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Leader of Poland Jaruzelski became the party's national secretary and prime minister in 1981, when Lech Wałęsa's Solidarity movement was starting to gain popularity, both within Poland and abroad. On 13th December 1981 Jaruzelski imposed martial law, actually called in Polish stan wojenny literally translated as 'state of war'. This led many to say that General Jaruzelski had declared war on the nation. According to his explanation, this action was intended to prevent a Soviet invasion. Lawyers hold that the circumstances of the martial law were even in violation of the communist constitution. Most former opposition members argue that it was merely an action by the Polish communist regime organized in order to retain power and strangle the newly-born and developing civil society. Moreover, historical evidence released under Pres. Yeltsin has been brought to light indicating that the Soviet Union did not plan to invade Poland; in fact, the Soviets strictly rejected Jaruzelski's request for military help in 1981, leaving the Solidarity problem to be sorted out by Polish comrades. This question, as well as many other facts about Poland 1945-1989, are presently under the investigation of independent historians grouped in National Memory Institute (Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, IPN), whose publications reveal facts from communist archives. The policies of Mikhail Gorbachev also stipulated political reform in Poland. By the close of the tenth plenary session in December 1988, the Communist Party were forced after strikes to approach leaders of Solidarity for talks. From February 6 to April 15, talks of 13 working groups in 94 sessions, which became known as the Round-Table negotiations, radically altered the shape of the Polish government and society. The talks resulted in an agreement to vest political power in a newly created bicameral legislature and in a president who would be the chief executive. Solidarity was legalized. After the elections, the Communists, who were guaranteed 65 percent of the seats in the Sejm (The lower house), did not win a majority, and Solidarity-backed candidates won 99 out of 100 freely contested seats in the Senate. Jaruzelski, whose name was the only one the Communist Party allowed on the ballot for the presidency, won by just one vote in the National Assembly. Although Jaruzelski tried to persuade Solidarity to join the Communists in a "grand coalition," Wałęsa refused; the latters goal being to liberate poland from communist-Soviet oppression. Jaruzelski resigned as general secretary of the Communist Party but found he was forced to come to terms with a government formed by Solidarity. In 1990 Jaruzelski resigned as Poland's leader and was succeeded by Wałęsa in December. Subsequently, Jaruzelski has faced charges for a number of actions such as murder that he committed while he was defense minister during the communist period. In May 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded a commemorative medal to Jaruzelski in Moscow. Czech President Václav Klaus criticized this step, claiming that Jaruzelski is a symbol of the Warsaw Pact troops' invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Jaruzelski said that he had apologised and that the decision on the August 1968 invasion had been a great "political and moral mistake". See *. On March 28, 2006, Jaruzelski was awarded a Siberian Exiles cross by Polish President Lech Kaczyński. However, after making this fact public Kaczyński claimed that this was a mistake and blamed the bureaucracy for giving him a document containing 1293 names without notifying him of Jaruzelski's presence within it. After this statement Jaruzelski returned the cross on March 30, 2006. On March 31, 2006 Polish IPN (Institute of National Remembrance) charged him with committing communist crimes, mainly the creation of a criminal military organisation with the aim of conducting crimes(mostly concerned with illegal imprisonment of people. Second charge involves incitement of state ministers to make acts beyond their competence. Media also revealed that he had been a secret communist agent spying for Soviet Union in Polish military since 1946*. Polish Ministry of Defence currentely is engaged in process that would allow it to deny to Jaruzelski any military pension he currently receives*. See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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