Democratic Transition of Poland and Czechoslovakia

Democratic Transition of Poland and Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia and Poland are two countries that share a similar past. Each country participated in WWII and both came under the leadership of Stalin and his socialist party system. These countries were ruled by the communist party for over three decades, but Czechoslovakia was ruled differently then Poland was. Each countries transition to democracy was plagued by some misfortune or another. Communist reforms, opposition to the regime and the violence of the transition to democracy played a critical role in the shaping of these two countries before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

By the 1980’s Czechoslovakia was beginning to realize that they were not as well off as people in the west. Much of the economy was controlled by the communist party and much of trade occurred only between the soviet bloc countries. In the 80’s Gustav Husak ruled Czechoslovakia with an iron fist. Husak followed the system of central planning and tried to implement communist ideas into Czech society. The plan relied heavily on the Soviet Union for support. Reforms were introduced by Husak to improve standards of living and the economy. Husak introduced perestroika, but did not implement it into Czech society. After the Soviet Union began to experience a collapse in the communist system, the Czech people started to organize against the communist regime.

Unlike Czechoslovakia, who experienced minor communist control of the country, Poland was worse off economically and politically. The country was still recovering from the devastation of the Second World War which destroyed much of the country during that time. Poland was struggling to keep the country together and the public were growing ever weary of the regime. In the early 80’s Poland started to see some light with the introduction of trade unions. The Polish people thought this would be the start of the breakdown of communist control over the country. These unions created reforms for the good of the people and it looked as if Poland was going to make a safe transition. The unions and protests were quickly suppressed by the communist regime and Poland began to unravel economically and politically. Reforms were nowhere in site and hundreds of thousands of poles begun to migrate to western countries. The only hope for Poland came with the introduction of perestroika and glasnost which reinvigorated political reform. These reforms lessened the severity of the situation in Poland, but opposition was already growing and it would only be a matter of time before the people took action.

Opposition from Czechoslovakia became evident in the late 70’s. Chapter 77 became the first manifesto to take a look at human rights. The manifesto challenged the communist system and made Czechoslovakia a prime target for the Soviets. The members of this group were exiled, imprisoned and punished by other means that were meant to weaken the group. Czechoslovakia did not experience the type of corruption and brutality witnessed by many Poles and their transition into democracy was somewhat peaceful.

Poland’s opposition to communist rule started in the early 80’s with the founding of Solidarity. Solidarity was unions organized to take back social institutions and other parts of political and economical life from the communists. The party had close to ten million members in the 1980’s, but pressure and fear from the communist party led the president to restrict unions and declare marshal law. Citizens were afraid to say anything, otherwise they would be imprisoned. Unlike Czechoslovakia, Poland was in a state of crisis economically. The country was on the verge of collapse and the Soviet Union could do nothing about it. The pressure got so great that the Soviet Union began to add capitalist reforms to polish society. The Soviet Union was still trying to have control of Poland, but the opposition party would not negotiate because of the Soviet Union’s persistence to keep power in Poland. Over the next few years, the Solidarity opposition grew stronger and started to have demonstrations all over the country. The communists finally awarded them seats in the government, but rigged the election so that they would still have control of Poland. The results were that the opposition won almost all of their seats and the two puppet parties of the Soviet Union split to become their own parties. By this point the Soviet Union was about to breakdown, it could not control its satellite states and its own economy was very weak because of the excessive cold war spending. The transition