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Poland’s Economy After Communism

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Submitted By kevpierce
Words 1698
Pages 7
Kevin Pierce
Dr. James Hedtke
POL 275
June 16, 2015
Poland’s Economy After Communism
The country of Poland gained their independence in 1918 only to be overrun by Germany and the Soviet Union during the Second World War (CNN.com). Around six million Polish people, including the majority of the country's large Jewish residents, died during the demoralizing six-year war.
The shadow of Stalin and his ways continued to loom large over Poland after the war when the Communist-dominated regime ensured that Poland would become a Soviet satellite state for the next four decades. During this period, the people of Poland and all communist countries began to see that a communist government and its economy were not beneficial to them or their families. The following decades were interspersed by revolts against the cruel, dictatorial regime in Warsaw, but none had a greater effect on Poland's political and economic future than events in 1980 at a shipyard in western Poland(CNN.com). With a struggling economy and stories of corruption and negligence within the state causing widespread unhappiness, a series of strikes by workers paralyzed the country. Eventually the government was forced to negotiate and on August 31, 1980, workers at the colossal Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, led by an electrician named Lech Walesa, signed a contract giving workers the right to strike and form trade unions.(CNN.com). This signaled the creation of the Solidarity movement, which at the end of the day, was instrumental in bringing Poland's communist era to an end. (CNN.com) In 1989, Poland approved The Balcerowicz Plan, also termed "Shock Therapy"(Warsaw Voice) This was a system for rapidly transitioning from a communist economy, based on state ownership and central planning, to a capitalist market economy. The goal was not to improve the socialist system, which they had tried to do in previous

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