  Using the idealized integrable Maxwell-Bloch model, we describe random
optical-pulse polarization switching along an active optical medium in the
Lambda-configuration with disordered occupation numbers of its lower energy
sub-level pair. The description combines complete integrability and stochastic
dynamics. For the single-soliton pulse, we derive the statistics of the
electric-field polarization ellipse at a given point along the medium in closed
form. If the average initial population difference of the two lower sub-levels
vanishes, we show that the pulse polarization will switch intermittently
between the two circular polarizations as it travels along the medium. If this
difference does not vanish, the pulse will eventually forever remain in the
circular polarization determined by which sub-level is more occupied on
average. We also derive the exact expressions for the statistics of the
polarization-switching dynamics, such as the probability distribution of the
distance between two consecutive switches and the percentage of the distance
along the medium the pulse spends in the elliptical polarization of a given
orientation in the case of vanishing average initial population difference. We
find that the latter distribution is given in terms of the well-known arcsine
law.
