Blackwell Reference Online

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Adam Michnik was one of the most charismatic and influential figures in the democratic opposition to state socialism in Poland. His intellectual activism and organizational talent were critical to the success of the Solidarność (Solidarity) movement. Through the influence of Jacek Kuroń he became an outspoken critic of the gap between ideology and practice under the communist regime before he had even finished high school. While a student at Warsaw University he worked with a group of nonconformist intellectuals to foster political engagement among students, encouraging them to challenge authority and interrogate the ideological verities espoused by the Communist Party. His role in the student protests of March 1968 led to one of several prison terms he served over more than two decades of activism, and permanent expulsion from university. During the 1970s he was an active member of the Workers' Defense Committee (Komitet Obrony Robotników, KOR) and a lecturer for the Flying University. He became an advisor to Lech Walesa and the Solidarity movement, and participated in the round table negotiations that ended the Communist Party's dominance of political life in Poland. Like many student leaders of 1968, Michnik was the child of communist intellectuals. His father was a revolutionary activist before the war and served as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Western ... log in or subscribe to read full text