In 1980, shipyard workers in Gdansk formed the Solidarity trade union under the leadership of Lech Walesa. (a) Describe the demands made by Solidarity in 19...

(a) Demands made by Solidarity in 1980 [4 marks]

The Solidarity movement, formed in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk under Lech Walesa's leadership, presented the Polish government with a list of 21 demands. These included the right to form independent trade unions free from Communist Party control, the right to strike, and better working conditions and pay. Solidarity demanded the relaxation of censorship and greater freedom of speech. The movement also called for the release of political prisoners and for the Catholic Church to have access to the state-controlled media.

(b) Why General Jaruzelski imposed martial law in December 1981 [6 marks]

Jaruzelski faced intense pressure from multiple directions. Solidarity's membership had grown to approximately 10 million, representing about a third of the Polish workforce and constituting an unprecedented mass challenge to communist authority. The Soviet Union was applying heavy pressure on Poland to suppress the movement, with Warsaw Pact military exercises (codenamed "Soyuz 81") on the Polish border serving as a clear warning. Jaruzelski believed that if Poland did not act against Solidarity, the Soviets would invade, as they had in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968). Solidarity was increasingly making political demands that went beyond traditional trade union concerns, threatening the Communist Party's monopoly on power. The Polish economy was deteriorating sharply, with food shortages, rising debt, and inflation fuelling social unrest. Jaruzelski calculated that Polish-imposed martial law, however harsh, would be less destructive than a Soviet military intervention.

(c) How far the Solidarity movement weakened Soviet control over Poland [10 marks]

Solidarity fundamentally weakened Soviet control:

• It demonstrated that an independent mass movement could organise and sustain itself within a Soviet-bloc country, breaking the Communist Party's monopoly on public life.
• It proved that the Party had lost the support of the Polish working class, the very social group that communist ideology claimed to represent, exposing a devastating legitimacy gap.
• The Catholic Church's open support for Solidarity, especially following the election of Polish Pope John Paul II in 1978, gave the movement a moral authority that communism could not match.
• Despite being driven underground during martial law (1981-83), Solidarity survived and re-emerged in 1989 to negotiate the Round Table Agreement, leading to semi-free elections that ended communist rule in Poland.

Immediate weakening was limited:

• Martial law effectively suppressed Solidarity's public activities by early 1982.
• Walesa and other leaders were imprisoned, and the movement's organisation was disrupted.
• Poland remained in the Warsaw Pact and under communist government throughout the 1980s.
• Soviet control across the rest of Eastern Europe was not immediately affected by events in Poland.

Solidarity fatally weakened the legitimacy of communist rule in Poland and provided both inspiration and a practical model for the revolutions of 1989, even though its immediate impact was temporarily suppressed by martial law.