Communist Poland
The British and Americans intended to establish democracy in nations liberated from the Nazis. By contrast, the Soviets sought to preserve the geographic and political gains they had achieved in Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Compromises made at the conferences, held in Yalta (Crimea) in February 1945 and Potsdam (occupied Germany) in July 1945, allowed continued Soviet domination in the East and resulted in four decades of Communism.
Solidarity
In July 1980, Poland’s Communist government increased prices and constrained wages. The action provoked nationwide protests that ultimately shook the regime. The most significant began on August 14, at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk. Lech Wałęsa, a laborer who had been dismissed for activism years earlier, became the public face of the protests. When the shipyard workers gained broad popular support, as well as international attention, Poland’s Communist leaders decided to negotiate. On August 31, 1980, Wałęsa and a member of the Polish Politburo signed the Gdańsk Agreement, which acknowledged workers’ rights to organize and to strike.