Military Council of National Salvation
The Military Council of National Salvation was a military junta administering the Polish People's Republic during the period of martial law in Poland between 1981 and 1983. It was headed by General and First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party Wojciech Jaruzelski. It is also the only military junta to ever take charge of an Eastern Bloc nation, as all other contemporaries were headed by political communists rather than their military counterparts. Depending on the classification of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, Jaruzelski's rule (1981-1990) was also either the only one or one of two times in history where a communist nation was led by a career army commander.
Meeting of the Military Council of National Salvation on 14 December 1981
"WRONa, WRONa über alles", a political leaflet caricature from the 1980s. The "crow" is wearing sunglasses much like General Jaruzelski often did
A military junta is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term junta means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808. The term is now used to refer to an authoritarian form of government characterized by oligarchic military dictatorship, as distinguished from other categories of authoritarian rule, specifically strongman ; machine ; and bossism.
The Chilean military junta, led by Augusto Pinochet in March 1986