Unofficial American Diplomacy and Poland's Transformation to Democracy, 1981-1989 (Research Brief)

The purpose of my research project was to investigate informal contacts between American diplomats and Polish dissidents from the declaration of martial law in Poland in December 1981, when the Solidarity Trade Union became an illegal, underground organization, through September 1989, when the democratic opposition formed a coalition government with reform-minded Communists. My month-long research trip in June 2010 focused on documenting contacts between American diplomats and the Polish opposition in secret police files now accessible at the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance (Instytut Pamieci Narodowej, IPN) in Warsaw.

Download the pdf at the top of this page for the full brief.

Gregory F. Domber, of the University of North Florida, was a 2010-11 Short-Term Travel Grants (STG) fellow.