John Paul II visited his homeland Poland right this moment, defying Brezhnev and contributing to the institution of Solidarity and in the end the dissolution of the USSR
It’s 1979 and the stress of the Chilly Struggle is at its peak as soon as once more, with the Soviet Union on the one hand and the West on the opposite continuously elevating the stress all through the earlier interval with threats and strategic strikes. Poland is getting ready to “explode” and the USSR within the coming years enters a interval of uncertainty with the blessings of the leaders of the West and likewise of the… Catholic Church.
On the finish of the Nineteen Seventies the coverage of “détente” that Henry Kissinger had launched into US overseas coverage in direction of the USSR has reached its limits and the scenario in Afghanistan is boiling over after the Amin authorities’s requests to ship in Soviet troops so as to suppress the… counter-revolution of the – because it turned out later – US-backed mujahideen.
The underground networks
Within the Polish Individuals’s Republic in addition to in different Soviet republics there’s a relative dissatisfaction with Moscow, primarily due to the financial coverage carried out within the early Nineteen Seventies (it drove up overseas borrowing and debt and caused will increase in costs). In Poland since 1973, numerous underground unlawful networks of nationalists, right-wing, liberal and different political forces have been working, organizing the “resistance” to the “regime”. A central position in them, because it turned recognized later, was performed by the archbishop of Krakow and cardinal since 1964, Karol Jozef Wojtyła.
Nonetheless, Wojtyla was to play a central position not solely within the underground networks but in addition on the finish of the Chilly Struggle as Pope John Paul II, who was elected in 1978.
As the primary Polish pope in historical past and the primary non-Italian within the final 400 years, Wojtyła embodied all of the anti-communist conservatism of the Polish clergy and the custom of Polish nationalistic sentiment in opposition to the twin occupation of the nation by Nazi Germany and the USSR. at the start of World Struggle II and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
The defining second in the midst of Pope John Paul II but in addition within the historical past of Poland and the USSR is none aside from Wojtyła’s official go to to his homeland, right this moment, June 2, 1979. The nine-day go to is taken into account historic and decisive concerning the developments in Poland but in addition in Europe due to what preceded it, what occurred throughout it and what it triggered.
The truth that this go to had truly been forbidden by Leonid Brezhnev himself, then normal secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Get together of the Soviet Union, who had warned the pope to not intervene in Poland’s inside affairs, but in addition that he was supported by the entire “free world” as an act of questioning the…non secular authority of the “regime” over the Catholic devoted of Poland clearly demonstrates the significance hooked up to it earlier than it even happened.
Thousands and thousands of believers
That the pope himself introduced it as a pilgrimage to his place, that he gathered over 3 million worshipers in Victory Sq. in Warsaw, and that he carried an enormous picket cross to a platform within the Lenin Shipyard to carry a service in reminiscence of the Polish employees who had been killed in a strike in 1970 exhibit the which means given to it by the pope himself but in addition the questioning message he needed to convey.
Pope John Paul II, earlier than he turned pope, from the place of Archbishop of Krakow, had caught the attention of the Soviet authorities in Poland due to his harsh conservative views. His exercise within the years earlier than he turned pope had not gone unnoticed, and there are numerous references to him in information of the time that got here to mild a number of a long time after the occasions. In accordance with related books and stories of investigative journalists, Wojtyła acted for a few years as the person who dealt with the affairs of the… church, however by his catechism and actions he created “dissidents” in opposition to the Soviet authorities. He organized philosophy courses, fellowships with the flock, seminars on communication and way more. Some authors and historians estimate that, along with the opposition to the coverage of the Soviet authorities by nationalists, rightists, liberals and… leftists, they laid the groundwork for the Solidarity motion to emerge from the bowels of Polish society.
There are quite a few stories concerning the relations of the Catholic Church in Poland with the CIA and the funding of Solidarity by Lech Wałęsa himself. On the similar time, there are various stories concerning the relations of the Catholic Church in Poland (that’s, Wojtyła’s) with the CIA and the financing of Solidarity, which notably got here to the fore in 1980, i.e. a yr after the go to of Pope John Paul II to Poland. It’s indicative of the truth that, as famous by many specialists of the interval, most Polish revolutionary actions that preceded it have been secular, however Solidarity targeted on the spiritual symbols of the Christian cross, the rosary and the Virgin Mary. It’s apparent that this didn’t occur by chance.
The syndicate and the CIA
The emergence of the Catholic anti-communist motion has been causally linked by many historians to this go to. The image turns into clear if one considers that after the Solidarity commerce union was based and began its actions (with 10 million Polish employees as official members), in 1980 Pope John Paul II publicly defended Solidarity and the strikes and ordered the Polish church to assist them by sending a related message to the archbishop of Warsaw and Gniezno Stefan Wizinski.
The relations of Pope John Paul II with the Polish “resistance” to the Soviet authorities and to the facility of the de facto chief of the nation, Wojciech Jaruzelski, had turn into even clearer when in 1981, the yr that it was determined to declare martial legislation within the nation, the Lech Walesa visited Rome. Then Walesa publicly acquired the help of Wojtyla, whereas the CIA had additionally began to open the cannula of funding to the union.
Indicative of his standing in that interval as a character shaping the historic course of the interval, Pope John Paul II additionally discovered himself on the focal point for but another excuse. On Could 13, 1981, in St. Peter’s Sq., the pope was shot 4 occasions. He had been shot within the stomach and left arm, and his would-be murderer who was arrested was none aside from the Turkish ultranationalist Mehmet Ali Agca. Many specialists have since argued that the assassination try was a part of a conspiracy by the Soviet Union, however this can be a idea that has by no means been confirmed. This idea was introduced again to the fore in 2009 by journalist and former navy intelligence officer John Kohler together with his ebook Spies within the Vatican: The Soviet Union’s Chilly Struggle in opposition to the Catholic Church). Different researchers have demonstrated that the CIA tried to take political benefit of the tried assassination of the pope by creating and circulating a story that Agca was truly despatched by the Bulgarian companies. The goal of this marketing campaign was, in line with stories, to accuse communism as a complete and to focus on its “murderous” thirst. Regardless of this, nearly nobody, not even Agtsa himself, who has since then basically made a profession and turn into internationally recognized, has confirmed these rumours.
Then again, in fact, no matter communist propaganda relating to the assassination try, the seed planted by Wojtyla in 1979, but in addition the actions of the USA, Ronald Reagan and the CIA with the help they gave to Solidarity and the motion that it had brazenly anti-communist and majoritarian conservative traits have been the weather that led in 1989 to the spherical desk talks between the leaders of Solidarity, the Soviet communists and the Catholic Church. In different phrases, they causally led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union as a complete and the election of Lech Walesa in 1990 to the presidency of Poland.
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