Poland's post-communist round table clique, who ruled the country for most of the post-1989 period, are celebrating the silver anniversary of their birth which occurred after de-communisation was quashed in 1992. PF-ers not in the country at that time would be well to watch "Nocna zmiana" being showed this evening on TVP1. The politicians shown in the film all had their turn at the helm, dipping in the till and milking Poland for what she was worth over they years under various political logos.
I had often wondered who and why had filmed that backroom deal and only recently learnt it was Wałęsa himself who ordered the filming. At the time neither he nor anyone else could know how things would turn out. To be on the safe side and avert being for singlehandedly overthrowing the Olszewski cabinet, he had all the back-room conspirators plainly shown and would have something on all of them if the need ever arose.
Wałęsa was wavering prior to the deal. In fact he openly admitted having been an SB informer TW Bolek and sent a statement to that effect to PAP. That was big news back then, but half an hour later he withdrew the statement. Apparently someone (his éminence grise Wachowski?) had advised him not to go out on a limb. If he had followed his initial impulse to come clean, went before the nation, explained that he had been a simple young worker from the countryside, intimidated and pressured by the SB, and apologised, most Poles would have understood and forgiven him. As it turned out, Kuroń was the one who advised him to go through with the government's overthrow.
Such was the birth of post-commie Poland, where post-KOR-ites and post-PZPR types joined hands and hoped to live happily ever after. It's no wonder that TVN are so fiercely opposed to the good-change government. It was one of the nomenklatura companies set up in the non-decommunised country. Behind ITI, to which TVN trace their roots, were interior-ministry boss Gen. Kiszczak and TW Mewa, Mariusz Walter. TVN really could stand for Telewizja Nomenklatura.
I had often wondered who and why had filmed that backroom deal and only recently learnt it was Wałęsa himself who ordered the filming. At the time neither he nor anyone else could know how things would turn out. To be on the safe side and avert being for singlehandedly overthrowing the Olszewski cabinet, he had all the back-room conspirators plainly shown and would have something on all of them if the need ever arose.
Wałęsa was wavering prior to the deal. In fact he openly admitted having been an SB informer TW Bolek and sent a statement to that effect to PAP. That was big news back then, but half an hour later he withdrew the statement. Apparently someone (his éminence grise Wachowski?) had advised him not to go out on a limb. If he had followed his initial impulse to come clean, went before the nation, explained that he had been a simple young worker from the countryside, intimidated and pressured by the SB, and apologised, most Poles would have understood and forgiven him. As it turned out, Kuroń was the one who advised him to go through with the government's overthrow.
Such was the birth of post-commie Poland, where post-KOR-ites and post-PZPR types joined hands and hoped to live happily ever after. It's no wonder that TVN are so fiercely opposed to the good-change government. It was one of the nomenklatura companies set up in the non-decommunised country. Behind ITI, to which TVN trace their roots, were interior-ministry boss Gen. Kiszczak and TW Mewa, Mariusz Walter. TVN really could stand for Telewizja Nomenklatura.