John F. Burns, “Soviet Press Praises Walesa in a First Interview”, The New York Times – March 3, 1989

 

The Main Point

A Soviet publication has printed a surprisingly amiable interview of Lech Walesa, labor leader of the Solidarity union in Poland. This interview is seen by many as a signal of Soviet approval of the Polish government’s new policy to join with rather than destroy the Solidarity Union.

 

Summary

The article written of Lech Walesa’s interview in the latest issue of New Times (published in Russian and nine other languages) is striking when contrasted with past Soviet attitudes. The Kremlin, under Leonid I. Brezhev, supported Polish government’s declaration of martial law in 1981 to crush the Solidarity union. Soviet leaders feared the strikes and protests of the Solidarity Union might set an example for Soviet workers. Walesa, leader of the Solidarity union, was regularly criticized in the Soviet press before Mikhail Gorbachev’s leadership which granted them newer freedoms.

 

The article characterized the Polish labor leader as a “man of principal” and quoted him as saying that the union did not seek to gain power from the country’s communist leaders but rather autonomy and independence from them. The article surprisingly quoted Walesa’s statements on the Solidarity’s role as a force for political and economic change in Poland. Walesa also made an attempt to dismiss the common assumption that Poles hate Soviets, by saying instead that they have sympathy for the Soviet people.

 

The interview has been hailed as a further sign of Soviet’s growing flexibility in its attitudes toward Eastern Europe.