Talk:Wojciech Jaruzelski

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Biography[edit]

Jaruzelski fought in World War II and became a general in 1956. He began his rise in the Polish Communist party in 1960.

As a leading figure in the Polish High Command he played a major role in oppressive ending of strikes in Gdansk and Szczecin in 1970. It was a military and special police forces operation that was characterized by brutality and bloodshed. Unofficial figures say several hundreds of protesters killed, many more wounded.

During the 1981 crisis involving Solidarity and other democratic movements in the country, Jaruzelski became prime minister and secretary general of the Communist Party. Known as a moderate, he was often viewed as a benevolent dictator. Jaruzelski sought a compromise but finally ordered a military crackdown, placed Poland under martial law in December 1981, outlawed Solidarity, and ordered the arrest of Solidarity leaders including Lech Walesa. By the end of 1982, Solidarity had been suppressed, the martial law was lifted, and Walesa was released.

By 1987 however, Jaruzelski found his attempts at economic reform thwarted by Solidarity, which forced him to a dialogue through a series of strikes which crippled the country. In April 1989 Solidarity was legalised and granted the right to campaign for the upcoming elections. In June, Solidarity members won almost every seat of the granted 35% margin in the Sejm. This restriction allowed Jaruzelski to be elected president by a one-vote margin in the national assembly. However, he was unable to maintain a Communist-led government, he was forced in September to agree to a Solidarity prime minister - Tadeusz Mazowiecki. Jaruzelski was succeeded as president by Walesa in the first fully democratic presidential elections, which were held in December 1990.

In 1993 Jaruzelski and others were put on trial charged with criminal conduct during 1970 protests. However, court proceedings, which began in 1996, have progressed slowly because of deliberate delays by Jaruzelski lawyers.

see also History of Poland, Presidents of Poland

Returned cross[edit]

“Due to a large protest amongst the population and Kaczynski admitting his mistake, Jaruzelski returned the medal.”

This is not true. Jaruzelski was exiled to Siberia in 1940 (his father died there), and was nominated to the cross by veteran organisations. Jaruzelski, when informed about the given decoration, said that he is happy that president Kaczyński was able to rise upon historical divisions. Later on, when the Head of Presidents Chamber (Kancelaria Prezydenta) announced that Jaruzelski was put on the list of people to decorate without the knowledge of the president, general decided to sent the crossl back (along with a Syberian Exile identity card). [1]

In an open letter to the president, Jaruzelski has written that he is sending the decoration back because doesn't want the renewal of old divisions, because much more important is acting with the future of Poland in mind. [2]

There where no protests against giving the cross to the general, since this is just a formal decoration, which he simply deserves as a Syberian Exile. The reason for returning it was the statement of Presidents Chamber claiming that it was given unintentionaly. In my opinion, returning the cross, was a clear demonstration of officer's honor.

  • This man cannot be described in black-and-white terms. I agree that he oppressed the democratic opposition, but it must be said, that despite using conservative and communist rhetoric, he avoided violence and bloodshed. Martial law in Poland resulted in 90 deaths.

It is uttermost hypocrisy, when right-wing Polish politicians attacking Jaruzelski praise general Pinochet who was responsible for at least 3000 deaths and 200000 other victims. Moreover, he strictly controlled police forces and intelligence agencies, killings were rather caused by flaws with this control. On the other hand he was suspected in many cases to cover up these crimes and responsible people. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.27.37.80 (talk) 23:59, 17 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think that the reurned cross incident shows clearly how small Kaczynki is, depsite the fact that I am strongly in favor of clarification of the all circumstances of life of Wojciech Jaruzelski. He is not responsible for many deaths, but at the other had Poland lost 8 years in the development. At the same side, Pinochet was murderer, but he found modern Chile with its dynamic ecomony. Cautious (talk) 21:14, 27 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

"Communist crimes"[edit]

What does the term "communist crimes" mean? Is there a category for every pickpocketry commited by a member of the Party? Cptukbo (talk) 08:31, 27 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What does the term "Nazi crimes" mean? Answer yourself. --HanzoHattori (talk) 12:13, 27 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

But what sense does this term have when we just read he was a communist and statesman? It's like saying "the Nazis commited several Nazi crimes". I suggest replacing the phrase On March 31, 2006, the IPN charged him with committing communist crimes... with He was charged on ... of commiting ... crimes while being .... --Cptukbo (talk) 08:03, 28 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In this case, the term "Communist Crimes" makes sense as a descriptor of his actions. Under Polish law, state actions which violated the rights of citizens during the Communist period are referred to as "Communist Crimes" and carry restrictions on the right to hold public office. MLPfanficwriter (talk) 04:23, 5 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Roman Catholic or Atheist?[edit]

Atheism is common in communism, but wikipedia has Wojciech Jaruzelski listed as a Roman Catholic. Is he a Roman Catholic or an atheist? and if he is Roman Catholic, is Wojciech Jaruzelski the first or only theistic communist? Wearetherevolution (talk) 10:56, 29 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Spying[edit]

I've tagged the passage as unsourced - blogs are not acceptable. If something more reliable isn't found, the passage will be removed per WP:LIVING. Óðinn (talk) 12:31, 21 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Removed. Óðinn (talk) 16:56, 25 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Roman Catholic or Atheist?[edit]

Is he Roman Catholic or is he an atheist?


If he is Roman Catholic, this may make him the first theistic communist, right? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chamaoloan (talk • contribs) 08:05, 20 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If my memory serves me well, Polish Communists were allowed to practice Catholicism. It was kinda unique situation. RJ CG (talk) 13:36, 20 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Members of the Communist party were not allowed to practice organized religion, neither openly nor privately. Even taking a church wedding or allowing their child to be baptized, neither of which is, by itself, a declaration of Catholicism, since it is enough for the church if only one of the betrothed/parents is a Catholic, could lead to expulsion from the party. (A number of people, especially in smaller towns, took that risk, nevertheless.)
Wojciech Jaruzelski, on his official home page, semi-jokingly calls his presidential visit to Jasna Góra monastery a "secular pilgrimage"[3], so it seems he still considers himself an atheist. I'm changing the categorization accordingly. · Naive cynic · 13:07, 13 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

'...so it seems he still considers himself an atheist'. Funny, it seems you want Jaruzelski to already become a theist. Asharidu 13:29, 5 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Birthplace[edit]

I'm not an expert in these matters, but if he was born in Kurow (in the Lublin Voivodeship), then the family estate at Wysokie must surely be the place of that name in the Lublin area, and not the place (as indicated) near Bialystok.

--Train guard (talk) 19:37, 13 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Democratic Left Alliance[edit]

Jaruzelski isn't a member of SLD. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.207.108.123 (talk) 00:38, 6 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

b-class review[edit]

Close, but missing some inline cites. --Hanyangprofessor2 (talk) 04:05, 16 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Jaruzelski is still Roman Catholic[edit]

I've found a reference in Italian where it is clearly stated that Jaruzelski never really abandoned the Catholic Church, even when he was First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party (Communist Party). As for the "first theistic communist ever" thing, Italy is full of Communist practicing Catholics – there's a also a category on en.wiki called Christian communists; two of them (Crocetta and Vendola) are presidents of Italian regions and are Communists, Catholics and gays, all together.--Carnby (talk) 08:40, 23 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Could you please link the source? My Italian is rusty, but I'd take a look. I'm afraid this is rather Jaruzelski's post-deposal invention. A general secretary as cryptochristian? Kinda odd.--Advice Polack (talk) 21:20, 15 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Jaruzelski's death[edit]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/25/wojciech-jaruzelski-poland-communist-leader-dies — Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.70.80.5 (talk) 17:56, 25 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Changed heading to something more suitable, also already in article. Thanks, Matty.007 17:58, 25 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Tag[edit]

Hi, I added the orinal research tag as there are still unsourced, serious statements such as "Jaruzelski faced charges for a number of actions committed while he was Defense Minister during the Communist period, including charges of murder". Thanks, Matty.007 09:11, 26 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Matty.007: I think it would be easier just to use {{citation needed}} where needed. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 10:34, 26 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Done, but there are quite a few, which is why I thought the tag was better. Thanks, Matty.007 10:37, 26 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
This way we know exactly what to fix. You may want to ask at WT:POLAND if there are any editors interested in helping out. I'd like to, but I may not have time :( --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 04:56, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Well, the below linked discussion to ITN has a proposal to simply move all the unsourced stuff to the talk page. Thanks, Matty.007 12:09, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

"Started to denounce????"[edit]

In the article someone wrote " in 1948[7] and started to denounce people for the Soviet supervised Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army using the cover name Wolski."

It isn't true or acurate, as the article in the footnote says only:

"In March 1946, he became a full-fledged agent of the military intelligence. His codename was "Wolski." The fact of his registration is inconvertible but, as historian Piotr Gontarczyk notes, his case file was destroyed. We can assume Jaruzelski denounced his fellow officers and other assorted "reactionaries".

We do not know why author assumes, that anyone was denounced. There is no evidence that anyone was denounced by Jaruzelski, or that evidence is not presented in linked article. Important is that author of this article is know for bias, as he is a prominent writer for far right winged magazines. He can be hardly recognised as objective historian. Anyway, there is no evidence to support claim about "denuncing" anyone. Last, but not least, this "fact" is absent from polish version of this article (which is far more detailed), as there is no scientific evidence to support that.

This fragment needs either new sources to support it claims or claims about denunciations should be removed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.77.58.154 (talk) 22:51, 27 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

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A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion[edit]

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Pronunciation[edit]

@IvanScrooge98: [4] is better, but I actually didn't mean to remove the second syllable. I've overlooked the fact that the vowels are different. Sorry for that. Kbb2 (ex. Mr KEBAB) (talk) 08:52, 24 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Kbb2: it’s fine, I just didn’t understand why you provided no explanation. :) イヴァンスクルージ九十八（会話） 08:55, 24 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Invalid reference[edit]

Hi all, just to bring to your attention to the fact that the statement 'However, his intention was to crush Solidarity.' is NOT supported by the BBC article given as a reference. I am not taking a position on whether the statement is true or not (it strikes me as entirely plausible), but another reference ought to be found, or the current reference deleted (and/or the statement changed to reflect the fact that it is currently unsupported by evidence). Cheers

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