Poland and European East-West Cooperation in the 1970s

Aleksandra Komornicka is an assistant professor at Maastricht University and has a PhD from the European University Institute. Her research focuses on the international and economic history of post-war Europe in particular on the Cold War, European integration and Poland.

• Introduction Part I: The rise and fall of the national strategy of the 1970s 1. Towards the big opening, the late 1960s 2. Bold and ambitious: a new national strategy, 1971-2 3. Perfect timing? 1973-5 4. Defending the status quo, 1976-80 Part II: Licence agreements with Western European companies 5. Prosperity, progress, profit, and peace: the goals and expectations of the licence policy 6. The deal of the decade: Italy, Fiat, and the production of passenger cars 7. Cementing political rapprochement: France, Berliet, and new city buses 8. Facing electronic giants: the FRG and audio equipment 9. Gains and losses of the licence policy Epilogue and conclusion

'A must-read for anyone who would like to understand how a Soviet Bloc country became dependent on Western Europe well before the collapse of communism. Elegant in form and revelatory in content, this book illuminates how encounters of Polish modernizers with Western European business elites impacted not just Poland, but the entire continent. The book successfully explains that in the 1970s technology transfer, Western loans and licenses tied "socialist" and "capitalist" European countries were much stronger than previously assumed. Based on impressive research in Polish, French, German, Italian, and European Union’s archives, this book is a pioneering contribution to business and economic histories of the late 20th century Europe and the global Cold War.'Małgorzata Mazurek, Columbia University, New York, USA'Italian cars, French buses and German tape recorders: Komornicka’s account is not just an elegant and thorough reconstruction of the Polish national strategy in the 1970s. It intertwines historiographies that do not always talk to each other: the history of the Cold War, European integration and business history. A powerful combination that sheds important light on the history of post-1945 European relations.'Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol, European University Institute, Italy'Historiography on Poland in the 1980s, on the Solidarity movement and the final years of the Polish road to democracy is very rich and copious. Interestingly, there has been much less on the 1970s decade that, in many ways inspired the decisive struggle for the post – communist society. This is the lacuna that Aleksandra Komornicka’s book addresses. It reveals how Polish entanglements with the West in the 1970s helped shape the trajectory that led to the collapse of the socialist regime a decade later and contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Bloc.'Svetozar Rajak, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK'Komornicka succeeds in capturing this unique decade of Polish and Cold War history through an international lens. For this reason, her book is recommended reading for anyone interested in the 1970s and the East-West relationship defined by the détente policy that hung over that decade.'Paweł Markiewicz, H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews. April, 2025