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How Poland booted the USSR from the World Cup in 1982 and Russia in 2022 [1]
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Date: 2022-11-26
As fans wave Solidarity banner in the background, Soviet and Polish players line up before their second-round match at the 1982 World Cup in Spain
As Laura Clawson has described in two diaries, here and here, Iranian fans at the 1982 World Cup have been protesting against the Islamic regime’s brutal crackdown against women’s rights protesters in their own country by waving pre-revolutionary flags and holding up signs reading “Woman Life Freedom.”
Qatari security guards have taken down the protest signs and even barredsome fans from the stadium for Iran’s two matches.
Iranian state television censored footage of the Iranian team refusing to sing the national anthem ahead of the country’s opening World Cup match against England, and also muted the live feed when anti-regime chants could be heard.
All of this evokes memories from 40 years ago when Poland played the Soviet Union in the 1982 World Cup in Spain. As an American, it was the first time I had ever paid attention to the World Cup. At the time, I was a correspondent for U.S. and British news outlets in Poland covering the rise and fall of the Solidarity free trade union.
In the months that followed the creation of the independent labor union after nationwide strikes that began in the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk in August 1980, fears mounted that the Soviets might lead a Warsaw Pact invasion of Poland to crush Solidarity which was posing an increasing threat to the communist regime.
I even hastily moved up my wedding date to September 1981 because of fears of an invasion — and my wife shortly afterward began what was supposed to be a three-month study program in Holland.
I woke up on the morning of Dec. 13, 1981, to the sight and sound of tanks rumbling down the streets of the main boulevard near my apartment in Warsaw as the state-run radio and television announced the declaration of martial law. A dusk to dawn curfew had been imposed. All telephone service was cut off to the outside world.
Meanwhile, security police rounded up Solidarity leader Lech Walesa along with hundreds of other union leaders. Those who escaped the initial roundup went underground.
Poles believed the Soviet Union was behind the martial law crackdown giving the Polish communist regime the option of either crushing Solidarity themselves or having the Soviets lead an invasion as they did in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.
In the months that followed life became increasingly bleak and depressing. There were anti-government protests, some of which were violently suppressed. I had some narrow escapes covering protests. People continued to be arrested. And store shelves were often empty of all but basic necessities.
And then slightly over a half year after martial law was declared, the 1982 World Cup final began in Spain on June 13. At the time, Poland had one of its best teams ever, which had finished third in the 1974 World Cup. Up until then, there had hardly been anything worth watching on TV amidst all the propaganda.
The World Cup format was different then. Poland got through the first round. And loud cheers went up when viewers could see some fans during early matches holding up red-and-white “Solidarnosc” (”Solidarity”) banners. Some banners also had a Catalan flag superimposed on them, indicating they might have been held by Spaniards who also supported greater autonomy for the Catalonia region.
In the second round, Poland was paired in a group with Belgium and the Soviet Union. The Soviets beat Belgium 1-0, while the Poles defeated the Belgian team by a score of 3-0, with its star Zbigniew Boniek scoring a hat trick.
That set up a showdown — on July 4 — between Poland and the U.S.S.R. All Poland needed to do to advance to the semi-finals was win or draw the match.
The Polish team and fans rousingly sang the Polish national anthem whose lyrics begin with this stanza:
Poland has not yet perished,
So long as we still live.
What the foreign force has taken from us,
We shall with sabre retrieve.
It was written in 1797 just two years after the Third Partition of Poland when Russia, Prussia and Austria erased Poland from the map.
And then as the game began, with almost the entire country watching on television — including imprisoned Solidarity activists — you could again see large Solidarity banners displayed behind both goals.
By now those producing the Polish TV broadcast had begun censoring the live feed as the action moved toward the goals. The colors for both Poland and the U.S.S.R. are red and white, but the crowd shot shown on Polish TV displayed fans in the yellow and green of Brazil or the colors of other countries.
The above is an English-language broadcast. If you watch the video closely, you will notice in the latter part that the Solidarity banners have disappeared. In the second half, Spanish police were loudly booed as they removed the banners, reportedly under pressure from Soviet television.
Needing only a draw to advance, Poland played a rugged defensive game, counter-attacking when opportunities arose.
When the game ended in a 0-0 tie, a huge roar erupted as people opened their windows and screamed their lungs out. Warsaw residents flicked the lights on and off in their apartments.
Poles were not only celebrating knocking the hated Soviet Union out of the World Cup to advance to the semifinals, but also spontaneously protesting against martial law. It was one bright moment amidst the darkness that had enshrouded the country for months.
The New York Times began its July 5, 1982 story by noting:
The Solidarity banners were torn down in the stands but Poland never lost its solidarity on the field tonight, playing to a 0-0 draw with the Soviet Union that allowed the Poles to advance into the semifinals of the World Cup.
Poland did suffer a major loss when Boniek, who would go on to play for Italian powerhouse Juventus, received his second yellow card of the tournament for roughness. That meant he could not play in the semifinal match which Poland lost to eventual champion Italy 2-0. Poland did beat France 3-2 with Boniek back in the line up to finish in third-place, matching its best previous World Cup final result.
Boniek himself, like many other Polish players, said he was “always apolitical” and actually liked some of the Soviet players. The players were dependent on the government for various perks and permission to play abroad.
Soviet player Sergei Baltacha, who spent the game marking Boniek, said in a 2016 interview, “It was a tough game for us not just in terms of sports but also politically.”
Martial law was lifted in July 1983, but it wasn’t until 1989 that Poland became a democratic country.
In 2013, Polish director Michal Bielawski made a documentary Mundial: The Highest Stakes about the 1982 Poland-U.S.S.R. World Cup match. Here is the trailer:
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/11/26/2138336/-The-thrill-of-watching-Poland-knock-out-the-USSR-in-the-1982-World-Cup-during-martial-law
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