‘Deficit of Hope’ : Poles Finding the Revolution Just a Letdown

On the day in December, 1981, that Poland’s Communist authorities imposed martial law, hoping to crush the Solidarity independent trade union movement, the Moscow movie theater in downtown Warsaw was showing the film “Apocalypse Now.”

Last month, as one of the Solidarity advisers imprisoned during that earlier crackdown became the East Bloc’s first non-Communist prime minister in more than four decades, the same theater featured another American film--”Moonstruck.”

While it’s tempting to think that the theater’s 1989 offering must be as strikingly appropriate to the public mood as was the one on that frosty morning nearly eight years ago, nothing could be further from the truth.

A Glum Mood

In fact, the prevailing mood here is so glum that it is remarkable even to the Poles themselves.

“Did our historic hour strike?” columnist Jacek Bochenski asked in the popular new independent daily, Gazeta Wyborcza (Election Gazette), the other day. “Is the prime minister ours, and will Poland be ours? Then why didn’t Poles go out singing into the streets with banners?”

Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, an anti-Communist, World War II Polish hero who was able this summer to return safely to his homeland for the first time since the war, said in a subsequent television interview that he found “striking” the sadness and despair on the faces of people he saw on Warsaw streets.

Warsaw University sociologist Jadwiga Staniszkis speaks of a “joyless victory,” and Solidarity officials say the lack of enthusiasm following what by any standards was a stunning humiliation for the Communists may represent the most severe test for the new government.

“We must, as a nation, shake off the feeling of hopelessness and together face the challenge of the day,” Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki told the Polish Parliament in one of his first official addresses last month.

Many Poles say they are so busy trying to make ends meet in a collapsing economy that they have little time for dancing in the streets. Others note that after all their past disappointments, there is bound to be a part of them that remains unconvinced that this time will be any different.

But perhaps more significantly, Poles are discovering that for all its admittedly heady moments, revolution can be a long, painful process that may reveal unpleasant truths about a people and divide even the most united opposition movements.

“Everybody was united when all it was was getting rid of the Communists,” said magazine editor and political commentator Andrzej Wroblewski. “But once that was accomplished, there are so many differences! Not only the government and the Parliament is divided. They reflect the real divisions in society.”

The current mood stands in particular contrast to that which prevailed after Solidarity was registered as the East Bloc’s first independent trade union in 1980. From then almost until the day martial law was imposed 16 months later, there was a feeling of near invincibility throughout the country. Solidarity had 10 million members, their voices were suddenly the only ones that mattered in the nation’s factories and everything seemed possible.

Now Solidarity counts only 2 million dues payers--about the same number as in the Polish Communist Party.

Of course, Solidarity was always at least as much a social movement as it was a trade union. And now its other roles are more formalized. There is a Solidarity faction in Parliament with a leadership separate from the one guiding the trade unions. Prime Minister Mazowiecki, while close to Solidarity, functions as an independent in his new role, as do most of his ministers. Solidarity leader Lech Walesa operates from Gdansk as sort of a gray eminence.

But what used to be clearly defined lines between the Communist leadership and the Solidarity opposition are now much more blurred. What Staniszkis called the “language of mutual exclusivity in 1980” has been transformed into the common language of the coalition.

Bad Situation

In order to implement the tough economic reforms the new government says are necessary, “the pressure from the political center of Solidarity is to demobilize workers, not activate them,” added Staniszkis. Workers see their situation as bad and likely to get worse, while so far, at least, the old bureaucracy, installed by the Communists, seems to be “adjusting very easily” to the new rules.

As a result, said the sociologist, the young workers at the leading edge of the 1980 onslaught feel that this time “it is not their revolution.”

“It’s the end of this fundamentalist moral rightness as the base of (society’s) integration,” said Staniszkis. “Nobody knows who is the enemy. . . . For people thinking in abstract terms,” she added, Poland’s political change “is very exciting. But not for normal people.”

“We know that we took a tremendous risk forming the government in the present situation,” commented Bronislaw Geremek, a longtime adviser to Walesa and head of Solidarity’s new parliamentary faction.

The economic rot is so far-reaching that quick improvement is not in the cards. But at the same time, the economic deterioration has gone on for so long that people have no patience left, Geremek explained. There is a danger of social explosion. And “this time this explosion could become an uprising not just against the Communist Party but against Solidarity as a ruling force as well,” the lawmaker said.

“This is an economy of deficits,” Geremek added. “And the product that is most in deficit in Poland is hope.”

Faced with shortages, Poles stand in line. For the most desirable commodities, which might entail standing in line for days, they have devised an alternative institution they call the “social list.” Put down your name on a first-come, first-served basis, check in periodically to confirm your continued interest, and sooner or later you’ll get your opportunity.

Because of what Geremek calls the deficit of hope, the longest “social list” in town is the one for American visas. At last count it was 47,394 and rising rapidly. That’s about a four-month backlog at the current pace of processing.

Pessimistic Outlook

Gazeta Wyborcza reported recently that a survey of 2,134 people in 23 different provinces found only a little over one in four fully confident that the new government would be successful. Another 40% said they thought it “likely.” The young were more pessimistic than the old.

“A glimmer of hope is beginning,” said a Warsaw grandfather. “It’s a small flame, and very delicate. But it’s starting.” Of course, he added, “it’s always in the back of everybody’s mind that it could get worse.”

Gazeta Wyborcza columnist Bochenski concluded that the historical hour has struck, but not yet the hour of Poland’s victory. The reason, he argued, is that after 45 years, Poles “carry communism inside themselves, whether they want it or not.”

‘Helplessness of Man’

What’s left after all their past disappointments? “To swear. To laugh. Or to cry. We’ve gotten used to this, and in the end this is what we’re best at,” he wrote. “Do you know what this (condition) is? It is communism. Because communism in a man means the helplessness of man.”

All these years Poles have pictured the moment they would “shake off communism” as something external. In fact, he said, Poles will only shake off communism by shaking off that sense of individual helplessness.

“There is nothing to wait for,” he wrote. “We should do something immediately.”