ABSTRACT
The phenomenon of Solidarity and martial law could be analyzed in terms of the suicide rate, which is the most sensitive indicator of social integration or disintegration. Martial law in Poland claimed fewer victims than similar states of emergency elsewhere across the world. Solidarity activists at the Institute, as in some other academic institutions, were required to sign a declaration of loyalty to the ruling regime. The chapter examines suicide as a social phenomenon as an effect of the disintegration of society and not as a sign of disintegration of the suicide victim’s personality. Sociological research on self-destructive behavior takes society, and not the individual, as its starting point—because researchers analyze suicide in the context of its social determinants. Socialism demolished fewer structures and values than elsewhere. Repression at the Institute of Crime Problems was less painful than in other institutes across the country.
