2. GENERAL JARUZELSKI: LEADER OF
POLISH COMMUNIST PARTY
Declared Martial Law in
Dec. 1981.
Banned Solidarity in Oct.
1982.
Introduced limited
economic reforms in
1982.
Failed to deal with huge
foreign debt problems and
low industrial productivity.
http://www.polishnews.com/index
3. SOLIDARITY: POLISH TRADE UNION
FEDERATION
Founded in September 1980 at the Gdansk
Shipyard.
It was originally led by Lech Walesa.
First non-communist party controlled trade union in
a Warsaw Pact country.
It constituted a broad anti-bureaucratic social
movement.
In October 1982, General Jaruzelski banned the
trade union movement.
June 1987: Pope John Paul II showed his support
of Solidarity.
4. LIFTING OF MARTIAL LAW
1983
Martial Law was declared in December 1981 by
Jaruzelski.
When lifted in 1983, Solidarity was weakened and
divided.
In 1986 Jaruzelski granted a general political
amnesty.
This allowed many leading members of Solidarity to
be released from prison.
5. THE REFERENDUM ON REFORM
1987
Between 1982 and 1986: Poland’s foreign debt
increased by 35%.
Jaruzelski decided that in order to strengthen the
regime’s political position that they political reform
was required.
October 1987: The government held a referendum
in November on a package of economic and
political reform proposals.
It backfired, Solidarity urged its supporters to
boycott it.
The government failed to win 50% of the votes to
endorse its proposals.
6. PRICE REFORM
1988
February: Jaruzelski introduced massive price
increases.
Food prices went up 40-50%.
More increases would start in May.
The increases provoked large strikes in May and
August.
They were not organized by Solidarity, but they
helped negotiate an end to the strikes.
Leading Solidarity members acknowledged that
radical economic reform was essential, regardless
of how painful.
7. THE GROUP OF THREE’S PROPOSALS
They were a committee of analysts.
August: Jarulzelski accepted a report on political
reform by them.
They proposed a new senate and parliament. 40%
of parliament to be decided from open elections.
This led to the government to start discussing with
the Solidarity leaders.
5 months passed before real negotiations began.
Jaruzelski and other leading ministers had to
threaten resignation before the Party (Jan 1989).
Negotiations were approved with Solidarity.
8. APRIL ACCORDS
• Took place between February and April of 1989.
• “The final attempt by Polish reform communists to
transform the system while maintaining control of the
process of change” Historian Frances Millard
• There were to be free elections to the Senate.
• Open elections for 35% of the seats in
Parliament, with 65% remaining for the Communist
Party.
• Office of president, elected by the Parliament and
Senate, was to be created.
9. THE JUNE ELECTIONS
Two rounds of elections.
Solidarity candidates won all but one of the seats open to
nonofficial candidates.
In July 1989, General Jaruzelski was elected President.
Solidarity leaders felt they had to keep to this undertaking.
If Jaruzelski was not elected they feared a coup by
hardliners within the Communist Party or Soviet
intervention.
10. APPOINTMENT OF A SOLIDARITY-LED
COALITION GOVERNMENT
With their electoral triumph in June
Solidarity leaders wanted more
political influence.
Jaruzelski initially refused to accept
a Solidarity Prime Minister.
By mid-August Tadeusz Mazowiecki
was named Prime Minister.
In September 1989, Polish
Parliament approved the new
coalition government.
Lech Walesa of Solidarity was
Leah Walesa elected president in 1990.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/
Lech_Walesa_-_2009.jpg
11. HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION
Bloodless revolution and followed on a period of
negotiation between the government and opposition
groups, similar to Poland.
Reform started before it did in Poland.
Government had permitted multi-candidate parliamentary
elections since 1985.
This prevented frustration with economic and political
situation in Hungary reaching the levels it did in Poland.
12. REFORM COMMUNISM IN HUNGARY
Hungary’s foreign debt per capita
was the highest in the Eastern
bloc.
In 1987, Janos Kadar appointed
Karoly Grosz as the new Prime
Minister.
Grosz and Imre Posgay
undermined Kadar who eventually
resigned in may 1988.
Grosz favored limited power
sharing with non-communist
parties.
Posgay wanted to demote the Karoly Grosz
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/t
humb/7/77/GroszKaroly.jpg/225px-
Party from its leading role. GroszKaroly.jpg
13. IMRE NAGY
http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/
a5/ImreNagy.jpg/225px-ImreNagy.jpg
Posgay helped push for the rehabilitation of the reputation
of Imre Nagy, the reforming Communist leader who had
been arrested and executed by the Soviet Government
during the 1956 Revolution.
In June 1989, Nagy was reburied with honor in a
ceremony attended by a quarter of a million Hungarians.
14. NATIONAL ROUND TABLE TALKS
(JUNE 1989)
In April 1990, a non-communist coalition government
took office in Hungary.
Reform in Hungary had a very important effect on the
GDR (East Germany).
In May 1989, the Hungarian government announced
that it was opening its borders.
This meant that East Germans could now travel into
Hungary and then cross into Austria and then on into the
Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany).