Forty years ago today, on 13 December 1981, the Communist government of Poland imposed martial law on the country. It was lifted a little over eighteen months later on 22 July 1983. Martial law is a condition when the normal laws of a country are suspended and the military takes over. In Poland, this happened because of increasing unrest and the rise of the Solidarity movement, which opposed the government and argued for the right of workers to form their own unions. The leader of Poland, Wojciech Jaruzelski, declared martial law on with the following announcement of the formation of the Military Council of National Salvation, which constituted the imposition of martial law:

In hours, tanks were on the streets. The government imposed a curfew from 7:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m., and even walks in the evening (i.e., to take one’s dog out to relieve itself) were forbidden. Soldiers stood on street corners with AK-47s. Telephone lines were disconnected and schools closed. Mass media, health care, factories, mines, train stations, and more fell under direct military control. Opposition leaders were arrested.

World leaders, including Ronald Regan, condemned the move.

Polish T-55 tanks enter the town of Zbaszyn while moving east towards Poznan, 13 December 1981 (Image from Wikipedia)

The prevailing theory as to why this all came about is simple: the Poles feared an invasion from the Soviets as the Soviets had done in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. The Communist government imposed martial law to show the Soviets they had things under control. The name of the council even suggests this: the Military Council of National Salvation. The government was cloaking its oppression in salvific terms.

There is another theory, though: documents discovered in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union suggest that Jaruzelski actually begged the Soviets to intervene:

[A Russian] state historical institute released part of a Soviet document suggesting that Jaruzelski asked for Soviet intervention in a Dec. 1981 meeting with Soviet Gen. Victor Kulikov.

Jaruzelski, 86, denied having said the words attributed to him in the notes from the meeting, or said the meaning of his words was twisted. (Source)

Whatever the case, the imposition of martial law, far from dampening the rising spirit of unrest and the hope for freedom, only increased the Poles’ resolution to replace their oppressive government with a democratically elected government. By the end of the eighties, communism in Poland was essentially a horror of the past.