Warsaw (PMN)—According to a document published December 8, 2009, by the state archives institute, Poland’s last communist leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, wanted Soviet troops to invade his country in 1981 to help crush striking workers. Jaruzelski, 86, has always insisted that he declared martial law in December, 1981, to avert the kind of Soviet military intervention that had crushed pro-democracy supporters in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968.

The Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) published a memo on its website that it attributed to a Soviet general, citing comments by Jaruzelski days before he imposed martial law in 1981. "If [worker unrest] were to spread around the whole country, then you [the Soviet Union] would have to help us. It could get worse. The workers could come out of their plants, take over the party committees. We would not manage alone," the memo dated December 9, 1981, four days before martial law, quoted Jaruzelski as saying.

In a statement sent to the state news agency, Jaruzelski branded the claims "illogical" and said the Soviet general named in the memo had often denied suggestions that the Polish communists had requested a Soviet invasion. "If, as alleged, I had not believed we were able to impose martial law using our own forces and had thus asked for help, then on getting a negative reply martial law would not have happened or it would have ended in a suicidal bloodbath. Neither of these things happened, as we all know," Jaruzelski added.

After his Soviet interlocutor said Polish troops should be able to handle the protesters unaided, Jaruzelski was quoted as saying there were no soldiers available in some large cities.

Jaruzelski already faces charges of committing other "communist crimes" in a long-running trial often delayed by his poor health. Under martial law, which lasted until 1983, the authorities imposed a curfew, severely restricted people's freedom of movement, jailed hundreds and banned the Solidarity trade union.

Defending his decision to declare martial law on the grounds that it had prevented a Soviet intervention, Jaruzelski told the court last year: "Martial law was evil, but it was a far lesser evil than what would have happened without it."