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An event accompanying the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the demise of communism in Europe.

The project of The Solidarity Centre Foundation - the conference “The End of the Cold War. Solidarity as the Beginning of the end of Communism”, is the main point of the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the decline of communism in Europe, organized in a close cooperation with the countries of the former Soviet bloc.

The main partners of the project are The Baltic Initiative and Gdansk and Gdansk Metropolis as a European Capital of Culture 2016, the co-organizers are: Ministry of Education of Poland and Denmark, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland and The Youth in Action Programme.

The main objective of the conference is to remind the role that Poland played in turning down the communism and the meaning it had in the further process of changes in Europe. The breakthrough events from the beginning of August 1980 gave Gdansk the first place on the way to the decline of communist regime in Europe, therefore the choice of the place for the conference seems obvious. With the objective of keeping the cultural heritage and memory about the events from before twenty years, the organizers aim to activate and integrate young people through gathering them around the history witnesses, representatives of the Soviet bloc with Lech Wałęsa at the lead. Moreover, the organizers have also planned to have an interesting discussion led by the historians and museums’ representative from the countries invited for the conference.

The project is designed for young people from the countries around the Baltic Sea: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Poland, Russia and Sweden. The conference will be a unique opportunity to transfer knowledge about the modern history of Poland, promote the idea of social solidarity in Europe and to shape the cultural heritage awareness among young people.

12 October 2009 (Monday)

9:00	PRESS CONFERNCE
10:00	OPENING OF THE CONFERENCE [SPEECHES]
	Danuta Kobzdej - Head of the board of the Solidarity Center Foundation [Poland] Bertel Haarder - Minister of Education [Denmark] Katarzyna Hall - Minister of National Education [Poland] Ole Løvig Simonsen - Chairman of the Baltic Initiative and Network [Denmark]
11:00	EXPERTS DISCUSSION
	Historical introduction about the Cold War: Jerzy Eisler [Poland] Historians’ speeches: Marion Brandt [Germany] Thomas Wegener Friis [Denmark] Marcin Zaremba [Poland]
13:00	DISCUSSION: MEETING WITH THE EYEWITNESSES OF THE HISTORY
	Host: Dariusz Bugalski [Poland] Lech Wałęsa [Poland] Bogdan Borusewicz [Poland] Wolfgang Templin [Germany] Natalia Gorbanievskaya [Russia]
15:00	QUESTIONS FROM YOUNG PEOPLE TO THE EYEWITNESSES OF THE HISTORY
18:00	SOLIDARITY CENTRE FOUNDATION PROGRAMME GDAŃSK – CITY OF FREEDOM

13 October 2009 (Tuesday)

9:00	REALITY OF THE COLD WAR
	Mr. Johannes Bach Rasmussen, Baltic Initiative and Network [Denmark] Overall introduction Mrs. Ieva Gundare, The Museum of Occupation [Latvia] Propaganda or reality? Growing up in the Soviet period Mr. Siegfried Reiprich, Memorial Museum Berlin-Hohenschönhausen (former Stasi prison) [Germany] Secret police activities in a Soviet society Mr. Heiki Ahonen, Museum of Occupation in Tallinn [Estonia] The dissidents. To have another political opinion and the consequences Ms. Anna Sokolova, The Anna Akhmatova Museum in St. Petersburg [Russia] Artist life in a Soviet country. Example: Anna Akhmatova Mrs. Birute Burauskaite, Museum of Genocide Victims [Lithuania] The deportations. Deportations from Lithuania in 1941 and 1948. Mr. Dmitry Kokorin, Memorial Museum Mocsow [Russia] The Gulag camps. To be a prisoner in a hard labour camp Mrs. Dovile Lauraitiene, Museum of Genocide Victims [Lithuania] Partisan activities in Lithuania Mr. Berndt Gottberg, Degerby-Igor Museum [Finland] Neighbour to the Soviet Union: Adjusted to reality Mr. Johan Andree, Beredskapsmuseet in Helsingborg [Sweden] Neighbour to the Soviet Union: Preparing for a total Swedish defense war Mrs. Meldra Usenko, Museum of the Popular Front in Riga [Latvia] The Baltic Singing Revolution in the historical memory of Europe Mr. Jerzy Borowczak, Solidarity Center Foundation [Poland] The beginnings of the Solidarity movement
12:30	CSOLIDARITY CENTRE FOUNDATION PROGRAMME ICE-BREAKING CUBE – Museum of the Cold War
17:00	OPENING OF THE EXHIBITION - THE END OF THE CONFERENCE