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Exclusive for CFP: Back to Freedom – 20 Years Ago

On February 28, 1990 – I left a Communist prison



David DastychIn Barczewo Prison was kept the war criminal, Gauleiter of Ostpreußen - Erich Koch. He died in prison in 1986. With him the communists kept there the Solidarity and anti-communist leaders: Adam Michnik, Władysław Frasyniuk and Leszek Moczulski in the early 1980s. [and David M. Dastych and Professor Jozef Szaniawski, Col. R.Kuklinski's friend and biographer, in the late 1980s.] Warsaw-Poland-February 28: It is twenty years already since I left a Communist prison in Barczewo [nicknamed “Barczewo-Hilton”] on Wednesday morning, the last day of February1990.

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I knew I would be conditionally released, after my 8-year sentence was reduced to 5 years by a Military Tribunal in Warsaw on January 2, 1990. But I didn’t know exactly when I would be set free. On that ordinary weekday, my lawyer D. Krasowski, Esq., came to see me and he told me I would be called to a Military Tribunal hearing in Barczewo Penitentiary. I wasn’t sure they would release me on that day. But the hearing lasted only 15 minutes, and I was told I was to be released on conditional terms immediately. Then, I had to go to a prison wardrobe to dress up and to my cell in a Special Ward to pick up my things. I asked for a permission to visit some of the co-prisoners to give them some things and to take letters from them. Then I said good-bye to the “fellow-criminals” I knew and I collected some cash from a depository, before leaving the prison for good. It was a bright, sunny day and, at first, I went to a nearby chapel to meet a monk, who helped me in my prison years. He wasn’t there, so I left some money in the chapel, I prayed briefly and I went out to take my place in my lawyer’s car. There were no cell phones at that time in Poland. But I didn’t want to call my family from a post office: my sudden come-back should be a surprise to them. I asked the lawyer to keep me company in visiting the beautiful small town of Barczewo, situated at a lake. When in prison, I never had a chance to see it, the only view from my cell was of some trees and a high prison wall. That prison was located in a former monastery. I took out my cash and I went to a store to buy a white shirt and a tie. To my great surprise, they were quite expensive. For several years I had no idea how much Polish money was worth, as there had been a big inflation. After a peaceful regime change in Poland and a victory of “Solidarity” in the semi-free elections of June 4,1989, I read a lot about the economy to get prepared for my later life.

PRISON POETRY

Some time ago, in my cell, I wrote a little “poem” about the economic situation of Poland. In a rough English translation it runs like this: Our Poland Today No money, no honey But hopes and baloney, No sugar, no meat But an eternal Polish wit; No vodka, no squash But free computers “McIntosh”; A heap of banknotes But no real pay – This is our Poland today. Like it? It wasn’t the only piece of poetry I wrote in prison. I also wrote the lyrics to a song about “Barczewo-Hilton” and a lot of epigrams like this one (translated from Russian): Lech Walesa in Moscow He came to us as a guest To sing a requiem For dead Communism In the name of a living “Solidarity” In the second half of 1989, I asked the Military Court in Warsaw to grant me permission to correspond with family and friends in the United States. The permission was granted, a unique case, as I was convicted…for spying for the C.I.A. But the regime was over and we experienced more freedom in the special prison ward. To make some fun, I started to write letters in Polish, English and Russian, translating the ones in the foreign languages myself. The letters were then posted by my family. I wrote to my friend, Mr. Zygmunt “Ziggy” Broniarek, then a Washington D.C. correspondent of the chief Comparty daily “Trybuna Ludu.” Broniarek (still alive, over 80 now) promised me to pass some of my Russian letters to Ms. Condoleezza Rice. I invented a Russian pen-name for myself “Lev Davidovich Zek” and I pretended to be “an unknown Russian poet,” writing from a Siberian forced labor camp. I penned mostly short epigrams, like this one: Gorba…Gorba You’re a Greek Zorba or (more seriously) I remember the Afghan mountains, Flames and blood of children and widows, Bombs and missiles of Russian soldiers; Death all around… But we aren’t the aggressors, are we? I am not sure Condi Rice received my “poems” as Ziggy promised to pass them to her. But a chance to write letters to American friends gave me a “lift to heaven” and a lot of joy. On August 1,1989, an American professor of law from Washington D.C. visited me in Barczewo Prison and I handed him a report about my case and about the conditions in Polish prisons. In 1989, there were many strikes and even riots in prisons. In Barczewo Prison, the criminals organized a strike and chose me as their “legal counsel.” That was too much for the Prison Warden and, of course, he refused. I enjoyed some respect among the co-prisoners, mostly ordinary criminals with long-time sentences, up to 25 years. The policy of that time was to put dangerous criminals into the cells of “political” prisoners, or “enemies of the state” like me, an alleged C.I.A. spy. I observed them carefully, as some of them were secret informers. I learned from them some skills and a prison slang, and even I practiced karate with one young bandit. When in Warsaw Central Jail, I helped some talented prisoners (painters, wood-carvers etc.). They offered me their drawings, which I still keep at home (perhaps I should scan some).

A COME BACK

As we drove back to Warsaw, my lawyer couldn’t drink alcohol but I had some cognac with coffee that made me happy and jovial. Poor Mr. Krasowski had to listen to my prison stories, jokes and songs. We came to my family house in the late afternoon. My old Mother almost had a heart-attack of joy! I had to stay with her and talk to her until she went to sleep. Then my Khmer girl-friend came to see me with her two sons and we were all too happy. The whole night, I drank Suntory Whiskey with my Japanese brother-in-law, Teruo, who was very curious about my experience. He knew I was also made a “Japanese spy” by the secret police, which was a big lie and provocation. My sister Halina made some good food, Polish and Japanese, and the night passed quickly. The next morning, on March 1, 1990, I woke up ready to perform my “normal” prison chores. For some time yet, I couldn’t get accustomed to freedom. I went to a Police (militia) station to register as a conditionally released “criminal” and then I visited a passport office and I asked for a Polish passport, of which I was deprived for 14 years by the Communist special services. It was a great fun: I had to fill in a passport form and I wrote with certain pride when and for what for I was convicted. To my great surprise, I received my passport in just a few days.

FINDING A HOME

In 1988, when I was imprisoned, I divorced my wife to protect her and my two children – Olaf (son) and Natalia (daughter). My wife, who was a journalist and editor-in-chief of a women’s weekly paper, met Raisa, the wife of Mikhail Gorbachev, to ask for help. Nothing happened then, of course. Only one foreign country, Israel, issued a note to the Polish Foreign Ministry inquiring about me. The U.S. Government did nothing to protect me, therefore, later on, in Brussels, I met a CIA diplomat to end my services for The Company. I didn’t ask for money or protection or for anything else, as I worked on my own and it was a voluntary service. I also wrote to the Prime Minister of Japan, dismissing an allegation that I served to his intelligence agency (I was accused of that). He never replied but soon I got a well-paid job with Asahi-TV as a co-producer of a documentary about the changes in Poland. I also wrote for a big Japanese magazine about the economic reforms, led by Professor L. Balcerowicz. But I had no permanent job, no housing (I left my large apartment to the former wife and children). I used to stay with my old Father and with my girl-friend, traveling often and doing some business. Soon I registered my own small enterprise, called “Dastych Trading Co.” and I made good use of the economic freedom in Poland to earn money.

CELEBRATING FREEDOM IN BERLIN

My first trip abroad, after a dozen or more years, was to Berlin, already united. I went there by plane from Warsaw, incidentally meeting on board a former journalist colleague, the late Mr. M. Rakowski, who was a Prime Minister of Poland in the 1980s, and then the last First Secretary of the PUWP (the Communist party), which he “laid to rest.” We chatted in a friendly fashion, and I learned that my letter from the Warsaw Central Prison never reached him. In Berlin I had to go through the fallen Wall and I installed myself in one of the expensive hotels. From there I phoned to family and friends all over the world, from Germany to Australia and the U.S.A. and I wrote many letters to politicians, MPs and other people. Later on the Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl sent me a thank-you note via the Embassy with thanks for my part in the re-unification of Germany. Well, this part was a tiny one, as the main thanks they owed was to Mikhail Gorbachev. In Berlin I visited good restaurants, theaters and clubs, and also the places near the Wall, where I was earlier on the Eastern side many times, since 1961, with no chance to cross over to West Berlin. That was sad. Later on I also went to Moscow, where nobody wanted to arrest me but friends accepted me with typical Russian cordiality and a lot of vodka. I also became a travel-guide to tour Europe, and then Asia on low cost. In the 1990s, I went to China to trade and this was a really good choice. I was also in Israel, meeting my close friend, a nuclear physicist, the late Mr. Shalheveth Freier (also a former intelligence operative). By following his advice, I started a multi-year operation monitoring illegal trafficking in nuclear materials and weapons…But that is a separate story to tell at another time. Let me finish this article with a piece of poetry from prison. It’s about East Germany in 1989: Go West Young Man (East German style) Here we go again To the West on Freedom Train, By Walesa we’ve been told How to jump over the Wall; Thanks to Poland, now we know How to be brave and where to go; Good-bye Genosse Honecker! In the West we will live much better And when all of us get invited Germany will be re-united. --[October 1989) Oh. I have found some nice aphorisms yet (also from my prison notes): Socialism is the road to Communism that means – to nowhere. Capitalism is what remains on the bottom of socialism, after its reform. The law of the Left is lawlessness; the law of the Right is dictatorship;The law of the Middle is – probably – a democracy. The criminal code in socialism: a citizen has the right to be convicted. Lech Walesa is a Polish variant of Julius Caesar: “Veni, vidi, arrange” Three ways out of the economic crisis: A liberal way – take care of yourself, A socialist way – the state will help you if you help yourself, A charitable way – free soup! Generations pass by and prisons remain! © David Dastych, 2010


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David M. Dastych -- Bio and Archives

David Dastych passed away Sept.11, 2010.

See:David Dastych Dead at 69


David was a former Polish intelligence operative, who served in the 1960s-1980s and was a double agent for the CIA from 1973 until his arrest in 1987 by then-communist Poland on charges of espionage. Dastych was released from prison in 1990 after the fall of communism and in the years since has voluntarily helped Western intelligence services with tracking the nuclear proliferation black market in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. After a serious injury in 1994 confined him to a wheelchair, Dastych began a second career as an investigative journalist covering terrorism, intelligence and organized crime.

Other articles by David Dastych

 


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