The morning of December 13th surprised. The phones were quiet, the music was serious. On television, alternatively of the “Teleranek”, a repeated speech was given by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, who headed the infamous Military Council of National Rescue. In his opinion:
Our homeland is on the abyss. The work of many generations, built from ashes of the Polish house, is ruined. State structures are shutting down..
On 13 December 1981, at 6 a.m., the Polish Radio gave the speech of Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, in which he informed Poles about the introduction of martial law throughout the country. In this way the hopes of millions of Poles were broken and for many years the chance for democratic change was postponed. The martial law has brought suffering to thousands of people and their families – isolation in internment centres, imprisonment, occupation deprivation. The innocents lost their lives.
The introduction of martial law was contrary to the existing constitution, according to which only the state of emergency could be declared. The power in Poland was taken over by the mysterious Military Council of National Rescue, shortly called via the street “Wrona”. The task of the council was to administer the country during the martial law. In fact, its importance was mainly propaganda.
A number of rigors have been imposed on society, specified as:
– Militia hour
– Convention ban
– the suspension of the activities of associations, unions, could only operate the dominant organization – PZPR.
a number of key workplaces have been militarised
– ad hoc procedure was introduced in the judiciary, in which there were severe penalties – including the death penalty
Arrests, trials and internments did not exhaust the arsenal of repression. Thousands of people, participants in strikes and demonstrations, were beaten. Tens of thousands have been sentenced to fines or detention on the basis of the rulings of the colleges of misconduct. respective 1000 “Solidarity” activists were forced to leave the country. It is impossible to find the number of people who are fired from work and deprived of posts for political reasons.
Institute of National Memory
