While General Wojciech Jaruzelski had a name that is difficult to spell for many Westerners (some used the spelling "Wotjech" and variants of it, for example), the passing of this public figure, pivotal and silently dramatic in the outcomes of the Cold War, not just in Eastern Europe and the Near Abroad for the former soviet states, but overall in the perceptions as to the purposes, intentions and workings of the various services and organs originating in Moscow going back some years until the beginning of the end of the Cold War that some date to Khrushchev and his regime. It is difficult, for example, to vouch for the thesis that the Cold War began its slide into historical relegation during the 1960's and with respect to this the reading here refers to lots of texts speaking, for example, to the spirit of the biography / novel on Nikita Krushchev (entitled Krushchev Remembers) published some time ago and those in the same spirit. There are many such books and with the ascendency of actual anti - communist and anti - marxist ideas and attitudes as documented in much of the political literature of the time and subsequent to then, a long list of which are available and the texts themselves shelved at many local libraries. This "slide", some have proposed, also depends upon political and administrative interpretations of the Brezhnev period that succeeded the Khrushchev times, and that is subject to primarily perspectives that are at opposite ends: For some, the Brezhnev times themselves were essentially the apogee of soviet communism internally as marked by world influences and soviet political power as demonstrated by the international and locked ties to Moscow of most regimes in the Near Abroad, a policy goal since Lenin times apparently, and then the dominion, however unspoken, of the soviets, at least on political and ideological grounds, over the non - aligned countries and their somewhat less significant and concerted marxist and communist allies. Examples of these are numerous from those times, and at the breakup of the soviets, these territories and various states were a huge concern as far as political and administrative stability and sustainability were concerned. Today, many of these regimes still emulate the soviet "style" of politics and policy, the editor here proposes, at least nominally in an indirect identification with anti - everything radicals, of which numerous groups formed by hooligans and including, for example, some groups within and subgroups of Hamas, the former PFLP, terrorist groups in North Africa and Saharan and Sub - Saharan Africa, and from other areas such as Philippines and other obscure Asia - Pacific territories, and others.
Enter the place of Poland in this former multi - regional scheme (remark that communist and marxist influences under the soviet regime often were regional considerations only as then the soviet regime did not wish its KGB propaganda and other activism to become known, really, and thus the regional approach) that avoided for a time the type of power politics espoused by Lenin and Stalin in their times, and that eschewed confrontation with the West, especially over things like the Warsaw Treaty Organization and Berlin status for a long time, in keeping and managing soviet international politics in the details of political coverage without the proverbial Stalinist sweeps of the hand. Wojciech Jaruzelski himself was at the same time subject to the backhanded tyranny of the Stalinists and those who remember his life during the time of his status as Polish head of state also remember the silent waiting his people did for years under the memory of not one but two partitions of the country in the last century. These partitions not only engendered Polish internal instability and chaos that made military controls necessary for state order for a long time, and forcibly under a communist regime, but nullified any voice of Poland in its approach to non - soviet clients: The Polish people were often, almost always considered communists, and some strictly so, by just about every Western person; and were considered, and to the one probably by each and every member of the Moscow Politburo not to mention party members and other soviets themselves, as dissenters from the true path that led to stateless and utopic society as was set down by Lenin and Stalin in their writings as the goal for all, not just the Russians and their satellites. It was this status of the nation of Poland and its people, individually and collectively, that was so dangerous for everyone involved and self - destruction and bilking the system in such places was and proved to be tragically endemic during the soviet regime. With this proposal to the reader as an incomplete mindset as to the embodiment of the Jaruzelski politics as part of the "Ostpolitik" of the post - WWII times first under "K." and then under "B."
The overall political and military power of the soviets during these times was oft demonstrated in the status and administration of the Eastern European regimes, and an overall slide is detectable after 1964 when "K." was hounded by his own people from power, and this followed by the overall economically and politically healthy "B." regime that technically politically represented political and military stagnation for the soviets, in the end represented by failures in places like Afghanistan and political disasters in places like Morocco and South Africa, even in the Middle East where soviet sponsored terrorists were active, but much of their activities never made the papers. This is a story that is sinister and not without its major intrigues, but that is not worth reading, and rather James Michener's novel / political and cultural analysis along fictional lines, entitled Poland is a good place to start to properly take stock of what Poland was to be in the modern and postmodern world. Though the obituary on Jaruzelski in the recent "Economist" (click here) is cogent and an excellent report overall, it does not do justice to the administrative balancing act the general's regime did over the years that silently made additional and more and more powerful (in the face of Moscow's extremely powerful military impositions and marxist political might from every angle and exported as well to every single corner of society and real estate in Poland itself, especially,) what were first quiet quasi - Western groups and their leaders as jailed and silenced, and then a faint light of resolution during the Brezhnev regime that led to "Solidarnosc"; and then followed by its leadership's revolutionary and countervailing ideas and political forces, all done on a shoestring, to first export and gain political currency about the actual situation in Poland and then gaining increased Western sponsorship, notably by the Reagans and Bushes, and even from the Swiss to have their own autonomy and authentic political voice and administration far and away separated from the dictatorship and despotism of the soviets. This took years, and it is evident from any low - level reading about the life of Jaruzelski, and it must be said in his memory in view of his first repeated political and other threats from the soviets from all sides, and then subsequent prosecution and jailing by soviet authorities, that this political figure helped in the very necessary eventuality of regime change in his country to a more normal country; Jean - Paul II (as a Cardinal) openly allowed for discussion of this and it is in any reading about the period, and this in and of itself and related discussions of the evils of soviet marxist ideology, Leninism and Stalinism, etc., etc., and the efforts at open, oppressive and medieval subjugation of Poland in the conflicted ideological and other chaos of the twentieth century. In fact, the soviets used the general Jaruzelski as a silent and enigmatic figure, himself privately chained to the political line of the Moscow Politburo and a thing completely undesireable for a thinking Polish person, even those outside its leadership, to promote the somewhat desired in some places and acquired reputation of the communists at the time to grasp the politics of a nation and undermine it. This is / was what is so entirely dangerous and mortal to democratic regimes and remains on the face of, but poorly internalized by free regimes everywhere due the its either / or, determinative, and again entirely mortal norms, the founding and continuation of many new democratic regimes themselves; and with the grandsons of these soviet conservatives, remains an extreme practical danger today. Jaruzelski in spirit battled this during the time of his rule and as much needs be mentioned about this and the psychology of Eastern European and other leadership who know and knew of the GULAG, SLON, and so on. The reality of these are so stark, and in and of themselves so completely strange and apart from civilization as many know it needs be at the least, toxic and poisonous and unendingly painful, and a reason the oppressors of the day preoccupied themselves with this, that in his later books, Alexander Solzhenitsyn himself allowed these oppressive and atrocious institutions to recede to faded and background images only given the harm and universal types of destruction they caused. Something needs be mentioned about this, maybe by a group led by the great physician / psychiatrist at the CATO Institute, Vlad Bukovskii, and same need be called upon to re - assess and re - evaluate what the dangers for places like Poland were during the times discussed here actually were and how their leaders transcended, eventually and in death, the wall of the political, administrative, and marxist ideological prison into which they were cast due to the perceptions of Lenin on things like what hell was for people and wanting to materialize this for his / their adversaries and enemies. If not a societal and physically oppressive hell as imposed, then a psychological, systemically inextricable one. Please pardon typographical errors in this draft editorial.
Enter the place of Poland in this former multi - regional scheme (remark that communist and marxist influences under the soviet regime often were regional considerations only as then the soviet regime did not wish its KGB propaganda and other activism to become known, really, and thus the regional approach) that avoided for a time the type of power politics espoused by Lenin and Stalin in their times, and that eschewed confrontation with the West, especially over things like the Warsaw Treaty Organization and Berlin status for a long time, in keeping and managing soviet international politics in the details of political coverage without the proverbial Stalinist sweeps of the hand. Wojciech Jaruzelski himself was at the same time subject to the backhanded tyranny of the Stalinists and those who remember his life during the time of his status as Polish head of state also remember the silent waiting his people did for years under the memory of not one but two partitions of the country in the last century. These partitions not only engendered Polish internal instability and chaos that made military controls necessary for state order for a long time, and forcibly under a communist regime, but nullified any voice of Poland in its approach to non - soviet clients: The Polish people were often, almost always considered communists, and some strictly so, by just about every Western person; and were considered, and to the one probably by each and every member of the Moscow Politburo not to mention party members and other soviets themselves, as dissenters from the true path that led to stateless and utopic society as was set down by Lenin and Stalin in their writings as the goal for all, not just the Russians and their satellites. It was this status of the nation of Poland and its people, individually and collectively, that was so dangerous for everyone involved and self - destruction and bilking the system in such places was and proved to be tragically endemic during the soviet regime. With this proposal to the reader as an incomplete mindset as to the embodiment of the Jaruzelski politics as part of the "Ostpolitik" of the post - WWII times first under "K." and then under "B."
The overall political and military power of the soviets during these times was oft demonstrated in the status and administration of the Eastern European regimes, and an overall slide is detectable after 1964 when "K." was hounded by his own people from power, and this followed by the overall economically and politically healthy "B." regime that technically politically represented political and military stagnation for the soviets, in the end represented by failures in places like Afghanistan and political disasters in places like Morocco and South Africa, even in the Middle East where soviet sponsored terrorists were active, but much of their activities never made the papers. This is a story that is sinister and not without its major intrigues, but that is not worth reading, and rather James Michener's novel / political and cultural analysis along fictional lines, entitled Poland is a good place to start to properly take stock of what Poland was to be in the modern and postmodern world. Though the obituary on Jaruzelski in the recent "Economist" (click here) is cogent and an excellent report overall, it does not do justice to the administrative balancing act the general's regime did over the years that silently made additional and more and more powerful (in the face of Moscow's extremely powerful military impositions and marxist political might from every angle and exported as well to every single corner of society and real estate in Poland itself, especially,) what were first quiet quasi - Western groups and their leaders as jailed and silenced, and then a faint light of resolution during the Brezhnev regime that led to "Solidarnosc"; and then followed by its leadership's revolutionary and countervailing ideas and political forces, all done on a shoestring, to first export and gain political currency about the actual situation in Poland and then gaining increased Western sponsorship, notably by the Reagans and Bushes, and even from the Swiss to have their own autonomy and authentic political voice and administration far and away separated from the dictatorship and despotism of the soviets. This took years, and it is evident from any low - level reading about the life of Jaruzelski, and it must be said in his memory in view of his first repeated political and other threats from the soviets from all sides, and then subsequent prosecution and jailing by soviet authorities, that this political figure helped in the very necessary eventuality of regime change in his country to a more normal country; Jean - Paul II (as a Cardinal) openly allowed for discussion of this and it is in any reading about the period, and this in and of itself and related discussions of the evils of soviet marxist ideology, Leninism and Stalinism, etc., etc., and the efforts at open, oppressive and medieval subjugation of Poland in the conflicted ideological and other chaos of the twentieth century. In fact, the soviets used the general Jaruzelski as a silent and enigmatic figure, himself privately chained to the political line of the Moscow Politburo and a thing completely undesireable for a thinking Polish person, even those outside its leadership, to promote the somewhat desired in some places and acquired reputation of the communists at the time to grasp the politics of a nation and undermine it. This is / was what is so entirely dangerous and mortal to democratic regimes and remains on the face of, but poorly internalized by free regimes everywhere due the its either / or, determinative, and again entirely mortal norms, the founding and continuation of many new democratic regimes themselves; and with the grandsons of these soviet conservatives, remains an extreme practical danger today. Jaruzelski in spirit battled this during the time of his rule and as much needs be mentioned about this and the psychology of Eastern European and other leadership who know and knew of the GULAG, SLON, and so on. The reality of these are so stark, and in and of themselves so completely strange and apart from civilization as many know it needs be at the least, toxic and poisonous and unendingly painful, and a reason the oppressors of the day preoccupied themselves with this, that in his later books, Alexander Solzhenitsyn himself allowed these oppressive and atrocious institutions to recede to faded and background images only given the harm and universal types of destruction they caused. Something needs be mentioned about this, maybe by a group led by the great physician / psychiatrist at the CATO Institute, Vlad Bukovskii, and same need be called upon to re - assess and re - evaluate what the dangers for places like Poland were during the times discussed here actually were and how their leaders transcended, eventually and in death, the wall of the political, administrative, and marxist ideological prison into which they were cast due to the perceptions of Lenin on things like what hell was for people and wanting to materialize this for his / their adversaries and enemies. If not a societal and physically oppressive hell as imposed, then a psychological, systemically inextricable one. Please pardon typographical errors in this draft editorial.
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