Polska opozycja polityczna lat siedemdziesiątych i osiemdziesiątych XX wieku wobec przeobrażeń wewnętrznych i polityki zagranicznej Związku Radzieckiego

One may find many comments concerning the social-political situation in the Soviet Union in the Polish journalism of the political opposition. Most attention was paid to the authority and its actions both in the USSR and in the international arena. Above all, Moscow was the place where people saw every of evil which was experienced by Poles after 1945. Criticism of communist governments in the country was always directly aimed at Kremlin authorities. In second-hand publishing houses, there are many texts which lack a deeper afterthought and are full of megalomania. One may also encounter those in which submission to Moscow or the realities in the USSR were analyzed in many aspects and various ideas to solve the complicated situation were proposed. In this way, we have the attitudes of absolute anticommunism connected with the lack of faith in any changes until communists would exercise power. Such an approach created a rejection of compromise with the representatives of communist authorities both in Poland and in the USSR. Fighting Solidarity (Solidarność Walcząca) with Kornel Morawiecki or Leszek Moczulski’s Confederation of Independent Poland (Konfederacja Polski Niepodległej) are the best examples. A different point of view was represented by Adam Michnik or Jacek Kuroń, who obstinately stressed that the authority in Moscow was changing. They inferred the creation of a modus vivendi along the line authority-opposition. A totally different view was represented by Stefan Kisielewski, who distantly commented on the social-political situation both in the country and in the USSR. It is worth mentioning the environment of the Parisian “Kultura” which has, above all, permanently promoted reconciliation with the nations which were part of the USSR. Perception of Moscow’s policy in the international arena and its influence on Poland’s recovery of independence is a more complex issue. To put it simply, the national opposition may be divided into two camps of perceiving this problem. One of them would be that in which the role in the process of independence recovery would be attributed only to Poles. The second stated that Poland’s recovery of independence would be the result of a defeat of the Soviet Union in the international rivalry with the United States and the West. However, such a division would be too far-reaching a simplification. Each faction of the Polish opposition was convinced that two factors complementing one another are essential in this process. The difference was only in the role ascribed to each of the factors. It definitely needs to be stressed that none of the opposition factions presented rejected any of the attitudes.