Cooperation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union and Polish Solidarity
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Abstract. Purpose to analyze the significance of the first Ukrainian party-type socio-political organization created by political prisoners, the Ukrainian Helsinki Union, and the experience of cooperation with leaders of the Polish anti-communist opposition at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. Methodology. The historical-comparative method, as well as the methods of analogy and synchronization were applied. Scientific novelty: For the first time, the article reveals the data from the interviews recorded by the author with the Fighting Solidarity leaders, Piotr Hlebowicz, Mykola Ivanov, and Oles Shevchenko, as well as the Head of the Kyiv organization of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union. The originality of the study lies in the analysis of published documents on the history of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union and the Polish anti-Communist opposition, including publications in the press of the Polish People’s Republic, as well as the memoirs of the participants of the mentioned events. A number of materials are introduced into scholarly circulation for the first time. Conclusions: 1. Ukraine and Poland in the 1980s had different dynamics of socio-political processes, which were due to the state of societies, which in Ukraine was intimidated by political repression. In Poland, repression had never reached such a scale and brutality. Communists, even state security officers, were patriots of Poland, not the USSR. 2. In the wake of perestroika and the weakening of totalitarianism, Poland was at the forefront of revolutionary processes in Central and Eastern Europe and set an example for others. That is why the Ukrainian Helsinki Union leaders realized the idea of establishing contacts with the Solidarity elite. The first meetings took place in 1989. 3. Bilateral contacts made it possible for the Ukrainian opposition to exchange information and receive methodological, material, moral, and political support. 4. Contacts between the new political leaders of Poland and Ukraine contributed to a change in the tone of the bilateral Polish-Ukrainian relations at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s that continued throughout the following years
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