The Chernobyl Effect: Antinuclear Protests and the Molding of Polish Democracy, 1986–1990 (Protest, Culture & Society, 32)

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.

Tomasz Borewicz (1963-2015) was a Polish anthropologist and environmental activist who led anti-nuclear protests in Gdansk from 1988 to 1990.

Kacper Szulecki is a research professor at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. He is editor of five scholarly collections and author of Dissidents in Communist Central Europe (Palgrave 2019).

Janusz Waluszko is an activist, author and publisher who became involved in the Polish underground beginning in the 1970s. The author of two other books, he works at the Central Library of the Gdansk University of Technology.