NSZZ Solidarność (Labor organization) collection
Overview
Contains documents, interviews, oral histories, proclamations, correspondence, leaflets, posters, calendars, stamps, photographs, buttons, and other memorabilia. Records are in printed form, typescript, microfilm, tapes, and cassettes. Material concerns the strikes of 1970 and 1980; Solidarność trade union matters; activities of various opposition groups and political parties such as KOR, PPN, and KPN; repressions and martial law; church and state; police; and the Polish United Worker's Party (PZPR). There are also many leaflets and declarations issued by various organizations, groups, and committees.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1956-2010
Language of Materials
Materials are mostly in Polish, with some English.
Restrictions on Access
The majority of the collection is open for research. Some materials in Series VI are restricted until 2070 due to inclusion of personnel records.
This collection is shelved offsite. Retrieval requires advance notice. Check with Houghton Public Services staff.
Conditions Governing Use
Special equipment or surrogate required for audiovisual materials; consult Houghton staff.
Extent
45.8 linear feet (60 boxes)22.4 Gigabytes (32 compact discs)
Series I Periodicals makes up the majority of the collection and includes periodicals published by Solidarity and its regional unions. Series II Other publications includes publications, largely Polish, that relate to Solidarity but were not directly published by Solidarity, as well as some drafts and other writings. In Series III Records there are materials relating to the formation, governance, and press for Solidarity in Poland. Series IV Ephemera and audiovisual materials contains posters, buttons, stamps, and other ephemera, as well as a series of audio cassettes and the digitized version of these. It is believed these are oral histories, but the exact content is unknown. Series V Correspondence contains letters to and from Solidarity members, listed by name. The final group of materials, Series VI Solidarity collection materials, contains materials relating to the union’s publications and other materials traveling outside of Poland, and their exhibition, cataloging, processing, and inclusion at libraries in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and elsewhere.
Biographical / Historical
The NSZZ "Solidarity" is translated from Polish to English into: Independent Self-governing Free Trade Union "Solidarity." In Polish, the full name is Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy "Solidarność." NSZZ "Solidarność" is a trade union founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. Subsequently, it was the first independent free trade union in a Warsaw Pact country to be recognized by the state. The union's membership peaked at 10 million in September 1981, representing one-third of the country's working-age population. Solidarity's leader, Lech Wałęsa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and the union is recognized as having played a central role in the end of communist rule in Poland.
In the 1980s, Solidarity was a broad anti-bureaucratic social movement, using methods of civil resistance to advance the causes of workers' rights and social change. Government attempts in the early 1980s to destroy the union through the imposition of martial law in Poland and the use of political repression failed. Operating underground, with financial support from the Vatican and the United States, the union survived and by the later 1980s had entered into negotiations with the government.
The 1989 round table talks between the government and the Solidarity-led opposition produced agreement for the 1989 legislative elections, the country's first pluralistic election since 1947. By the end of August, a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed and in December 1990, Wałęsa was elected President of Poland. Following Poland's transition to liberal capitalism in the 1990s and the extensive privatisation of state assets, Solidarity's membership declined significantly.
Arrangement
Arranged into six series: I. Periodicals, circa 1956-2010, II. Other publications, 1956-1990, III. Records, circa 1976-1990, IV. Ephemera and audiovisual materials, circa 1970-2010, V. Corresponence, 1970-1980, and VI. Solidarity collection records, circa 1980-1990.
Ownership and Custodial History
The Solidarity materials were originally collected and received at Widener Library, Harvard University. Some materials were separated and cataloged individually, while the rest was later transferred to Houghton Library.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
83-567f. Tranfer from Widener Library, date unknown.
93M-305. Transfer from Widener Library, date unknown.
2009M-97r. Transfer from Widener Library, date unknown.
Processing Information
Minimal description derived from existing records and converted to online finding aid, Betts Coup, 2020, with description of remainder of collection added in August, 2023. Description of periodicals largely based on lists found in boxes; where detail is missing, a list was not available.
Genre / Form
Topical
- Title
- NSZZ "Solidarność" (Labor organization). NSZZ "Solidarność" (Labor organization) collection, circa 1956-2010 (MS Slavic 28): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University.
- Date
- November 16, 2018
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou04651
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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