Apart from considerable public support, the workers’ strike at the Lenin Gdańsk Shipyard in August 1980 received recognition and help from the only organization independent of the communist authorities in the Polish People’s Republic: the Catholic Church. Among its representatives there were some monastery clergymen – monks, of whom there were quite a few in the Gdańsk diocese. Dominican friars of Gdańsk, Conventual Franciscans, Jesuits, Pallottines, Reformists, Oblates and many others joined the activities of NSZZ (Independent Self-Governing Trade Union) “Solidarity” and were involved in one way or another. Their activities concentrated on the trade union and the social movement that was emerging around “Solidarity”. The union and the movement received the support of the monks not only through pastoral care, but also through fundraising, organization, and participation in independent artistic, writing and publishing life, as well as through the help given to the repressed members of “Solidarity” and their families.

The article presents the course of the investigation and trial of the leaders of the Confederation of Independent Poland. Proceedings against them were held in 1980–1982, first before the District Court in Warsaw, and after the imposition of martial law, before the Court of the Warsaw Military District. Basing on archival materials, a political process quite unique for the realities of the Polish People’s Republic has been described. The arrest of Leszek Moczulski on 23 September 1980, and in the following weeks the arrest of many members of the Confederation of Independent Poland leadership, initiated a wave of repressions against the Confederation. When the mass social movement of “Solidarity” was established, the communist authorities decided to attack the Confederation so that it would not influence the activities of the union. The leadership in Moscow, among others, pressed for the immediate pacification of the “counter-revolutionary forces” in the Polish People’s Republic, and encouraged the Polish leadership to quickly crack down on the Confederation. The authorities of the Polish People’s Republic also considered bringing members of the Committee for Social Self-Defense “KOR” to trial, but for fear of mass protests, ultimately had to resign. In the case of the Confederation of Independent Poland, it was decided that the protests would be too insignificant for a political trial to take place. The article describes how the leaders of the Congress defended themselves in the courtroom and how they easily dismissed allegations based on questionable evidence. In addition, the article also describes not only domestic but also foreign echoes of the process. All in all, the text presents the process of autonomisation of the judiciary from the party pressure in the era of the “Solidarity” revolution.

Mieczysław Rakowski, a long-time editor-in-chief of the weekly “Polityka” and a prominent representative of the party ‘liberals’ in the Polish United Workers’ Party, served as deputy prime minister in the government of Wojciech Jaruzelski since February 1981. Soon after, he became one of the most well-known figures in Jaruzelski’s team, but – at the same time – was not only torn by an internal conflict, but lost space for any political manoeuvre. This losing of political capacity was evident in the role he played in the top power elite in the first months of the martial law. Rakowski’s opinion meant little, but he never decided to leave the team. For his political ambition to win actual political significance, Rakowski was socially ostracised and kept away from actual centres of political power.

Martial law in the interpretations of the supporter of the “attitude of active duration”. Ryszard Reiff on events in Poland 1980–1983 The article presents evaluations of the events of 1980–1983 formulated by Ryszard Reiff, a well-known PAX activist. The first part of the article presents a short biography of the politician and his political concepts in the years 1945–1980. The next part discusses extensively Reiff’s activity in the period 1980–1981 with particular emphasis on his proposal to establish the so-called Great Coalition. It would be formed by the Solidarity trade union, the Church and the authorities of that time. This plan was not implemented and after martial law was imposed, he was removed from the association. At that time, he started to work with the underground Solidarity. The last part of the text presents martial law assessments and reflections on political realism. According to Reiff, martial law was a false alternative to the Soviet intervention. It hindered the possibility of economic reforms; it caused the emigration of one million young people and blocked the development of civil society.

The article discusses the phenomenon of hiding from internment of Solidarity activists and activists of other opposition groups during the martial law in Poland (1981–1983). Many of these activists hid in private apartments, sometimes also belonging to church institutions. In the case of their active underground activity, they even became at the forefront of underground structures. Disclosure of people in hiding is often used by people enjoying trusted society.

The article presents the life path of the journalist Jerzy Zieleński: his wartime experiences, post-war attitudes, relations with the communist political police, journalistic career and opposition activities. The article is a part of the historiographic debate on the evolution of attitudes of intelligentsia towards the communist system in the times of the Polish People’s Republic.

The article describes the underground publishing activities of an informal group gathered around Joanna and Andrzej Gwiazda in the 1980s and the history of the magazines they created: “Skorpion” and “Poza Układem” (“Outside the System”). The author describes the genesis and functioning of both magazines, analyses their programme and introduces the content of selected articles. The text is based on archival copies of the periodicals and on the accounts of people involved in the creation of them. This is the first historical study on the subject, as well as a contribution to the political biography of Joanna and Andrzej Gwiazda prepared by Piotr Brzeziński.

A significant problem the countries of the former Eastern bloc faced at the threshold of the political transformations of 1989/1990 was defining the role and place of secret services in the new political reality. The path of the reforms depended primarily on the “way of moving away from communism”, the level of the rulers’ experience and knowledge on the reform of secret services, as well as the involvement of the ruling team in the changes carried out in this area. These factors, among others, determined whether the adopted institutional model took the shape of a “zero option” (building services from scratch) or “continuation” (leaving the existing solutions and adjusting them to the conditions of the new regime). Apart from these two antinomic models, there were many hybrid forms, in which various concepts related to the construction of new services, locating them in the structure of state authorities, methods of operation, and selection of personnel, were mixed. The aim of this article is to present the solutions used in Poland and the circumstances of the establishment of the State Protection Office in 1990.

The popular opinion stated that the election polls during the April – June 1989 campaign were only the domain of the ruling camp. As it turns out, this is another myth of this period. Citizens’ Committees or other organizations which tried to read the social mood of that time also conducted their polls. The article discusses the polls, their results and the decisions made by those who commissioned them.

Due to the referendum nature of the elections in June 1989, the future deputies and senators of the opposition Civic Parliamentary Club were actually elected in April that year, when the election lists of the Citizens’ Committee were closed. These peculiar primary elections varied in different parts of the country and were not free from disputes (both at the regional level and on the “regional” – Warsaw line). Besides, some of the leading opposition activists did not take part in the elections, following the example of Lech Wałęsa. The latter, however, was strongly present in the election campaign of people representing the Citizens’ Committee, whose distinguishing feature – in the vast majority – was a photo taken with the leader of “Solidarity”. Undoubtedly, this “Solidarity” team, not always fully democratically elected, achieved success in the elections, filling almost all the seats in the Sejm and Senate of the Polish People’s Republic, which it could potentially win. The opposition representatives elected to the parliament formed there the Civic Parliamentary Club.

The article analyses the background of the formation of Tadeusz Mazowiecki’s government and the internal discussions in the “Solidarity” camp preceding this event. The key issue is to describe the relationship between the various bodies of the trade union: its president, the national authorities and the parliamentary club. The dynamics of the functioning of the “Solidarity” camp in that period anticipated the conflicts, which eventually led to its disintegration. The article is mainly based on archival sources: the documentation of the Civic Parliamentary Club and the National Executive Committee of NSZZ (Independent Self-Governing Trade Union) “Solidarity”.

Literary debates on Central Europe often concern the problems of the democratic breakthrough in the former Eastern bloc. Central Europe is also a common cultural and literary heritage; however, it must be shown how literary visions resonated in specific discussions and literary works in various countries before and after the democratic transformation of 1989/1990. Revolutionary events in Poland resulted in the “Autumn of Nations”, and the expectations of readers and critics for a suitable novel about the breakthrough and transformation process were high.