in ‘86) that demonstrate the Soviet approach to Solidarity

Answer 16

85 - A pro-Solidarity priest was killed and three members arrested, despite the amnesty (harsh)
86 - Gorbachev released 225 Polish political prisoners (lenient)

Question 17

How did Solidarity divide following its re-emergence?

Answer 17

Walesa’s side prioritised negotiation, the other was more radical, revolutionary and more strongly anti-communist

Question 18

When did the Warsaw Roundtable talks take place and what did they legalise?

Answer 18

February and April of 1989
The Solidarity Citizen’s Committee, allowing the committee to participate in the 1989 elections

Question 19

What percentage of seats was the Solidarity Citizen’s Committee permitted to occupy in the 1989 elections? How many seats did they win in the Sejm, and how many in the Senate?

Answer 19

35%
161
99

Question 20

What was significant about Mazowiecki’s election in Aug 1989

Answer 20

He was the first non-communist president of Poland

Question 21

Between 1980 and 1982, how many joined Solidarity? What effect did this have?

Answer 21

8 million - threatened Sov domination

Question 22

Why did the Soviet gov not intervene hugely in the Solidarity movement in Poland?

Answer 22

• it feared armed revolution
• it did not wish to divert funds to maintain costly satellite states
• it feared economic sanctions from the West
• Soviet troops were already at war in Afghanistan - although Warsaw Pact troops surrounded Poland, the USSR did not wish to expend more men

Question 23

What document did Jaruzelski emulate in his approach to Solidarity?

Answer 23

The Brezhnev Doctrine

Question 24

What occurred during the strikes at Gdansk

Answer 24

Workers made a 20 point list of demands and refused to leave the shipyard until said demands were met

Question 25

What was Poland’s foreign debt by the end of the 1970s?

Answer 25

$20.5 billion

Question 26

When was a Polish Pope elected? Why was this significant

Answer 26

1978
Elicited sympathy and loyalty to the church rather than the government

Question 27

What food product experienced rising prices in 1980

Answer 27

Meat

Question 28

By what extent had Solidarity strikes spread through Poland by August 1980

Answer 28

Across the entire Baltic Coast

Question 29

What was the Sov response to the signing of the Gdańsk Agreement?

Answer 29

The Politburo organised a special commission - head by Suslov and including the Troika (Ustinov Andropov and Gromyko). They urged retraction of the Agreement or crushing of the strikers by force.

Question 30

When was the Gdańsk agreement signed, by whom and what did it demand?

Answer 30

31 Aug 1980
Walesa and PM Jagielski
Free trade union
Access to mass media
Release of political prisoners
Right to strike

Question 31

How many Soviet troops were mobilised in response to Solidarity in case of invasion. Why did invasion not take place?

Answer 31

100,000
Polish party leader Kania, warned of the risk to the Socialist reputation

Question 32

Why did Jaruzelski eventually decide to implement martial law?

Answer 32

It avoided a (more) violent crackdown by Polish, Soviet and KGB personnel, as Solidarity risked encouraging uprising via Trade Union formation in all Sov states

Question 33

What secret decision did the Politburo make? What did this show about the situation of the USSR by the 1980s?

Answer 33

Not to invade, even if it meant losing Poland. The Brezhnev Doctrine had been secretly withdrawn prior to Solidarity. The cost of the campaign, considering Poland’s military and 35 million inhabitants, would be too great. The USSR could not encourage further aggression.
They were too fragile to withstand economic or political sanctions from the West - the USSR was weakening and could not maintain its iron curtain.