President Andrzej Duda's decision to choice up Jolanta Margaret Lange of the Silver Cross of Merit is an expression of historical justice. Justice, which (although delayed) yet triumphed. It is besides a signal that the 3rd Republic begins to take its own memory, past and work seriously towards the victims of the communist regime.
The Silver Cross of Merit was awarded by president Aleksander Kwasniewski, erstwhile PZPR activist in 1997. In the light of the information available today, it was a scandalous distinction. Lange, acting under the name Gontarczyk, was a secret safety associate. Together with her husband, besides an agent of SB, she actively acted against Fr Franciszek Blachnick – 1 of the most crucial spiritual and social figures of opposition to the Polish People's Republic. It is worth adding: the man whom free Poland honored after death with the Order of the White Eagle. The symbolic gap between these characters could not be greater.
Agent SB with a free Poland award? That was absurd.
Today we know – not from rumors, but from papers of the Institute of National Memory and investigative materials – that Jolanta Lange was recruited to cooperate with SB as early as 1977. Her husband – in 1974. In the 1980s, they both worked for Communist intelligence in Germany. Their task was to break up opposition structures, surveillance of solidarity groups and infiltrate Catholic organizations in exile. The central figure of their “interest” was Fr Blachnicki – the founder of the Light-Life Movement and the Christian Liberation Service of Nations.
In February 1987, the clergyman was to get evidence of the agential activity of the Gontharian marriage. A day later, he met with them. A fewer hours later, he died. Officially due to pulmonary embolism. In 2023, IPN announced that the clergy had been poisoned. Although the engagement of Gontharian matrimony in the killing itself has not yet been conclusively proven, their function in destabilizing its environment is indisputable. That's adequate to talk about activities unworthy of any state distinction.
The State cannot honor the perpetrators and victims at the same time
The argument contained in Piotr Woyciechowski's petition, which requested the removal of Lange's honour, could not be more accurate: Poland is not allowed to honor victims of the communist government on the 1 hand and, on the another hand, to designate those who cooperated with this regime.
It's not just a substance of symbols. It is simply a substance of identity and credibility of the state. If we want to talk about free, democratic Poland, we must settle with the legacy of the Polish People's Republic not only with words but besides with deeds. And actions are, among another things, decisions specified as the 1 on 29 July 2025 – the decision to take the order from a individual who fought for freedom on behalf of a totalitarian system.
The fact that Jolanta Lange was active in feminist, anti-discriminatory and left-wing environments after the systemic transformation cannot be overlooked. She has been active in actions for women's rights, sexual minorities and against alleged exclusion. She conducted workshops, participated in social initiatives and sat on councils dealing with “equality”. This should not be regarded as absolution for earlier activities in favour of the Communist peculiar Services. In the case of Jolanta Lange, these faults were not marginal. They were the central point of her résumé at the key point in Poland's history. Unmasked SB agents can't be placed in 1 line with people they've been watching, misinformation, or possibly death.
Lange's translation? Not enough
Many tried to relativize Jolanta Lange (then Gontarczyk) in the past. She was said to have been young, manipulated, acted in good faith. That her engagement in social activity after 1989 erases past guilt.
It's a false narrative. Firstly, it is clear from the IPN papers that she was an active, informed co-worker of SB, operating under the pseudonym “Miss”. Secondly, she did not repent, she did not confess, she did not apologize. Thirdly, her career after 1989 was a continuation of activity in post-communist and far-left environments, not an effort to settle with the past. You can't absolve a criminal activity just due to the fact that individual has been active in the feminist movement after years, anti-discrimination, or education. Crime doesn't vanish if you cover it with activism. On the contrary – it becomes even more cynical due to the fact that it tries to usage moral authority to cover up its own history.
Kwasniewski does not clean
The argument that Lange received an award from president Alexander Kwasniewski is not a valid card. Kwasniewski was an environmental typical who sought to blur the border between perpetrators and victims of PRL. Many erstwhile PZPR activists or safety workers advanced in the 1990s, not necessarily through competence, but through political agreements.
President Duda, erstwhile deciding to collect the award, clearly showed that the awards of free Poland must have value. They are not a memento of political agreements, but an honor of merit that cannot be stained by betrayal, agentry and actions to harm the nation.
Historical work is an obligation, not a choice
The allegations that Duda operates under the influence of "political emotions" or "ideology" are completely missed. He based on facts, papers and decisions of the IPN. It wasn't revenge. It was an arrangement of reality that many have tried to fake over the years. In public space, we must return to the basics: an SB agent should not be decorated. This is not a substance of political views, it is simply a substance of fundamental decency. This is not an ideological war – it is simply a discrimination between fact and falsehood, a sacrifice from a executioner, a hero from an informer.
