Polskie Dokumenty Dyplomatyczne 1974

This successive volume in the series Polish Diplomatic Documents illustrates Polish foreign policy activities in 1974, with 254 documents from the Archives of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Central Archives of Modern Records.

Relations with the Federal Republic of Germany were in the focus of Polish diplomatic attention in 1974: economic negotiations and talks on indemnities and family unification were under way, and preparations were being made for Edward Gierek’s visit (which only took place in 1976).

An important event in relations with the United States was the October visit to that country by the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party (during which an array of economic agreements were signed): it was coupled with his appearance at the United Nations. In contacts with Western Europe, Foreign Minister Stefan Olszowski’s visit to the United Kingdom is worthy of mention.The Polish diplomatic service also devoted much attention to celebrations of the 30th anniversary of socialist Poland. In relations with the Soviet Union, visits to Poland by Leonid Brezhnev and Andrei Gromyko came to the fore.Topics standing out on the multilateral front included preparations for the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and activities related to the energy crisis and the convening of a special UN General Assembly session on raw materials.

Nearly all of the collection’s items have not been published previously, classified as either “confidential” or “strictly confidential”.  The documents are presented in chronological order. The volume contains a name index, and extended subject index, and annexes with information about the MFA’s organizational structure in 1974, as well as lists of multilateral accords ratified by the Council of State and major bilateral international agreements concluded in that year.