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Comment by bitcharmer | Hacker News Reader

All true about (mostly) peaceful transition of power in Poland. Worth noting there were casualties though - father Jerzy Popieluszko, the "Wujek" coal mine come to mind as examples.

However the reason why it happened relatively seamlessly in Poland has to do with the fact that after the transition the post-communists still held onto a lot of power and the most impactful branches of the government, like the secret services. This was part of a deal in Magdalenka. Poland never opened their communist archives because that would compromise many active politicians. They didn't get rid of the cancer like they did in Chechoslovakia or the DDR.

A good evidence of that was the fact that my Polish grandfather who was lt colonel of secret service (going after the Solidarity freedom fighters) still enjoyed his 10x higher pension and privileges than his victims even 10+ years after Poland became a "free" country.

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Truth is, only 4 years after supposed fall of communism in Poland communists went back to power by winning democratic parlimentary elections in 1993. Two years later they also won presidential election.

Sure, but the point is that those were by all measures and accounts(at least I can't find any proof suggesting otherwise) free and democratic elections. A party consisting mostly of former communist politicians won, sure - but pre 1989 there was no democracy, there were elections but just like there are elections in the present-day Democratic Republic of Korea - the ruling party always wins with 99% of the votes. After 1989 we have managed to change the system into democracy where both the parliment and the president are chosen by the people - and well, the best proof of it working is that the SLD party both won and then lost the elections, all before the decade was out.

Yes, formally the win was fair, on the surface, but it wouldn't happen without some preparations. The deal made with communists in 1989 made sure that:

1. Communist party members never answered for their crimes, and were free to continue their political careers.

2. Compromised communist judges continued their service in courts, effectively granting communist scumbags immunity for their crimes. Crimes which included stealing huge amounts of money, which then were used for point 3:

3. The only two private TV networks, as well as biggest newspaper were owned/controlled by former communist intelligence officers. This was a great propaganda platform.

You see, that's a downside of peaceful revolutions: you never get a chance of permanently getting rid of your former rulers. Had generals Jaruzelski, Kiszczak and maybe two dozens other top ranking communist been executed in 1989 we might have avoided this mess.

I do not know why some down-voted this, but all these points are correct, and not only for Poland but also for many other countries from Eastern Europe, which had or even still have political problems due to the descendants of the former communists, who never really lost their mafia-like power.

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