History of the Third Polish Republic
The Falin-Kwitinsky Doctrine
Throughout the times of the Third Republic, the issue of energy security was a recurring theme. The following is an extract from a text by Piotr Naimski, Ph.D., which brings us closer to the moment of transition from the Polish People’s Republic (Communist Poland) to the current Third Republic and the regional conditions in this regard:
In 1990 the German press published an article written on the basis of a leak from Moscow. It contained extracts from a document outlining what was then called the Falin-Kvitinsky doctrine. Valentin Falin was the head of the foreign department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and Yuli Kvitinsky was the Soviet ambassador to West Germany. The project was to replace Soviet tanks with pipelines and, through dependence on oil and gas supplies, maintain Moscow’s influence in Poland, Czechoslovakia and the other countries of the former ‘communist bloc’.
The Soviets did not treat the Polish People’s Republic with particular trust when it came to transporting energy resources to the West. The main gas pipeline from the Soviet Union to Western Europe, the ‘Druzhba’ or ‘Friendship’ gas pipeline, ran through Czechoslovakia. The reasons for such a decision are anyone’s guess – in Poland you never knew what was going to happen, and our southern neighbor was considered a ‘reliable’ country… Although there was the Druzhba oil pipeline that opened in 1964, and pumped oil to Poland and East Germany, all Russian plans to extend the gas transmission system to the West bypassed Poland.
Until 1989 Poland was ruled by Soviet agents. In the mid-1980s, at the end of the Cold War, the idea of transforming the Soviet empire was born in Moscow. This was the moment when, from the Russian point of view, it was necessary to start trying to maintain influence in Central Europe by economic means, abandoning communist ideology and military presence. The fact that the Falin-Kvitinsky Doctrine was a strategic plan for Russian policy is evidenced by the officially published Security Strategy of the Russian Federation of 2003. On page 141 it is explicitly stated that the export of raw materials – oil and gas – should serve the political interests of the Russian Federation between the Atlantic and the Pacific. The Russians may have to use covert operations to achieve their goals, but they see no need to hide their intentions.”
This is en excerpt from an article by Dr Piotr Naimski, Energy and Independence. After 25 years of transformation, Poland is still dependent on Russian resources. pp.185-188 in: Extinction of Poland 1989-2015, White Raven, Warsaw 2015.
