Word: polisher
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...parliament. But by far the boldest act was a declaration, which took Walesa by surprise, encouraging the workers of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to "struggle for free and independent unions." Moscow called the act "openly provocative and impudent," as 100,000 Soviet troops staged maneuvers on the Polish border...
...June the Soviet Central Committee sent Warsaw a letter, as ominous as a drum roll, that criticized by name the Polish Communists for tolerating counterrevolution: "We are disturbed by the fact that the offensive by antisocialist enemy forces in Poland threatens the interests of our entire commonwealth and the security of its borders?yes, our common security." In early July, a chill settled over Warsaw: Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko dourly descended upon the Polish capital with yet another admonition against any liberalizing tendency within the party...
...Said a Polish historian: "The Poles have gone on a memorial binge." Freedom was being won. But the battle for bread was not, and if this failed, all else would fail as well...
...There are few virtues that the Poles do not possess," Winston Churchill once remarked, "and there are few mistakes they have ever avoided." To an extraordinary degree, Lech Walesa embodies the Polish virtues of courage, faith, patriotism, spontaneity. But neither he, nor his lieutenants, nor the men who ruled the country were able to avoid the errors that finally led to tragedy. They were unable to reach a compromise to save the "renewal" that they all claimed to have wanted...
Lech Walesa had the overwhelming majority of the Polish people behind him, and to them he conveyed a compelling message of hope. The Poles will not forget?they never have. During Poland's 16-month awakening, the priests and parishioners of a church in central Warsaw used to sing together joyfully: "O Lord, please bless our free fatherland." On the first Sunday after martial law was declared, the words of that hymn were changed back to those traditionally sung when the country was under foreign domination. "O Lord," the congregation sang, "please return us our free fatherland." ?By Thomas...