Christopher Andrew - The Sword and the Shield

If the operation that we have undertaken fails, if we have to pay with our lives, then the Soviet Union will have to be ready to face a hostile state on its western border, whose leaders will promote nationalism and anti-Sovietism. From the outset they will receive energetic assistance from the imperialist states to an extent sufficient for them to sever all ties with Socialist countries. Poland’s Socialist development would be put into reverse for a long period. 67

In the event, the enforcement of martial law went more smoothly than Jaruzelski had dared to hope. Kryuchkov, who had arrived from Moscow to observe operation X at first hand, must also have been pleasantly surprised. Solidarity was caught off-guard, with most of its leading activists asleep in bed when the security forces arrived to arrest them. Zbigniew Bujak, the most senior Solidarity leader to escape arrest and go underground, said later, “The authorities were clearly planning a sizeable operation against the union. But we never thought it would be as serious as this.” There had been so much talk about the growing powerlessness of the Polish government that Solidarity had begun to believe its own rhetoric. Poles awoke on Sunday morning to find an army checkpoint at every crossroads and declarations of martial law posted to every street corner. Jaruzelski’s 6 a.m. broadcast was repeated throughout the day, interspersed with Chopin polonaises and patriotic music. Television viewers saw Jaruzelski, dressed in army uniform, sitting at a desk in front of a large Polish flag. “Citizens and lady citizens of the Polish People’s Republic!” he began. “I speak to you as a soldier and head of government! Our motherland is on the verge of an abyss!” 68Many interpreted his speech as a warning that only martial law could save Poland from a Soviet invasion.

In the early hours of the morning Wałęsa had been taken by military escort, accompanied by the minister of labor, Stanisław Ciosek, to a villa on the outskirts of Warsaw. Wałęsa later recalled that he was addressed as “Mr. Chairman,” there were apologies for the inconvenience to which he was being put and the razor was removed from the villa’s marble bathroom in case he was tempted to commit suicide. 69Later in the day Ciosek reported to the PUWP Politburo that Wałęsa was in a state of shock, had said that his role as chairman of Solidarity was at an end and that the union would have to be reorganized. He was also alleged to be willing to cooperate with the government. Kiszczak passed on the good news to the KGB mission. 70Milewski exultantly told Pavlov and Kryuchkov, “Wałęsa cannot hide his terror!” 71In reality, though stunned by the suddenness of the declaration of martial law, Wałęsa is unlikely to have panicked. He had been arrested over a dozen times before and his wife Danuta was accustomed to the routine of packing a holdall for him to take to prison. 72

While Wałęsa was being installed in the government villa, Glemp was being visited by Kazimierz Barcikowski, secretary of the Polish Central Committee and president of the Joint Commission for the State and the Episcopate, and Jerzy Kuberski, Minister of Religious Affairs, to be informed of the impending declaration of martial law. Since no telephones were operating, they had arrived unannounced at 3 a.m. at the archbishop’s palace, where a patrolman rang the doorbell repeatedly until at last a light went on inside, Glemp was woken and a nun came to let them in. “The whole thing,” said Barcikowski, “was a bit theatrical.” 73Contrary to Jaruzelski’s alarmist forecasts, Glemp showed no inclination to declare a holy war and no desire to become “a Polish Khomeini.” Milewski informed Kryuchkov and Pavlov that Glemp had reacted calmly, with “a certain degree of understanding.” Though the declaration of martial law did not surprise him, he had not expected it to occur until after the Christmas holidays. 74

The immediate concern of the authorities had been the homily that Glemp was due to give on Sunday afternoon at the Jesuit church of Mary Mother of God in Warsaw’s Old City. 75They need not have worried. The keynote of Glemp’s sermon was caution. “Opposition to the decisions of the authorities under martial law,” he warned, “could cause violent reprisals, including bloodshed, because the authorities have the armed forces at their disposal… There is nothing of greater value than human life.” “The Primate’s words,” writes historian Timothy Garton Ash, “were bitterly resented by many Christian Poles who were, at that moment, preparing to risk their own lives for what they considered greater values.” Jaruzelski, by contrast, felt an enormous sense of relief. Glemp’s homily was broadcast repeatedly on television, printed in the Party newspaper and put up on the walls of army barracks. 76

On the first day of martial law, Brezhnev rang Jaruzelski to congratulate him on the beginning of operation X. 77Kryuchkov, Pavlov and Kulikov jointly telegraphed from Warsaw that the first stages of the operation had been successfully completed. “But the most dangerous days,” they believed, “will be Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the coming week [December 14-16] when Solidarity activists who are still at large will try to spread disorder among workers and students.” 78“During the next two weeks,” Jaruzelski told Kryuchkov, “a great deal will depend on the market situation.” The best antidote to Solidarity would be well-stocked shelves in Polish shops for Christmas. He appealed to Moscow to send shoes, children’s toys and other consumer goods as quickly as possible: “Any material aid now will cost much less than the expenditure required by the Polish situation if the unthinkable began to happen here.” 79

The worst violence after the declaration of martial law took place at a coal mine near Katowice, where more than 2,000 miners began a sit-in. On Tuesday December 15 helicopters dropped tear gas into the mines, while ZOMO paramilitary police from the ministry of the interior, supported by forty tanks, began firing rubber bullets at the miners. The security forces then attacked the doctors and ambulance drivers who came to tend the wounded. 80Seven miners were killed and thirty-nine injured; forty-one ZOMO policemen were also injured, though none were killed. Overall, however, casualties were much lower than the SB and KGB had expected. The mere threat of Soviet intervention had proved as effective in crushing opposition as the actual Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia thirteen years earlier. By the year’s end organized opposition to martial law had virtually disappeared. Graffiti on the walls of Polish cities proclaimed optimistically, “Winter Is Yours. Spring Will be Ours!” But Spring did not truly return until 1989 with the formation of a Solidarity-led government and the disintegration of the Communist one-party state.

Jaruzelski gave the main credit for the success of operation X to the SB, ZOMO and other interior ministry personnel. At a meeting in the ministry on December 31 he praised the SB’s dedication to Socialism and the high moral and political qualities of its operational officers. “You were the defenders of Socialism in Poland,” Jaruzelski told them. “The Polish army contributed to the success, but the main work was done by the Interior Ministry.” The SB’s principal role now was deep penetration of the opposition movement to provide the intelligence necessary “to neutralize the adversary by the swiftest possible means.” In answer to a question about the “mildness” of the sentences passed on the strike organizers at Katowice and elsewhere, Jaruzelski said that, though he was personally in favor of more severe punishment, public opinion had to be taken into account: “If we were to impose excessively severe sentences, say ten to twelve years’ imprisonment, people would say that we were taking our revenge on Solidarity. So we have to be content with moderate sentences.” As usual, an account of the meeting was forwarded to the Centre by the KGB mission in Warsaw. 81