DH was to be inducted into the military, officers’ training, and he didn’t object to being in military as it was a family tradition but he did not want to serve under Communist rule. He knew martial law was coming. There had already been shootings of civilians - he saw the bloodstains at the train platform, not sure which city, and so he got out as aoon as he could scheme it. Not easy. Two relatives of his worked in the Gdansk shipyard and knew quite a bit about what happened. Lech Walesa (how do you do the diacritical marks/PL letters??) was “turned” in jail, from what DH says. Threatened/etc.
But finally the wall fell, and the USSR fell.
And giving Poland to the USSR was a horrible crime.
Also the web site The Peoples Cube was founded by one who escaped from communism. Even though it is a satire site it’s satire is a warning about communism.
I shamelessly cheat and copy/paste from Wikipedia. 😉
James Michener wrote “Poland”. I admire Polish people from reading that book. They have been assaulted from every side and still stand strong.