Quando la minaccia arriva dall’etere: la Repubblica Popolare di Polonia e Radio Free Europe nei primi anni Settanta

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the problem of socialist Poland and Radio Free Europe during the period of Détente, 1969-1975, when the two Superpowers and their allies adhered to a policy of dialogue and coexistence. In the early 1970s there were new challenges for Warsaw not only in foreign affairs arena (the treaty with the Federal Republic of Germany and the Helsinki process), but also domestically with the Gierek leadership’s policy of building a new ‘second’ Poland. Radio Free Europe was established at the beginning of the Cold War to transmit uncensored news behind the Iron Curtain. Socialist regimes launched diplomatic and propaganda offensives intended to discredit broadcasts. Radio Free Europe was nothing but an obstacle on the Polish way to Détente.