Abstract

The average Pole believes nothing good can come from the past. This attitude conditions the impact of Gorbachev's perestroika on Poland. It is not necessarily a sign of dissent. Except for the relatively brief period of Stalinism (which ended abruptly with Beria's death in 1956, but had already lost its impetus by 1953), Soviet socialism was never flaunted by the Polish rulers as a pattern to emulate. Neither the macro- social features of the Soviet system, nor specific Soviet solutions to individual problems, nor even the Soviet definition of problems were ever proposed as models. What was advocated, instead, was a “Polish road to socialism, “ with the emphasis being on differences rather than similarities.