Warsaw Embassy Cable, Bronislaw Geremek Explains Next Steps Toward a Solidarity Government

Following the historic semi-free elections in Poland in June 1989, which resulted in a near total defeat of the Communist regime, Polish Communist and Solidarity leaders engaged in ongoing and significant negotiations in the hope of establishing stability in Poland. On August 24, 1989, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, journalist and Solidarity activist, became the first non-Communist prime minister in Eastern Europe since World War II. This document, a report from the American Embassy in Warsaw to the U.S. secretary of state, describes Solidarity activist Bronislaw Geremek's explanation of the steps that leaders in Poland were taking to form a new coalition government, with Solidarity at the head. This report clearly points to the difficult task of forming a new government in the midst of political and economic crisis; it shows the cooperation that took place between the opposing sides; and it indicates the process by which communism was disintegrating in Poland.