Transition of the East — a New Beginning for Europe?

Abstract

For the last 44 years, exactly the span of my own life, Europe has lived in peace. The last two generations of Poles are the only ones in the last several centuries — and probably the entire millennium — who have not been called to arms to defend their country or to fight for its restoration. Of course, European tranquillity has not been as assured as this suggests. At 17, in the summer of 1962, I was called to a paramilitary camp to practise shooting and digging trenches; at 23, in August 1968, as a university student I observed the overflight of a large formation of aircraft heading south; at 36, in the first week of December 1981, I boarded a ferry from Stockholm to Gdansk full of anxiety and fear of facing the likelihood of mobilization and participation in an unpredictable internal, and probably external, conflict. As it turned out, I have never had to confront the terrible prospect of shooting another man. Peace prevailed in Europe. And now, observing the dramatic transformation of the political realities in my own and a number of other East European countries in a justified and long-sought quest for prosperity, democracy, and the rights of the individual, I strongly hope that the changes will not undermine the stability and peace of the continent. Changes are welcome only if accompanied by a measure of assurance that they bring improvements. In the case of current developments, no such assurance exists; there is only a possibility.