Poland after 1989 - forget the myths

Let's kick it off from getting to know the real history and political motives behind the famous Polish transformation in 1989, which - according to most sources - was a great success and a huge step forward towards the free market in Poland. It's important to know the above because this knowledge can be very useful in explaining the curent political situation in the heart of Europe, as Poland is often called, especially by Poles.

Myths of the year 1989

First and the most famous myth says that Polish 89' transformation was a great achievement because it took place with no blood spilled. All the myth-tellers though seem to forget that in 1989 the communist system was already dead in Poland. There was no hope for it, all the more that the economical situation couldn't hold on for any longer with all the central planning and lack of economical freedom. There was literally no chance that the army could be used against people on the streets. Especially in the army structures all the leaders were fully aware of the upcoming collapse of the communism.



People from "Solidarity", the Polish Trade Union, were not the ones who set the conditions during the famous Round Table Talks. These were communists, who first selected some people from "Solidarity" (those most acquiescent ones, of course) and then let them participate in the talks, which - despite what the propaganda says - resulted, according to the communists' plan, in agreement leaving the political power in the hands of previously selected "Solidarity" leaders and the real power in the hands of the communists. Why did I say real power? There are three reasons:

- the communists transformed into democrats, especially social-democrats, and kept their superior positions in the financial area - after 1989 they started banks, newspapers, TVs allowing them to move the national debates into proper direction and control the state's finances;
- their positions in all the Polish secret services structures remained untouched, so they were and most of them still are secret services officers even despite some attepmts to clean these services a few years ago; after the Round Table Talks the communists could still pull the strings from the back seat;
- they successfully pulled off a campaign attacking the vetting idea, so that they could easily sneak from one system into another; what happened in Germany and Czech Republic, did not happen in Poland;

Lech Walesa vel "Bolek"

In Western world Lech Walesa, the founder of "Solidarity" and Nobel peace prize winner, is regarded as the most famous Polish politician, who destroyed the communism practically without anyone's help. How could it happen that an electrical engineer, not too smart to say the least, became one of the greatest leaders? Obviously, it wouldn't be possible without third parties support. Third parties term in this case means the communist leaders. According to solid sources Lech Walesa was registered as a communist agent under the nickname "Bolek". The fact is that so far no historicians denied that - excluding all those scrambling that the accussations only destroy Poland's image on the international arena.

Lech Walesa's explanations on that matter are worthy a separate paragraph. At first he claimed that he has no idea who "Bolek" was, then he said that there indeed was "Bolek" but it wasn't him but he won't say who was that. And then he explained that he knows a few people who were going by the name "Bolek". Well, he did really mix it up without even basic logic included. No one also says that Walesa's records from the communism era disappeared after he took them home in early nineties.

Communism transformed into Post-communism

Of course, I could write essays on the topic of Polish transformation but this would be kind of boring, I guess. Keep in mind then that Polish history of 1989 and after presented in most medias is not even close to what and why really happened. The 1989 should be a symbol of national treachery and the communists succesfully tricking out the so called, carefully selected, opposition which - seduced by the opportunity to get the chairs in parliament - gave up and left the most important fields in communist apparatchiks' hands.

Did you know or hear about all this?