Jaruzelski Admits Kremlin Urged Solidarity Crackdown

WARSAW — President Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski said Monday for the first time that martial law was declared in 1981 under pressure from the Kremlin and that troops from other East Bloc nations had been poised to help enforce the emergency measures.

Gen. Jaruzelski, who previously declined to discuss the action against the Solidarity trade union, made his comments in an interview with the Solidarity newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza five days after the Solidarity government observed the eighth anniversary of the imposition of martial law.

Jaruzelski said that imposing martial law eight years ago “was the most dramatic decision of my life,” and he acknowledged mistakes were made.

Police and army forces detained more than 6,000 Solidarity activists on the night the crackdown was implemented, and Jaruzelski said “the internment should not have been made on such a mass scale.”

The general also revealed that the East German army was ready to help suppress Solidarity, and maneuvers on Polish soil had been planned by all Warsaw Pact armies.

Jaruzelski said the Soviet ambassador to Warsaw frequently visited him in October, 1981, and filed a sharp protest against the growing prominence of Solidarity.