Deciding Poland's Fate

In August 1980, a worker's strike in Poland led to a compromise known as the Gdansk Agreement, in which the Communist government agreed to several compromises with the strikers, including the legal formation of a worker's union -- which became Solidarity. While this initially brought stability in Poland, it set shockwaves through the Warsaw Pact from the emerging danger of "antisocialist forces." By March 1981, the Warsaw Pact's reaction had moved from verbal warnings to more active planning for what would eventually become the declaration of martial law in Poland. In this record from a Soviet Politburo meeting, Secretary Brezhnev reports the recent actions of Erich Honecker, the German General Secretary, to become more involved in Poland. With the center of Polish strikes in the city of Gdansk along the East German border, fears of the Polish compromises spreading to East Germany were rampant.