Volume 38, Number 11 · June 13, 1991
Poland After Solidarity
By Timothy Garton Ash
The Roots of Solidarity: A Political Sociology of Poland's Working-Class Democratization
by Roman Laba
Princeton University Press, 247 pp., $24.95
Breaking the Barrier: The Rise of Solidarity in Poland
by Lawrence Goodwyn
Oxford University Press, 466 pp., $27.95
Rok 1989: Bronislaw Geremek Opowiada, Jacek Zakowski Pyta (The Year 1989: Bronislaw Geremek Relates, Jacek Zakowski Asks)
Plejada (Warsaw), 384 pp., 30,000 Zl ($3.50)
Droga Do Wolnosci: 1985–1990, Decydujace Lata (The Path to Freedom: 1985–1990, the Decisive Years)
by Lech Walesa
Editions Spotkania (Warsaw), 304 pp., 26,000 Zl ($2.75)
Wódz (The Chief)
by Jaroslaw Kurski
Pomost (Warsaw), 128 pp., 17,000 Zl ($1.80)
Between Sesame Street and Twin Peaks, Polish television shows President Lech Walesa making his first ceremonial appointment of an army general. The new general is—a bishop. Around the corner from Pilsudski (formerly Victory) Square, a guardsman peers longingly into the new Mercedes showroom. The Palace of Culture, the most famous symbol of Soviet domination, now contains a large shopping mall. In front of it, a huge billboard advertises POLAMER, a Polish-American travel agency. The irony is so crude as to be somehow appropriate: kitsch beats kitsch. Down Nowy Swiat, a farmer snores in his vegetable truck, just a few yards from the freshly opened Christian Dior boutique. Everywhere, but everywhere, in the country as in the city, you see signs announcing a new hurtownia for this or that. Hurtownia means a wholesale warehouse, which means you pay less taxes, so every fledgling corner store is a warehouse now.
Review, 11363 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |