This review essay examines the myth of Lech Wałęsa in Andrzej Wajda’s film Man of Hope and the events before and during the Solidarity era in Poland. Man of Hope completes Wajda’s ambitious historical trilogy, consisting earlier of Man of Marble and Man of Iron . The film, in its attempt to restore myth, significantly departs from Wajda’s earlier post-ideological documentary style, which was characteristic of the cinema of moral anxiety. Wajda’s interpretation of the myth of Wałęsa as well as of Wajda’s (and Wałęsa’s) more ideological critics, notably Sławomir Cenckiewicz in Człowiek z teczki (Man with a Police File), does not always square well with the historical facts. Other recent perspectives on Wałęsa, including Danuta Wałęsa’s memoir, are crucial for a more rounded picture. Oriana Fallaci’s assessment of postmodern leaders, including Wałęsa, as much diminished in stature but more believable as real historical figures, seems the most appropriate judgment.

The Polish historian Sławomir Cenckiewicz, formerly of the Institute of National Memory, has produced a book discussing the life and impact of Anna Walentynowicz, whose dismissal from the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk in early August 1980, five months before she was scheduled to retire, became the catalyst for the formation of Solidarity. The appendices to Cenckiewicz's book consist of more than 300 densely printed pages of crucial documents from the former state security archives, and these make the volume worthwhile. As a biography, the book has notable shortcomings, in part because it contains a good deal of extraneous material and fails to discuss numerous parts of Walentynowicz's life. Even so, Cenckiewicz does successfully capture some aspects of Walentynowicz's character and activities. In time, better books about Walentynowicz will appear, but Cenckiewicz's volume will be an important source for future biographers.

Solidarity, the free Polish trade union that emerged in 1980, acted in close alliance with the Roman Catholic Church. The union's struggle for human dignity and freedom became a question of national redemption and often used religious symbols and rituals. Although one can argue whether Pope John Paul II was personally the fulcrum of revolt, Solidarity and the demise of Polish Communism are hard to imagine without him. Not surprisingly, the Polish security forces made vigorous efforts to penetrate the Polish Catholic Church, eventually enlisting as informants some 15 percent of the clergy. Recent revelations of extensive collaboration by priests, notably in Father Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski's acclaimed book, provide a valuable correction to the historical record but do not greatly detract from the overall image of the Church as having resisted Communism. The Church, among other things, served as a refuge for many in the darkest moments of the Communist era and helped to force change by throwing its support behind Solidarity.

Marjorie Castle's volume in the Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series, Triggering Communism's Collapse: Perceptions and Power in Poland's Transition , discusses events in the late 1980s that induced the leaders of the Polish Communist party to open negotiations with senior opposition figures, including the head of the still-banned Solidarity trade union. Preliminary talks in 1988 led to agreement on the holding of Round Table talks, which formally began on 6 February 1989 and ended two months later, on 5 April 1989, with arrangements to hold partly free parliamentary elections in early June. Contrary to the expectations of both the regime and the opposition, those elections resulted in an overwhelming victory for Solidarity, starting a chain of events that led to the formation of the first non-Communist government in a Soviet-bloc country since 1948. Three distinguished experts on Poland comment on Castle's analysis of Poland's transition and offer their own assessments of the importance and legacy of the Round Table talks.

This article provides a critical review of Oczami Bezpieki (Through the Eyes of the Security Service), an overview of post-1945 Poland based on secret police files by Slawomir Cenckiewicz. The essay sheds light on the ongoing controversies surrounding the secret police files that still can cause turmoil in Polish politics. The article discusses the aggressive strategies of the Communist-era security apparatus in three areas considered in the volume: penetration of émigré communities in the United States; attempts to neutralize opposition to the Communist regime from 1968 through the 1980s; and the manipulation of the Roman Catholic Church. The documents demonstrate how obsessively the security forces kept track of opposition activities.