Old Foes Attend Warsaw Parade

Poland’s new-style leadership gave an unusual look to Saturday’s Communist National Day when newly elected President Wojciech Jaruzelski reviewed troops alongside a member of the once-banned Solidarity trade union.

In a scene unthinkable even at last year’s July 22 ceremony to mark the 1944 birth of the forerunner of Poland’s first Communist government, Solidarity’s Andrzej Stelmachowski stood next to Jaruzelski on the reviewing stand.

Jaruzelski, in his general’s uniform, watched troops from a podium on central Warsaw’s Victory Square before laying a wreath at the nearby Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

It was the Communist leader’s first major public engagement as president, since he was elected to the post with the narrowest possible margin Wednesday in an uncontested vote in the National Assembly.