Oficjalne i nieoficjalne kontakty polsko‑szwedzkie w latach siedemdziesiątych XX w.

Abstrakt

It is commonly believed that the relations between Poland and Sweden best developed in the 1970s. Bilateral contacts were then especially active. The purpose of this article is to present the different forms of Polish-Swedish contacts with an attempt to answer the question of which of the areas of cooperation were more and which less developed and what factors decided about their intensity under the rule of Edward Gierek in Poland? Official contacts were carried out mainly in the field of diplomacy. Both sides expressed very great importance to these meetings, with the aim of declaring interest in strengthening trade relations but also political and exchange scientific ideas. Each government also formulated certain expectations from these mutual diplomatic visits. However, discrepancies occurred led to a weakening and even freezing the cooperation in the next decade. Much more interesting and having long-term consequences were unofficial contacts of Swedish politicians, journalists and trade union activists and members of opposition movement in Poland associated with the KOR. In addition to this, due to an non-visa agreement there were more opportunity to travel to Sweden, which resulted in traveling of young Poles having contacts with ordinary people in Sweden. There were also matrimonial emigration of women who had got married with Swedish male or were planning to do so. Both had economic reasons.