“Twenty-five years ago next Wednesday — 31 August 1980 — unemployed Polish electrician Lech Walesa struck a major blow to Soviet communism when, after leading a strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, he announced the official birth of the Solidarity independent trade union. Solidarity went on to play a central role in the demise of communism across the Soviet bloc, changing forever the course of history in Europe…”

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty is running a couple of articles about the Solidarity movement in Poland, which has since become a symbol for non-violent struggle against tyranny in the post-Soviet world. The first is an article on the movement in general, and the second is based on an interview with Bronislaw Geremek, one of the leading intellectuals of Solidarity. Both are must reads.

“…In June 1989, in the first free elections ever in the communist bloc, Solidarity won the maximum number of seats allowed in both houses of parliament. And with two smaller parties, it formed the first non-Communist government in the Soviet bloc.

Six months later, the Berlin Wall came crumbling down.”