Society and Culture in East-Central Europe

Repeatedly imprisoned by the Polish authorities, and still in jail, Michnik is a founder of Solidarity. He is also a brilliant essayist, political writer and historian, as revealed by this collection of his underground writings of the past decade. He scorns the Soviet ""conquistadores'' who made the Polish people not merely subjects but also property of the state. His program of open resistance stresses the importance of ordinary citizens' protest in their daily lives. One essay spotlights Russian revolutionaries who supported the Polish freedom movement and paid with exile and hard labor. Another takes to task ``doctrinaires'' like Rosa Luxemburg, who saw the Poles' goal of independence as a mere anachronism. Michnik is an original, strong voice, and the fierce eloquence of his prose comes across in this translation. His message is one of hope; the lesson he draws from the Prague Spring is that change within Eastern Europe need not coincide with change in the Soviet Union. (October)