Politics of the past: the use and abuse of history - Socialists ...

democracy which led to the emergence of Solidarność in Poland in
1980, to the democratic revolution of 1989 in Central and Eastern
Europe and to the alliance of Western, Southern and Central and
Eastern Europe in the form of the European Union.
Liberal changes in Poland reached their peak in the late 1950s.
March, 1968, saw repressions of students and intellectual movements
and the dogmatic wing of the Party and State institutions,
represented by Mieczysław Moczar, resorted to anti-Semitism.
Under these conditions the Prague Spring was a symbol of hope
for democratic reforms in Poland. For my generation, the Solidarność
generation, the year 1968 was the time of political initiation,
the choice of rebellion against dogmatic institutions of the
Party and State, the rejection of chauvinist propaganda, the protest
against censorship and suppression of academic liberties. We all
loved Czechoslovakia then; we were aware of the common fate of
our societies.
In the 1980s Solidarność continued its political contacts between
the Workers’ Defence Committee and Charter 77. Polish-
Czechoslovak Solidarity was founded to bring together the opposition
in both countries. Anna Sabatova became spokesperson of
the Czechoslovak side in 1987. Oppositionists held – illegally! –
long meetings on the mountainous border in the years 1987-1988.
Books and political programmes were translated, strategies agreed,
and joint actions decided, first of all aiming at setting political prisoners
free. Underground publications were smuggled across the
border but people were not allowed to visit the other country, telephone
conversations were stopped by the special services and
people were detained in Poland and arrested in Czechoslovakia. In
the late 1980s, Peter Uhl and Anna Sabatova’s flat in central
Prague became the headquarters of the democratic revolution, the
contact point of oppositionists from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary
and the former German Democratic Republic. Polish-
Czechoslovak Solidarity demanded the release of Andrei Sakharov,
its members welcomed Gorbachev’s reforms with hope, and were
preparing democratic revolutions in their countries. The rest is
history.
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