Introduction to the Polish and Hungarian Revolutions

1. POLISH AND
HUNGARIAN
REVOLUTIONS

2. GENERAL JARUZELSKI: LEADER OF
POLISH COMMUNIST PARTY
 Declared Martial Law in
Dec. 1981.
 Banned Solidarity in Oct.
1982.
 Introduced limited
economic reforms in
1982.
 Failed to deal with huge
foreign debt problems and
low industrial productivity.
http://www.polishnews.com/index

3. SOLIDARITY: POLISH TRADE UNION
FEDERATION
 Founded in September 1980 at the Gdansk
Shipyard.
 It was originally led by Lech Walesa.
 First non-communist party controlled trade union in
a Warsaw Pact country.
 It constituted a broad anti-bureaucratic social
movement.
 In October 1982, General Jaruzelski banned the
trade union movement.
 June 1987: Pope John Paul II showed his support
of Solidarity.

4. LIFTING OF MARTIAL LAW
1983
 Martial Law was declared in December 1981 by
Jaruzelski.
 When lifted in 1983, Solidarity was weakened and
divided.
 In 1986 Jaruzelski granted a general political
amnesty.
 This allowed many leading members of Solidarity to
be released from prison.

5. THE REFERENDUM ON REFORM
1987
 Between 1982 and 1986: Poland’s foreign debt
increased by 35%.
 Jaruzelski decided that in order to strengthen the
regime’s political position that they political reform
was required.
 October 1987: The government held a referendum
in November on a package of economic and
political reform proposals.
 It backfired, Solidarity urged its supporters to
boycott it.
 The government failed to win 50% of the votes to
endorse its proposals.

6. PRICE REFORM
1988
 February: Jaruzelski introduced massive price
increases.
 Food prices went up 40-50%.
 More increases would start in May.
 The increases provoked large strikes in May and
August.
 They were not organized by Solidarity, but they
helped negotiate an end to the strikes.
 Leading Solidarity members acknowledged that
radical economic reform was essential, regardless
of how painful.

7. THE GROUP OF THREE’S PROPOSALS
 They were a committee of analysts.
 August: Jarulzelski accepted a report on political
reform by them.
 They proposed a new senate and parliament. 40%
of parliament to be decided from open elections.
 This led to the government to start discussing with
the Solidarity leaders.
 5 months passed before real negotiations began.
 Jaruzelski and other leading ministers had to
threaten resignation before the Party (Jan 1989).
 Negotiations were approved with Solidarity.

8. APRIL ACCORDS
• Took place between February and April of 1989.
• “The final attempt by Polish reform communists to
transform the system while maintaining control of the
process of change” Historian Frances Millard
• There were to be free elections to the Senate.
• Open elections for 35% of the seats in
Parliament, with 65% remaining for the Communist
Party.
• Office of president, elected by the Parliament and
Senate, was to be created.

9. THE JUNE ELECTIONS
 Two rounds of elections.
 Solidarity candidates won all but one of the seats open to
nonofficial candidates.
 In July 1989, General Jaruzelski was elected President.
 Solidarity leaders felt they had to keep to this undertaking.
 If Jaruzelski was not elected they feared a coup by
hardliners within the Communist Party or Soviet
intervention.

10. APPOINTMENT OF A SOLIDARITY-LED
COALITION GOVERNMENT
 With their electoral triumph in June
Solidarity leaders wanted more
political influence.
 Jaruzelski initially refused to accept
a Solidarity Prime Minister.
 By mid-August Tadeusz Mazowiecki
was named Prime Minister.
 In September 1989, Polish
Parliament approved the new
coalition government.
 Lech Walesa of Solidarity was
Leah Walesa elected president in 1990.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/
Lech_Walesa_-_2009.jpg

11. HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION
 Bloodless revolution and followed on a period of
negotiation between the government and opposition
groups, similar to Poland.
 Reform started before it did in Poland.
 Government had permitted multi-candidate parliamentary
elections since 1985.
 This prevented frustration with economic and political
situation in Hungary reaching the levels it did in Poland.

12. REFORM COMMUNISM IN HUNGARY
 Hungary’s foreign debt per capita
was the highest in the Eastern
bloc.
 In 1987, Janos Kadar appointed
Karoly Grosz as the new Prime
Minister.
 Grosz and Imre Posgay
undermined Kadar who eventually
resigned in may 1988.
 Grosz favored limited power
sharing with non-communist
parties.
 Posgay wanted to demote the Karoly Grosz
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/t
humb/7/77/GroszKaroly.jpg/225px-
Party from its leading role. GroszKaroly.jpg

13. IMRE NAGY
http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/
a5/ImreNagy.jpg/225px-ImreNagy.jpg
 Posgay helped push for the rehabilitation of the reputation
of Imre Nagy, the reforming Communist leader who had
been arrested and executed by the Soviet Government
during the 1956 Revolution.
 In June 1989, Nagy was reburied with honor in a
ceremony attended by a quarter of a million Hungarians.

14. NATIONAL ROUND TABLE TALKS
(JUNE 1989)
 In April 1990, a non-communist coalition government
took office in Hungary.
 Reform in Hungary had a very important effect on the
GDR (East Germany).
 In May 1989, the Hungarian government announced
that it was opening its borders.
 This meant that East Germans could now travel into
Hungary and then cross into Austria and then on into the
Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany).