Memorial to General Kukliński in Kraków
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
08.02.2017 10:06
The City Council of Kraków has earmarked PLN 600,000 (EUR 150,000) for the construction of a memorial to General Ryszard Kukliński, who passed secret Warsaw Pact documents to the CIA during the Cold War.
Ryszard Kukliński. Photo: Polish Radio
The sum will cover half the total cost of the project. The memorial is to be erected in the city centre and is to comprise a 9.5-metre high arch with an artist’s impression of the fallen Berlin Wall.
Ryszard Kukliński was a Polish colonel who supplied Warsaw Pact documents to the CIA between 1971 and 1981 and subsequently defected to the United States.
In 1984 he was sentenced to death, in absentia, by a military court in Warsaw. The sentence was annulled after the fall of communism.
He visited Poland in 1998. He died in Florida in 2004, aged 74. He was an honorary citizen of Kraków.
Last year, Polish President Andrzej Duda promoted him posthumously to the rank of general. (mk/pk)