Start of the sale:
Saturday, 12 October 2019 at 04:34
Item n°854446189
Sale ends:
Thursday, 24 December 2020 at 13:40
The history of Solidarity (Polish: Solidarnosc) a Polish non-governmental trade union, begins in August 1980, at the Lenin Shipyards (now Gdansk Shipyards) at its founding by Lech Walesa and others. In the early 1980s, it became the first independent labour union in a Soviet-bloc country. Solidarity gave rise to a broad, non-violent, anti-communist social movement that, at its height, claimed some 10 million members. It is considered to have contributed greatly to the fall of communism.
Poland´s communist government attempted to destroy the union by instituting martial law in 1981, followed by several years of political repression, but in the end was forced into negotiation. The Roundtable Talks between the government and the Solidarity-led opposition resulted in semi-free elections in 1989. By the end of August 1989, a Solidarity-led coalition government had been formed, and, in December 1990, Walesa was elected president. This was soon followed by the dismantling of the communist governmental system and by Poland´s transformation into a modern democratic state. Solidarity´s early survival represented a break in the hard-line stance of the communist Polish United Workers´ Party (PZPR), and was an unprecedented event; not only for the People´s Republic of Poland—a satellite of the USSR ruled by a one-party communist regime—but for the whole of the Eastern bloc. Solidarity´s example led to the spread of anti-communist ideas and movements throughout the Eastern Bloc, weakening communist governments. This process later culminated in the Revolutions of 1989.
THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO OWN A UNIQUE PIECE OF HISTORY. IT IS A MUST FOR EVERY SERIOUS HISTORIAN AND COLLECTOR OF THIS PERIOD AND WILL MAKE AN INTERESTING ADDITION TO YOUR COLLECTION.
General Wojciech Jaruzelski announced the introduction of martial law in a speech first broadcast on radio and television at 6:00 am on December 13, 1981. In order to isolate members of the opposition (from the Solidarity movement), 52 internment centers were created. A total of 10,132 internment orders were issued against 9,736 people during the period of martial law.
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