Assault on „Solidarność”, Karol Nawrocki, President of the Institute of National Remembrance

“For those who wanted freedom, the communist authorities had truncheons, tear gas and internment centres. But they could not crush the free spirit of the Polish people.” writes President Nawrocki in his article for wszystkoconajważniejsze.pl

Photo: from L-R: Karol Nawrocki, President of the Institute of National Remembrance and President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda, commemorated the victims of martial law at Piłsudski Square in Warsaw.

Assault on „Solidarność”

For those who wanted freedom, the communist authorities had truncheons, tear gas and internment centres. But they could not crush the free spirit of the Polish people.

‘It’s 6 am. A blast followed by two powerful hits. The tanks have forced their way through our barricade.’ This is how Anna Walentynowicz, a legendary crane operator and activist in the NSZZ ‘Solidarity’, would remember 16 December 1981.

It is the fourth day of martial law – a war declared on their own people by Wojciech Jaruzelski’s communist junta. Several thousand people from ‘Solidarity’ and the democratic opposition have already been interned. Those who managed to escape detention are demanding the release of their colleagues. The cradle of ‘Solidarity’, the Lenin shipyard of Gdansk, is also on strike. Walentynowicz calls ‘to unite, act together and defend the union’. Against workers like her, armed with nothing more than patriotic hearts, the authorities unleash tanks, helicopters, hundreds of militiamen and a commando platoon. The outcome of this unequal clash is not difficult to predict.

Lost Decade

Sixteen months earlier, in August 1980, the same Gdansk shipyard witnesses history in the making. A strike breaks out at the factory and quickly spreads throughout Poland. Based in the shipyard, the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee issues 21 demands, beginning with an unprecedented call in the Eastern Bloc for the recognition of ‘free trade unions independent of political parties and employers.’ Pushed to the wall, the Communists give up for a time. The Independent Self-Governing Trade Union ‘Solidarity’– a social movement of millions, independent of the authorities and unparalleled in any other Soviet-controlled nation – is thus born. The period known today as the ‘Solidarity Carnival’ begins; it is a breath of relative freedom in a still oppressive state.

The Communist caciques can only accept such a state of affairs for a short time. Stanisław Kania, leader of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR), hopes that ‘Solidarity’ can be brought under control, that ‘anti-socialist forces’ can be purged from it and that a ‘healthy working-class current’ can gradually be integrated into the rigid framework of the system. At the same time, the Interior Ministry and the army are preparing for a violent crackdown on the union. Jaruzelski, who replaced Kania in the party chief’s chair in October 1981, chooses the latter option – a decision that meets the Soviets’s expectations and ultimately proves detrimental to Poland.

Martial law is declared on the morning of 13 December 1981 to break the back of ‘Solidarity’ and any democratic opposition. Internment and detention centres quickly fill up with fighters for freedom and workers’ rights. The Communists ban strikes, assemblies, trade union activities and many other forms of organisation. Resistance is ruthlessly crushed. On 16 December, the army and militia brutally suppress a miners’ protest at the Wujek mine in Katowice, leaving nine dead and many injured. Draconian sentences are imposed and enforced for the smallest forms of resistance. Ewa Kubasiewicz, co-author of the opposition leaflet, is sentenced to ten years in prison by the military court in Gdynia.

Although the red regime closed the borders, the world is watching events unfold. In the Vatican, Pope John Paul II suffers with his countrymen, encourages them and admonishes the Communist authorities. ‘The state cannot be strong by the force of violence,’ he appeals during an audience. ‘Poland needs cooperation between its government and its people, not military oppression,’ says US President Ronald Reagan, echoing the Pope. In the same speech, he urges Americans to light candles in their windows on Christmas Eve as a gesture of solidarity with the ‘brave Poles’. In a similar gesture, famous Hollywood artists, including Kirk Douglas and Frank Sinatra, record a television programme Let Poland Be Poland.

Jaruzelski’s team does not suspend martial law until December 1982 and announces its definitive lifting the following July. The Communist authorities try to convince the West that Poland is experiencing ‘normalisation’. But those who challenge the regime are still forced into exile, imprisoned or even killed – such as the charismatic priest Jerzy Popiełuszko, who is brutally murdered in the autumn of 1984. ‘Solidarity’ must continue to operate underground, but its myth lives on. The June 1989 elections, although not entirely free, end in a spectacular defeat for the Communists. Little by little, they lose outposts of power.

Completing the Transformation

‘There will be no punishment for mediocre rascals / And the people will sacrifice in vain,’ prophesied Jacek Kaczmarski, a poet and singer known as the bard of Solidarity, in 1982. Luckily, the artist’s pessimistic prediction, made in the middle of the ‘night of martial law’, did not materialize. Thanks to the sacrifices of the ‘Solidarity’ generation, the communist system finally collapsed and Poland joined the Western alliance system.

It is true that many perpetrators of the red regime’s crimes evaded earthly justice and were even given honoured burials, like Jaruzelski. However, the Institute of National Remembrance, which I have the honour of heading, is making sure that the decommunization initiated three and a half decades ago is finally being completed. We announced the ‘Crime Archive’ project to reexamine the criminal activities of the Communist authorities in the 1980s. We conduct extensive academic research on martial law and expose Jaruzelski’s false theses on it. Last but not least, we pay tribute to those who were not afraid to fight for a sovereign Poland despite repression. A few weeks ago, on 10 November, I was in Gdansk for the unveiling of a plaque commemorating Anna Walentynowicz, the Mother of Solidarity. The public space of free Poland must fittingly honor our heroes.

Karol Nawrocki

President of the National Remembrance Institute.

Ryc. Fabien Clairefond

 SOURCE: https://eng.ipn.gov.pl/