Authors

Piotr Długołęcki¹;  ¹ Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych , Poland

Discussion

The subject of the proposed paper is the attitude of Western states to the situation in Poland in 1980–1982. Such events as the deepening economic crisis, the creation of the Solidarity, the threat of Soviet intervention or the introduction of martial law aroused great interest abroad and made the so-called “Polish crisis” became one of the most important events in international relations at that time.
The policy of Western countries towards Poland was not uniform and additionally changed over time along with changes in the internal situation of the People's Republic of Poland. The theme of the speech will also be to show the demonstrate the common and divergent elements of Western countries’ policies adopted in connection with the crisis in Poland, as well as to present o show the specific nature of each country’s relations with Poland, as well as the measures the Polish communist authorities adopted to counter the steps taken by Western countries.
Western reactions to the lively international activity of the Solidarity (visits of Polish delegations abroad and foreign trade union delegations in Poland) as well as the increase in the activity of the Polish community and the activity of opposition circles in the People's Republic of Poland will also be shown.
The source basis for the proposed paper will be the documents published in the volume “The Polish Crisis From Western Perspective”, containing archives from 13 countries of the political West (and from the NATO Archive). The speech will also be based on archive materials published in four volumes of Polish Diplomatic Documents for the years 1980–1982 (over 2000 documents in total)