17 - The Party Returns to the Ring

Summary

Shortly after martial law was imposed, Stefan Olszowski said at a Politburo meeting that the party needed to be “half a step behind the army” in the current situation. Whether it was exactly half a step or not is open to debate, but in general this statement certainly corresponded to reality. While the communist party had always wielded power thanks to the support of the completely subordinate ministries of defense and the interior, they were increasingly crucial in guaranteeing the party's “leading role in the state” after the foundation of Solidarity. In fact, this “leading role” had actually been constitutionally guaranteed just recently, in 1976. Since February 1981, the higher and highest levels of power were in a sense militarized, as was the party itself, which stemmed from the need to prepare and administer martial law. Despite the increased presence of military men in party and state positions, from the perspective of an outside observer (i.e., all of society) it seemed like the army (and security apparatus) was “half a step behind the party,” until that fateful night of December 12–13.

In discussing party-army relations, however, one should recall that the vast majority of officers (practically all those of the rank of colonel or above) belonged to the communist party (as was also the case among functionaries at the Ministry of Internal Affairs). Nothing can be said for sure about whether loyalty to the party or army was more important to them, except that both institutions required discipline and complete subordination. Perhaps Olszowski's statement should thus be modified: it was not the army that went out ahead of the party, but rather the communists in uniform who simply moved half a step ahead, in front of the civilian party members.

If the communist party's role as a political decision-making institution was weakened after the imposition of martial law—at all levels, including the party organizations at enterprises, too—this happened not because those who controlled the army had appropriated power, but because of a conscious decision by party leadership to transfer some of its power. In a formal sense, this transfer happened on December 5, 1981, when the Politburo authorized General Jaruzelski to order the imposition of martial law. Earlier decisions had nevertheless already pointed in this direction—for example, the appointment of General Jaruzelski to the post of prime minister in February 1981 and his appointment as first secretary in October.