The Great Transformation
Poland on the Road to the “Round Table”
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The break with Communism in 1989 began in Poland at least ten years earlier. The peaceful dismantling of Communism was the result of a transition that took place within society. The visit of the Pope in 1979 overcame the atomisation of society. The economic crisis advanced the establishment of a mass movement around Solidarność. With martial law, the regime lost the rest of its legitimacy, but the opposition was not in a position to take power. The Round Table broke the stalemate in favour of the opposition and set in motion the political about-face within the Socialist camp.
(Osteuropa 2-3/2009, pp. 173–182)