It was going on while I was in high school and after that, I was in the Navy. After a crackdown by the communist regime in Poland, the people had had enough. At the time, I wasn’t paying too much attention to world events. Sure, I had a good social studies teacher     who taught a required course called International Relations, but our main emphasis was on Russia and China. We learned enough in that class to know that people behind the iron curtain were not doing well. And that America was something to be proud of.

I had heard about the Solidarity movement in Poland some on the news, but I did not realize the significance of Pope John Paul in helping with toppling communism in Poland and setting in motion world events that ultimately would see the end of the Soviet Union.

Here is a really interesting read about it: https://reason.com/2021/11/20/the-pope-who-helped-bring-down-communism/