The new organization “NSZZ Solidarity” had to be registered by a court in order to act. This registration process was the subject of lively debate at the CPSU Politburo meeting on October 29. The minutes of this Politburo meeting are included in one of the most extraordinary collections of documents from the Soviet era that have yet been made public by the Russian State Archives. It covers the period between the outbreak of strikes in 1980 and the imposition of martial law on December 13, 1981, a period known as the “Polish Crisis”. As a whole, the material shows that it was a rather clear message that the Soviet leadership conveyed to their Polish Party comrades.
Essay by
Karl Molin
June 30, 2011
ICCEES’ (International Council for Central and Eastern European Studies) Eight World Congress “Eurasia: Prospects for Wider Communication” took place in Stockholm, Sweden in July 2010. Host was the Swedish Society for the Study of Russia, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (Sällskapet ). Here you may read Mikhail Gorbachev´s speech, presented at the Opening Ceremony by Pavel Palazhchenko, advisor and interpreter to Mikhail Gorbachev. Also available is an essay based on Professor Archie Browns key note lecture “Gorbachev and Perestroika: a 25th Anniversary Perspective”. The Opening Ceremony and a discussion between Archie Brown, Jack Matlock, author and US ambassador in Moscow 1987‐1991 and Pavel Palazhchenko is published as video films here.
By
Ninna Mörner
August 25, 2010
Gorbachev here emphasize that the essence of glasnost was a real dialogue between authorities and society. The dialogue, he argues here, required a rejection of all forms of censorship and pressure on the mass media, the existence of rights for freedom of assembly, meetings and demonstrations, freedom of conscience, and the creation of public organisations. All this was done in the perestroika years according to Gorbachev.
By
Mikhail Gorbachev
August 25, 2010
Professor Archie Brown argues that Gorbachev was not selected as General Secretary because he was a reformer. He did at the time he became party leader believe both that the system was reformable and that it must be reformed. But he did not, however, reveal the full extent of his existing reformism on the eve of perestroika.
Essay by
Archie Brown
August 25, 2010
In the fall of 2009, Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment by Stephen Kotkin was published. The book offers a new interpretation of the causes behind the Eastern European collapse of 1989, utilizing structural and economic explanations.
By
AnuMai Kõll
February 19, 2010
Issue 2024, 3: 
Baltic Worlds covers; the Baltic Sea Region, Eastern Europe, Russia, CentralAsia, Caucasus and the Balkan area.