SITUATION REPORT: POLAND

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84B00049R000200330014-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 9, 2007
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: December 22, 1981
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release - 049R000200330014-4 b c r` 25X1
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
NATIONAL FOREIGN ASSESSMENT CENTER
22 December 1981
Information as of 0630
SITUATION REPORT: POLAND
We received no information overnight about new strikes and
cannot confirm a Solidarity report, carried by the French AFP,
that fifteen strikers were killed last week in Wroclaw when
security forces stormed a railroad car factory. The party's
central corrmittee yesterday claimed that no new strkes broke out
during the day. Its assessment said that one strike in a mine
was ended by political means but that strikes continued in other
mines, at the Katowice Steel Works and at the Warski shipyard in
Szczecin. The official media have now confirmed that about 2900
miners are occupying two Silesian coal mines. Church sources
reportedly believe the government strategy is to wait out these
miners. The party's assessment did not discuss the level o
production at those factories which are allegedly working. 25X1
Despite Archbishop Glemp's efforts at mediation, there is a
good deal of mutual suspicion between Church and regime officials
that will make the working out of compromises more difficult.
There is reportedly much bitterness among some senior Church
officials that so many moderate Catholics have been among those
arrested. From the regime's side, Foreign Minister Czyrek
recently criticized Church behavior as did the Polish Army's Main
Political Administration, which felt the Church was taking a
d
id
ec
edly pro-Solidarity stance. 25X1
Poland's military rulers continue their efforts to restrict
contacts between Polish citizens and the U.S. embassy. The
militia on Sunday interrograted a longtime contact of the embassy
and warned him to stop his relations with embassy personnel.
Even though the individual said he told the militia he was not
going to change his ways, he conceded to an embassy officer that
further contact should await the lifting of martial law. 25X1
Polish radio yesterday said that former ambassador to the
US, Spasowski, has committed serious crimes against the
fundamental interests of the state and that the Foreign Minister
 Approved For Release 2007/05/10: CIA-RDP84B00049R000200330014-4
TOP SECRET
D
had asked theme military prosecutor to institute criminal
proceedings. u
Reports from Poland continue to emphasize the disparity of
the roles of the military and other security forces in
administering martial law. Military officials reported that 200
workers were forcibly removed from the Port of Gdansk on 19
December despite a promise by them to the PZPR Provincial
Committee First Secretary to vacate and return to work. They had
asked for assurances of their personal safety and to bd
to surrender to the military rather than the militia.
A Polish Colonel, probably stationed in Lomza Province in
central Poland, complained on 20 December that rumors were rife
because of the lack of official information. He reported that
his province was quiet, but passed on rumors that at an
unidentified location, a Polish Army platoon had refused to
execute its mission. Most of the information about the general
situation that he had received from the media and even at
conferences was sketchy. The Colonel explained that his
associates were circulating among the populace to get information
and determine the general attitude. These reports highlight the
relatively passive role played thus far by the military, and may
indicate that the lack of corrmunications within Poland is having
an effect even on the military. Normally isolated to some
degree, Polish soldiers have been widely deployed during the past
week, probably cutting them off from normal sources of
information around their garrisons. Complaints about lack of
information from relatively senior Polish officers could indicate
that the military role is not merely passive, but that large
segments of it have in effect been cut off from reports that
The military situation in and around Poland remains the
same, with no evidence of any Soviet movements leading to an
intervention.