Chapter Chronology

Quiz for Listening to the Past: A Solidarity Leader Speaks from Prison

Select the best answer. Click Submit for each question to turn in your work.

Question

1. What was the primary explanation Michnik offered for Solidarity’s decision to renounce violence?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct: The answer is b. For Michnik, the enormous military power of the Soviet Union made a military confrontation between Solidarity and the Soviet Union “unthinkable.”
Incorrect: The answer is b. For Michnik, the enormous military power of the Soviet Union made a military confrontation between Solidarity and the Soviet Union “unthinkable.”
1. What was the primary explanation Michnik offered for Solidarity’s decision to renounce violence?

Question

2. With which of these statements would Michnik agree?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct: The answer is c. While Michnik acknowledged that social change is usually accompanied by force, he did not see force as the cause of social change. Rather, in his view, “social changes follow from a confrontation of different moralities and visions of social order.”
Incorrect: The answer is c. While Michnik acknowledged that social change is usually accompanied by force, he did not see force as the cause of social change. Rather, in his view, “social changes follow from a confrontation of different moralities and visions of social order.”
2. With which of these statements would Michnik agree?

Question

3. According to Michnik, the ideals of which of the following most closely mirrored those of Solidarity?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct: The answer is d. Michnik stressed that Solidarity lacked a vision of an ideal society and was, in many ways, a pragmatic movement. In his view, these were characteristics Solidarity shared with the American Revolution.
Incorrect: The answer is d. Michnik stressed that Solidarity lacked a vision of an ideal society and was, in many ways, a pragmatic movement. In his view, these were characteristics Solidarity shared with the American Revolution.
3. According to Michnik, the ideals of which of the following most closely mirrored those of Solidarity?

Question

4. What important difference did Michnik identify between Solidarity and pacifism?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct: The answer is c. According to Michnik, pacifists often argue that “no cause is worth suffering or dying for.” Solidarity, in sharp contrast, began with the opposite premise, that there are causes worth dying for.
Incorrect: The answer is c. According to Michnik, pacifists often argue that “no cause is worth suffering or dying for.” Solidarity, in sharp contrast, began with the opposite premise, that there are causes worth dying for.
4. What important difference did Michnik identify between Solidarity and pacifism?

Question

5. How did Michnik see the future of Polish-Russian relations?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct: The answer is c. Michnik believed that Solidarity had to be pragmatic, to adapt to the situation as things changed. Thus, Solidarity had to be open to the possibility that an age of reform was beginning under Gorbachev in the Soviet Union.
Incorrect: The answer is c. Michnik believed that Solidarity had to be pragmatic, to adapt to the situation as things changed. Thus, Solidarity had to be open to the possibility that an age of reform was beginning under Gorbachev in the Soviet Union.
5. How did Michnik see the future of Polish-Russian relations?