How An American President and a Polish Priest Confronted an Evil Empire

AMAC Exclusive – By Ben Solis

At a time when the totalitarian regimes of Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China are making common cause to fundamentally challenge the Western democracies, with Ukraine and Taiwan under immediate threat today, it’s important to remember that the most important source of strength the United States can draw upon in the long struggle against these dictatorships is, to tell the truth about them. It was a keen faith in this fundamental strength that once guided the choices of President Ronald Reagan and a Polish priest named Jerzy Popieluszko during the 1980s. The result of their courageous and deliberate choices was the defeat of an evil empire, and a world transformed.

As we recall the actions of these two remarkable men we must begin with an understanding that the ultimate foundation of any totalitarian state is a denial of the truth. Once you remove this cornerstone and everything that Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin once called the superstructure — that is, all of the regime’s institutions — the totalitarian state will collapse.

That’s why a focus on telling the truth about the Soviet Union was part of President Reagan’s strategy to win the Cold War described in “The Truth and the Strength of America’s Deterrent Memorandum.” As this memo outlined in 1983, the Soviet system depended for its survival on the systematic suppression of the truth. By simply telling the truth, the United States incalculably strengthened the credibility of its military deterrent. The truth, then, was the ultimate secret weapon in defeating Soviet communism.

The simple strategy of telling the truth was not just carried out by the Soviet Union’s biggest political, ideological, and military adversary, though – it was also carried out by ordinary individuals in the captive nations under Soviet rule who refused to substitute the USSR’s lies for what they knew to be objective truth and goodness.

Take, for example, the actions of Father Jerzy Popieluszko. In the face of Soviet attacks on religion, Father Jerzy stood fast in his faith. With toughness of spirit, he preached courage to his fellow Polish priests, who were always being subjected to the ideological brainwashing attempts by the Soviet-controlled military and media. With his patriotic sermons, Fr. Jerzy not only taught Polish history that was typically censored by the regime’s media outlets, but he attacked the basic tenets of the Communist lie, including socialist attacks on the traditional family, the dictatorship of the proletariat, and historic determinism, the very twisted beliefs that held the system together.

One attack on socialist doctrine was especially threatening to the communist dictatorship. Once preaching on the Parable of the Talents, Father Jerzy explained that the socialist ideal of absolute equality was an injustice, since inequality is a necessary condition for growth and development. If all conditions were made truly equal by the coercion of society, all mental and economic movement would cease. Father Jerzy said this would result in an end to humanity in any given association, a total deadness. Therefore, any pursuit of equality that was contrary to the natural order must lead to negative results. It was an extraordinary challenge to the Marxist dogma then prevailing in Polish society that prioritized a perpetual fight against social and economic inequalities.

In the language of a dictatorship, any attitude of refusing to accept the lies of a regime is called subversion. The price one pays for subversion in a dictatorship is psychological and physical suffering. Sometimes the penalty is even death.  

The Polish communist regime soon targeted Father Jerzy as the main enemy. For three years, the forms of persecution by the secret police against him included secret surveillance of his apartment, recruiting informers among his fellow priests, smear campaigns in the press, and physical beatings.

The most important teaching of Father Jerzy’s homilies and lectures during his time of trials were the words from Saint Paul’s letter to the early Christian community in Rome: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Eventually, the Soviet Communist regime that controlled Poland decided that this Catholic priest was too much of a threat to their own power. According to recent historical research, the Polish dictator, General Jaruzelski, ordered the secret police to stop the courageous priest, as he said, “from barking.” So the regime initiated an operation “to silence” the priest. In October 1984, assassins were kidnapped, the regime gave its orders. Assassins kidnapped the young priest, tore out his tongue, and tortured him. They wrapped his body in plastic with big stone weights and threw him into the Vistula River, where he drowned.

Despite the tragic circumstances of his death, Father Jerzy’s life is a testament to the power of truth in the face of lies. By boldly testifying to Christian faith that goodness can overcome evil, Father Jerzy created a growing space for freedom and dignity that the Soviet Union proved unable to destroy.

Once asked why he targeted Communist lies, Father Jerzy offered a three-fold explanation. First, he said, standing on the side of the truth means honoring the dignity of a human person — it is one’s only choice. Second, testifying to the truth transforms people into individuals and protects them from turning into the mindless masses. And finally, nothing, he said, fortifies personal freedoms firmer than a stance of moral courage.

Americans today can be grateful that they do not live under a regime that punishes dissent with physical violence and imprisonment. But everyone can still learn a great deal from Father Jerzy’s example about the importance of speaking truth in the face of lies as the West faces another looming threat with the rise of woke ideologies that seek to substitute fantasy for reality on everything from history to race to sex. These threats are made especially dangerous because they often come under the guise of “tolerance” and “acceptance,” when in fact their adherents follow neither principle. But by boldly proclaiming truth in the face of lies, our society today can, like Reagan and Popieluszko once did, reject this evil and help foster a new flowering of truth and goodness in our world.

Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, theologian, and researcher.