116 COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY PROJECT BULLETIN NEW EVIDENCE ON THE POLISH CRISIS 1993). Jaruzelski, Kania, Kiszczak, and Stephen Engelberg, “Jaruzelski, Defending continued from page 1 Rakowski were all top officials in Poland in Record, Says His Rule Saved Poland,” The 1980-81 crisis, though from a quite differ- 1980-81; Gribkov was the chief of staff of New York Times, 20 May 1992, A-9; and ent angle, will be included in my Working the Warsaw Pact; and Pavlov was the KGB John Darnton, “Jaruzelski Is Now Sorry He Paper on “The Soviet Union, Jaruzelski, and station chief in Warsaw. Gribkov’s and Ordered Martial Law,” The New York Times, the Polish Crisis, 1980-1981,” which is Pavlov’s accounts make an intriguing con- 4 March 1993, A-12. For two key interviews scheduled to be issued by the Cold War trast with the views offered by Jaruzelski, with Mikhail Gorbachev, who was a full International History Project later this year. Kania, et al., as will be discussed below. member of the CPSU Politburo in 1980-81, Appendices to the Working Paper will fea- A plethora of shorter first-hand accounts see “Gorbaczow o stanie wojennym w ture many other documents I have translated and interviews with key participants have Polsce: General Jaruzelski postapil from the Russian, Polish, Czech, and Ger- appeared as well. For a sample of the count- prawidlowo,” Trybuna (Warsaw), 9 Novem- man archives. Soon thereafter, I will be less interviews with and commentaries by ber 1992, 2; and “Wywiad z Michailem putting together a book-length study and General Jaruzelski, see Novoe vremya (Mos- Gorbaczowem: ‘Jestem inny, niz probuja collection of new materials pertaining to the cow) 38 (September 1991), 26-30; “Jaruzelski mnie przedstawic’,” Rzeczpospolita, 23 Oc- Polish crisis. obrazony: Wyrok w mojej sprawie juz tober 1992, 9. Shorter interviews with Vitalii zapadl—napisal general w liscie do Pavlov, whose memoirs are cited above, Overview of New Sources przewodniczacego komisji, posla Rzepki,” include “Dostep do wszystkiego,” Polityka Since 1989, a huge quantity of docu- Zycie Warszawy (Warsaw), 13 January 1993, (Warsaw), 8 (20 February 1993), 15; “Byly ments and memoirs about the Soviet Union’s 5; “Katastrofa byla nieuchronna,” Gazeta rezydent KGB w Warszawie: ZSRR nie role in the 1980-81 crisis have become avail- wyborcza (Warsaw), 3 December 1992, 13; chcial interwencji,” Rzeczpospolita, 10 Feb- able. An invaluable account, which ap- “Rozmawiac bez nienawisci: Wywiad ruary 1993, 7; and Leon Bojko, “A wejsc nie peared even before the Communist regime generala Wojciecha Jaruzelskiego z Adamem chcieli?” Gazeta wyborcza, 10 February in Warsaw had collapsed, is the interview Michnikem,” Gazeta wyborcza , 25-26 April 1993, 6. with the former Polish colonel Ryszard 1992, 8-11; “Oswiadczenia i przeskody Most of the top Polish officials from Kuklinski, “Wojna z narodem widziana od formalne: Rozliczanie stanu wojennego,” 1980-1981, including Jaruzelski and srodka,” Kultura (Paris) 4/475 (April 1987), Rzeczpospolita (Warsaw), 25 November Kiszczak, have given testimony before the pp. 3-57. Kuklinski was one of five senior 1992, 2; “Ironiczny prymas historii,” Prawo Commission on Constitutional Oversight of officers on the Polish General Staff who i zycie (Warsaw), 49 (December 1992), 11; the Polish Sejm (Parliament). The hearings were responsible for drawing up plans for martial law in 1980-81. During that time he DECLASSIFIED SOVIET was also a spy for the U.S. Central Intelli- DOCUMENTS ON THE POLISH In regard to the situation in the Polish People’s gence Agency, and he was able to provide CRISIS Republic. the United States with unparalleled access 1. To endorse Comrade L. I. Brezhnev’s to all the military secrets of the Warsaw Pact Translated and annotated information about the situation unfolding in the until November 1981, when he was forced by Mark Kramer to flee. He now lives under an assumed Polish People’s Republic. name in the United States. Other indispens- CPSU CC Politburo Decision Setting Up 2. To establish a CC Politburo Commission able memoirs and first-hand accounts in- Suslov Commission, 25 August 1980 composed of: clude Wojciech Jaruzelski, Stan wojenny Comrades M. A. Suslov (chairman), A. A. dlaczego (Warsaw: BGW, 1992); Wojciech Proletarians of all countries, unite! Gromyko, Yu. V. Andropov, D. F. Ustinov, K. U. Jaruzelski, Les chaines et le refuge (Paris: Chernenko, M. V. Zimyanin, I. V. Arkhipov, L. Lattes, 1992); Stanislaw Kania, Zatrzymac Communist Party of the Soviet Union M. Zamyatin, O. B. Rakhmanin. konfrontacje (Wroclaw: BGW, 1991); Gen- CENTRAL COMMITTEE eral Kiszczak mowie . .: Prawie wszystko To instruct the Commission to pay close TOP SECRET . ., ed. by Witold Beres and Jerzy Skoczylas attention to the situation unfolding in the PPR and (Warsaw: BGW, 1991); Mieczylaw to keep the Politburo systematically informed No. P210/P about the state of affairs in the PPR and about Rakowski, Jak to sie stalo (Warsaw: BGW, possible measures on our part. Suggestions in the 1991); the first interview with Rakowski in To: Comrades Brezhnev, Kosygin, event of necessity are to be brought before the Zanim stane przed Truybunalem: Z Andropov, Gromyko, Kirilenko, Suslov, CPSU CC Politburo. Mieczyslawem Rakowskim rozmawie Tikhonov, Ustinov, Zimyanin, Rusakov, Dariusz Szymczycha (Warsaw: BGW, Arkhipov, Kornienko, Zamyatin, Rakhmanin. 1992); Army-General A. I. Gribkov, CPSU CC POLITBURO “‘Doktrina Brezhneva’ i pol’skii krizis Extract from Protocol No. 210 of the session of the CPSU CC Politburo nachala 80-kh godov,” Voenno-istoricheskii * * * * * on 25 August 1980 zhurnal (Moscow) 9 (September 1992), 46- CPSU CC Politburo Report “On Theses for 57; and Vitalii Pavlov, Wspomnienia __________________________________________________________________________________ the discussion with representatives of the rezydenta KGB w Polsce (Warsaw: BGW, POLISH CRISIS, 1980-81 COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY PROJECT BULLETIN 117 began in September 1992, and six sessions “Tainy ‘temnoi komnaty’,” Moskovskie Politycznego: PZPR a “Solidarnosc,” 1980- were convened in 1992 and the first half of novosti 14 (5 April 1992), 17; and “Vladislav 1981 (London: Aneks, 1992). Yet another 1993. The transcripts of these initial hear- Achalov: Takoe vpechatlenie, chto nikto invaluable source is a multi-volume collec- ings were published, along with supporting nikogda nikogo nichemu ne uchil,” Segodnya tion of documents culled from the former documentation, in Sad nad autorami stanu (Moscow), 7 February 1995, 7. References East German Communist party and Stasi wojennego przed Komisja Odpowied- to other items of this sort can be found in my archives, which is being put out by a team zialnosci Konstytucyjnej (Warsaw: BGW, forthcoming CWIHP Working Paper. led by Manfred Wilke at the Free University 1993), Vol. 1: Oskarzenia wyjasnienia Of the vast number of Soviet and East of Berlin under the title SED-Politburo und obrona. Additional volumes cover the sub- European documents that have been released, polnische Krise 1980/1982. The first vol- sequent hearings, which for the most part including many transcripts of CPSU Polit- ume, Band 1: 1980, Working Paper No. 3 went over similar ground. Especially valu- buro meetings during the crisis, only a rela- (Berlin: Forschungsverbund SED-Staat, able are the documents collected and re- tively small number have been published, 1993) covers events through the end of 1980.2 leased by the Commission. but these have been of great importance. Another extremely useful volume, Die SED Important interviews with, and articles Two of the most valuable sets of documents, contra Polen: Die Planung der SED- by, high-ranking Soviet and East European including selected transcripts of CPSU Po- Fuhrung zur Vorbereitung einer Invasion in military officers who were involved in the litburo meetings, top-secret communications Polen 1980/81, was published by Akademie preparations for an invasion of Poland in- between Brezhnev and Jaruzelski, internal Verlag for the same research institute in clude “Juz siedzielismy w czolgach: Z CPSU CC documents, and other items, were 1994. Valuable citations from Bulgarian generalem majorem Stanislawem Prochazka published in Polish in 1992 and 1993: documents can be found in “Eventualna rozmawia Leszek Mazan,” Polityka 37 (15 “Dokumenty ‘Komisji Suslowa’,” interventsiya sreshchu Polsha e mozhela da September 1990), 13; “Generalmajor S. Rzeczpospolita, 26 August 1993, 1, 19-20; stane ‘vtori kurvav Afganistan’,” Duma Prochazka z vojenske obrody rika: ‘Meli and “Scisle tajne: KPZR o Polsce 1980-81,” (Sofia), 20 November 1990, 3. jsme okupovat Polsko’,” Zemedelske noviny Gazeta wyborcza, 12-13 December 1992, Unpublished Soviet and East European (Prague), 16 August 1990, 1; “Misja 10-11.1 Another source of comparable sig- documents pertaining to the 1980-81 crisis skonczona: Wywiad z generalem Wiktorem nificance is the 660-page collection of tran- vastly outnumber the ones that have been Dubyninem, dowodca wojsk bylego ZSRR scripts of all the relevant Polish Politburo published. In Warsaw, some of the most w Polsce,” Gazeta wyborcza, 14-15 March meetings during the crisis: Zbigniew valuable unpublished materials are readily 1992, 8-9; Maj.-General Vladimir Dudnik, Wlodek, ed., Tajne dokumenty Biura available in the main Archive of Modern Records (Archiwum Akt Nowych), which Polish leadership,” 3 September 1980 To endorse the theses for the discussion contains both Party and governmental docu- with representatives of the Polish