Earlier this week an infamous communist leader was awarded a medal for surviving an act of Soviet repression. The news sparked a public outcry, and barely had the recipient got the medal out of the box when he felt compelled to give it back. This he did, but the following day, prosecutors acting for the Institute of National Memory charged him with crimes against the nation.
It's a strange tale, and this week will certainly count amongst the most bizarre yet in the life of Wojciech Jaruzelski, former President of Poland.
The week began with the announcement that Jaruzelski had been awarded the Cross for Deportees, a newly created honour for the starkly labelled 'class enemies' that Stalin deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan during the war. Hundreds of thousands of landowners, judges, lawyers and businessman were rounded up by the Soviets following their invasion of Eastern Poland in 1939. The Jaruzelskis, a noble family, were amongst the arrested. Wojciech Jaruzelski's father died whilst in Siberia, and the son suffered permanent damage to his eye-sight. Yet in spite of these terrible hardships, Jaruzelski ended up joining the Communist party and later becoming its leader. Indeed, it was Jaruzelski who held the strings when Martial Law was declared in 1981, an event that led to the arrest of thousands of Poles, many connected to the Solidarity protest movement.
When the furore over the medal erupted this week, the ruling conservative Law and Justice Party claimed that the awarding of the cross had been a mistake, and that Lech Kaczynski, current President of Poland, 'does not read everything he signs.' This admission was itself something of a gift from heaven to opposition leaders, who have not missed the chance to ridicule Kaczynski. But it is indeed odd that a Party that is well known for its avenging stance towards communists should award a medal to one of the most infamous Cold War figures still alive today. It proved to be the final straw for the Institute of National Memory, who pressed charges on Jaruzelski this morning for his role in the imposition of Martial Law.
Who suggested that Jaruzelski should receive the medal in the first place? This has yet to be revealed, but it was certainly not the Union of Deportees, who are up-in-arms about the affair. Jaruzelski initially expressed deep gratitude for the medal and thanked Kaczynski for attempting to overcome past differences. Yet he felt obliged to give it back just a couple of days later. Meanwhile, the former Communist leader has long claimed that his imposition of Martial Law in 1981 was essential in forestalling a Russian invasion. This 'lesser of the two evils' claim remains an incendiary but by no means simplistic subject for debate.
|