Let’s turn back the clock and go back to Moscow, 1980.
A little bit of background first: this story is about Poland. And Poland was never a part of the Soviet Union, per se, but was well within the area of Soviet influence and control. At the beginning of the 1980s, Poland’s economy was in decline. The country couldn’t pay its foreign debts, and its relationship with the USSR was strained — and would only get worse.
Meanwhile, the 1980 Summer Olympics were to take place in Moscow. But more than 50 countries had boycotted the games, including the U.S., Canada, China and Japan.
