Ryszard Jerzy Kukliński (June 13, 1930February 11, 2004) was a Polish Army colonel and

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

spy for

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

. He was posthumously promoted to

brigadier general Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...

by Polish President

Andrzej Duda Andrzej Sebastian Duda (; born 16 May 1972) is a Polish lawyer and politician who has served as president of Poland since 6 August 2015. Before becoming president, Andrzej Duda was a member of Polish Lower House (Sejm) from 2011 to 2014 and the ...

. Between 1972 and 1981 Kukliński passed top-secret

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

documents to the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

, including Soviet plans for the

invasion An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

. Former United States

National Security Advisor A national security advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. The advisor is not usually a member of the government's cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils. National sec ...

Zbigniew Brzeziński Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński ( , ; March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017), or Zbig, was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was President Jimmy Carter's ...

described him as "the first Polish officer in NATO."

Biography

Kukliński was born in Warsaw to a working-class family with strong Catholic and socialist traditions. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, his father became a member of the Polish resistance movement; he was captured by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

, and subsequently died in the

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...

. After the war, Kukliński began a successful career in the

Polish People's Army The Polish People's Army ( pl, Ludowe Wojsko Polskie , LWP) constituted the second formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the East in 1943–1945, and in 1945–1989 the armed forces of the Polish communist state ( from 1952, the Polish Peo ...

. Since 1964 he was working for the Polish

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...

and

counterintelligence Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ot ...

operations.Franciszek Puchała: '' Szpieg CIA w polskim sztabie generalnym. O Ryszardzie Kuklińskim bliżej prawdy'', Warsaw: Bellona, 2014. , p. 70 (in Polish) In 1968, he took part in preparations for the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...

invasion of Czechoslovakia The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...

. Disturbed by the invasion, and by the brutal crushing of the parallel

Polish 1970 protests The 1970 Polish protests ( pl, Grudzień 1970, lit=December 1970) occurred in northern Poland during 14–19 December 1970. The protests were sparked by a sudden increase in the prices of food and other everyday items. Strikes were put down by t ...

, in 1972, Kukliński sent a letter to the US embassy in Bonn describing himself as an army officer from a Communist country, and requested a secret meeting.

Rupert Cornwell Rupert Howard Cornwell (22 February 1946 – 31 March 2017) was a British journalist connected with ''The Independent'' newspaper for thirty years. Early life and education Born to Ronnie Cornwell and Jeanie Gronow (née Neal) in 1946 Marylebon ...

Ryszard Kuklinski: Cold War spy for the West
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' February 13, 2004. Cached by info-poland.buffalo.edu. In 1994, Kukliński said that his awareness of the "unambiguously offensive" nature of Soviet military plans was an important factor in his decision to communicate the details of those plans to the United States, adding that "Our front could only be a sacrifice of Polish blood at the altar of the Red Empire".Marat Miklszewski, "Colonel Kuklinski Speaks!",

Tygodnik Solidarność ''Tygodnik Solidarność'' (, "Solidarity Weekly") is a Polish weekly magazine. Started and published by the Solidarity movement on 3 April 1981, it was banned by the People's Republic of Poland following the martial law declaration from 13 Decem ...

, December 9, 1994, p. 12 Kukliński was also concerned that his homeland would be turned into a nuclear wasteland as the Warsaw Pact's superiority in conventional forces would mean NATO would respond to military action with

tactical nuclear weapons A tactical nuclear weapon (TNW) or non-strategic nuclear weapon (NSNW) is a nuclear weapon that is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations, mostly with friendly forces in proximity and perhaps even on contested friendly territo ...

. Between 1972 and 1981, he passed 35,000 pages of mostly

secret documents to the CIA. The documents described Moscow's strategic plans regarding the use of

nuclear weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

, technical data about the

T-72 The T-72 is a family of Soviet/Russian main battle tanks that entered production in 1969. The T-72 was a development of the T-64, which was troubled by high costs and its reliance on immature developmental technology. About 25,000 T-72 tanks ha ...

tank and

9K31 Strela-1 The 9K31 ''Strela-1'' (russian: 9К31 «Стрела-1»; en, arrow) is a highly mobile, short-range, low altitude infra-red guided surface-to-air missile system. Originally developed by the Soviet Union under the GRAU designation 9K31, it is c ...

missiles, the whereabouts of Soviet

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

bases in Poland and East Germany, the methods used by the Soviets to avoid

spy satellite A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications. The ...

detection of their military hardware, plans for the imposition of martial law in Poland, and many other matters. Kuklinski legitimation

He was the first foreign recipient of the

Distinguished Intelligence Medal The Distinguished Intelligence Medal is awarded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for performance of outstanding services or for achievement of a distinctly exceptional nature in a duty or responsibility. Recipients This list includes only ...

Escape to the United States

Facing imminent danger of discovery from a denunciation by a secret Communist collaborator known only by his alias "Prorok",Edward Kotowsk
"Kim był 'Prorok'?" – Do dziś nie wiadomo. Leszk Szymowski utrzymuje, że był to arcybiskup Janusz Bolonek
(see) Cezary Gmyz (February 2, 2009)

reprint from

Rzeczpospolita () is the official name of Poland and a traditional name for some of its predecessor states. It is a compound of "thing, matter" and "common", a calque of Latin ''rés pública'' ( "thing" + "public, common"), i.e. ''republic'', in Engli ...

, September 21, 2011 (Aleksander Szumański), Portal Wolyn. Kukliński, his wife and two sons were spirited out of Poland by the CIA shortly before the imposition of martial law in December 1981. Though Kukliński and his family successfully defected, his past may have followed him to the United States as both of his sons later died in separate incidents. The older, Waldemar, was run over by a truck without a licence plate in August 1994 on the grounds of an American university. His younger son, Bogdan Kukliński, drowned on December 31, 1993, when his yacht capsized on a quiet sea. Ryszard Kukliński did not claim that they were assassinated, but never rejected such a possibility either. On May 23, 1984, Kukliński was

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

in absentia is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent". may also refer to: * Award in absentia * Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body * Election in absen ...

, by a

military court A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...

in Warsaw. After the

fall of communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Natio ...

, the sentence was changed to 25 years. In 1995, the court revoked the sentence and said that Kukliński was acting under special circumstances and Kukliński visited Poland again in April 1998.

Death

He died from a stroke at the age of 73 in

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

, February 11, 2004. The funeral Mass for Kukliński was held at

Fort Myer Fort Myer is the previous name used for a U.S. Army post next to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, and across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Founded during the American Civil War as Fort Cass and Fort Whipple, t ...

with CIA honors on March 30, 2004. His remains were transported to Poland and on June 19, 2004, Kukliński was buried in the row of honour in the

Powązki Military Cemetery Powązki Military Cemetery (; pl, Cmentarz Wojskowy na Powązkach) is an old military cemetery located in the Żoliborz district, western part of Warsaw, Poland. The cemetery is often confused with the older Powązki Cemetery, known colloquiall ...

in Warsaw, Poland, along with the remains of his son Waldemar. Ryszard Kuklinski - grave

Legacy

In June 1986, a spokesman for the Soviet-backed Jaruzelski regime,

Jerzy Urban Jerzy Urban (born Jerzy Urbach, 3 August 1933 – 3 October 2022) was a Polish journalist, commentator, writer and politician, best known as the founder and editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine ''Nie''. From 1981 to 1989 he was the Press Sec ...

, revealed Kukliński's existence to the world in order to make the argument that the Reagan administration had been informed by Kukliński of the plans to install martial law but had betrayed the Solidarity movement by not passing that information on to its "friends" in

Solidarity ''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio ...

. When the journal

Kultura ''Kultura'' (, ''Culture'')—sometimes referred to as ''Kultura Paryska'' ("Paris-based Culture")—was a leading Polish-émigré literary-political magazine, published from 1947 to 2000 by ''Instytut Literacki'' (the Literary Institute), ini ...

interviewed Kukliński, he said that planning for martial law had begun in late 1980 and that the Jaruzelski group planned to crush Solidarity regardless of the outcome of negotiations with the trade union and the Polish church. He also rejected the regime's claim that declaring martial law was an internal decision by describing how the Soviets had applied pressure on Polish authorities to impose martial law. When asked whether Jaruzelski was a hero or a traitor, Kukliński replied:

My view has been consistently that in Poland there existed a real chance to avoid both Soviet intervention and martial law. Had he, together with Stanislaw Kania, proved capable of greater dignity and strength, had they honestly adhered to the existing social agreements, instead of knuckling under to Moscow, present-day Poland would undoubtedly look completely different.

Kukliński was the chief of a military strategic command planning division of the Polish army. He was very familiar with the layout of the Polish forces within the Warsaw Pact. While details of the general plans for the Warsaw Pact forces were known only in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, Kukliński could infer much from his contacts at the Moscow high command headquarters. According to President Carter's

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collectio ...

, "Kukliński's information permitted us to make counterplans to disrupt command-and-control facilities rather than only relying on a massive counterattack on forward positions, which would have hit Poland." In January 2013,

Władysław Pasikowski Władysław Pasikowski (; born 14 June 1959 in Łódź, Poland) is a Polish film director and screenwriter. He made his debut film, Kroll, in 1991, which was honored with the Polish Film Festival prize for his debut and the Special Jury Prize. ...

began shooting a movie about Ryszard Kukliński. With

Marcin Dorociński Marcin Grzegorz Dorociński (born 22 June 1973) is a Polish film, television and stage actor. Early life Dorociński was born in Milanówek near Warsaw and grew up in a small village Kłudzienko. His father is a blacksmith and his mother is a h ...

in the lead role, the script for '' Jack Strong'' (title taken from Kukliński's CIA secret-agent pseudonym), written by director Pasikowski, is based on new material from the Polish Institute of National Remembrance archives, CIA operating documents and statements by eyewitnesses including

David Forden David Warner Forden (September 11, 1930 – February 12, 2019) was an operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He helped Ryszard Kukliński, a colonel in the Polish People's Army, pass along sensitive information on nations in ...

, the former CIA operations officer who was the liaison with Colonel Kukliński.

Opinions in Poland

During his term as Poland's first freely elected president, a Solidarity leader,

Lech Wałęsa Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as the President of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 election, Wałęsa became the first democratica ...

, refused to pardon Kukliński and a poll taken in 1998 found that more Poles (34%) considered Kukliński a traitor than a hero (29%), with many undecided. The administration of US President Clinton nonetheless took the stance that it would oppose Polish membership in NATO unless Kukliński were exonerated. When all charges were dropped against Kukliński in 1997, the left leaning

Trybuna ''Trybuna'' () was a Polish left-wing newspaper, often seen as the outlet of the post-communist factions (Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland, Democratic Left Alliance). History and profile ''Trybuna'' inherited many traditions, including ...

lamented that "Colonel Ryszard Kukliński—a spy, deserter, and traitor—has been turned into a model of virtue and a national hero of the rightists." In a 1997 survey conducted by the

CBOS Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej (CBOS; English: Centre for Public Opinion Research) is an opinion polling institute in Poland, based in Warsaw. Originally established in communist Poland in 1982,

, 27 percent of Poles considered Kukliński a hero and 24 percent a traitor (compared to 12 and 24 percent, respectively, in 1992). According to some historians, it was possible that Kukliński was a

double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...

, of the Soviet

GRU The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...

, used in an operational game with the CIA.Paweł Wieczorkiewicz, Justyna Błażejowska: ''Przez Polskę Ludową na przełaj i na przekór'' ("Cross-country and oppositely through the People's Poland"). Poznań: Zysk i S-ka, 2011. , pp. 30–34 (in Polish)Franciszek Puchała: ''Pułkownika Kuklińskiego udział w grze wywiadów wielkich mocarstw'' ("Colonel Kukliński's part in powers' game of intellingce"), "Przegląd Historyczno-Wojskowy" nr. 4 (242), 2012, pp. 164–184 (in Polish) A Polish Minister of Internal Affairs during communist times,

Czesław Kiszczak Czesław Jan Kiszczak (19 October 1925 – 5 November 2015) was a Polish general, communist-era interior minister (1981–1990) and prime minister (1989). In 1981 he played a key role in imposing martial law and suppression of the '' Solidar ...

revealed such a theory in a later interview, while a former Soviet military attaché, Yuriy Rylyov, claimed so directly in an interview. Historians, like Paweł Wieczorkiewicz and Franciszek Puchała (a general in the Polish Army during communist times) suggest, that the knowledge Kukliński had was exaggerated, and while he had a lot of information about the Polish Army and the organization of the Warsaw Pact in general, he could not have had detailed information on Soviet plans, since no one in Poland had it. Puchała supported his opinion in official hearings of Kukliński by Polish prosecutors during his revised trial. Revealing plans about the enforcement of martial law in Poland, which would make a Soviet invasion unnecessary, could have been profitable for the Soviet side, ensuring that the US would not be surprised by martial law and would not undertake unpredictable actions against the Soviets. It is noteworthy, that despite Kukliński's revelations, the US did not warn Solidarity about martial law. The Soviets took the escape of such an important spy nonchalantly and did not demand any consequences from the Polish politician responsible for intelligence, namely Czesław Kiszczak. Also, the matter of Kukliński's sons' deaths is unclear and they may have been part of a protection program; besides, according to Wieczorkiewicz, such revenge on a defector's family would be quite unusual for Soviet intelligence. Kukliński is buried in the row of honour in the

in Warsaw, and he has been given honorary citizenship of several Polish cities, including

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

and

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

. The Polish political group ''

Centrum (Latin for ''center'') may refer to: Places In Greenland * Nuuk Centrum, a district of Nuuk, Greenland * Centrum Lake, Greenland In the Netherlands * Amsterdam-Centrum, the inner-most borough of Amsterdam, Netherlands * Rotterdam Centrum, a borou ...

'' (at the time headed by

Zbigniew Religa Zbigniew Eugeniusz Religa (; 16 December 1938 – 8 March 2009) was a prominent Polish cardiac surgeon and politician. Career as doctor Religa finished his studies at the Medical University of Warsaw in 1963. From 1966 to 1980 he worked in ...

) requested in 2004 that the

President of Poland The president of Poland ( pl, Prezydent RP), officially the president of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Prezydent Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej), is the head of state of Poland. Their rights and obligations are determined in the Constitution of Polan ...

posthumously promote Kukliński to the rank of general. Since its unveiling in 2006, his monument in Kraków had been vandalized three times by 2014: first on December 13, 2011, (the anniversary of martial law in Poland) and then on February 11, 2012 (the anniversary of Kukliński's death). In both cases, the terms such as: "

Traitor Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

", the crossed CIA name and " Death to the USA" were sprayed. On February 11, 2014, his statue was found splashed with brown paint or oil.

References

External links

The Political and Moral Dilemma
by Jolanta JABŁOŃSKA-GRUCA -, Oslo, Norway, in (polish) Dylemat polityczny i moralny.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110904025158/http://www.annarborpolonia.org/newsletters/Newsletter77.doc Wojciech Jaruzelski and consisting of 20 other high-ranking military officers – WRON declared Martial Law]
Cause of death of Colonel Kukliński
(polish)
CIA Release of 83 Documents on Kuklinski and Martial Law in Poland 1981–82
from the

Cold War International History Project The Cold War International History Project is part of the History and Public Policy Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Project was founded in 1991 with the support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundati ...

A Secret Life By Benjamin Weiser (Reviewed by Thomas M. Troy, Jr.)
from the Central Intelligence Agency

from the Central Intelligence Agency * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20061214234056/http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/RK/bookrev.html A SECRET LIFE: The Polish Officer, His Covert Mission, and the Price He Paid to Save His Country
The Spy Who Really Came in From the Cold
by David R. Stokes
SPY
podcast from

Culture.pl Culture.pl is a large web portal devoted to Polish culture. It was founded by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in March 2001. Written in Polish, English and Russian, the site promotes the work of Polish artists around the world and is a popular infor ...

's ''Stories From The Eastern West'' about Kukliński. *

Jack Strong (film) ''Jack Strong'' is a 2014 Polish political thriller film directed by Władysław Pasikowski, starring Marcin Dorociński, Maja Ostaszewska, Dagmara Dominczyk and Patrick Wilson. The film is based on the true story of Ryszard Kukliński, a Pol ...

, Polish political thriller. Also available in Frenc

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuklinski, Ryszard 1930 births 2004 deaths Spies for the United States Cold War spies Defectors to the United States Military personnel from Warsaw People sentenced to death in absentia Polish Army officers Polish defectors Polish spies Polish People's Army personnel Eastern Bloc spies for the West Burials at Powązki Military Cemetery Recipients of the Medal of the 10th Anniversary of the People's Republic of Poland