The biography of Wojciech Jaruzelski is full of not very glorious episodes. One of the less known is the war that the general waged with the Catholic Church in the Polish army, when he was the head of the Main Political Board of the Polish Army.
The fact that Wojciech Jaruzelski is an unbeliever is no secret. However, it would seem that he is a very tolerant man, having nothing to do with the so-called militant atheism. After all, he himself wrote: He respects people who are genuine believers. I even envy them their religious, moral harbor - it gives a kind of psychological and emotional comfort .
We can see that these are just empty words by following his actions in the position he held in the years 1960-1965.
Jaruzelski goes to war with clerics
It all started with a war with clerics. Pursuant to the act on universal military duty of January 30, 1950, they had no grounds to submit applications for postponement and exemption from service. However, under the agreement of April 14 of the same year between the Episcopate and the authorities of the Polish People's Republic, no alumni of the Major Seminaries were appointed to the army.
The situation changed dramatically in 1959, when Władysław Gomułka tightened his course towards the Catholic Church. This is where Comrade General comes in.
Under the agreement signed on April 14, 1950 by the Episcopate and the authorities of the People's Republic of Poland, alumni of the major seminaries were not drafted into the army. Everything changed dramatically nine years later, when Władysław Gomułka declared an open war against the Catholic Church. In June 1960, none other than Wojciech Jaruzelski will stand in the front line of the fight against the Church in the army. The photo shows the building of the Theological Seminary in Gniezno.
From the very first days of his office, he began to work vigorously to discourage clerics in uniform to the priesthood. Jaruzelski, as an intelligent man, knew that the most effective method would be the carrot and stick method . Along with strong ideological indoctrination, a program was introduced to support those alumni who choose secular life and to harass the "resistant".
As Lech Kowalski writes in his book Jaruzelski. General with a scourge ”in the case of the first in , the game was about getting a good job, admission to studies in a chosen faculty or an apartment. A non-returnable allowance in the amount of PLN 3,000 was also often given. On the other hand, the latter had to reckon with the service in the heaviest units and the least attractive garrisons .
Initially, such methods seemed to work. In 1961, nearly 20% of alumni leaving basic military service declared a return to secular life. However, it was only a temporary victory.
According to what Katarzyna Ciemięgna wrote in the article "Alumni in the Polish Army in the years 1959-1980 in the light of the documents of the Main Political Board" in 1962 out of 151 conscripted seminarians resigned from returning to the seminary, in 1963. - 12 out of 160 incarnated .
Among the staunchest enemies of the Catholic Church in Poland
In this situation, Jaruzelski prepared a more comprehensive action plan. On July 6, 1964, guidelines were issued on the conduct of political and educational work with students of religious and religious seminaries, performing their basic military service. As Lech Kowalski notes, with this document, the general joined the group of the staunchest enemies of the Catholic Church in Poland .
The millennium of Poland's baptism was fast approaching, so the apparatus of power was tightening its anti-clerical course. In the photo, Archbishop Karol Wojtyła during one of the millennium masses (source:public domain).
According to the guidelines, the alumni were to be incorporated into units one by one, in addition, they were sent to garrisons as far away from their seminaries as possible, and these were to be regions and places less susceptible to the clergy's influence. It was also recommended that clerics acquire professions useful in civil life during their service.
In the units where the alumni were sent, additional lectures were to be given during special political activities. The local libraries were also intended to be adequately stocked. According to Jaruzelski's words, these were books debunking the basic doctrines of the Catholic religion, revealing the essence of the moral and political face of the clergy. In addition, the yearbooks of "Arguments", "Facts and Thoughts" and a number of other secular periodicals were to hit their shelves.
The general also ordered to carefully recognize the community of alumni, skillfully counteract their organized contacts, as well as attempts to spread religious beliefs and practices. The commanders were obliged to prevent the students from isolating themselves from the soldiers' collective.
As predicted, this collective should make it more difficult to study in extramural studies in clergy and religious seminaries. In turn, the deputy commanders of units for political affairs were obliged to establish contacts with the secretaries of the PZPR in the garrisons in order to undertake joint actions aimed at paralyzing the attempts at influencing the alumni by the local clergy.
As you can see, it was a well-thought-out and organized offensive on the entire front fighting clerics. However, I do not know why Jaruzelski modified some of the guidelines after only four months. Clerics drafted into the army in the fall of 1964 were to be grouped in four designated units.
Military Political Academy in Warsaw. The seminary students in the army were treated with a dose of indoctrination that WAP graduates would not be ashamed of (photo:Robert Wielgórski a.k.a. Barry Kent, license CC BY 2.5).
In addition, the head of the Polish Armed Forces of the Polish Army decided that in two of them, extra-full-time companies would be separated, consisting in one case of 100 (2nd mechanized regiment from Skierniewice) and in the other 90 (1st pontoon regiment from Brzeg) percent of seminarians.
As you can imagine, there was a lot of emphasis on political training - in the first year of service, 480 hours plus 32 hours of political information, in the next 360 hours and 36 hours of information. As Lech Kowalski aptly notices in his book such a dose of indoctrination was not foreseen even for the Military Political Academy .
Despite such extensive efforts, the results of the struggle for the souls of the students were meager. Especially that the seminars initially assumed screening within 20%. So what was obtained? In fact, only - or perhaps as much - a visible change in the attitude of the leadership of seminaries and individual bishops to state control. According to Jaruzelski's assessment, the vast majority already allowed visits, provided the requested information and sent the required reports.
The garrison church in Rembertów was close to being converted into a warehouse. Ultimately, however, he did not share the fate of the churches in Chełm Lubelski, Hrubieszów or Kazuń.
In the fight to consolidate the materialistic worldview among the professional staff
Of course, the actions of the comrade general as the head of the Main Political Board of the Polish Army were not limited only to making life difficult for seminarians in uniform. He also took care of the "proper" worldview attitude of the professional staff - officers, non-commissioned officers and privates. In one of the regulations, for example, we can read:
Explain to non-party officers that actively, persistently practicing religion is contrary to the demands we place on People's Army officers and especially not compatible with holding serious and very responsible positions.
For the sake of clarity, it should be added that this also applied to the military's immediate family (wife, children). As a result, the soldiers avoided church weddings and baptizing children. The temples themselves avoided a wide berth, and the church wedding of a daughter or son could mean the breakdown of a career in the army.
Churches for warehouses and chaplains for green grass
Jaruzelski, in his fight against the Church, did not fail to hit military chaplains as well. The most rebellious were dismissed, and the resulting vacancies were not allowed to be filled. Also the garrison churches fell victim to the general's orders. They most often boiled down to "reclassification" of sacred buildings into warehouses (method borrowed from Big Brother).
This happened, among others, with chapels in Kraków and Tarnów and churches in Chełm Lubelski, Hrubieszów and Kazuń. A slightly better fate befell the church on the premises of the General Staff Academy in Rembertów, which "only" was closed.
By the decision of the authorities, this beautiful church in Hrubieszów was turned into a warehouse for the army ... (photo:Wojciech Koczułap, license CC BY-SA 3.0 pl).
For a summary of the general's activity on the battlefield against the Church in the army, let us use the words of Lech Kowalski, who have been quoted many times here:
Jaruzelski once said that he regretted that he had once taken the post of the head of the Main Political Board of the Polish Army. Nothing to regret.
Sources:
Basic:
- Lech Kowalski, Jaruzelski. General with a scourge, Zysk i S-ka, 2012.
Complementary:
- Katarzyna Ciemięga , Alumni in the Polish Army in 1959-1980 in the light of the documents of the Main Political Board, "Bulletin of the Military Archive Service", 2006, No. 27.