Skip to main content
Support
Article

New CWIHP Working Paper: <i>The Kuklinski Files and the Polish Crisis of 1980-1981: An Analysis of the Newly Released CIA Documents on Ryszard Kuklinski</i>, by Mark Kramer

CWIHP is pleased to announce the publication of the latest addition to the CWIHP Working Papers series, Working Paper #59, The Kuklinski Files and the Polish Crisis of 1980-1981: An Analysis of the Newly Released CIA Documents on Ryszard Kuklinski by Mark Kramer.

In this new Working Paper, Kramer analyzes the contents of the new document collection on Ryszard Kuklinski and the preparations for Martial Law in Poland released by the CIA in December and published for the first time on the CWIHP website.

According to Kramer, this new collection of documents from Polish General Staff officer and CIA spy Ryszard Kuklinski sheds some new light on the Polish Crisis, particularly on the situation within Poland, on Soviet- Polish relations in 1981-82, and on the effects that Kuklinski's reporting had upon U.S. policy-makers.

Despite these new insights, Kramer concludes that this release represents only a small percentage of the CIA's Kuklinski materials on Martial Law, and that additional documentary evidence from all sides of the events will be required before historians can fully assess the events of 1980-1981 in Poland.

The Kuklinski Files and the Polish Crisis of 1980-1981: An Analysis of the Newly Released CIA Documents on Ryszard Kuklinski, like all CWIHP publications, is available for download free of charge from the CWIHP website.

Related Programs

Cold War International History Project

The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program.  Read more

History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more