1989 Reports

Filling in Blank Spots: Soviet-Polish History and Polish Renewal

Valkenier, Elizabeth Kridl

In May 1987 Moscow and Warsaw announced the formation of the Joint History Commission to clarify the “blank spots” — the taboo or falsified subjects — in the common history of the two countries. The Commission, the only such body in the Bloc, was set up to carry out the Declaration on Soviet-Polish Cooperation in the Field of Ideology, Science and Culture, signed by Gorbachev and Jaruzelski on April 21, 1987. Their statement called for new forms of communication to foster a “rapprochement of our two nations” and more specifically for the elimination of “blank spots” through joint, objective study of Soviet-Polish relations.! The step was a prime example of the use of g/asnost’ to diffuse political pressures in both domestic and intra-bloc relations. It was viewed as a relatively painless confidence-building measure that would at one stroke gain popularity for Jaruzelski’s regime and improve the non-military underpinnings of the Soviet-Polish alliance.