Martial law in Poland



Martial law in Poland (Stan wojenny w Polsce) refers to the period of time from December 13, 1981 to July 22, 1983 when the government of the People's Republic of Poland drastically restricted normal life in an attempt to crush the political opposition against the Communist rule in the country. Thousands of people were arrested without charge and as many as 100 were killed.

Name
The phrase in Polish is stan wojenny, which translates as "the state of war". While there was no actual war at the time, the military government led by General of the Army Wojciech Jaruzelski and the Military Council of National Salvation (Wojskowa Rada Ocalenia Narodowego, WRON) usurped for itself powers reserved for wartime, hence the name.

Martial law


The peaceful pro-democracy movements (Solidarity and other, smaller organisations) were banned and their leaders, including Lech Wałęsa, detained overnight. In the morning, hundreds of thousands of soldiers riding military vehicles patrolled the streets. A curfew was imposed, the national borders were sealed, airports were closed, and road access to main cities was restricted. Telephone lines were disconnected, mail was subject to censorship, all independent organizations were delegalized, and classes in schools and at universities were suspended.

During the initial imposition of martial law, several dozen people were killed. Commanders during the crackdown claim about a dozen fatalities, while a Polish parliamentary commission in the years 1989-1991 arrived at a figure of over 90 deaths. In the bloodiest incident, nine people were shot dead by ZOMO commandos during breaking a strike action in Wujek Coal Mine on 16 December 1981.

A six-day working week was re-imposed and the mass media, public administration, health services, power stations, coal mines, sea ports, train stations, and most of the key factories were placed under military management (the employees had to follow military orders or face a court martial). As part of the crackdown, media and educational institutions underwent "verification", a process that tested each employee's attitude towards the regime and to the Solidarity movement; in the result, thousands of journalists and teachers were banned from exercising their profession. Military courts were established to bypass the normal court system, and e.g. imprison those spreading so-called "false information". In attempt to prevent resistance, civilian phone conversations were regularly monitored by appointed operators.

Economic crisis


Even after martial law was lifted, a number of restrictions remained in place for several years that drastically reduced the civil liberties of people living in Poland. It also led to severe economic consequences. The ruling junta instituted major price rises (dubbed "economic reforms"), which resulted in a fall in real terms of 20% or more in the income of the population. The resulting economic crisis led to the rationing of most products and materials, including basic food.

Unconstitutionality
After the downfall of Communism in Poland in 1989, members of a parliamentary commission determined that martial law had been imposed in clear violation of the country's constitution which had authorized the executive to declare martial law only between parliamentary sessions (at other times the decision was to be taken by the Sejm). However, the Sejm had been in session at the time when martial law was instituted. In 1992 the Sejm declared that the 1981 imposition of martial law had been unlawful and unconstitutional.

Soviet intervention debate
The instigators of the martial law, such as Wojciech Jaruzelski, argue that the army crackdown rescued Poland from a possibly disastrous military intervention of the Soviet Union, East Germany, and other Warsaw Pact countries (similar to the earlier "fraternal aid" interventions in Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968, and Afghanistan 1979-1989). Most historians disagree, citing a lack of sources confirming such a version of events.