NOWA HUTA. Poland. May 4: Their oily faces smudged with grime, workers at the Nowa Huta steel works idled their machinery — on bosses' orders — to listen to a visitor: Col Ryszard Kuklinski, a Cold War CIA spy, reports AP.
Like the Solidarity steel workers who fought for democracy in the 1980s. Kuklinski took great risks so that Poland could discard communism. But some workers don't see the con nection. provoking a debate over whose sacrifice was greater — theirs or Kuklinski's.
Throughout Poland, opinion is split on the man who for nearly 10 years smuggled communist secrets to the West, fleeing to the United States in 1981 after disclosing the most damaging secret of all the regime's plans to break the Solidarity movement with mil Itary force
In general, the debate over Kuklinski's place In history — traitor or hero? — reflects Poland s struggle to evaluate Its
totalitarian past, to distill the truth from the lies of 44 years of communism.
Kuklinski's 11-day visit, which started last Monday, has heightened arguments not only in steel plants but in parliament. in newspapers anti In city squares where crowds gather to see him
The discussions take place without full knowledge of the communist regime's deeds: Poland chose roundtable talks over a truth commission, allow ing for ex-communists to govern today alongside former Solidarity activists. Communist-era files remain sealed. The facts of Kuklinski's own case remain in dispute.
In the absence of full historical disclosure, personal experience defines opinion of Kuklinski.
At Nowa Huta. workers participated in the bloody Solidarity strikes that forced the communists to open talks leading to democracy. But the steelworkers showed no unity with a man
who also defied the communists. Only a small group of union leaders honoured Kuklinski. And while a few dozen workers heard him speak in their unit, the rest of tne steelworks' 17.000 employees went about their labour.
"I served in the same army as Kuklinski. I took the same oath and I was true to it." one worker said bitterly, refusing to give his name. He considers Kuklinski a traitor.
He and others take their cue from Solidarity founder Lech Walesa, who refused to meet with Kuklinski on Sunday at the Gdansk shipyards where the pro-democracy movement started.
To Walesa, only one group deserves credit for toppling communism. "No agent did more than the workers. Walesa told a news conference on Saturday.
There also are Kuklinski skeptics at the other end of the spectrum: Former communist
party members who see merit in the old system; military officers angered by honours heaped on a man who broke his oath.
Still others come from a generation that demands loyal to country, no matter what system rules. They reject the notion that Poland was not sovereign under the communist regime, that it was under Soviet control.
Kuklinski has sought to dismantle that thinking during his visit, explaining that he started spying when he saw that Poland was only a tool of the Soviet Union
Documents he saw showed that Soviet rulers intended to use the Polish military to attack the West, sacrificing Poland to a counterattack. The consequences of the plans would lead us to annihilation." he said
But what his spying contributed to Poland's freedom remains unclear. Historians only speculate that the Soviets planned to Invade Poland and
that, based on Kuklinski's information. the United States intervened.
Because of Poles' slow reckoning with the past. Kuklinski has had to postpone a permanent return home. Concerns for his safety persist. He still lives in hiding and armed bodyguards surround him as fie tours Poland.
The most painful experience of his exile. Kuklinski said last week in Krakow, has been knowing that many Poles feel he betrayed his nation. A court In September threw out a com-munist-ere treason conviction and a death sentence, riding that he acted in Poland s best interest. But by not publishing an explanation, the court left room for doubt about Kuklinski's guilt."
After the democratic changes. Kuklinski said he offered to stand trial. He set one condition: That certain documents be produced as evidence. Then-President Walesa refused, he said.
"Years passed and I was treated according to the communist standard. Kuklinski told Solidarity trade union leaders.
Many who crowded Krakow’s central square to greet Kuklinski needed no proof: They had seen him already on television, humble as he explained in news conferences and speeches why a career army officer would risk spying.
"He touches people by his honesty." said Magdalena Dulinska. a 22 year old law student.
"When you see his face! A person who is a hypocrite does not have such a face” exclaimed retired school principal Danuta Piorkowska.
The truth, she said, can be found by applying logic.
"First we have to ask the question. "Who did he spy on?" Our country? No! If you can ask that question, he's a hero. If you ask the wrong questions, you have doubts."