Cold War · 1980-1989

Solidarity: Poland's road to 1989

In August 1980 shipyard workers in Gdańsk went on strike and won the right to a free trade union: Solidarity. Within a year it had ten million members. Banned under martial law, it came back to win Poland's first partly free election in 1989. Students follow the first crack in the Soviet bloc.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, AD 1960
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

In August 1980 shipyard workers in Gdańsk went on strike and won the right to a free trade union: Solidarity. Within a year it had ten million members. Banned under martial law, it came back to win Poland's first partly free election in 1989. Students follow the first crack in the Soviet bloc.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain why the Gdańsk strike of August 1980 was so unusual in the Soviet bloc.
  • Describe what Solidarity was and why the government banned it in December 1981.
  • Explain how the Round Table talks and the election of 1989 ended communist rule in Poland.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1960

Poland in the bloc

Open the map in 1960 and find Poland between East Germany and the Soviet Union. Why would Moscow watch events in Poland so closely?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1960

The shipyard

Zoom in on Gdańsk on the Baltic coast. The Lenin Shipyard lay next to the old city. Ask the atlas: "What did the Gdańsk workers demand in August 1980?"

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1960

A Polish pope

Travel to Kraków in the south. Its archbishop Karol Wojtyła became Pope John Paul II in 1978 and visited Poland in June 1979. Why did a pope's visit worry a communist government?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. In a workers' state the workers went on strike against the government. Why was that so embarrassing for the regime?
  2. Solidarity had about ten million members within a year. Why did so many people join so fast?
  3. In December 1981 General Jaruzelski declared martial law. He later said he did it to prevent a Soviet invasion. Do you believe him?
  4. During the 1980s Solidarity survived underground, with secret printing presses and radio. How does a banned movement stay alive?
  5. In the election of June 1989 Solidarity won almost every seat it was allowed to contest. Why did the communists agree to such an election?
4

Game round

9 min

Play one round of Rule History as Catherine the Great, who took part in dividing Poland in the 18th century. Then discuss: in 1980-1989 Poles took their future back without a war. What choices did Wałęsa, Jaruzelski and Gorbachev each face?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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