It was, it has passed and few remember it. No, this is not a reflection on events from many months or many years ago. I am thinking here about yesterday's anniversary of December 13, most associated with the year 1981, i.e. the introduction of martial law throughout the country. The country that was then called the Polish People's Republic. The martial law at that time ended the period of the so-called "Solidarity carnival", lasting from the turn of August and September 1980. The messages and narrative of that day are quite one-sided, shallow and clichéd, and moreover, conducted almost exclusively in the spirit of veterans. And it was an important, for about 100 families also a tragic event in our recent history. Important, but not at all the most important. In my opinion, the event of December 13, but in 2007, had much more significant consequences and effects! And about this event, despite the increasingly troublesome feeling of its effects, almost nothing was said. There was also little talk about the real consequences, in terms of the internal real policy and geopolitics introduced on 13 December 1981. Veterans dominate, mainly the café opposition, sometimes allowing a small handful of workers, who then took the consequences of disagreement with the then system literally on their own backs. But General Wojciech Jaruzelski's martial law also meant a lost opportunity for far-reaching reforms of the then economic system, even on the scale of those that took place in Hungary ruled by Janos Kadar - the leader of the Hungarian communist party. A significant consequence of those events and omissions was not even the restriction of so-called civil liberties, because these were systematically expanded after 1985, but the economic collapse at the end of the decade of the 1980s. At that time, the West left us economically again. Why this happened and whether there was a real political and economic alternative at the time, I talk about in the next episode of the program under the common title: "Ireneusz Jabłoński on money, power and politics", which I cordially invite you to watch and listen to. Appreciating the culture of speech and substantive discussion, I encourage substantive comments and remarks under this post and on my channel. At the same time, I ask you to share this recording widely, to "thumbs up" and to subscribe to my channel (the bell and all notifications). And finally, once again I recommend a great collection of essays and articles entitled: "On the need for creative anti-communism" by Dr. Mirosław Dzielski, which allows for a better understanding of the realities of those times. P.S. It has been brought to my attention that not all the mental shortcuts and names I used may be understandable to younger recipients. Therefore, I am presenting a glossary of names and terms below: 1/ Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, practically the dictator of the Polish People's Republic in the years 1981-1989; 2/ Alexander Dubček – First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (in 1968) – equivalent to today's function of a strong president of a state (e.g. France); 3/ Janos Kadar - Secretary General (in the 1980s) of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (in practice communist) - equivalent to today's function of a strong president of a state (e.g. France); 4/ PRL – Polish People's Republic – Polish state dependent on the USSR, built on the principles of real socialism, existed in the years 1944-1989, the current Third Polish Republic is its legal successor; 5/ GDR – German Democratic Republic, a state created from the Soviet occupation zone, existed in the years 1949-1990, currently part of the Federal Republic of Germany; 6/ PZPR – Polish United Workers' Party (in practice communist), held power in the PRL; 7/ PGR – State Agricultural Farm, the equivalent of the Soviet Kolkhoz, i.e. a state, socialist agricultural enterprise; 8/ POP – Basic Party Organization – the smallest independent organizational unit of the PZPR placed in all workplaces (i.e. schools, hospitals, offices, factories, commercial and service enterprises, etc., etc.) during the PRL; 9/ In the times of the PRL, the real political power in the country and at every level (commune, county, voivodeship, state) was exercised by the party apparatus, not the government administration; 10/ contract elections – partially free elections of June 4, 1989, today loudly celebrated by part of the political class (originating from both the then government, i.e. General Jaruzelski, and the opposition, i.e. Solidarity); 11/ The role of General Vladimir Kryuchkov (head of the KGB in 1989) and Daniel Fried (US Department of State in 1989) can be read about in a few scientific articles available on the Internet.