45 Years on from Solidarity: New Archival Documents Concerning the Polish Crisis of 1980-1981

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

This roundtable will be a discussion about the most recent archival findings about the 1980 to 1981 crisis in Poland. The roundtable illuminates archival material from across the former Socialist space, including Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and Moldova, as well as multiple institutions, including the Soviet Foreign Ministry, Soviet Central Committee, and the KGB and Polish Security Service. Together, the presenters will describe new understandings of the roots of the Polish crisis, its progression, and its conclusion. Nikita Petrov, Memorial, will describe information that Yuri Andropov received during and before the Polish crisis of 1980-1981. Peter Cheremushkin will present reports from Soviet diplomats at the Soviet embassy and consulates in Poland from RGANI and other Russian archives. Suzanne Freeman, MIT Political Science, will discuss findings from declassified KGB files from Lithuania and Moldova related to the Polish crisis of 1980-1981. Tomasz Kozłowski, Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), will discuss his findings from the IPN archives about the mechanism of Soviet economic blackmail and its impact on Wojciech Jaruzelski's decision to impose martial law. Mark Kramer will review his findings related to the Polish crisis from the archives of General Wojciech Jaruzelski and General Czeslaw Kiszczak. The roundtable will present varied new perspectives on one of the defining crises of the late Cold War.

Sub Unit

• History: 1945-1990

Chair

• Suzanne Freeman, MIT

Roundtable Speakers

• Suzanne Freeman, MIT

• Tomasz Piotr Kozlowski, Inst of Political Studies PAS (Poland)

• Mark Nathan Kramer, Harvard U