History /
Why communism failed in Poland? [275]
This is a great topic, I'm so excited to have found it! (YAY!) I was actually just thinking about this same question last night. Yes, this is fun for me.
I came up with several reasons, some of which have already been discussed here. Sorry, I had to skip a few pages of posts.
1. Communism hasn't really worked anywhere, so... I guess that's one answer.
2. It was imposed by the Soviets/Russians. Sure, there were Communists in Poland before Poland was incorporated under Soviet influence, but they weren't the ones in control. I wonder if things would have been different had the Soviets backed off, and let Communism take root in Poland on its own. (Obviously, that wasn't the plan.) And we all know how the Polish feel about taking orders from everybody else:)
3. The Church. Obviously Church leaders were against Communism (well, some played both sides, but we all know about that), and in Poland that means a lot.
4. Poland's level of industrialization was not up to the standards of say... Czechoslovakia, which did better under Communism. Really, if you look at the former Communist countries, the ones that did the best (comparatively) were the most industrialized. Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, the Baltic Republics of the Soviet Union (which weren't all that industrialized, but compared to other Republics, they were). The countries that did the worst were the more agrarian ones: Poland, Romania, Albania, etc.
Also, these more industrialized countries that did "better" under Communism seem to have adapted to capitalism much faster than their less industrial counterparts. Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, for example... have done very well for themselves over the past several years, joined the EU, had high GDP growth, rapid modernization, etc. The former Yugoslavia is a mess because of their ethnic issues (with the exception of Slovenia, which is already on the euro, I believe, and Croatia, which is doing ok), but the other countries that are struggling somewhat are Poland, Romania, Ukraine, etc. The more rural ones. Communism was a very urban-centered ideology.
Does this all make sense?
