Posted on 09/07/2005 9:36:30 AM PDT by lizol
Jaruzelski to answer for martial law of 1981
07.09.2005
The Silesian Office of The National Remembrance Institute is considering charging former communist ruler general Wojciech Jaruzelski with illegal introduction of martial law in December 1981. However, in the opinion of its spokesperson Ewa Koj, the official indictment might not be filed in October, as suggested by the press. Before that could happen thousands of documents have to be reviewed by the Institute’s prosecutors to confirm the absence of arguments used by the general in the past that he made the decision to avert the imminent and direct threat of Soviet and Warsaw Pact military intervention in Poland. Jaruzelski claimed he had chosen the “lesser evil” to avoid bloodshed. As historians have already studied the material thoroughly, there seems little chance of the prosecutors finding new items of evidence supporting the general’s theory.
The National Remembrance Institute is also to press charges against 10 other living members of the so-called Military Council of National Salvation headed by general Jaruzelski, which officially proclaimed martial law in Poland resulting in the delegalization of Solidarity and the curtailment of basic civic freedoms.
Well, now, I think the little general with the thick eyeglasses needs some support here.
One has to look back to 1979-1981, the way things were then and there, in order to understand why the little general was actually a hero, actually the guy who saved Poland.
I remember 1979-1981 very well; the aftermath of the Carter presidency, the most incompetent administration in the history of the republic.
It seemed as if America was the past, and monolithic totalitarian socialism the future; the Soviets were even alleging military superiority.....and we were believing it.
When Lech Walesa and Solidarity emerged in 1979, we here wanted him and it to succeed--very badly, we wanted it--but it didn't look like it would, because the Soviets were so overwhelmingly superior to the forces of democracy and freedom.
Trust me; in 1979-1981, America thought that way; the monolithic totalitarian socialists were the future, and forces for democracy and freedom were chopped liver.
It was widely expected that the Soviets would overrun Poland in half an afternoon, if they wanted to.
(Later evidence showed this not to have been possible, but we did not know that at the time; in fact, later evidence showed the Soviet generals were opposed to intervention in Poland, for fear the Poles would make mincemeat of the squalid, demoralized Red Army--but again, that was LATER known.)
In the middle of the crisis stepped this short little general with the bottle-bottomed eyeglasses, a Polish general, who single-handedly managed to keep the barbarians from the east at bay.
Of course the general clamped down, and severely so, on Solidarity and other democratic forces, but it appeared most Americans thought it most important that Poland simply be preserved; all this good stuff could wait, and come later, if it was to come at all.
This little guy--who should be on the postage-stamps and coins of Poland--saved Poland, so the forces of freedom and democracy could develop and grow, coming into fuller fruit at a later date.
That was the perception of the situation by Americans in 1979-1981; Poland FIRST had to be preserved, and then if later something could be done about the barbarians to the east, then Poland could evolve into freedom and democracy.
This guy preserved Poland for the future.
Of course, we all have hindsight, the ability to predict events after they have happened, and it may seem strange, the American attitude in 1979-1981--but really, the collapse of monolithic totalitarian socialism in eastern Europe, including of course the Soviet Union, circa 1988-1991, came as a total surprise to us.
Trust me; it blew us away, when it happened. It was about the last thing we expected to happen.
Sorry, I don't buy it. Jaruzelski was a self-serving traitor.
Well, after something is all done with, it looks differently than it did at the beginning.
I just recall, very well, this fear among Americans that the Poles had made the Soviets angry, and that Poland was destined to become another province of the Soviet Union.
But this guy with the thick eyeglasses stepped in, and prevented that. He didn't do anything for freedom and democracy in Poland, but surely he saved Poland as an independent nation.
I remember how it was back then, and I knew that it would not be a repeat of Budapest 56 or Prague 68, had they invaded Poland, it would have made Afghanistan look like a party. No way the Polish army would have fought alongside the Soviets, and the Soviets would have gone back to Moscow with their tails between their legs, and the Iron Curtain would have collapsed even earlier.
I am a big critic of Jaruzelski, but this was damned near 25 years ago. Things were different back then. In fact, I would say that if Jaruzelski had not imposed Martial Law, then the Soviet Tanks would have come to the downtowns of Gdansk and Warsaw.
And, sir, that is information we knew later--but at the time (1979-1981) we knew nothing of the sort.
We had bought this myth, carefully cultivated by the mainstream news media in America, that the Red Army was the best fighting force in the whole entire world, that totalitarian socialism was the future, and that those wishing freedom and democracy might as well resign themselves to losing.
That is why Ronald Reagan had such a powerful effect on us; he showed us we didn't have to lose, we weren't necessarily fated to lose.
There was a most excellent biography about Yuri Andropov, who took over the Soviet Union after the death of Leonid Brezhnev, in which the situation in Poland is wonderfully and sparklingly described.
The fear of the Soviet generals that if they dared invade Poland, the famous Red Army would have been meat-choppered, because the Soviet generals understood that the Poles were more than they seemed, the Soviets less than they seemed.
When that book came out, circa the mid-1980s, with that new revelation, it shocked us, surprised us.
It seems that from August 1980 until about April 1981, a Soviet invasion of Poland was, even when not imminent, very much on the agenda. The Soviet disposition to invade began to waver after April 1981, and on October 29, 1981, the Soviet Politburo finally decided not to invade Poland. Far from Jaruzelski's coup of December 13, 1981 constituting an attempt to prevent a Soviet invasion, the opposite was the case, with the Politburo telling Jaruzelski that he was very much on his own.
According to the minutes of the session of the Soviet Politburo held on December 10, 1981, the leading Communist Party body unanimously rejected Jaruzelski's appeal for military backing. Jaruzelski had asked for military assistance as a sort of insurance in case he would need it during and after the planned coup. Not only did the Politburo unambiguously reject Jaruzelski's appeal, but Politburo member Andropov after stating that "we cannot risk it," went farther and declared that "even if Poland were to be ruled by Solidarity, so be it." (Mastny, 204)
While, from the very beginning, the Communist leaderships of East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria were strongly for an invasion of Poland, there was a degree of hesitancy on the part of Soviet Politburo members Gromyko, Suslov, Andropov and Ustinov-the last two having been most directly responsible for the intervention in Afghanistan, the negative consequences of which course had by then become clearly evident. (Mastny, 191)
Besides the possible influence of the negative lessons of Afghanistan, other factors at work included the calculations made by the Soviet leadership as to the sizable political and economic costs of a Soviet invasion, especially when at some points Politburo members such as Gromyko wondered whether the Polish army could be relied on to "fulfil its duty." (Minutes of Politburo session, April 2, 1981 cited in Mastny, 199.)
Source: Vojtech Mastny, "The Soviet Non-Invasion of Poland in 1980-1981 and the End of the Cold War," Europe-Asia Studies [formerly Soviet Studies], Vol. 51, No. 2, 1999, 189-211)
Understand that Jaruzelski fed that "save Poland from Soviet invasion" bull so he could get support from the military to impose martial law, even though he knew the Soviets were not going to invade.
Shoot the little weasel.
I remember the period around 1980-1981, when martial law was declared in Poland. I was an 18 year old high school senior who followed world event reasonably closely. I remember disliking Gen. Jaruzelski very strongly at that time, although events in the later 1980's softened my opinion somewhat.
Mostly, I'm just really glad that the bad old days of the Warsaw Pact are now done and over with.
Interesting to read that Andropov was not in favor of invading Poland. Back in the 50's when he was station chief in Budapest he had a role in the Soviet invasion of Hungary.
Thanks for your comments. Yeah, compared to all the brave actions of a lot of good people who helped to end communism, at great personal risk to themselves, I guess Jaruzelski doesn't look good.
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