The Polish President and Prime Minister attended the celebration on Monday marking the 40th anniversary of the imposition of martial law and expressed their gratitude to all who fought for a free Poland forty years ago.

On December 13, 1981, the Polish Communist government, led by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, imposed martial law to suppress Solidarity, the free trade union that had become a direct challenge to the one-party state. Thousands of union members were arrested and interned as society as a whole was under severe restrictions.

The main celebration took place at the Museum of Cursed Soldiers and Political Prisoners in Warsaw, once a prison where anti-Communist underground soldiers and political prisoners were imprisoned by the Communists after World War II.

Recalling the words spoken in January 1982 by then-US President Ronald Reagan, who said “Let Poland be Poland”, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that the people of Solidarity simply wanted Poland to be the Poland. “So little, but so much,” added Morawiecki.

“… after 1980 the Communist authorities were fully aware that the Polish people wanted freedom and solidarity, that they did not have the support of the Poles,” Morawiecki said, adding that martial law had been designed to destroy hopes for a better future and sow fear, uncertainty and mistrust among people.

President Andrzej Duda sharply criticized General Jaruzelski, saying that “on the 40th anniversary of the imposition of martial law it is not enough to say that he was a coward and a traitor, it must be shouted out aloud”.

“The whole clique that surrounded him was just a junta of emissaries from Moscow,” Duda added.

Both the President and the Prime Minister expressed their gratitude to the people who fought 40 years ago for an independent Poland, saying that a free and sovereign Poland had become possible through their struggle.

In the aftermath of martial law, and after several years of deteriorating economic conditions and growing social discontent, the Communists agreed to hold talks with the opposition, known as the Round Table Talks, in early 1989. The first partially free elections in June this year resulted in a huge victory for the democratic opposition.

The election marked the beginning of the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe.