RELAŢII ROMÂNO-POLONEZE LA ÎNCEPUTUL REGIMULUI JARUZELSKI (1981-1983)

The Romanian-Polish relations of the last decade of communism were largely studied either at the beginning of the ’80s when Solidarity Movement emerged or at the end of the ’80s when semi-free elections took place in Poland and Mazowiecki’s government was established and the period from 1982 to 1988 was insufficient researched. Moreover, the complicated international context drew the attention from the introduction of martial law in Poland to the new conflict between the Soviet Union and the US. Because of that, in my paper, I will examine the bilateral relations between Romania and Poland and how the new regime from Warsaw affected them. For achieving that, I will use the diplomatic correspondence of the Romanian ambassador from Warsaw and also the Romanian Communist Party (RCP) archives. In the case of RCP archives, I will focus primarily on the debates from Politburo concerning the evolution/involution of bilateral relations. At the same time, I will look to the remarks made by leaders or politicians in the newspapers to comprehend how the relations were officially presented to the people. From the diplomatic correspondence, I used especially the telegrams and reports sent by the Romanian ambassador to understand how it was described the domestic evolution in Poland and whence it reflected toward the Romanian-Polish cooperation. In the end, the corroboration of these sources will give us a comprehensive picture of Romanian-Polish relationships at the beginning of Jaruzelski’s regime. Although it is from a Romanian viewpoint, I used several sources, alike RCP’ archives, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign archives and newspapers, for creating a more balanced perspective.