The other defendants are Henryk Wujec, 43, a physicist who was a strike leader during the emergence of Solidarity in 1980, and Zbigniew Romas zewski, 41, also a physicist, who set up Solidarity's clandestine radio station.

The four were members of a dissident group, the Committee for the Defense of Workers, known as KOR.

Church, party and underground sources all feel that the Government does not really want a trial at a time when it is seeking conciliation. They feel that the defendants may turn prosecutor, raising questions of law, history and honor and holding a mirror up to their accusers. Mr. Michnik wrote from prison last fall: ''The trial cannot discredit us but it can discredit them.''

The case of the four defendants has become an embarrassment for the Government. Over the last eight months, it has been negotiating with church leaders and representatives of the United Nations to find a way to release the four, along with seven other prisoners - all Solidarity figures detained without formal charges.

The 11 are the most widely known prisoners in Poland. Their detention overshadows that of 500 others who, the church says, are in prison only because of political activity.

Poland Looks to U.S. To End the Sanctions

From Poland's point of view, the detention of the 11 is one of the key obstacles to persuading the United States to drop its economic sanctions.

The Polish leadership hoped that once the 11 were released - perhaps as part of an amnesty to mark the 40th anniversary on July 22 of the Polish Communist regime - the United States would lift its sanctions and its opposition to Poland's membership in the International Monetary Fund.

Thereafter, in Poland's hopes, Western credits and investment would be resumed, leading to an easing of the sense of crisis.