The Polish left's shameful birth
The Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro has made public the court documents surrounding the so-called Moscow loan, thus uncovering the beginnings of the modern Polish left. "These are the hidden facts behind the birth of the new left in the Third Republic," Ziobro announced.
In 1989, following the creation of the first non-communist government in Poland since the late 1940s, the last First Secretary of the Polish United Worker's Party (PZPR), Mieczysław Rakowski, asked the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for funds to create a new social-democratic party and for severance pay for old communist activists. The Soviet communist party granted the PZPR a one-year loan in two parts - one part consisting of $1.2 (zł.370) million, and the other equaling zł.50,000. The money was smuggled to Poland by KGB officers acting as diplomats.
It's not certain what happened next. Soviet sources claim part of the loan was returned by Leszek Miller, one of the leaders of SdRP (Social-democracy of the Republic of Poland) and a future Prime Minister. Miller denies involvement in transferring the funds. Rakowski claims that he didn't use the money, but kept it in a safe and returned it in two installments. Ziobro has compared the events to "mafia-like practices of transferring funds."
No one was ever convicted with regards to the Moscow loan. Following the left's victory in the 1993 elections, the case was withdrawn by the prosecutor who claimed the scandal was "of low social harm." Now, despite the revelations, there still won't be any serious consequences for those at the center of the scandal. "We cannot go back to this case. Its validity has expired. But we can present it to the public so that everyone can make up his or her own mind," Ziobro said.
The left claims that the whole uncovering of the documents is only a political game. Ryszard Kalisz from the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) claims that although the loan was taken by PZPR, the documents are being used to discredit all parties on the left.
