On the night of December 12-13, 1981, the regime of General Wojciech Jaruzelski imposed martial law in Poland. The Military Council of National Salvation sent tanks into the streets together with units of the army, Citizen's Militia, ZOMO, ORMO and SB officers.

The Communist authorities wanted to destroy the free spirit of the Polish Nation. Over 100 deaths, almost 10,000 internees, thousands of Poles harassed, persecuted, thrown out of work, and forced to emigrate - the final balance of this national tragedy will certainly never be definitively determined. The victims of the pacification of the Wujek mine, of the suppression of demonstrations in Gdañsk, Kielce, Kraków, Lubin, Nowa Huta, Poznañ, Warsaw, Wroc³aw and other places where Poles did not agree to be deprived of freedom - are still waiting for a just reckoning of the crimes of martial law.

The Sejm of the Republic of Poland pays tribute to the victims of martial law and all those who resisted the communist dictatorship," reads a resolution passed by the Sejm on December 12.

Photo by M. Olejnik

December 13, 2017: PiS parliamentarians gathered to commemorate the anniversary of martial law