Język Polski
English
Deutsch
Français (France)
Italiano
Русский
Polish-Australian Relations in the Era of Solidarity 1980–1981: Perspectives Revealed in Warsaw’s Official Diplomacy
Jan Lencznarowicz
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8837-3845
Uniwersytet Jagielloński
BioJAN LENCZNAROWICZ – historian, PhD with habilitation, professor at Jagiellonian University at the Institute for American Studies and Polish Diaspora, Cracow. His areas of research are: history of Australia, political myths and nationalism in modern history, Polish political emigration in the 20th century, Poles in Australia. He published Jałta. W kręgu mitów założycielskich polskiej emigracji politycznej po II wojnie światowej, Cracow 2009; Australia, Warsaw 2005, Prasa i społeczność polska w Australii. 1928–1980, Cracow 1994, and numerous articles in Polish and in English.
Remembrance and Justice, Vol. 38 No. 2 (2021), pages: 680-703
Publication date: 2021-12-30
https://doi.org/10.48261/pis213834
PDF
Abstract
In the 1970s Polish-Australian relations were seen as marginal both in Warsaw and Canberra. From the perspective of Australian foreign policy the plight of Poland was fixed under Soviet control and, in bilateral relations, only limited trade and the Polish immigrant group constituted points of some interest. The diplomacy of the Polish People’s Republic strove to improve political relations with a view to developing economic cooperation. This static picture was complicated by the rise of the Solidarity
movement in Poland. This study seeks to identify and document the most important areas in official Polish-Australian relations, as defined by the Foreign Ministry in Warsaw and the Embassy in Canberra, during the legal functioning of Solidarity in 1980–1981. Drawing on sources from the Archives of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the article examines how Polish communist diplomacy attempted to achieve its aims and to what extent it was successful. It argues that Warsaw managed to exert some influence on the Australian perception of the situation in Poland, particularly at the time of Minister Tony Street’s visit in November 1981, and consequently mitigated the immediate Australian reaction to the imposition of martial law.
References
Archiwum Ministerstwa Spraw Zagranicznych
National Archives of Australia
Burgess J., Poland, 1980–1984: A witness to history, “Humanities Research” 2010, vol. XVI, no. 3: The Solidarity Decade 1980–1989: An Australian Perspective, eds. S. Markowski, J. Pakulski.
Burgess J., The Solidarity Challenge: Poland 1980–81. An Australian Diary, Redland Bay 2019.
Stuart F., Towards Coming of Age. A foreign service odyssey, Nathan 1989.
Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, House, no. 38, 1980.
Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, House, no. 49, 1980.
Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, House, no. 122, 1981.
Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, Senate, no. 48, 1980.
Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, Senate, no. 49, 1980
Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, Senate, no. 91, 1981.
Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, Senate, no. 92, 1981.
“The Canberra Times”
“Trybuna Ludu”
“Życie Warszawy”
Ayres Ph., Malcolm Fraser. A biography, Port Melbourne 1987.
From Solidarity to Martial Law. The Polish Crisis of 1980–1981, eds. A. Paczkowski, M. Byrne M., Budapest–New York 2007.
Klatt M., The Poles & Australia, North Melbourne 2014.
MacEachin D., U.S.Intelligence and the Confrontation in Poland, 1980–1981, University Park 2002.
Miller T.B., Australia in Peace and War. External Relations 1788–1977, Canberra 1978.
Paczkowski A., Droga do „mniejszego zła”. Strategia i taktyka obozu władzy, lipiec 1980 – styczeń 1982, Cracow 2002.
Paczkowski A., Revolution and Counterrevolution in Poland 1980–1989, Rochester, NY, 2015.
Paczkowski A., Polska czasów kryzysu (1980–1989) [in:] Historia dyplomacji polskiej, t. VI: 1944/1945–1989, red. W. Materski, W. Michowicz, Warsaw 2010, p. 834–845.
Pleskot P., Kłopotliwa Panna „S”. Postawy polityczne Zachodu wobec „Solidarności” na tle stosunków z PRL (1980–1989), Warsaw 2013.
Pleskot P., Solidarność na Antypodach, Warsaw 2014.
Sjursen H., The United States, Western Europe and the Polish Crisis, Houndmills 2003.
Skrzypek A., Dyplomatyczne dzieje PRL w latach 1956–1989, Pułtusk–Warsaw 2010.
Smith G. et al., Australia in the World. An Introduction to Australian Foreign Policy, Melbourne 1996.
Świat wobec Solidarności 1980–1989, eds. P.Jaworski, Ł. Kamiński, Warsaw 2013.
Tyszkiewicz J., Rozbijanie monolitu. Polityka Stanów Zjednoczonych wobec Polski 1945–1988, Warsaw 2015.
Weller P., Malcolm Fraser PM. A study in ministerial power, Ringwood, Vic. 1989.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
