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Democracy: Established, Lost, Restored

A Poster Presentation at the 2025 NCSS Conference

Poland's Governments in the Twentieth Century

After the Polish Constitution of May 3rd 1791, was enacted, Poland was partitioned for the third time. General Thaddeus Kosciuszko, A hero of the American Revolution, led an Insurrection against the encroaching powers of Russia, Prussia and Austria. After this armed rising was put down by the surrounding powers, Poles lived in an occupied country, yet preserved their traditions, language and heritage, in what was not their own nation state, but rather a "state of mind."

During the intervening 123 years insurrections aimed at restoring Poland failed. Poland was restored at the end of the Great War (WWI) in 1918 by the Treaty of Versailles. Key in this resurrection of the Polish state were US President Woodrow Wilson, Polish pianist and patrtiot Ignacy Jan Paderewski and military leader Jozef Pilsudski. This lasted until the beginning of WWII, after which the Soviet Union's dictator (Joseph Stalin) installed a Communist government in Poland. A social movement called Solidarity (Solidarnosc), which rose to protect workers' rights, finally broke the communist lock on power in 1989 and free elections were held. The Poland of today is a parliamentary state on the European model and its citizenry thrives in a nation state open to new ideas of freedom and entrepreneurship.

Questions to Peter Obst - email: [email protected]



Feel free to download the Power Point File - Polish_Democracy.pptx


Bibliography and Reference Materials

English, Charlie, The CIA Book Club: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature, Random House, New York, 2025.

Halecki, Oscar, History of Poland, Crown Publishing, New York, 1981.

Jones, Seth E., A Covert Action: Reagan, the CIA, and the Cold War Struggle in Poland W.W. Norton, New York, 2018

Kaufman, Michael T. "The Importance of General Jaruzelski," The New York Times Magazine, Dec. 9, 1984.

Kuron, Jacek, PRL dla Poczatkujacych, with Jacek Zakowski, Wydawnictwo Dolnoslaskie, Wroclaw, 2002 (currently in translation into English).

Kurski, Jaroslaw, Lech Walesa: Democrat or Dictator? Westview Books, Boulder, CO, 1993, (English version of Wodz, Pomost, Warsaw 1991; trans. Peter J. Obst).

Kutz, Kazimierz (director), (film) Smierc jak kromka chleba ; (script) Kazimierz Kutz, Wytwcrnia Filmow Dokumentalnych (WFD), Katowice, Poland, 1994 (1 hr. 56 min).

Lane, Arthur Bliss, I Saw Poland Betrayed, Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1948.

Nagorski, Andrew, The Birth of Freedom, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2003.

O'Brien, John, Docudrama on Polish miners filmed in PA (Pennsylvania); UPI Archives, Sept. 24, 1982.

Obst, Ursula, "Inside Poland," The Philadelphia Daily News, February 8-10, 1982.

Olgiati , Christopher (director), (film) Two Weeks in Winter: How the Army Took over in Poland (1982); Andrew Carr (script), (40 min) BBC TV aired as part of the Panorama Series in England, broadcast on PBS in the United States.

O'Rourke, P.J., "Poles Just Wanna Have Fun," Rolling Stone, November 6, 1986, p. 56-83.

Steven, Stewart, The Poles, Scribner, New York, 1982.

Walesa, Lech, A Way of Hope, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1987.

Walesa, Lech, The Struggle and the Triumph: An Autobiography, Arcade Publishing, New York, 1994.

Zamoyski, Adam, The Polish Way: A Thousand-Year History Of The Poles And Their Culture, Hippocrene Books, New York, 1993


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