Jaruzelski is probably best known as the man who declared martial law in Poland on December 13, 1981, as result of growing Solidarity influence over the country’s working class. Jaruzelski has always defended the declaration of martial law - and the subsequent crackdown against Solidarity, including the imprisonment of its leading members - as having been the only way to save Poland from a full-scale Soviet invasion. In his words, it was the ‘lesser of two evils.’ While some documents released in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union suggest no such invasion would ever have taken place, an opinion poll carried out in 2001 suggested that most Poles were willing to give Jaruzelski the benefit of the doubt. Members of Solidarity - especially those beaten, arrested and imprisoned during 1981-2 are less willing to see Jaruzelski as anything less than a tyrant and a brutal dictator. The latest claims to emerge in the case - those of members of the former Czech military - suggest that troops in the Czech Republic had indeed been mobilised for a possible invasion of Poland in the autumn of 1981. It is highly unlikely, however, that until the full Soviet archive on the matter is made public, that we will ever know exactly what went on in 1981.
Jaruzelski is probably best known as the man who declared martial law in Poland on December 13, 1981, as result of growing Solidarity influence over the country’s working class. Jaruzelski has always defended the declaration of martial law - and the subsequent crackdown against Solidarity, including the imprisonment of its leading members - as having been the only way to save Poland from a full-scale Soviet invasion. In his words, it was the ‘lesser of two evils.’ While some documents released in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union suggest no such invasion would ever have taken place, an opinion poll carried out in 2001 suggested that most Poles were willing to give Jaruzelski the benefit of the doubt. Members of Solidarity - especially those beaten, arrested and imprisoned during 1981-2 are less willing to see Jaruzelski as anything less than a tyrant and a brutal dictator. The latest claims to emerge in the case - those of members of the former Czech military - suggest that troops in the Czech Republic had indeed been mobilised for a possible invasion of Poland in the autumn of 1981. It is highly unlikely, however, that until the full Soviet archive on the matter is made public, that we will ever know exactly what went on in 1981.
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