An underground revolution: the role and diffusion of the Solidarność clandestine press in Western Europe in the years 1981-89

The purpose of the poster is to highlight, through a broad overview and a transnational perspective, the role and diffusion of the underground press of the Solidarity movement in the years 1981-1989, as well as the impact of such activity on the European public opinion, with particular attention to the Italian and French ones. The founding core of the research in question does not focus as much on the development of the publishing machine in Poland, but instead on the strength of the European information network of the first independent trade union created in a Warsaw Pact country after the declaration of martial law in Poland in 1981. The accent is placed on the importance of alternative propaganda for an illegal opposition movement, of that “parallel society” and the counter-information during the Cold War, in terms of the struggle between propaganda systems.