Summary: | The article discusses the problem of province and smaller cities/towns within general
political and social changes in critical times of Communists’ Poland and the role
played by smaller communities in the occuring changes. The Author states that the influence
range of central changes in the Communists’ party PZPR and other state organs in
Warsow had a weaker feedback on the province and their regional pendants. The same
concerned vivid social workers’ and independence movements, strikes and different
struggles. The neighbourhood of two big centres: Szczecin and Gdańsk, the craddle of
„Solidarność”, have had a rather low-rated effect on the changes in Koszalin (mainly
influenced by Szczecin) and Słupsk (mainly influenced by Gdańsk) region. The both centres
were active clusters of oppositional movements. Between them, as Marciniak stated,
existed in the years 1956–1981 a precipice, a ‘sociological vacuum’, conditioned mainly
by a lack of strong academic, intellectual and religious circles.
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