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The paper depicts the origins of broadcasts with Josef Swiatlo, a senior Polish secret police official, who defected to the West in December 1953. His revelations of terror within as well as by the Polish secret police and Communist Party led to a shakeup of the secret police apparatus and helped prepare the way for the Polish October in 1956. The paper by A. Ross Johnson is a expanded text of remarks presented at the Conference “Radio Wolna Europa w walce z komunizmem” [Radio Free Europe in struggle with communism], which was held in Warsaw, November 6-7, 2009, in connection with the celebrations of the 20th Anniversary of the Regaining of Freedom and Collapse of Communism in Central Europe. read |
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Jane L. Curry, Professor of Political Science, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, Ca., shows the evidence is that many officials in the Polish police and Party listened covertly to Radio Free Europe. The then Polish elites used Radio Free Europe and other external media as a source of information and argument in internal battles; foreign radios influlenced even in all probability their decision making. The paper was prepared for the Conference “Radio Wolna Europa w walce z komunizmem” [Radio Free Europe in struggle with communism], which was held in Warsaw, November 6-7, 2009. read |
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There exists some confusion about both the beginning and the end of RFE broadcasting to Poland. Usually it is supposed Polish RFE broadcasts were on the air from 1952 till 1994, produced in Munich, Germany. In fact it started 2 years earlier in New York and ended 3 years later in Warsaw. Read remarks by A. Ross Johnson, former Director, RFE (1988-1991) and Acting President, RFE/RL (1994). |
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