From Communism to Democracy. Political and Social Transformation of Poland

From Communism to Democracy: Case of Poland

Professor of politology in the Institute of Political and Administrative Sciences at Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow Piotr Musiewicz, PhD, held a round table at Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani University on 14 November 2023. His visit to Georgia is within the Erasmus+ staff mobility for the teaching program framework.

Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Professor Tamar Kobuladze organised and hosted the event. Professors of Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani attended the round table.

The 2-hour presentation consisted of two parts. Attendees participated in two Q&A sessions, which helped in better understanding the choices made by the Polish people and politicians that led Poland towards its current position.

The Polish researcher with substantial work experience in political studies discussed the political and social transformation of Poland from 1944 up to today. His fruitful retrospective embraced every key event in the life of his homeland that navigated Poland after WWII's harsh East European reality towards becoming an EU country.

Professor Musiewicz provided a detailed account of the turbulent transformation process Poland went from a people's republic heavily influenced by Soviet Russian policy to a new democracy with a promising future: two politically influential visits of Pope John Paul II to Poland in 1979 and 1983 that the communist party decided to allow and which resulted in ending of Martial Law, Round Table Agreement 1989, reforms in 1989-1990 and after, transformation models of post-Soviet republics in East Europe, 1992 Lustration Crisis in Poland, Law and Justice winning Parliament and Presidential elections of 2005, fight for gas and fuel independence from Russia by twin brothers: PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski and President Lech Kaczynski from 2005 to 2010, Anti-communist Law and Justice ruling Poland since 2015, anti-post-communism reforms since 2015, and current controversies between Conservative Party (pro-American and anit-Communist) and Liberal Party (pro-Germand and pro-Russian) in Poland.

Sharing the experience of Poland and analysing all the problems and obstacles his country has overcome so far is the best academic support for Georgian scholars Professor Musiewicz could offer as Georgia persistently keeps trying to establish itself as an independent and free state on the political map of the modern global society.