Polish Opposition

In “The Polish Opposition, the Crisis of the Gierek Era, and the Helsinki Process,” Gunter Dehnert offers two reasons to explain the transformation of the Polish opposition. One is a nationalist view that looks to Polish history and its pursuit of independence, while the other focuses on how the Helsinki Accords and the importance on human rights.

I agree that the history of a state is extremely important, and “the opposition’s success was …  determined by events that would not have been possible without the international reach of the new phase of détente,” (Dehnert 168). In other words, the events leading up to the Helsinki Accords shaped the opposition. Also, since 1970, Poland took a more “consumption-oriented socialist approach” (Dehnert 168) to societal problems, which weakened Poland’s socialist ideology. There was an abundance literature and social, economic, political, and religious events which shaped the way the country would move in the coming years, including the Anti-Semitic campaign and Prague Spring in 1968. 

However, I also agree that the Helsinki Accords had a profound impact. Dehnert states: “in retrospect, linking the human rights issue to the labor issue has to be regarded as one of the reasons for the Polish opposition movement’s success” (Dehnert 180). In 1975, there was a new wave of opposition that focused on civil and human rights, however it was not as organized as the Helsinki Group in Moscow. The Helsinki Accords is important because it allowed Poland to be more  “receptive to the Western model of human rights and democracy, which was propagated by the opposition” (Dehnert 183).

Which reason better explains the transformation of the Polish opposition? Or is it a mixture of both ideas? I personally think that the two are intertwined and that there should be little to no distinction between the two. What are some other reasons why one way was more important than the other? Do you think both ways would have been equally as effective?

One Reply to “Polish Opposition”

  1. I agree with you that I think nationalism and the Helsinki Accords seem to play a pretty equal role in the polish opposition. I think something that caught my attention during this reading was the idea of de stalinization and the lasting impact that had in Poland. As Poland is still a relatively autonomous nation- they are not Russia, and therefore there is something incredibly imperialistic about the Soviet Union’s presence in Poland. Thus, I think coming out of de stalinization the transition of what Poland needs to be and how they need to run their government seems uneasy. Hence, I think nationalism and the Helsinki Accords at that point kind of become one idea and impact the transition of the Polish opposition all together.

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