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Documents

September 1, 1988

Report on a Working Conference [of Opposition Leaders]

Report on a Working Conference [of Opposition Leaders] regarding emphasis that should be placed on the legal registration of Solidarity and the status of social participants in the Roundtable discussions

September 6, 1988

Report from Andrzej Stelmachowski to Lech Walesa

Report from Andrzej Stelmachowski to Lech Walesa regarding his meeting with Czyrek and their conversation on Czyrek’s vision of the Roundtable discussions including questions about Solidarity’s position in the political system if it were to be legalized

October 1, 1988

Letter from Andrzej Stelmachowski to Lech Walesa

Letter from Andrzej Stelmachowski to Lech Walesa discussing the proposed Roundtable talks, and the promise that subsequent meetings would not lead to arrests

October 6, 1988

Georgy Shakhnazarov’s Preparatory Notes for Mikhail Gorbachev for the Meeting of the Politburo

Georgy Shakhnazarov’s Preparatory Notes for Mikhail Gorbachev for the Meeting of the Politburo regarding the need for change in socialist countries and how the Soviet Union should respond to instability in these countries

October 24, 1988

Letter from A. Stelmachowski to Józef Glemp, Primate of Poland

Letter from A. Stelmachowski to Józef Glemp, Primate of Poland, discussing problems with the proposed Roundtable Talks, including false charges against Solidarity and changes to previously determined plans. Stelmachowski requests an explanation from Glemp of the prospects of realizing the goals of the proposed reforms.

October 28, 1988

Excerpt from the Diary of Anatoly Chernyaev

Excerpt from Anatoly Chernyaev’s Diary discussing a meeting between Kohl and Gorbachev and praising Gorbachev’s boldness for declaring a ‘new thinking’ and creating reforms

December 27, 1988

Minutes of the Meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU CC), (Excerpts)

Minutes of the Meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU CC), (Excerpts) regarding the change of presidency from Reagan to Bush, defense issues and international opinion of the imminent collapse of the Soviet Union

January 20, 1989

Letter from A. Stelmachowski to Lech Walesa

Letter from A. Stelmachowski to Lech Walesa suggesting more open Union structures and advocating a small body of representatives to take part in the Roundtable discussions

January 21, 1989

Anatoly Chernyaev’s Notes from the Politburo Session

Anatoly Chernyaev’s notes from the Politburo session on comments by Gorbachev on his meeting with the Trilateral Commission regarding the integration of the Soviet Union into the world economy and the possibility of a united Europe

January 31, 1989

Minutes of the Meeting of the HSWP CC Political Committee

Minutes of the meeting of the HSWP CC Political Committee on the Historical Subcommittee of the Central Committee’s description of the events of 1956 as a people’s uprising rather than a counterrevolution.

Editor's note: On 23 June 1988, the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party Central Committee established a committee to analyze Hungary’s political, economic and social development during the preceding thirty years. The panel, headed by Imre Pozsgay, 5 a politburo member and minister of state, included party officials and social scientists. After several months of examining pertinent archival documents, the Historical Subcommittee (one of four working groups) completed and discussed its final report at its meeting on 27 January 1989. Most sensationally, the report described what occurred in 1956 in Hungary as not a “counterrevolution” (as Moscow and the regime it installed in Budapest headed by János Kádár had long insisted) but a people’s uprising. This very point was announced by Imre Pozsgay in an interview on both the morning news program and the next day, on the most popular political journal of Hungarian Radio, “168 hours,” without any prior consultation with the political leadership. The issue triggered a serious crisis in the Party and eventually served as a very important catalyst in the transition process. The following excerpt reflects the first reaction of the Politburo members.
(EXCERPT)

Pagination