COMMUNISM IN POLAND

COMMUNISM IN POLAND

In Poland, the communist party was a weak organisation at first and the old Polish communist Party has been liquidated in 1938. No attempt to reconstitute it was made before 1941, until the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was over: German invasion of the Soviet Union.

        At the first September 1939 Germany Army invaded Poland from the West. Germany policy began conducting massacres of Polish and Jewish citizens. The 17th September 39 the Red Army invaded Poland from the Est. This act violated the 1932 Soviet-Polish non-aggression pact and they took the Polish territory assigned to it by the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. On the 21st September, the URSS and the Nazis signed a formal agreement coordinating military movements in Poland including the ‘’purging’’ of saboteurs, like polish politic actors.

Soviet authorities immediately started a campaign of Sovietization of the newly acquired areas. Eleven days after the soviet invasion of Poland, the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was modified by the ‘’German-Soviet Treaty of friendship, cooperation, and demarcation’’ allotting Germany a larger part of Poland, and transferring Lithuania’s territory from the envisioned German sphere to the Soviets. The Soviets declared in September 1939 that the Polish state had ceased to exist so this way the Polish government didn’t exist anymore. It actually was settled in Paris and then after the French Capitulation it was in London. This way they could support Polish resistance from there.
In 1941 the ‘’initiative group’’ and in January the ‘’Polish worker Party’’ (PWP) were established. The first leader were killed and therefore felt under the domination of Wladislaw Gomulka. That’s why they were dependant of Moscow. By the summer 1944 the political and military communist forces were numerous and well-coordinated. At that time, the Lublin committee was the major political organisation under the soviet military control with 15 members. At the end of December 1944 the soviets recognised the Lublin Committee as the provisional government of Poland. It was established in Warsaw on the 19th of January 1945, two days after the liberation. With this government the Soviet Union could control Poland in opposition of the Polish government in exile. Poland communists had two main enemies: the historic groups in Poland that were settle between the interwar and the agrarians.

       The Yalta agreement at the end of the Second World War two leaded to an extension of territory to the west and promise of ‘’free and unfettered election’’. But there were doubts about which party could be more important than the soviet’s one. What made a strength for soviets to gain power is that the Soviet Russia was the only Great Power that could guaranteed Poland’s valuable post-war territorial acquisitions from Germany. Poland was dependent of Soviet support against eventual German revanchist. At the same time the soviets were struggling having acceptance from the Polish because of the Communists’ identification with Russia, a historical national enemy.
In March 1945, the government delegate and the commander of the AK (army who resisted against the Nazi) were invited to have a meeting with the commander of the Belorussian front, the General Ivanor. They knew that it was a trap but refusing it would have been like an insult. This group of 16 persons were taken to the URSS because suspected to be against the Red Army. That leads to a formation of a few government. First the PWP (Polish Worker Party) who was really small but with a soviet support or in other words the Communist party formal name. The Polish Worker Party had a rise in membership immediately after the war, from 30 000 to 210 000 between 1945 and 1946 and then to over 500 000 by January 1947. The new polish citizens who were entering in the party could be for opportunist’s reasons or also about ideological convictions. To add more the feeling that it was the only way to rebuild Poland were in the Polish minds. The PSP (traditional polish Socialist Party) was bigger but weaker because of a lot of leaders were in exile or dead. Also in November 1946 many of it more right wing members were purged and even more in June 1947. The last ones were the Democratic Party, the Labour Party and the Peasant Party but they were small, not influent and docile. That way we can see that the political side of the communist party were growing and very influent just after the Second World War.
The other growing power was the control over the economy. On 3th January 1946 all industries employing more than 50 persons were placed in public ownership. To add more in 1947 a three years reconstruction plan was made so that way the economy was even more in the control of the government.  In 1945 there was a campaign against communist and there growing power with 35 000 anti-soviets activists that engendered a civil war. That started in the spring and ended in June 1946. Because of those events, the soviet party had to create a political police in Poland called UB. This way there were a strong confrontation between the communists and the agrarians. The communists also tried to win power through the peasants. In 1944 the Lublin committee redistributed one hundred hectares into small squares of two or three hectares. To succeed they sent soldiers and brigades of workers to divide the land.
Communists also took the control of new territories in the west. The communists of Moscow sent Gomulka, as the minister, to regain the stock, land, homes that were available for Poles.
One of the big enemy against the communist party was the agrians’ party organisation like I said previously. This is why the communists tried to end the agriarian’s supreme council and as a respond Mikolajczyk form his own Polish Peasants’ Party (PPP). By 1946 it was the largest political group in Poland with 600 000 members. This year election had been made and also a referendum in 1947. But both were followed by intimidation, limited access to the radio for the PPP, deportation ... At the end the democratic bloc had 80 per cent with Cyrankiewick as the prime minister. The fully soviet system was not introduce until 1951 but this new political system was very close to the URSS one.
At the end of 1947 Mikolajczyk had to leave for exile because he heard that he was about to be arrested: that was the end of real and efficient opposition. In those years fusion of parties took also place like the PWP and the PSP in 1947, creation of the Polish United Workers’ party (PUWP) with Marxism-Leninism principles in 1948 and United Peasant Party under the Communists rules in 1949. As we can see year by year the soviets succeeded in eliminated their main strong enemy leaders. After this they could do some fusion and creation of new parties instead of suppression and this way gaining power in a more subtitle way than total suppression. The soviets were also deciding for the political decision. Socialists had to reduce their number consequently, close to 150 000 less in 1947 and they also had to arrested some partisans to the illegal resistance. To add more Poland had to decline America’s proposition of the Marshall Plan aid program to rebuild Europe in July 1947.
Poland is a very Catholic country so the religious side is really important for the polish citizens and in their culture. At first the Soviets had a good relation with the church, the communist chief of state even had some ecclesiastic ceremonies in some occasions. The church and the soviets were working together to give to Poland back its character after the German occupation. That way the communists could use the church to prove that they were helping Poland to win back again their own culture and common values after German occupation. In fact the Nazi were against the religion. But this peaceful agreement didn’t survived during a long period of time. In fact, in September 1949, the churches’ hospital were nationalized. Also in January 1950, the church welfare organization was taking under the state control; and in March of that same year, they confiscated church-owned. On April 14, 1950, the church and the government signed an agreement in which the church recognised not being part of the underground resistance and will not collaborate with those groups. But the soviets announced that they will let the religion to be taught at school and the let the religious being in jails, armed forces and hospitals. Because of strategic reason Poland was a priority for the soviets and the domination had to be strong for them.

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