- Title: Polish residents thank Gorbachev for his openness.
- Date: 31st August 2022
- Summary: GDANSK, POLAND (AUGUST 31, 2022) (REUTERS) PEOPLE GATHERED AT ENTRANCE OF GDANSK SHIPYARDS, WHERE THE SOLIDARITY UNION WAS FOUNDED SIGN AT ENTRANCE OF SHIPYARD PEOPLE WATCHING ANNIVERSARY CEREMONY, APPLAUDING PEOPLE WATCHING, PORTRAIT OF POPE JOHN PAUL II ON SHIPYARD'S GATES POLISH FLAGS EUROPEAN COMMISSION VICE-PRESIDENT, MARGARITIS SCHINAS, ARRIVING (SOUNDBITE) (English) EUROPEAN COMMISSION VICE-PRESIDENT, MARGARITIS SCHINAS, SAYING: "Since today is the day of Gorbachev passing, let me also say that there will never be Glasnost and Perestroika without Solidarnosc." SCHINAS ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (English) EUROPEAN COMMISSION VICE-PRESIDENT, MARGARITIS SCHINAS, SAYING: "What Lech Walesa and his colleagues did exactly where we stand today, was the beginning of the end of tyranny, of authoritarianism, of the division of Europe. Walesa helped unify Europe and reconcile history with geography in this continent." SCHINAS' HANDS VARIOUS OF SCHINAS ON STAGE SCHINAS STANDING NEXT TO GDANSK MAYOR, ALEKSANDRA DULKIEWICZ PEOPLE WALKING INSIDE SHIPYARDS
- Embargoed: 14th September 2022 13:36
- Keywords: Gdansk Gorbachev Poland Russia USSR Warsaw
- Location: WARSAW AND GDANSK, POLAND
- City: WARSAW AND GDANSK, POLAND
- Country: Poland
- Topics: Europe,Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA005181231082022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Warsaw residents thanked Mikhail Gorbachev for his openness, as they reacted to the news of the former USSR leader's death on Wednesday (August 31).
Stanislaw Szczerba, 57, said Gorbachev always prompted positive emotions in him.
"Gorbachev was one of the few people who had a very open worldview at that time. For us, for Poles, the changes that took place there were very important. It was important for us that he wasn't fossilized, a conservative, or a communist, but just a very open person."
83-year-old engineer Iwona Kosinska said Russia made a "bloodless" entrance into Europe thanks to Gorbachev.
Street musician Wieslaw Wystepek described the former leader's politics as a "light at the end of the tunnel".
At a ceremony at Gdansk shipyards, the epicentre of Poland's 80's struggle to end Socialist ruling, European
Commission's Vice-president, Margaritis Schinas, paid similar tribute to Gorbachev and said none of his reforms would have been possible without the Solidarity trade union and Walesa's activism in Poland.
Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War without bloodshed but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union, died on Tuesday (August 30) at the age of 91.
The Soviet Union maintained heavy influence on Soviet-era Poland, until the breakout of the Solidarity trade union movement which brought about the switch to a free-market economy in 1989.
(Production Kuba Stezycki, Malgorzata Wojtunik, Hedy Beloucif) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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