Preparing for Martial Law in Poland

In August 1980, a worker's strike began in Gdansk, Poland in reaction to the struggling economy and massive shortages. In a compromise to resolve the strike, the Communist government legalized Solidarity, but this only increased tensions as the shortages failed to improve. Imports from the Soviet Union and the West failed to improve the economy, with more strikes becoming endemic throughout 1980 and 1981. By December 1981, the Polish Communist Party had been convinced by its Soviet allies to declare martial law in order to restore order and crackdown on Solidarity. In this summary of "Operation X" (martial law), the Soviet Politburo was briefed on Wojciech Jaruzelski's, the Polish Party Secretary, plans. Interestingly, Jaruzelski intends to make an appeal to the public to accept martial law with a reminder of the national hero Marshall Pilsudski, who famously defeated the Soviet Union in a brief war in 1920-21.