Poland: Life under Communism - A Special Debate
Share
Much is known about the fight against Communism in Poland, but what exactly was life like in those years? And how has it changed since 1989? In a special debate from the Gdansk shipyard, as part of Euranet's Fall of Communism season, a group of Poles reveal their differing personal experiences.
The shipyards of Gdansk are famous the world over for being the birthplace of the famous dissident trade union Solidarity, which eventually suceeded in bringing an end to Communist rule in Poland in 1989.
While the world spotlight still focuses on the confrontations and strikes of the 1980s, the experiences of many ordinary Poles who lived for decades under Communist rule were quite different.
To learn about just a few of these points of view, Euranet's Dave Goodman discussed life under Communism and after 1989 with three Poles who had very different experiences:
Kazimierz Masizak, age 70, worked a welder in the shipyards for 10 years. As the leader of a branch of Solidarity he was arrested when martial law was introduced in 1981 and was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, of which he served 1 year. He left Poland in 1986 to escape mass unemployment and lived in the United States until he returned to Poland in 2004.
Daniel Wicenty is a historian from Poland's National Institute of Remembrance, which was established in 1998 to preserve the memory of those who suffered under Communism and those who fought to end it.
Pawel Bohdziewicz, age 19, is a student of construction at Gdansk university, who never experienced life under the Communist regime.
Click below to listen to the debate:
