Martial Law remembered (24th anniversary of Martial Law in Poland

December 13th is an anniversary of the imposition of martial law in Poland....How do Poles look today at the events of 24 years ago?

16 months after Solidarity's self limiting revolution began, General Jaruzelski, the communist party leader and prime minister, went ahead with his plan to crush a movement which by then embraced almost ten million people. Martial law was proclaimed.

According to historian Antoni Dudek, what lay behind the general's decision was the defence of the communist regime.

General Jaruzelski introduced martial law to allow the communist party to hold on to power. His later claims about an imminent Soviet intervention is an effort to avoid responsibity for his decision.

This is not to say of course that Moscow stood idly by during the Solidarity revolution in Poland, but as another prominent historian Andrzej Friszke stresses, no intervention was planned in December 1981.

There was a threat of a Soviet military intervention a year earlier, in December 1980, and later in March 1981 but there was no direct threat of any intervention in December 1981. It should be stressed though that Moscow exerted all forms of pressure on Poland during the whole time

After the declaration of martial law, all Solidarity buildings were seized , there were mass arrests, tanks in the streets and most of Solidarity leaders, including Lech Walesa were interned. Journalist Marek Garztecki happened to be in London on December 13, 1981.

Twenty four years on, fifty percent of Poles think that general Jaruzelski' s martial law decision was justified, and fifty four percent of Poles do not remember the exact date of the imposition of martial law. Marcin Sobczyk of the Warsaw Independent news service.

Perhaps the most outspoken among those who do remember the events of 24 years ago are young Poles who are out in the streets of Warsaw today, donning uniforms of communist-era riot police. One group of them parked an armoured vehicle outside the home of general Jaruzelski.

We have lit a candle of memory in front of the general's house. Our message is: let us remember about the victims of martial law, about all those whwere interned at the time. And we want general Jaruzelski to admit at long last: I took a wrong decision, one which had tragic consequences.

There is no doubt that in looking at martial law and general Jaruzelski today many Poles take into account the fact that 8 years after imposing martial law the general presided over the communists' surrender of power. It is a fact though that over 100 people died and some 3 and a half thousand people were arrested after December 13th 1981

Martial Law in Poland

On a cold and snowy Sunday morning on December 13, 1981 the Poles woke up to find their country under Martial Law (literally - The State of War or "stan wojenny"). The Martial Law was imposed by the Military Council for National Salvation lead by, then, prime minister Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski and consisting of 20 other high ranking military officers.

The WRON declared Martial Law to "defend socialism". They felt threatened by the members of the first independent trade union behind the Iron Curtin - the Solidarity (Solidarnosc). The Solidarity had been founded only 18 months earlier, in August of 1980 after several weeks of strikes. The workers had gone on strike to protest poor living conditions and lack of independent representation. With the birth of the Solidarity hopes were high that the new trade union would help to pressure the government to introduce economical reforms and ease restrictions. The government quickly realized that the Solidarity was a threat to the system. Several road blocks were created to derail the Solidarity but the union seemed to grow stronger. The situation made the Soviets very worried and they, on he several occasions, pressured the Polish government and the Polish Communist Party (PZPR) to de-legalized the Solidarity. For the Polish government it soon became apparent that the union was too strong and far too popular to simply de-legalize it. A drastic action was need to oust the Solidarity, so martial law was imposed.

The Constitution stated that martial law could be imposed for defense or national security reasons. The Constitution allowed the State Council (Rada Panstwa) to impose a martial law while the parliament (Sejm) was not in session. Although the parliament was in session, the State Council headed by Henryk Jablonski unconstitutionally passed the law under pressure from the military. Only one member of the Council, Ryszard Reiff, voted against the resolution. The vote took place in the early morning hours of December 13 while Martial Law was under way: people arrested, restriction imposed. The State Council merely rubber stamped the decision of the military that took over the control in the country.

Thousands of Solidarity leadership and activists were arrested and imprisoned without court sentence. Among those arrested was Lech Walesa, the legendary Solidarity leader. The WRON, in an obvious public relations stunt, also arrested some prominent figures from the previous government.

The borders were sealed, airports were closed and road access to main cities was restricted. Travel between cities required permission. Curfew was imposed between 10 pm and 6 am. Telephone lines were disconnected. Mail was subject to censorship. All trade union and other independent organizations were de-legalized. All TV and radio transmissions were suspended (except one government TV channel and one government radio station). Public administration, health services, power generation stations, coal mines, sea ports, train stations, and most of the key factories were placed under military management. The employees had to follow military orders or face a court martial. Classes in schools and at universities were suspended.

From the early morning hours the only TV channel and the only radio station transmitted Gen. Jaruzelski's address . The anchors wore military uniforms. Only newspapers controlled by the Communist Party or the military were published.

The Poles actively resisted the Martial Law by organizing strikes and street marches, but any resistance to the Martial Law was brutally crushed. On December 16, 1981 the police killed 9 striking coal miners at the Wujek Coal Mine in Katowice. The Poles continued to oppose the WRON - many Solidarity members worked underground. They established, the so called, Revolutionary Solidarity and were involved in publishing independent newspapers, organization of street protests, broadcasting radio programs usually cut off by the government jammers). Thousands were arrested and prosecuted.

Martial Law was suspended on December 31, 1982 and terminated on July 22, 1983. Some of the restrictive legislation introduced during the martial law remained in force through the end of the eighties. The failure of the WRON and the ruling Communist Party became clear in 1989 when the Solidarity won by a land-slide in the first free election after World War II.
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