September 17, 1993: The Russian Federation withdraws the last of its military units from Poland. Mostly including their previous incarnation as the Soviet Union, they had been there since September 1, 1939 -- 54 years and 16 days.
Following the Allied victory in World War II, in which Poland suffered terribly, the Soviets held a fraudulent election in 1946, and, through its results, established the Polish People's Republic in 1947. In 1955, in its capital of Warsaw, the Soviets established its counter group to the Western allies' NATO: The Warsaw Pact. Although a Polish People's Army was established, the Soviet Armed Forces maintained a heavy presence there, as in all the Warsaw Pact countries.
Poland was a one-party state, ruled by the Soviets through the Polish United Workers' Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, or PZPR). With regular police (MO), secret police (UB) and paramilitary squads (ZOMO), Poland was every bit as repressive a state as the others under the Soviet sphere. It has been estimated that 22,000 people were killed or "disappeared" under Communist rule.
In the 2nd debate of the 1976 U.S. Presidential election, President Gerald Ford, the Republican incumbent, was asked about Soviet influence in Eastern Europe. He said, "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford Administration."
The moderator, Max Frankel of The New York Times, responded incredulously, "I'm sorry, what? Did I understand you to say, sir, that the Russians are not using Eastern Europe as their own sphere of influence in occupying most of the countries there and making sure with their troops that it's a communist zone?"
But Ford refused to back down from his original statement, saying, "I don't believe, Mr. Frankel, that the Yugoslavians consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union. I don't believe that the Romanians consider themselves dominated by he Soviet Union. I don't believe that the Poles consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union. Each of these countries is independent, autonomous, it has its own territorial integrity, and the United States does not concede that those countries are under the domination of the Soviet Union."
Yugoslavia was generally regarded as free of Soviet domination, and so, to a lesser extent, was Romania. But such a statement could not be taken seriously for Poland. His Democratic opponent, former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia, responded immediately: "I would like to see Mr. Ford convince the Polish‐Americans, and the Czech‐Americans, and the Hungarian-Americans in this country that those countries don't live under the domination and supervision of the Soviet Union behind the Iron Curtain."
The States with the largest percentages of Polish-Americans are Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, New York and New Jersey. Ford won Michigan (his home State), Illinois and New Jersey anyway. He lost New York, but that may have been due to his status on New York City's federal bailout the year before. But he lost Ohio by 11,116 votes, or 0.27 percent of the popular vote. Had he won Ohio's 25 Electoral Votes, he would still have fallen 5 Electoral Votes short of winning. But losing it certainly didn't help.
Starting in 1980, the labor union Solidarność (meaning "Solidarity") showed the people of Eastern Europe what a real "workers' revolution" looked like. In 1989, the PZPR caved in, and allowed free multiparty elections, and Solidarność won. The PZPR was banned the following year. The year after that, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved, and then so was the Soviet Union. Its successor state, the Russian Federation, withdrew its troops in 1993.
In 2022, Poland is a free country of 38 million people, a member of the European Union and NATO.
*
September 17, 1993 was a Friday. These Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-4 at Yankee Stadium. In the bottom of the 8th, Wade Boggs grounded into a force play, shortstop to 2nd base, but it got Andy Stankiewicz home with what turned out to be the winning run. Paul Gibson was the winning pitcher, in relief of Sterling Hitchcock. Don Mattingly went 1-for-2 with 2 walks, but it was for naught.
* The New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves, 2-1 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Ron Gant doubled Otis Nixon home in the bottom of the 11th inning. The only Met run came on a home run by Eddie Murray.
* The Montreal Expos beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-7 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Delino DeShields hit a sacrifice fly to score Marquis Grissom with the winning run in the bottom of the 12th inning.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 13-0 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Bill Swift pitched a 7-hit shutout. Matt Williams hit a home run, and Barry Bonds went 0-for-1... with 3 walks. This was well before he is believed to have started using steroids, and even before pitchers began punishing for it by walking him, intentionally or "not."
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.
* The Florida Marlins beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Jack Armstrong pitched 7 1/3 innings of 3-hit shutout ball, and Bryan Harvey completed the 3-hit shutout.
* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 2-0 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Cal Eldred pitched a 3-hit shutout. Robin Yount, in his last few days as an active player, went 1-for-2 with a walk. Cal Ripken went 0-for-3.
* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-2 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Paul Molitor went 0-for-4. Rickey Henderson went 1-for 3 with 2 walks, 3 stolen bases, and an RBI. For the Twins, Dave Winfield went 0-for-4.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.
* The Houston Astros beat the San Diego Padres, 3-0 at the Astrodome in Houston. Pete Harnisch allowed only 3 baserunners: He gave up a walk to Dave Staton in the 2nd inning, he hit Phil Plantier with a pitch in the 4th, and an infield single to Jarvis Brown in the 6th, which he mishandled himself. It could have been ruled an error, in which case Harnisch would have had a no-hitter. Tony Gwynn did not play.
* The Colorado Rockies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 12-3 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.
* The California Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 2-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Oakland Athletics, 8-0 at the Oakland Coliseum. Álvarez pitched 8 innings of 3-hit shutout ball, and Jeff Schwarz completed the 4-hit shutout.
* And the Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Mariners, 6-3 at the Kingdome in Seattle. George Brett, in his last few days as an active player, went 2-for-4 with a walk and 3 RBIs. Ken Griffey Jr. went 1-for-4 with a walk.
No comments:
Post a Comment