Abstract

THIBAUD: The Polish events, the manner in which the Russians and their representatives in Poland intervened on December 13 against Solidarity, what does this tell us concerning the functioning of the Soviet system and its possibilities?

CASTORIADIS: On the tactical level, it has been clear for a long time that three possibilities were open to the Kremlin: one, direct military intervention; another, a policy attempting and-or provoking the acceleration of decay or decomposition of the popular movement; the third possibility was a putsch making use of Polish elements. What may have been surprising is that the putsch was not made by a “tough” faction of the party, but by the army, which clearly does not play merely a technical role in the matter.