On July 22, 1983, martial law was lifted in Poland. It had been in effect since December 13, 1981.
During this period, the authoritarian government of the Polish People's Republic, led by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, drastically restricted normal life by imposing martial law in an attempt to crush its political opposition. Thousands of oppositionists were interned without trial and about 100 people were killed. Although martial law was lifted in 1983, many of the prisoners held were not released until the general amnesty in 1986.
The official reason for the introduction of martial law in Poland was the worsening economic situation in the country, including the lack of goods in stores, the threat of an energy crisis, etc.
The most important argument for its introduction, later put forward by Wojciech Jaruzelski, was the prevention of the entry of Warsaw Pact troops into Poland to take action against political opponents of the communist regime, similar to the Prague Spring in 1968, Deutsche Welle recalls.
It all started in July 1980 with the rise in meat prices. A month later, 51-year-old worker Anna Valentinowicz, who was committed to workers' rights, was fired from the shipyard in Gdańsk. Her dismissal caused the cup of patience to overflow. Several thousand dissatisfied workers in Poland declared a strike. This was the birth of the Solidarity trade union. Later, the protests spread throughout the country. At first, the government gave in and declared that workers had the right to organize in a free and independent trade union. However, the real response of the state only came nearly a year later - in December 1981, martial law was declared in Poland. The national anthem and the address of the head of state, government and army, Wojciech Jaruzelski, were heard on the radio:
“Citizens, the responsibility that weighs on me at this dramatic moment in Polish history is too great. It is my duty to take on this responsibility. It is about the future of Poland, about my generation, which fought on all fronts of the war and devoted the best years of its life to this struggle. I announce that the Military Council of National Salvation has been appointed as of today. In accordance with the constitution, the State Council has declared martial law throughout the country at midnight today.
The communist government in Poland is preparing to deal a decisive blow to the opposition trade union Solidarity. The confrontation is clearly visible. The Polish economy is in a state of collapse, the shops are empty, and strike committees are running the factories – recalls the first freely elected Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki:
“Ten million people were organized in Solidarity – an extremely mass movement. And it was very difficult to control this movement in the initial period. Each region was competing to demonstrate its strength and heroism, so there were strikes for all sorts of things and with the aim of mobilizing the people in the region.”
The communist state leadership – of course - leaves nothing untried to provoke resistance. In mid-December - when the fear of the approaching cold winter and the lack of food products gripped the people en masse, the party leadership of the Communist Party took matters into its own hands: the military took power four days before an announced demonstration in memory of the victims of the workers' uprising of 1970. At that time, the militia had fired on its own population.
Life under the dictatorship of weapons changes everyday life radically. Basic human rights are abolished. For example, the secrecy of correspondence is abolished. Telephone conversations are tapped, the country's borders are closed, even travel to Poland is subject to special restrictions. Public gatherings are banned, and a curfew is imposed after 10 p.m., strictly controlled by the army.
The repression only delays the collapse of communism and the Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe.