Program Information

In the late 1960s, student protests circled the globe and often had no unifying theme other than an assault on the status quo. While student protests on college campuses in the United States were aimed primarily at U.S. involvement in Vietnam, in Eastern Europe students protested against Soviet repression. This was something new to the autocratic regimes of the East, particularly the ultra hard line regime in Poland. There had been occasional minor outbursts on college campuses in Poland during the early 1960s, but these were quickly suppressed.

A Moment in Time is a brief, exciting and compelling journey into the past. Created to excite and enlighten the public about the past, its relevance to the present and its impact on the future, A Moment In Time is a captivating historical narrative that is currently broadcast worldwide.

Transcript

Introduction: A Moment in Time, 1968: A special series on the 40th anniversary of a year of upheaval, in a world seemingly out of control.

Content: In the late 1960s, student protests circled the globe and often had no unifying theme other than an assault on the status quo. While student protests on college campuses in the United States were aimed primarily at U.S. involvement in Vietnam, in Eastern Europe students protested against Soviet repression. This was something new to the autocratic regimes of the East, particularly the ultra hard line regime in Poland. There had been occasional minor outbursts on college campuses in Poland during the early 1960s, but these were quickly suppressed.

In 1968 resentment and anger at a society long overdue for reform burst out at the premier institution of higher education in Poland, the University of Warsaw. This is where the children of the communist elite went to study and prepare to take their parents place in the People’s Republic of Poland. They were pampered and spoiled and in 1968 they bit the hand that fed them.

Poland was the first country invaded by Germany and was devastated at the end of World War II. The Russians, who helped defeat the Nazis then stayed put and drew Poland into its growing firmament of satellite states. The Communist Party controlled government, commerce and personal freedoms. No one suffered under this regime more than the Jews. There were 3.3 million Jews in Poland in 1939. By the end of the war only 300,000 remained. Ironically, the last pogrom was inflicted 14 months after the end of the war, in Kielce (‘kelt see). After that, thousands of Jews emigrated, and by the mid 1960s only 30,000 remained, but they were the constant target of anti-Semitic propaganda. It seemed the Communist’s usual explanation for an increasingly arthritic society was to blame the Jews, and they tried it when student protests erupted at the University of Warsaw. But in 1968 that old canard stopped working. Next time: Warsaw explodes.

At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

Virginia Standards