Narrative Reconstructions of Solidarność among Former Polish Activists

• In Event: Biographies and Post/Memories Discourses of the Communist Past in East Central Europe

Abstract

 
Based on life story interviews collected in 2019 with forty refugees who left Poland in the 1980s and returned after 1989, this paper looks at the stories former activists tell about the independent union NSZZ Solidarność and martial law. Depending on their contemporary political alignments, narratives differ regarding: 1) leaders’ collaborations with the state apparatus; 2) the purpose of martial law; and 3) the expected collapse of the USSR. In general, activists currently aligned with the nationalist conservative right were more likely to disparage Solidarność and its leaders than those with center or left-leaning alignments.

Author

• Mary Patrice Erdmans, Case Western Reserve U