Brezhnev and the Warsaw Pact

In August 1980, a worker's strike in Poland led to a compromise known as the Gdansk Agreement, in which the Communist government agreed to allow democratic changes within the government, including the legal formation of a worker's union—which became Solidarity. This agreement may have brought stability inside Poland, but created a strong reaction from the Soviet Union. The following is a report to the Politburo of the Soviet Communist Party about the recent agreement of the Warsaw Pact to stop all political changes in Poland. Stanislaw Kania, the Polish Party Secretary, and Brezhnev gave speeches at the meeting. In this excerpt, Kania is apologetic for the recent events in Poland, but Brezhnev is inspirational for demanding a crackdown on "antisocialist forces," in other words, Solidarity.