History of the Soviet Union (1964–82) Politburo Commission pushed for martial law instead of an intervention. When Wojciech Jaruzelski became Prime Minister of Poland in February 1980, the Soviet leadership, but also Poles in general, supported his appointment. As time went by, however, Jaruzelski tried, and failed, according to Archie Brown, "to walk a tightrope" between the demands made by the USSR and the Poles. Martial law was initiated on 13 December 1981 by the Jaruzelski Government. During the final years of Brezhnev's rule, and in the aftermath of his death, the Soviet leadership was forced by domestic difficulties to allow the Eastern Bloc governments to
Marital power in 1805. The spread of the Roman-Dutch law introduced the marital power doctrine so that it eventually formed part of the law of marriage in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana and Southern Rhodesia (as Zimbabwe was then known). Of the Southern African countries that apply Roman-Dutch law, every one except Swaziland has abolished the marital power. In Southern Rhodesia the marital power was abolished in 1928 by the Married Persons' Property Act, which also abolished community of property. In France, marital power ("puissance maritale") was abolished in 1938. However, the legal repeal of the specific doctrine of "marital power"