As part of the celebration of this year's 35th anniversary of the partially free elections of June 1989,the Institute of National Remembrance is organizing an international scientific conference  - “Time of Breakthrough. U.S. Policy Towards Transformation in Poland”. The conference's central theme is Polish-American relations in the late 1980s and early 1990s, US support for “Solidarity” and the democratic transition in Poland.

The conference, which took place on 5 June  2024,  refered to two events: the 35th anniversary of the partially free parliamentary elections of 4 June 1989, celebrated this year, and the 100th anniversary of the birth of George H.W. Bush, who was the U.S. President during this period.

The conference was attended by prominent specialists in the history of Polish-American relations. The invited guests presented the results of their research on Polish-American relations in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They discussed topics related to U.S. support for Solidarity, the White House’s policy towards the imposition of Martial Law in Poland, General Wojciech Jaruzelski’s regime, as well as  Poland's place in the Cold War clash between East and West. They also addressed issues of U.S. relations with the first non-communist government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, support for market-based economic reforms and the start of talks on Poland's accession to NATO.

The conference was opened by Karol Nawrocki, Ph.D., the President of the Institute of National Remembrance; Daniel Lawton, Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Warsaw; and Prof. Jim Mazurkiewicz, representing Texas A&M.

The conference was an invitation-only event. The entire proceedings were recorded and later published on the IPNtv Konferencje channel on YouTube. The sessions were held in Polish and English.

The event took place on 5 June 2024, at the Banking and Finance Center in Warsaw, 6/12 Nowy Świat St. The choice of venue is no coincidence. From 1952 to 1990, the building, commonly referred to at the time as the “House of the Party” as it was there that the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party were located.

The scientific conference “Time of breakthrough. U.S. Policy Towards Transformation in Poland”was held under the Honorary Patronage of the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda.

The event was preceded by a debate focused around a summary of the political transformations which took placein the countries of Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of communism.The discussion held in English and took place on 4 June 2024, at the IPN’s newly opened Central History Point at 107 Marszałkowska Street in Warsaw.

During the discussion the audience had an opportunity to find out more about the varying  experiences of different countries in this respect as, alongside the IPN President, the participants of the debate were : Kamil Nedvědický, Ph.D., Deputy Director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in the Czech Republic, Áron Máthé, Ph.D., the Vice-Chairman of the Hungarian Committee of National Remembrance, and Peter Jašek, Ph.D., a historian representing the Slovak Nation’s Memory Institute. The discussion was moderated by the Director of the IPN Historical Research Office, Sebastian Pilarski, Ph.D.