Gdansk - The Place Where Communism Began to Disintegrate

Today, the Polish city of Gdansk is a fashionable tourist destination. Along with it is adjoining towns of Sopot and Gdynia, people travel here to take delight in the beaches, ambiance and way of life. It's location on the Baltic has meant that Gdansk being among the most important ports in Northern Europe.

Formerly known as Danzig, the metropolis was the subject of dispute involving Germany and Poland and it had been right here where the opening shots of World War II were fired as Nazi Germany formally annexed the city and incorporated into Prussia.

Immediately after World War II, Poland came under control of the Soviet Union and became a central place in the Soviet ship construction programme. Gdansk was obviously a hectic shipyard on the Baltic sea and it had been at the Lenin Shipyards where Lech Walesa's Solidarity Union had been started in 1980. It had become the very first union in a Warsaw Pact nation which was not under the control of the Communist Party.

Under pressure from Moscow, the Polish authorities attempted to eliminate Solidarity by arresting crucial union members and imposing Martial Law. However, the Polish people were in no mood to be subdued and Solidarity evolved into a national movement, inevitably driving the government into talks in 1989. The union was a key component in the beginning of the fall of Communism and the account of their activities can be found in the Solidarity Museum. Addititionally there is a memorial in Gdansk to the 45 shipyard workers who died in the course of protests in opposition to the Communist regime in 1970.

These days, Gdansk is a lovely city with plenty of history with the lively hype of a modern day metropolis. The majority of of the old architectural structures destroyed in the war have been rebuilt and there are loads of bars, eating places and night clubs to rest thought the night. It has been selected as a host city for the Euro 2012 Finals with the recently built PGE Arena planned to have three group matches and a quarterfinal match.