The text is devoted to the genesis of the National Council of the Judiciary in Poland (Krajowa Rada Sądownictwa), established during the political transformation in 1989 as a result of arrangements made between representatives of the communist authorities and the opposition from "Solidarity" at the "round table" (1989). The author states that the created mechanisms, combined with specific personnel decisions made at that time, preserved for many years some elements of communist and post-communist structures in Poland („Third Republic”) within the judiciary and the Polish Supreme Court.