Pope John Paul's Influence In Poland During The Cold War

During the Cold War, Poland was under Soviet influence. Poles had a difficult time practicing their religion. Due to his country's inability to practice Catholicism, Pope John Paul II grew troubled. This led to June 2nd-8th 1979, when the Pope visited Poland to awake the religious zeal and pride under the weight of the Soviets. Pope John Paul’s interactions brought hope and faith to Poland and influenced Gorbachev and Reagan.
Before his life as Pope, Karol Jozef Wojtyla, raised in Poland, learned the value of free speech after being subjected to Nazi and later Soviet abuse. The Soviets threatened Catholicism. This led to the Soviet Union’s attempt to bend Poland’s society into atheistic materialism. The Soviets did not like having a Polish
Gorbachev was different than past leaders, he recognized the economic issues that were going on in the USSR. At first, Gorbachev did not expect any support from Reagan which he thought as: “not simply a conservative, but a political ‘dinosaur.’” Eventually, Gorbachev’s main influence to roll out new rules was President Ronald Reagan. Pope John Paul II, was an influence on Gorbachev through the ideal of a better world and peace that was put upon through Reagan. Reagan and Gorbachev are known for the ending of the Cold War. Reagan, by having interactions with Pope John Paul II, was able to influence Gorbachev through private meetings. In 1985, both leaders met successfully in Geneva and then in 1986 in Reykjavik, Iceland. The conference in Reykjavik did not go as well due to disagreement on SDI. According to Formicola, the road to religious freedom was
For my topic, I originally started with the research question of: To what extent did Pope John Paul II influence the Solidarity Movement, which evolved because of the information that I was finding. Before the investigation, I had a rough understanding on Pope John Paul II and his accomplishes. The investigation allowed me to learn about the Pope and connect his views with the Soviets. Originally, the investigation was going to be based on the perspective of the Pope being most influential. Eventually, with the research and investigation the ideal perspective changed to three: The Pope, Reagan, and Gorbachev along with the Soviets. This allowed me to build an argument to then allow the investigation to grow. The difficulty throughout the process and research was finding the support for needed perspectives. The historians I picked were great, because they contrasted one another perfectly. The bias in the investigation was that I had pre-made my opinion, forcing the investigation towards the Pope being the most influential. Thus, the investigation was mainly through one perspective but ended coming together to support my hypothesis and then allowing me to have an overall understanding of the relationships between Gorbachev, Reagan and Pope John Paul