Co władze NRD wiedziały o przygotowaniach do stanu wojennego w Polsce?
What did the GDR authorities know about the preparations for martial law in Poland?

Summary/Abstract: As early as August 1980, the GDR authorities were monitoring their communist allies in Poland to see if there were any plans to suppress the ongoing strikes and later to pacify the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarność”. Reports on this topic were provided by the Ministry for State Security (Stasi), military intelligence and the embassy in Warsaw, among others. Initially, such information was coming in only sporadically. With time – and especially since September 1981 – more regularly and more in-depth. Specific undertakings were reported: prepared lists of arrests, plans for a military takeover of the mass media and the dissolution of all political parties. Still, these signals were underestimated by the East German analysts. They ignored General Wojciech Jaruzelski’s growing readiness to confront the opposition and preferred to trust these voices in the Polish United Workers’ Party that expressed doubts about the ability of the First Secretary to use force.

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