Thread by @EreaAndrzej

1. Most Europeans probably must have heard of Lech Walesa's Solidarity, a trade union & a grassroot movement that during the 80's has empowered Polish people and transformed the communist Poland into democracy.

Let's have together a telling journey through recent history.

2. As the economic crisis deepened, living conditions deteriorated and social unrest grew, Prime Minister general Wojciech Jaruzelski decided to impose martial law. On Dec 13, 1981 Lech Walesa's Solidarity was de-legalised, and its activists imprisoned in detention centres.

3. Context: in December '81, there were fears that civil protests might provoke the Soviets to intervene in a similar way to what had taken place in Czechoslovakia '68 and in Hungary '56.

This is important, bcs it turns out some provocations took place.

4. By the mid-'80s, strategy of fighting the communists by general strike & street demonstrations has met up with increasingly weak social response. First questions emerged about chances to negotiate a peaceful compromise with the red state.

ipn.gov.pl/pl/historia-z-…

5. Let's cut to the chase. Another wave of strikes of '88 prompted the communist authorities to start talks with representatives of democratic opposition. As a consequence of the Round Table negotiations, Poland gained a non-communist prime minister. Meet Tadeusz Mazowiecki.

6. Our history didn't have to turn out peacefully. After martial law had been imposed, #FightingSolidarity sprouted up. It was led by Kornel Morawiecki, a quantum physicist, the father to @MorawieckiM. Their stated aim: to prepare Poles for the forthcoming armed national uprising

7. Can you believe that this relentless freedom fighter yet six months before the martial law would have been imposed wrote an article: "For a True Yesterday and a Better Tomorrow of the PZPR [ruling communist party]".

He, who called to arms, insisted on striking a happy medium!

8. Now imagine. The same conciliatory Kornel Morawiecki in the same 1981 addresses Soviet soldiers stationed in Poland with an anti-Soviet proclamation. Regarding Lech Walesa's Solidarity self-interest that had to be considered a damaging provocation. The Soviets gained pretext.

9. Let me mention that Mr. Morawiecki wrote this proclamation as a fruit of his friendship with a certain Soviet émigré, now a respected oppositionist with a fine record of history. Meet Nikolay Ivanov.

10. It might seem that Mr. Ivanov should be considered a traitor to communism by the Polish and Soviet secret services. Yet a secret memo from 1987 says that Ivanov's political and ethical stance from the Communists' point of view is unobjectionable. Why?

https://twitter.com/Tomasz5ek/status/1306664693524762624?s=20&t=_Fnp_PAwxp8hq5MNhUp4vA

11. Not only did Polish communist secret services grant the Soviet émigré permanent residence in Poland but they allowed him in 1984 to travel the world (while for an average Pole it was difficult to obtain a passport!) transferring parcels from Kornel Morawiecki.

12. Tomasz Piątek, an ivestigative journalist, excavated a document that suggests an elite special service had once been in charge of handling Mr. Ivanov's issues.

https://twitter.com/Tomasz5ek/status/1306700949545783298?s=20&t=NEzr-wLrF9sKWwENhGncyg

13. According to @WFrasyniuk's testimony, Kornel Morawiecki promoted agents of the Polish Communist Security Service in his organisation even when other activists warned him against these agents. He also helped them infiltrate other underground groups.

14. One of Kornel Morawiecki's closest associates was Pawel Falicki, who - under the codename #Barnaba - secretly collaborated with the communist services. As of Aug 2016 he's an author in an alt-right website and would cajole Poles into investing their money in Kaliningrad.

15. You can see Falicki's connections detailed in a separate thread.

https://twitter.com/EreaAndrzej/status/1130103634522284033?s=20&t=hwdaJ4i5YcWU8IlkqjugVA

16. But let's get back to Mr. Morawiecki. His story of six-year hiding from the communist services has transformed into a legend. According to information gathered by @kaczorowska2 and @WFrasyniuk's testimony the communists knew all along where Kornel was.
polsatnews.pl/wiadomosc/2019…

17. So why was he not arrested for so many years? The alleged "dangerous terrorist" hasn't been captured well until 1987. Arrested and... released. The reason? A 'rectal polyp that possibly requires surgical treatment in a specialised setting not excluding a foreign facility'.

18. Let me give you a perspective - with Morawiecki on the run the elite communist services allowed another of Kornel's associates, Michał Gabriel, to travel to the West. In West Germany, Gabriel made contact with ultra-leftist terrorists from the RAF.

19. According to findings of @Tomasz5ek K.Morawiecki planned terrorist actions in the 1980s. He imported arms from 🇸🇪.

The Swedish authorities supported this smuggling. But they stopped when they found out that the parcels were going to Morawiecki.

https://twitter.com/Tomasz5ek/status/1306841601470353418?s=20&t=_Fnp_PAwxp8hq5MNhUp4vA

20. According to T.Piątek K.Morawiecki and his Solidarity have been looked after by an elite unit of communist services, which worked closely with the Kremlin and specialised in creating pseudo-opposition, quasi-underground organisations to break up the unity of the underground.

21. A digression: Tomasz Piątek has never lost a lawsuit filed against him by the people whose histories he depicts.

press.pl/tresc/66338,to…

22. Not only Kornel was on the run. He also was running from one woman to others. As a catholic he never divorced, but it didn't keep him from sustaining open relationships.

23. No wonder he had no time for his son. @MorawieckiM was often looked after by Wojciech Myślecki, Kornel's friend. It was he who, years later, would help Mateusz become a financier.

In 2016, he warned that a bigger problem than the threat from Russia would be its bankruptcy

24. We can see that a young historian @MorawieckiM moved swiftly into business to become rich only because he's been helped by his father's friends from Solidarność Walcząca, many of whom had once been either communist secret service collaborators or expressed sympathy for 🇷🇺

25. Mateusz Morawiecki multiplied then his millions by pacting with Catholic Church and buying its agricultural land for ridiculous money, but let's stop here because this is a completely separate story.

26. Let's skip a half of century. Kornel knows his time is limited. He suffers from pancreatic cancer. Yet he chooses to reveal his true self.

"Russia has no aggressive policy".

"Russian democracy by no means substantially departs from European standards" - we learn from him.

27. According to Kornel Morawiecki Vladimir #Putin has been elected democratically.

28. "Little green men captured Crimea peacefully because Crimea wanted to be Russian" we learn from @KornelMorawiec1 - "I am expanding the electorate, I am opening people up to the Russian issue and I think it is a very important one".

29. Before he dies he wants us to learn his mantra: "Europe is losing its power. It could regain it if it unites with Russia. (...) Only by joining with 🇷🇺 and its enormous potential can Europe become a world power - spiritually, economically, militarily"
oko.press/kornel-morawie…

30. Kornel Morawiecki also proposes that the President of Poland should deal with legalising annexation of Crimea internationally, because "after all, Russia will never give up the peninsula again anyway".

31. The Christian motive often recurs:

"It should simply be a European Union with Russia as part of it (...) The common denominator is roots, Christian culture"

32. "I regret that the Prime Minister did not send a congratulatory telegram to Vladimir Putin, who won the presidential election. I also regret that Mateusz Morawiecki did not mention cooperation with Russia in his expose before becoming Prime Minister."

33. "In Poland, most of the media pit the public against Russia. Is this a good thing? No, this should change. First let's win the elections, then we will change the media to serve the public." #KornelMorawiecki

https://twitter.com/Piotr_Maciazek/status/1023869136122925056?s=20&t=nIo_EesZnIExQ58oCkL8dQ

34. "The Polish government and opposition, media and elites are setting Poles against Russians. The Russian government, media and elites are pitting Russians against Poles. Whom does this serve? Certainly not to us". #KornelMorawiecki

https://twitter.com/tomasz_sawczuk/status/976123761798852610?s=20&t=nIo_EesZnIExQ58oCkL8dQ

35. "Foreign military bases in Poland should be decided jointly by the Americans and the Russians" #KornelMorawiecki

36. "Talk of war between Russia and Ukraine is not true. The fact that so many young Ukrainians are coming to us shows that they do not want to take part in a civil conflict." #KornelMorawiecki

37. #KornelMorawiecki on #Ukraine: "Not only is there civil war, but there's also poverty & banditry. We cannot blindly support such policies. Nor can we glorify murderers."

38. "Monuments to Soviet soldiers should not be removed. As many as 600,000 Soviet soldiers died in our territories. They were not criminals, at least not in large part. They fought heroically." - #KornelMorawiecki

39. "Compared to German crimes, Soviet crimes were on a smaller scale. The Red Army's contribution to defeating the Nazis is undeniable. If it had not been for the Soviets, we would not have existed. The Germans wanted to kill us, the Russians only wanted to enslave us."

40. I'd have almost forgotten that #KornelMorawiecki became famous for speaking out in 2015 as the Senior Marshal of Polish Sejm:

"Above the law is the good of the nation. If the law disturbs this good, we must not regard it as something we cannot violate."

41. Yet…

The President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda

awarded

in recognition of distinguished merits for democratic changes in Poland, for outstanding achievements in public and state activity

The Order of the White Eagle

Kornel Morawiecki

prezydent.pl/aktualnosci/or…

42. That's the oldest and the most prestigious Polish Order.

Three days later #KornelMorawiecki died.

Some of his last words were: "think about Poland all the time and work out a national consensus". This had been such a thought of his for a long time, which he tried to promote

43. Today @MorawieckiM claims: "I believe that Ukraine's struggle today is a kind of continuation of the struggle of Kornel Morawiecki's #FightingSolidarity #SolidarnośćWalcząca.

Impressive, huh?

(END OF THREAD)

https://twitter.com/PremierRP/status/1535525751302377472?s=20&t=_Fnp_PAwxp8hq5MNhUp4vA