"The fact is that in Poland there exists an organized civil society," he said. "We have our own underground newspapers, we have our underground publishing houses and we have our own independent cultural activity. This is the most important breakthrough, because these institutions are what is bringing us closer to democracy in Poland."

"Of course the movement is significantly weaker than in 1980," Michnik added. "It's never true in the world that the political awakening of an entire society lasts forever. But what happened was an unheard-of expansion of the sphere of elites. Every factory now has its elite that thinks independently -- every school, every village, every parish. This is new, and because of that the next stage of democratic activity will have a much better point of departure."

Though Michnik's political strategy is designed to work in a state that admits no change, it envisions an eventual "social contract" between communist rulers and civil society. In that sense, the prospect of a Gorbachev-led liberalization in the Soviet Union and, eventually, in Eastern Europe has become one of Michnik's central concerns.

"It's not easy to draw conclusions," Michnik said of Gorbachev. "In my opinion, within communist civilization, Solidarity represents reform and Gorbachev, by that measure, is a counterreformer. He is the kind of reformer who, in order to preserve the old institutions, has to take up some of the criteria formulated by his opponents."

At the same time, Michnik said, "If Gorbachev says that he wants glasnost [openness], then he should be taken at his word and tested on that. I think, for example, that the fact that Polish public opinion asks for the truth about Katyn," a World War II massacre of Polish officers allegedly committed by the Soviets, "that is tremendously important. That is the right attitude toward Gorbachev's policy -- one should, acting reasonably, try to stimulate and speed up the process of change."