The Spring Will Be Ours - Poland and the Poles from Occupation to Freedom (review)

In 1993–1994, when I was on a Fulbright grant to Poland, I spent a good deal of time at the Polish national archives in Warsaw. During my stay there I was told by the archivists that only two scholars in Poland at that point had full access to the archival materials, most of them classified. One of the scholars was Andrzej Paczkowski.

Paczkowski certainly made good use of this privilege. Even during the Communist era, he published (under a pseudonym) some secret documents from the archives of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). This was followed by several articles published in both Polish and English, the latter under the aegis of the Cold War International History Project. In 1996 he was chosen by Stéphane Courtois, the editor of a monumental study, The Black Book of Communism, to author a chapter dealing with Poland. When the Institute of National Remembrance was set up by the Polish government in 1998, Paczkowski was appointed to its governing board. In the meantime, in 1995, he published a landmark book, Półwieku dziejów Polski 1939–1989 (Half a Century of Polish History), of which the volume under review is a translation.

I mention all of Paczkowski's scholarly accomplishments to show that he is undoubtedly the most prominent of Polish historians to emerge since the country's march to freedom began in 1980. The Spring Will Be Ours (the title comes from a favorite slogan of the Solidarność labor movement) is a culmination of his scholarship, although judging by his enthusiasm and hard work we can only hope that additional monographs are in the works.

This is an outstanding book. Paczkowski has added a masterful introduction covering the interwar period and an epilogue that briefly summarizes events after 1989. The bulk of the book is devoted to the 1980s, and no one in Poland today is more competent than Paczkowski to deal with the intricacies of Polish history. He admits that he benefited greatly from the work of many Polish and foreign historians, but the core of the volume is based on his own research. What I found particularly useful was that in each chapter he added a section dealing with cultural developments and accomplishments, including literature, film, and theater. These sections highlight the many important contributions made by Polish intellectuals and artists—contributions that hitherto have not been widely covered.

The translation by Jane Cave, a well-known translator from Polish to English, is excellent. I found only one significant error: The name of the Polish general on p. 85 should be Władysław Anders and not Jarosław. (Later in the book he is correctly identified.) This minor blemish does not detract from a work that ought to be required reading for all those interested in modern Polish history.