Sarah Paine

In the Eastern Bloc, they're for freedom from the Soviet Union.

And Gorbachev may have not gotten that detail.

But they're all about not only wanting political freedoms, but also they're about crumbling economies of how to fix their miserable standards of living.

And very uncharacteristically, the Russians didn't send tanks.

In fact, Gorbachev welcomed and encouraged reforms in the Eastern Bloc, both political and economic, just as he was doing in the Soviet Union.

So his idea of glasnost, openness, and perestroika, rebuilding, they resonated at home and abroad.

And these reforms began in Poland.

Poland had been a scene of much worker unrest many times in 1956, 1970, 1976, and 80 and 81.

In 80 and 81, this is when solidarity, the workers movement gets going and it gets a national and international reputation.

The next set of strikes are happening in 1988 because in the preceding several years, the Polish standard of living had shrunk by over 3%, and the government was out of cash and wanted to raise basic food prices, and polls hit the streets.

And the government was in a panic because it was worried the economy would go into freefall.

So the government cut a deal with Solidarity, said, you call off the strikes,

And then we'll let you into political talks.

And Solidary agreed.

And there was a complicating factor on all of this.

It's called the Roman Catholic Church, which is an institution of enormous credibility and legitimacy in Poland, which had a partiality for Solidarity, and it had a Polish pope.

And so, the round cable discussions were these political talks.

They occurred a year later in February, 1989, and the Soviets encouraged them.

In fact, here's one Soviet person there advising the Poles, look, you gotta find some quick solutions out of your economic and political mess.

You're an itty-bitty country, so when you make mistakes, they'll be itty-bitty mistakes, but if we make them, they'll be big.