Word: bujak
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...announcement on the television news last week was not unexpected, but its details caught many Poles by surprise: 225 prisoners jailed for their political views or activities would be released by the government of General Wojciech Jaruzelski by the beginning of this week, among them Zbigniew Bujak, leader of the Solidarity underground who was captured in May after hiding out for 4 1/2 years, and Wladyslaw Frasyniuk, another well-known opposition figure, who was serving a three-year sentence for trying to organize a general strike. Said Solidarity Founder Lech Walesa: "I am happy about...
Whatever the rationale, opposition leaders were pleased but skeptical. Bujak, in a post-release interview, called the step "really significant," but noted that "no other steps were made and there is no chance for any kind of legal opposition." Said Walesa: "In order to have time to repaint the prisons, conditions must be created for people to join in working for the country. + Pluralism of social organizations is indispensable in order for reforms to progress...
...opposition still runs deep, Jaruzelski was able to put on a triumphant face before the congress. Solidarity, perhaps the greatest threat to Communist rule in the East bloc since Czechoslovakia's uprising in 1968, had at last been all but crushed after the capture two weeks earlier of Zbigniew Bujak, the underground's mastermind. Former leaders who are free, like Lech Walesa, the sturdy electrician from Gdansk, have withdrawn from public life. Partly because of Solidarity's collapse, the Catholic Church has resumed its role as the sole counterweight to Jaruzelski's regime...
...opposition is down, however, it is far from out. Thanks to its organization into cells, Solidarity can survive the arrest of many members. A meeting of underground leaders after Bujak's capture, for example, reportedly drew the heaviest attendance for such a gathering since martial law was imposed in December 1981. The measure was lifted in July...
Poles like to quip that news dispensed by the state falls into three categories: certain (obituaries), probable (the weather) and nonsensical (everything else). On May 31, however, the terse official announcement had the ring of truth: Zbigniew Bujak, a fugitive underground leader of the banned Solidarity trade-union movement, had been arrested after eluding police for more than four years. Only days later, Poles received a second jolt. The Washington Post reported that the Reagan Administration not only knew in advance about the Warsaw regime's plans to impose martial law in December 1981, but according to Polish Government Spokesman...