ABSTRACT
The saga of Poland—particularly in the invention of Sollidarity—tells how a proud and impoverished people sought to rid themselves of an alien body introduced into their midst. This chapter focuses on certain questions regarding the developmental tendencies in the Eastern bloc; him interest is not to narrate the dramatic events that have made Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia front-page headline news in all the world press. In 1956, eleven years after the conclusion of the Second World War and three years after Joseph Stalin's death, the flame of revolt spread through Poland and Hungary; in 1968, it was Czechoslovakia's turn. The saying that communism goes with Poland as much as a saddle goes with a cow, attributed to Stalin, if used in a quite different context, applies to all the countries of Central Europe. Indeed, in Poland, the arrest of Primate Stefan Wyszynski came six months after Stalin's death.
