The Politburo Discusses Solidarity

In April 1981, Polish officials Stanislaw Kania (first secretary of the Communist Party in Poland) and Wojciech Jaruzelski (then prime minister of Poland) secretly met with two Soviet leaders, Yu. V. Andropov (a secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union [CC CPSU]) and D. F. Ustinov (the minister of defense). During a meeting of the CC CPSU that followed, Andropov and Ustinov relayed information about the secret meeting. According to this report, the Soviet officials grilled the Polish leaders about their inadequate response to the growing opposition in Poland and pressured them about the introduction of martial law, which was eventually introduced in Poland in December 1981. The document illustrates the divide that separated the Polish Communist leadership's willingness to 'fight' Solidarity and the Soviet Union's fears with the failures of the Polish leaders to precisely that. The document clearly shows the involvement of Soviet leaders in determining how best to resolve the ongoing resistance in Poland.