5 Steps to a 5TM AP European History

The Cold War, Integration, and Globalization (^) ‹ 201
Poland and Solidarity
There had been growing agitation in Poland since 1980, when workers under the leader-
ship of an electrician named Lech Walesa succeeded in forming a labor union known as
“Solidarity.” Pressured by numerous strikes, the Polish government recognized the union
despite threats of Soviet intervention. By 1981, the movement had become more political,
as some of Solidarity’s more radical members began calling for free elections. As tensions
grew, the Polish military, led by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, responded to the crisis by
imposing martial law and a military dictatorship. But with Gorbachev calling for reform,
Jaruzelski tried, in November 1987, to gain legitimacy for his rule through a national refer-
endum. However, the majority of voters either voted against or abstained. In August 1988,
Jaruzelski ended his military dictatorship and set up a civilian government.
The new government attempted to retain the political monopoly of the Communist
Party while simultaneously opening Poland up for Western business. This proved to be
impossible, and Walesa and Solidarity took advantage of the new openness to push for
political freedom. In January 1989, Solidarity was legalized, and in April, the Communist
Party gave up its monopoly on political power. In the first free election in Poland since
before World War II, Solidarity triumphed and a noncommunist government was estab-
lished in September. In December 1990, Walesa was elected president, and Poland began to
face the hard task of learning how to live in an unruly democratic society and how to deal
with the economic ups and downs of capitalism.
Czechoslovakia and the Velvet Revolution
Seeing Poland and Hungary (which held free elections in the summer and fall of 1989)
shed their communist governments without Soviet intervention energized Czech resistance
to communist rule. Student-led demonstrations in the fall of 1989 were met with the tear
gas and clubs of the police, but the students were soon joined by workers and people from
all walks of life. Leading dissidents, like the playwright Václav Havel, began a movement
known as the Civic Forum, which sought to rebuild notions of citizenship and civic life
that had been destroyed by the Soviet system. Soon Havel and other dissidents were jailed,
but they became symbols of defiance and moral superiority.
What followed has come to be known as the Velvet Revolution. Faced with massive
demonstrations in Prague (shown around the world on television), and urged by Gorbachev
himself to institute democratic reform, Czechoslovakia’s communist leaders resigned on
November 24. After negotiations and maneuvers by both the Communist Party and the
Civic Forum, Havel was chosen president on December 25. Alexander Dubcek, who
had led the revolt of 1968, was brought home from exile and named chairman of the
Czechoslovakian Parliament.
German Reunification
West Germans had never accepted the division of Germany. The constitution of the German
Federal Republic provided legal formalities for reunification. How the East Germans felt
about the society of their Western relatives was hard to know. When reunification came, it
came suddenly. East German dissidents organized themselves along the lines of the Civic
Forum model pioneered in Czechoslovakia. In response to the pressure for reform, the
communist regime rescinded its traditional order to shoot anyone trying to escape to West
Berlin, and shortly thereafter issued “vacation visas” to those wishing to see their families in
the West. There was little expectation of their return.
On November 9, 1989, protesters moved toward the Berlin Wall, and meeting almost
no resistance from the soldiers, started to hammer it down. East Germans streamed into
23_Bartolini_Ch23_195-206.indd 201 27/04/18 1:56 PM