The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB

In the event, the enforcement of martial law went more smoothly than Jaruzelski had dared to hope. Kryuchkov, who had arrived from Moscow to observe operation X at first hand, must also have been pleasantly surprised. Solidarity was caught off-guard, with most of its leading activists asleep in bed when the security forces arrived to arrest them. Zbigniew Bujak, the most senior Solidarity leader to escape arrest and go underground, said later, “The authorities were clearly planning a sizeable operation against the union. But we never thought it would be as serious as this.” There had been so much talk about the growing powerlessness of the Polish government that Solidarity had begun to believe its own rhetoric. Poles awoke on Sunday morning to find an army checkpoint at every crossroads and declarations of martial law posted to every street corner. Jaruzelski’s 6 a.m. broadcast was repeated throughout the day, interspersed with Chopin polonaises and patriotic music. Television viewers saw Jaruzelski, dressed in army uniform, sitting at a desk in front of a large Polish flag. “Citizens and lady citizens of the Polish People’s Republic!” he began. “I speak to you as a soldier and head of government! Our motherland is on the verge of an abyss!”⁶⁸ Many interpreted his speech as a warning that only martial law could save Poland from a Soviet invasion.

In the early hours of the morning Wałęsa had been taken by military escort, accompanied by the minister of labor, Stanisław Ciosek, to a villa on the outskirts of Warsaw. Wałęsa later recalled that he was addressed as “Mr. Chairman,” there were apologies for the inconvenience to which he was being put and the razor was removed from the villa’s marble bathroom in case he was tempted to commit suicide.⁶⁹ Later in the day Ciosek reported to the PUWP Politburo that Wałęsa was in a state of shock, had said that his role as chairman of Solidarity was at an end and that the union would have to be reorganized. He was also alleged to be willing to cooperate with the government. Kiszczak passed on the good news to the KGB mission.⁷⁰ Milewski exultantly told Pavlov and Kryuchkov, “Wałęsa cannot hide his terror!”⁷¹ In reality, though stunned by the suddenness of the declaration of martial law, Wałęsa is unlikely to have panicked. He had been arrested over a dozen times before and his wife Danuta was accustomed to the routine of packing a holdall for him to take to prison.⁷²

While Wałęsa was being installed in the government villa, Glemp was being visited by Kazimierz Barcikowski, secretary of the Polish Central Committee and president of the Joint Commission for the State and the Episcopate, and Jerzy Kuberski, Minister of Religious Affairs, to be informed of the impending declaration of martial law. Since no telephones were operating, they had arrived unannounced at 3 a.m. at the archbishop’s palace, where a patrolman rang the doorbell repeatedly until at last a light went on inside, Glemp was woken and a nun came to let them in. “The whole thing,” said Barcikowski, “was a bit theatrical.”⁷³ Contrary to Jaruzelski’s alarmist forecasts, Glemp showed no inclination to declare a holy war and no desire to become “a Polish Khomeini.” Milewski informed Kryuchkov and Pavlov that Glemp had reacted calmly, with “a certain degree of understanding.” Though the declaration of martial law did not surprise him, he had not expected it to occur until after the Christmas holidays.⁷⁴

The immediate concern of the authorities had been the homily that Glemp was due to give on Sunday afternoon at the Jesuit church of Mary Mother of God in Warsaw’s Old City.⁷⁵ They need not have worried. The keynote of Glemp’s sermon was caution. “Opposition to the decisions of the authorities under martial law,” he warned, “could cause violent reprisals, including bloodshed, because the authorities have the armed forces at their disposal… There is nothing of greater value than human life.” “The Primate’s words,” writes historian Timothy Garton Ash, “were bitterly resented by many Christian Poles who were, at that moment, preparing to risk their own lives for what they considered greater values.” Jaruzelski, by contrast, felt an enormous sense of relief. Glemp’s homily was broadcast repeatedly on television, printed in the Party newspaper and put up on the walls of army barracks.⁷⁶