Poland's post-commie clique celebrates 25th anniversary

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.

If what is being celebrated is Solidarnosc and their victory over types such as Kiszczak, it sounds as though folks have something to be happy about.

I recommend the movie "Kret" which is about this period and the deep, painful wounds which still divide the country:-) The film took place in Southern Poland, in Katowice, I believe. Could have been in Gdansk though, not really sure while I was watching.

The ones who "madee it" in IIIRP are the ones who made deals with Kiszczak and his ilk (like Michnik nad Mariusz Walter) -- for want of a better term the RT clique. Not all RT participatns went that road, but mainly those hwo did scored it big in terms of zł zł zł, $ $ $ or whatever. If you haven't yet viewed it,be sure to watch "Nocna zmiana" this evening on Channel 1 od TVP.

Makes sense. Bargaining with the enemy and then covering up one's tracks is as old as the hills!

The ones who "made it" in III RP are the ones who made deals with Kiszczak and his ilk (like Michnik nad Mariusz Walter) -- for want of a better term the RT clique. Not all RT participant went that road, but mainly those who did scored it big in terms of zł zł zł, $ $ $ or whatever. If you haven't yet viewed it,be sure to watch "Nocna zmiana" this evening on Channel 1 od TVP.

Does the historical ignorance of many PF-ers stem from some intellectual deficiency or is it the result of clever. all-pervasive pro-RT propaganda? Probably a ltitle of both. Most everyone knows of the Olszewski government's attempt to lessen the nomenklatura's stranglehold on Polish institutions and industries and de-communise the country by opening commie-era secret-police files to public scrutiny. But how many know that:

**It was the first genuinely free government of post-1989 Poland; the previous two had been rooted in the RT "transaction".
**Its avowed aim was to stop robber-baron "privatisation" on which only the nomenklatura got rich and resulted in foreign-interest groups effectively creating a neo-colonial economy in Poland.

**Olszewski made no secret of the fact that Poland should strive for full NATO and EEC membership; Wałęsa at the time was toying with such concepts as NATO-bis and EEC-bis.

**Olszewski opposed and made Wałęsa back out of a deal to create so-called Polish-Russian "joint ventures" at the site of Russian military bases in Poland after their troops were withdrawn, since that would have legitimised a permanent Russian presence in Poland.

**In general, Olszewski's was a truly pro-Polish government guided by Poland's interests first, last and always, not trying to please Moscow and its erstwhile agents - the nomenklatura. As a result it had to end the way it did. Fortunately, that legacy is now being continued by the democratically elected Law and Justice government.

Polonising is 100% right and on point :-) 4th of June is a sad date