The Chernobyl Effect

Antinuclear Protests and the Molding of Polish Democracy, 1986–1990

Tomasz Borewicz, Kacper Szulecki, Janusz Waluszko

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781800736191
• eBook ISBN: 9781800736207
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

The 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe was not only a human and ecological disaster, but also a political-ideological one, severely discrediting Soviet governance and galvanizing dissidents in the Eastern Bloc. In the case of Poland, what began as isolated protests against the Soviet nuclear site grew to encompass domestic nuclear projects in general, and in the process spread across the country and attracted new segments of society. This innovative study, combining scholarly analysis with oral histories and other accounts from participants, traces the growth and development of the Polish anti-nuclear movement, showing how it exemplified the broader generational and cultural changes in the nation's opposition movements during the waning days of the state socialist era.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword. Political Isotopes
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. Ignoring the Atom: The Parallel Developments of Poland’s Democratic Opposition and Western “New Social Movements”
• Chapter 2. Polish Political Environmentalism before Chernobyl
• Chapter 3. The Chernobyl Catastrophe and Its Aftermath
• Chapter 4. “No Atom in Our Home”: Targeting Domestic Nuclear Facilities
• Chapter 5. Kopań and Klempicz: The NPPs That Never Came to Be
• Chapter 6. Communism Might Be Over—Nuclear Is Not: The Round Table Talks and the Escalation of Anti-Żarnowiec Protests
• Chapter 7. When the Government Won’t Listen: Four Acts of Desperation (1989–1990)
• Chapter 8. The Boundaries of a New Democracy: Experiments with Participatory Governance and a Grassroots Referendum (1990)
• Conclusion
• Index