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war and social upheaval: The Cold War country trends Poland
The Cold War: Country Trends--Poland
Figure 1.--Poland was devestated by vWotld War II, both the population and physical plant. The Germans almost totally obliterated Warsaw. And Poland's Communist Governmrnt was able to rebuild only slowly. Here we see a Warsaw street scene not during or right after the War, but 12 years later in 1957. By thus time scenes like this were no longer seen in the West. The press caption read, "Warsaw water boy: Central heating and running water are just hearsay luxuries for Poles like 8-year-old Jeny Lutcinaki, who totes a bucjket of warer from a \street sourceto war damaged ruins of a Warsaw house that has been his home such birth. This is one of a series of five exclusive photosbof current Polish scenebmade by Associated Press staff photographer bLeslie Priest during the crecent election in which Poles endorsed continued Communist domination." Of course Communist run election throught out Eastern Europe were shams. And the failure of Communist regimes througout the Soviet Union's Eastern European Empire to deliver decent life styles would eventually bring down the whole Soviet structure.
The most crucial country for a variety of cultural and geo-political reasonns was Poland. Poland because of its geographic location became the epicenter for the Cold War. For without a compliant Communist Poland, a the Communist East German regime was untenable. Unfortunately for the Soviets, Poland proved the most difficult Eastern European satellite country to control. It is interesting to specuale as to just why Poland proved so difficult for the Soviets to dominate. Poland was the only Eastern European satellite that had until the 18th century been a major European power. With the Polish partitions of the late 18th century, the Polish nation disappeared from the maps of Durope. What did not disappear was the Polish Catholic Church which became the repository for Polish nationaism for three centuries. Stalin spoke derivisely of the Vatican, asking how many divisions the pope commanded. In fact it was a Polish pope in the 1980s that would play a critical role in the unraveling of the Soviet empire Stalin constructed in Eastern Europe.
After the NAZI invasion of Poland rapid defeat of the Polish Army (September 1939), the Polish Government set up in London to coordinate resistance activities. Most of the word focused on NAZI occupied Poland and horrifying reports were carried in the Western press. The destruction of Poland was, however, a cooperative effort between Hitler and Stalin who at that stage of the War were virtual allies. Less information reached the West about Soviet-occupied Poland, especially the fate of the Polish army intetrned by the Soviets. Efforts by the London Government went unanswered. After the NAZI invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941), POlish POWS in Soviet hands were allowed to fight either with the Red Army or to join the Western Allies. At this time the absence of large numbers of officers known to have been interened by the Soviets caused increasing alarm by the London Government. Then the NAZIs reported they had discovered the graves of large numbers of Polish soldiers in the Katyn Forrest which they claimed had been shot by the Soviets. When the London Government pressed Stalin, the Soviets set up their own more compliant Polish resistance government. When the Red Army reached the Vistula and the Polish Home Army loyal to the London Government rose up against the NAZIs in Warsaw. Stalin then ordered the Red Army to stop until the NAZIs has supressed the Hime Army.
Once certain of Polish defeat, Stalin ordered the Red Army to attack from the East. German and Russian forces met at Brest-Litovsk on September 18. Poland's
fate was sealed on September 17, when the Soviets invaded Poland from the east. Already shattered by the NAZI invasion, the Polish Army offered little resistance
to the Soviets. Polish soldiers were internened in camps by the Soviets. Soviet actions in eastern Poland were extremely brutal. An estimated 0.1 million Poles were killed by the Soviets (1939-41). The most publicized killings were the Polish officers shot by the NKVD in the Katyn Forrest, but this was only a part of the wide spread executions of Poles by the Soviets. Some estimates suggest that 2.0 million Poles were deported to Siberia and other areas in the Soviet Union.
Launching the Cold War (April 1944)
The Cold War is usually seen as beginning after the end of World War II. It is clear now that Stalin had launched the Cold War in Eastern Europe about a year before VE Day. Most wars are easy to date. World War I began when the Germans smashed into neutral Belgium (August 1914). World War II began when the Panzers smashed ioto Poland. The Cold War is a little difficult to date, in part because Stalin launched it before most Americans and Brits really understood it was underway. Different authors date it differently. We believe it began when Stalin broke relations with the Polish Government in Exile (April 1944). Once the Red Army had entered the boundaries of pre-War Poland and set up a puppet government in Poland--the Lublin Government. This was a major shift in Stalin's thinking. When working wiyh Hitler his policy after invading Poland (September 1939) was to destroy Poland as a nation. And like Hitler he set out to destroy the Polish intelegencia as ast step in wipeing out the Polish nation. The Katyn Massacre discovered by the Germans (1943) is only the best known of the terrible attrocities committed by Stalin and the NKVD in Poland. After the German invasion (June 1941), Stalin gradually shifted his policy and would tolerate a Polish natuion, albeit one shifted west and under his control. One historian writes, "In lettrs to FDR and Churchill in late April, Stalin denied involvement in the 'monstrous crimes' against the Polish officers and claimed that the 'London Poles' were allowing themselves to be used as 'tools'for anti-Spviet purposes. On Apriol 25 the USSR broke off relations with the London-based Polish Government. A weekk later Stalin decided it might be useful to dissolve the Cominterm .... The big story suceeded in pushing the news of the murdered Poles into the background." [Gelltely] Poland would proved to be the most contentious issue at both the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences, in essence the beginning of the Cold War. The Western llies were unable to prevent the subgegation of Poland, but as brutal as it was, Allied pressure meant that it was not the same as what Stlin began to do in 1939.
Lublin Government (July 1944)
Stalin like Hitler after invading Poland (September 1939) sought to wipe out any vestage of Polish nationality. This changed after the German invasion (June 1941) and Stalin;s need to mobilize all possible sources of resistnce. This included the Poles hekd in Soviet POW camps. The NKVD had shot many of the offuicers, but the soldiers were possible Red army recruits. They wee allowed to either join the Red army or join Polish formations in the West. Stalin also had to deal with the London-based Government-in-Exile, but dealings were difficult, especiually after information on the Katyn Massacres surfaced. Thus Stalin wanted a more compliant Polish Government that would not ask awkward questions or opose his dictates. The Red Army crossed the pre-War Polish frontier (July 21, 1944). The Soviets proceeded to set up a Committee of National Liberation in Lublin led by communists and left-wing socialists. This became known as the Lublin Government. They declared themselves as the sole legal government of Poland. After the German defeat, the Lublin Government transformed iitswelf into the provisional government of Poland.
The Soviet Red Army in Operation Bagration (June-July 1944) destroyed the Wehrmact's Army Group Center, the most powerful Gererman Formation, opening the way for a drive into Poland. The London-based Government in exile's Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa--AK) was in a quandry. They did not have the heavy weapons to take on the Germans. But if they allow the Soviets to liberate Poland, what would have been the good of the AK. The Government-in-Exile decided that they woukd rise in Warsaw and present the Soviets with a functioning Government when they reached the capital. The most dramatic resistance effort by the Polish Home Army was the uprising against the NAZIs in Warsaw when the Soviets neared the Vistula (July 1944). After Operation Bagration (June-July 1944), Warsaw on the Vistula was the principle barrier standing between thev Red Army and Berlin. The Poles did not greet the Red Army in the same way that populations in the West cheered the Americans and British. They had no illusions about what would follow in the wake of the Red Army, a Stalinist dictatorship. The Home Army (loyal to thev London goverment-in-exile) decided on a desperate gambit at the Red army apprpached the Vistula. They would stage an insurrection and free Warsaw. The Home Army rebelled (August 1) anticipating the support of the Red army. Instead Stalin ordered the Soviet troops to stop on the far side if the Vistula. The German reaction was savage. On one day alone the SS rounded up and shot 25,000 Polish men women and children. The Americans offered to drop supplies, but Stalin refused permission for the flights to use needed Soviet air bases to refuel for the return trip. Thev Poles fought valiantly on, finally capitulating (October 2). The Germans at Hitler's orders virtualy razed the city. The Soviets finally took Warsaw with little resistance from the Germans (January 1945).
Yalta (February 1945)
The Yalta Conference was the final Allied conference before the NAZI surrender (February 4-11, 1945). The Big Three were reprented by President Franklin Roosevelt, Primeminister Winston Churchill, and Marshall Joseph Stalin. It was held at the Tsar's palace in the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea. Although President Roosevelt was in failing health, Stalin refused to leave Soviet territory. At the time of the Conference NAZI Germany had not yet been defeated. The Soviets were in complete control of Poland and had reached the Oder River. The Western Allies were on the Rhine. Both were preparing for the final assault on a Reuch devestated by the Allied bombing campaign. The Red Army was enormous, consisting of 12 million soldiers in 300 divisions. Eisenhower in contrast commanded only 4 million men in 85 divisions. Many authors date the Cold War from Yalta because Poland was a contntious issue at the Conference. Stalin demanded a Polish Government under Soviet influence. Roosevelt and Churchill argued for an independent Poland with a democrativally elected representative government. Among the Yalta provisions was a commitment of "free and unfettered" elections in Poland. This of course meant little in a country dominated by the Red Army. Some conservatives have accussed Roosevelt of selling out the Poles and other Eastern European countries at Yalta. There is no doubt that Roosevelt's declining health affected his performance at Yalta. There is no evidence that it substantially changed the outcome. The Red Army held Poland and Eastern Europe. The Western Allies did not have the ability to change this short of War and there was neither the military force in Europe or the support domestically for military action. The simple fact was that with the fall of France (1940) the military ballance in Europe had been irrevocably changed. Roosevelt was not pleased with the outcome, but as he admitted to an adviser Adolf Berle, "I didn't say the result was good. I said it was the best I could do." Roosevelt concluded that more could not be done with the Soviets during the War at Yalta, but the issue would have to be addressed in the new United Nations after the War. [Dallek] Interestingly. many of the conservative critics of the Yalta Conference were the same people that had fought Roosevelt's efforts to oppose Hitler in the years before America entered World War II.
President Truman (April 1945)
After President Roosevelt's death (April 1945). Vice-President Truman became president. Roosevelt had not significantly involved Truman in the administration. When Truman first met with Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, Truman not only explained he planned to insist on Polish self-determination, but lectured Molotov on the Soviet commitments mae at Yalta.
Molotov who had negotiated the Non-Aggression Pact with the NAZIs, complained, "I have never been talked to like that in my life." Truman replied, "Carry
out your agreements and you won't get talked to like that." Relations continued to deteriorate into what we now know as the Cold War.
NAZI Surrender (May 1945)
Soviet and American armies met at the Elbe. The Red Army stormed Berlin (April 1945). Hitler shot himself in his bunker as the Red Army soldiers approached. He appointed U-boat commander and staunch supporter Admiral Dönitz the new NAZI ldader (nut not Führer). The Germans in the final weeks of the War shifted as many forces west as possile so they could surrender to the Western Allies. Eisenhower puts a stop to this, demanding an immediate, unconditional surrender. The Germans finally surrender at Reims, the SHAEF headquarters (May 7, 1945). Kritel and Jodl sign an unconditional surrender. Stalin insists on a separate surrender ceremony on the Eastern Front. Dönitz seems to have thought that the Allies would recognize and deal with his Givernment. The Allies instead arrest him and every topmNAZI they can find. The Allies also arrest Keital abd Jodl. Both were surrised, seeing themselves as military men. Large numbers of Germans in the est fled wet with the Whermacht. Those who remained wrec expelled by the Poles as the Western border was fixed .
Poland was the first country to resist NAZI aggression and no country suffered more from World War II than Poland, although destruction in the Soviet bUnion and Yugoslsvia as also massive. Warsaw was of course the greatest example of this. The city was badly damaged during the initial German invasion, both by aerial and artillery bombardment (1939). Warsaw held out for 3 weeks, much of it under heavy German bombbadment. And then much of what was still standing was destroyed in the Warsaw Uprising (1944) and subsequent German demolition. The devestation extended to other cities and towns throughout the country. Enormous damage was done by the German Army and Air Force during the initial campaign (September 1939). This was allmost entirely in western Poland. The Soviets invaded eastern Poland (September 17). Little damage occurred because the despirited Polish Army offered little resistance. In addition to the fighting, there was also organized German plunnder, The Germans invaded the Soviet Union (June 1941), this meant the area of eastern Poland annexed by the Soviets. Again the physical damage was relatively limited because the Whermacht pushed east so rapidly. There was, however, extensive damage as the Wehrmacht pursued anti-partisan campaigns. Additional damage occurred in fighting between Poles and Ukranians. And as the Red Army pushed into Poland, the Wehrmacht conducted a burned earth program of destroying everything of any value. This included even towns and villages. Warsaw was of course the greatest example of the mindless destruction, but only one example. Most ither Polish cities wee heavikly danaged. Krakow escaped the damage inflicted on many other Polish cities, but only because of the rapid adance of the Red Army.
Potsdam and Borders (July 1945)
The Potsdam Conference convened (July 17). It bean with Churchill, Stalin, and Truman. Churchill was replaced by Labour Leader Clemet Atleee after a General Election. The Polish delegation led by Boles³aw Bierut agrees to the Oder-Neisse line as the Western Polish border. This effectively transfers East Prussia and other eastern areas of Germany to Poland. Stalin formalized the annexation of estern Poland/ Poles living in the east are deported est to thre new Polish state.
Transitional Government (1945-47)
The Soviets in Poland set up a a provisional government. It includes representatives from PPR, PPS, PSL, and other minor parties. The NKVD begins arresting members of the Home Army who had resited the Germans. Many arecumarily shot, althoughbthis is not publicized. Stanislaw Mikolajczyk is the only member of the London government who dared return to Soviet-dominated Poland. He becomes the leader of the Polish People's Party. The Provisional Government (Tymczasowy Rz¹d Jednoœci) governs Poland (June 29, 1945 - January 17, 1947). Radical policies of the provisional government are agreed by the various parties. These include nationalisation of industry and the expulsion of about 3 million Germans and Ukrainians. The Home Army grouos attempts to resist the Red Army. They do not have the military force to confront the Soviets. Instead WiN, UPA and NSZ groups conduct terrorist actions. They are not finally supressed until after the 1947 election. Parliament passed the Agrarian Reform which breaks up landed estrates, byt guarantees thge property rights of small holders (September 6, 1946). The Provissional Government is called the 'gentle revolution" (³agodna rewolucja). This meant a relatively soft approach in cultural matters. The Czytelnik Publishing Collective headed by Jerzy Borejsza played a major role. He attempts to gain the support writers without demanding formal declarations of political loyalty.A Referendum is held: TRZY RAZY TAK (Three Times Yes) (Junec 30, 1946). The first Three-Year Plan is launched (Trzyletni Plan Odbudowy Gospodarczej) (January 1, 1947). Wincenty Pstrowski initiates the principle of Stakhanovite working in Poland (ruch socjalistycznego wspó³zawodnictwa pracy).
Cold War (1944-53)
Historians debate precisely when the Cold War began. The debate is really moot. The Bolsheviks who seized power in Russia (1917) were astonished that thgey had suceeded iun of all places baclward, largely unindustraillized Russia with a small industrial proleterit. They expdcted that industrialized Western Europe with a large industrial proleterit would soon follow and could not inderstand why no other countries followed their lead. There were differences among the top Bolsheviks (including Lenin, Trotsky, stalin and others) over tactics, but not on the gial--the destruction of the Capitalist West and liberal democracy). Stalin's pact with Hitler (1939) ws a part of this process, often lost with the frocity of Soviet resistance to the German invasion (1941). If one wanbts a more recent date, it must be Stalin;s decessioin to smash the Polish Government-in-exile and recognitiuin of the Lublin Government he controlled (1944). This was of course when few peopole in he West even understood that Stalin had launched the Cold War. Most considered the Soviet Union a valiant ally. Soviet actions in Poland Berlin, and other Eastern European countries after the War made it increasinghly clear that they were determined to build an Eastern European empire and not permit the people in the region to freely elect their leaders. Soviet and Western authorities in Berlin begin to quarel from an early point. The American public is not prepared for a confrontation with the Soviet Union. War pripagabda had depicted Stalin as Uncl Joe, a kindly ahd heroic war leader. Primeminister Churchill was invited to Fullton, Missouri to speak. He gave his famous Iron Curain speech (March 5, 1946). Presidebt Truman enunciates the Truman Doctrine, the - containment of Soviet Communism.
Elections (1947)
Poland holds its first elections since the NAZI and Soviet World War II invasions for Parliament (Sejm) (January 17, 1947). The results are manipulated by OBÓZ DEMOKRATYCZNY (PPS, PPR, SD and others). The Polish People's Party (PSL) and other opposition parties have restructed access to media and their ability to freely cmpaign is limited. The OD wins 80 percent of vthe vote. The PSL polls only 10 percent according to the officual count. Their actual numberv of votes is not known. The new Sejm elects Bierut president (March 1947). Rz¹d Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej is led by Cyrankiewicz (PPS) as primeminister and Gomu³ka as vice-Primeminister. The OD has 394 seats. The PSL had only 28 seats.
Stlain used the Red Army and security forces which had occupied Eastern and much of central Europe to assist local Communist parties to defeat other parties and establish communist dictatorships.
The Polish People's Party (PSL) and its leader Stanislaw Mikolajczyk become more and more isolated (Summer 1947). The PSL resisted Stalin's efforts to turn Poland into a satellite people's republic. The PSL and Mikolajczyk are attacked in the media as agents of foreign reactionary forces. Mikolajczykinformed that he is about to be arrested, flees Poland (October 1947). As a result of this and a series of arrests, the PSL ceases to be a parlimentary opposition party, This means that there is no real legal opposition to the the governing OD. The purges begin in Poland. The PPR and PPS expel pro-Western members (July 26, 1948). This conincides with the breakdown of Four Power administration of German occupation and the inset of the Amerucan Berlin Air Lift. The PPR at its Plenum moves toward a more hard-line Stalinist position reflecting the intensifying Cold War (September 1948). This same trend occurred throughout Eastern Europe, except Yugoslavia where Stalin lost control. Now that relations with the West were breaking down, Stalin no longer saw the need to tread slowlu or cover Communist takeovers with a veneer of democratic pretense. Hardliners accuse Gomu³ka accused of "odchylenie prawicowo-nacjonalistyczne" (right-wing, antionalist deviations). This was the same type of language Stalin used in his purges in the Soviet Union. The PRR ejects him from the Party. Bierut had up tobthistime maintained a pretense of bezpartyjny (unaffiliated to any party) is elected PRR First Secretary (September 3, 1948). He immediately orders the collectivization of agriculture along Soviet lines. This was one of the basic tenabts of Stalinism. It also reverses the Agricultural Reform Act of 1946. Bierut oversees a widening series of purges. The final step toward a Stalinist Poland occurs with the Unification Congress (Kongres Zjednoczenia) uniting the PPR and PPS (December 10, 1948). The new governing party is the Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza (PZPR) which openly declares itself to be a Marxist-Leninist party. Its chief executive or Chairman (Przewodnicz¹cy) is Bierut. The PZPR adopts major Soviet policies. Jakub Berman is put in charge of PZPR iniatives in science and culture (January 1949). He will retain his oosition as leader of the PZPR Ideological Front" until the reform movement of 1956 takes hold. The Szczecin Congress of the Writers' Union followiung PZPR instructions adopts Socrealizm (Socialist Realism) as the mandated creative method. Authors who resust are expelled and often arrested. The Vatican wighs into the struggle. It issues its decree against Communism, forbidding Catholics to cooperate with Communists and putting all Communist publications on the Index. It was not aimed specifically at Poland, but as the stringest Church behind the Iron Curtain, Poland is epecially affected. Trade Union Council becomes the Communist dominated CRZZ. The CRZZ chooses Alexander Zawadzki as its new chairman (June 1 1949). He urged the unions to mobilize workers to increase production which he explains is the only source of prosperity and progress.
Anti-Soviet Disorders (1956)
There was little open opposition to Soviet-imposed Coomunist police states. Such opposition would mean arrest and likely execution. This began to change after Stalin's death, but only slowly. Then after Khrushchev seized power he stunned the Communist World by denoubcing Stalin at the 20th Party Congress (February 1956). His Secret Speech soon leaked out as there were foreign delegates present. Officials in Eastern Europe began to think that an end to Stalinist oppression and lineralization was possible.
This combined with growing resentment thriughout the Soviet Eastern European Empire caused problems for the Soviets that Kkrushshchev had not anticipated. Communist planned economics was not working. Capitalist Western Europe powered by the German Economi Miracle was already out pacing Cimmunist Eastern Europe. Repressive rule, low wages, and poor working conditions resulted in strikes breaking out at Poznan. Workers wanted 'bread and freedom' from Soviet rule. The Poles elect a reformist government which did not have Soviet approval (October 1956). The Soviets, even in the post-Stalinist era, were unwilling to acceppt such defiance within their empire. Khrushchev visited Warsaw while Soviet armies massed on the Polish border. The Poles largely acceed to Soviet demands. Khrushchev decided to accept Gromulka.
Wladyslaw Gromulka
Wladyslaw Gomulka was born in Krosno, a town in southern Poland, Subcarpathian Voivodeship (1905). As a youth after World War and Polish independence, he joined the Communist Party and became a local trade union leader. Unlike America, labor unions were the core of Communist support throughout Europe. Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland (1939). Warsaw was in the German occupation zone and Gromulka was active in the resistance . He became general secretary of Polish Communist Party and thus a target of German security forces. The Rd Army launched Operation Bagration (June 1944). This opened the way into Poland and destroyed Herman Army Group Center, the most powerful German formation existing at the time.
Stalin despite assuranced made at Yalta (Februery 1945) established a communist government in Polans, at first a coalitiin for comestic purposes. Gomulka was given the vice-presidential post in post-War government. He did not ingratiate himseld with Stalin. He resisted attempts by Soviet advisers and slavihly pro-Soviet Poles to pursue Stalinist policies. After he expressed support for Josip Tito in Yugoslavia, he was dismissed from office and retired from public view (1948). The NKVD had him arrested (1951) as part of purges taking place throughout the Soviet Eaatern Europe Empire. It is widely believed that h would have been executed had it not been for Stalin's death (1953). During the Soviet 20th Party Congress, Nikita Khrushchev shocked the Communist World and launched an attack on Stalin and the Cult of Personality (February 1956). He condemned Stalin's Great Terror and charged that Stalin had abused power. He announced a major change in Soviet policy and ordered large numbers of political prisoners released. Krushchev's de-Stalinzation policy caused people in Eastern Europe to believe a new more liberal regime was now possible and perhaps even independence from Soviet rule. Only months after the 20th Party Congress, massive anti-government and anti-Soviet demonstration occurred in Poznan (June 1956). The marchers included workers protesting poor living standards, low wages and high taxes. They were dispersed by Soviet tanks. This was followed by the Hungarian Revolution. Khrushchev visited Poland a few months later (October 1956). He decided that Gomulka would be allowed to serve as first secretary of the Communist Party. The deal made was that as long as the Polish government followed the Soviet led in foreign affairs they could pursue their own domestic policies within limits. Gomulka proceeded undo Stakinist policies and liberalized the Communist rulke in Poland. As aesult, only 10 per cent of agricultural land was collectivized. nd Poland eas allowed to traded extensively with the capitalist West. Poland experienced an economic down turn (1970). Protests leading to riots broke out in northern Poland. The protests were caused by Goverment's decision to sharply increase prices for food and other staple consumer producrs. The Government had mintained a system of fixed, extremely low food prices to maintain popularity in the cities. The result was little investment and little incentive for farmers to increase poduction. The H]Government was forced to use scarce foreign exchannge reserves to import food. This proved unsustainable. The Polish People's Army and Communist Citizen's Militia were used to supress the disorders. Some 42 people were killed and more than 1,000 wounded. The Government was widely belieced to have kept the real numbers from the public. Gomulka as a result, resigned. Edward Gierek replaced him.
Polish Econonomy
Poland gradually rebuilt its industrial base after World War II. Heavy industry (iron, steel, shipping, and mining industries) were significantly expanded. The industrail plants and factories while brand new, but operating under Communist economics were inefficent and uncompetitive with European industry. This meant that Polish industry can not support wages offering workers a decent standard of living. Consumer goods were generally shoddy and available in only limited supply. Production was not geared to consumer demand. Economic planners had no real incentive to respond to consumer demand. And Communist price fixing meant that farmers had no incentive to increase production. Asa result food shortages were common. This same dynamic occurred theoughout Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, although it was less vissible there. Economic developments are of huge importance given that it was in Poland that not Eastern European Communism begn to unravel as well as the Soviet Union itself. Solidarity was aabor movement protestiung low wages, poor working conditions, and the lack of other consumer goods. A Polish reader describes how during the Communist era, each enterrprise or institution had their own holiday homes Enployees and their familiers could stay there at no cost, although there could be charges for extras. Our reader's father worked in a factory. He remembers a loveky 2 week summer stay at Międyzdroje, a beautiful small town on Poland's Baltic Sea.
The NAZIs and allied Soviets invaded Poland launching World War II (1939). The occupation of Poland was a disaster not only for the Polish people, but for the Catholic Churchn itself. The Germans and Soviets set out to destroy the Polish nation and the Church after the disolution of the Polish state, the Army, and the universities, was the only important national institution left standing. The German supression of the Church was most brutal in the areas of Western Poland annexed to the Reich. Priests were shit or arrested and interned in concentration camps where many perished. The Germans are believed to have killed some 3,000 priests. Otheres were deported to the General Government. And had the Germans prevailed in the War the priests in the General Government as well as the general population wuld have eventually been targeted there as well as part of Generalplan Ost. This was a foretast as to what the NAZIs palnned for the larger Reich after the War, the destruction of Christian churches and the creation of a new NAZI state religion. The Soviet authorities in the parts of eastern Poland that they invaded and occupied also attacked the Church. Priests were among those Poles the NKVD shot or deported. And after the Red Army drove out the Germans (1944), Soviet authorities renewed the attack on the Church. Poland's new Stalinist leaders under Soviet tutaledge launched a brutal campaign of supression, adopting the tactics of the atheists campaigns in the Soviet Union. This did not end until Stalin's death (1953). Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski had vbecome an international symbol of resistance to totalitarian Communism. The 20th Party Congress ushered in a new era (1956). Communist Party reformers ended much but not all of the brutality. They did not, however, end its efforts to supress the Church which was a integral component of Marxism. They recognized that the devotion of the Polish people was to strong to attack fontally. A kind of informal truce developed between the Communist State and Catholic Episcopate. The open assault on the Church would end, but a range of less brutal restrictions. In return, the Church would not only refrain from involving itself in politics, but recognize the legitimacy of the Communist state. As a result, Polish Church gained a range of toleration and freedoms that were unprecedented in the Soviet Empire. The Church was allowed to publish periodicals, although the Goverment severaly limited the number of copies published. The Church's right to control the selection and training of its priests was recognized. Most astounding was allowing religious education to again take place in state schools. There were, however, restrictions and these were expanded as the spirit of the 20th Party Congress wained and the Communists continue its struggle with the Church. The clergy remained stridently anti-Communist and the bishops would at time speak out against government policies. This of course was anethma to the Communists who saw all criticism as essentially a crime and only confirmed the need to destroy the Church. Only the devotion of the Polish people prevented this. The Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego (Ministry of Public Security of Poland -- MBP) covertly surveilled the clergy. Priests who stepped over a poorly defined line were arrested for a wide range of real or imagined offenses. The Communists also set up a wide range bureaucratic obstacles. The most serious was to make it difficult to build new churches for the faithful seeking defy the Comminists. The Communists had total control over the media and used it to relentlessly attack the Church. This was less effective than it migh be because the widrer population understood at the Government controlled media could not be believed. The state and church eventually came to understand that they lacked the power to destroy the other. A kind of uneasy stability developed. Although Communist rule continued repressive, they were unable to supress the Catholic Church. Not only does did Church survive the Stalinist era, but it florished. The Church emerged as the most prestigious national institution, the only one that stood up to Soviet domination. And then two earth shattering developments rocked Poland. First the Catholic Church chose a Polish Pope--John Paul II (1978). At first the Communists did not understand how important this was and were unsure how to address it. Second, Polish workers founded Solidarity (1980). This shocked the Communist authorities in Warsaw and Miscow--workers were susposed to be the bed rock of Communist rule. Instead they were deeply devoted to the Church, mistifying to doctrinaire Communists. Together the Polish Church backed by the Vatican and Solidarity began the destruction of the Commnist state and wth it the entire Soviet Empire.
The counterculture movement emerged in the United States, partly associated with the Vietnam War (1960s). The issues involved resomated in many other countries, especially the democracies of Western Europe which had consttitutiinal guarantees for free expression and personal belavior. This was not the sort of bedhvior that went well in the Soviet Uniion and the Soviet controlled peoples democracies of Eastern Europe. This all changed somewhat when Stalin died (1953) and Khruschev denomved Stalin and launched his de-Stalinization policy. Communist officials in the Soviet satellites were not that entralled about this as they basically relied on the Soviet Union to keep them in power. Some continued Atalinmist policies. Other like Poland maintained their police state, but toletated a level of librtrailzation. [Tracz] It is in this context that Poland had their own Hippy experience. A HBC readers provides a description of what occurred in Poland. The Polish Hippy subculture was not anythinh like the West, but it did exist. This is especially interesting because it is in Poland that the Eastern European Communism and eventually the Soviet Unioin began. Of course it was Polish workers that began the proicess, but Hippies were part of the Polish cultural millieu.
Jews were incredablt the target of violent attacks after World War II. Many of thge small number of Holocaust survivors did not want he NAI World War II Holocaust essentially suceeded in destroying Poland's once large, vibrant Jewish community. Many of the pitfully small number of survivors did not want to returned to their pre-War homes and destroyed communities. And some of those who did return were increbably attacked by their Polish neighbors. This occurred in the immediate aftermath of the War (1946-47). The Communists and Soviets were responsible for many attrocities in Poland. There are differences of opinion as to the extent of these attacks. It is a subject that was generally covered up by Poland's post-War Communist givernment and a general public desire to paint the nation as victims and heros in the struggle against the NAZIs. We certainly do not want to suggest that Poland did not bravely stand up to Hitler and play an important role in the struggle. And there was relatively little colaboration in Poland with the NAZIs, with the exception of the Holocaust. And there does seem to be some truth to the claims that many Jewish survivors were attacked or otherwise abused by Poles after the War. [Gross, Fear.] The Polish Government immediately following the War, opened its borders o allow free Jewish immigration. While the post-War Polish Jewish community was a fraction of its former self, it played a role in Cold War politics, primarily because of the Doviet desire to gain Arab support in the Middlke East.
The popular Karol Wojtyla, the Archbishop of Krakow, who fought for a church at Nova Huta is elected Pope. As John Paul II, he is the first non-Italian pope in almost nearly 500 years and further strengthens the Polish Church (1978). The Soviets and Polish Communists were unsure as to how to respond. John Paul II is perhaps the most beloved modern pope. He was the first Polish pope, notable because of the country's long history of Catholocism. He was born Karol Jozef Wojtyla in the small town of Wadowice near Krakow (1920). This was shortly after Poland was reserected as a result of World War I. There were in the city 8,000 Catholics and 2,000 Jews. Wojtyla was called "Lolek." He was the second son of Karol Wojtyla Sr. who was a retired army officer and worked as a tailor. His mother was Emilia Kaczorowska Wojtyla, a schoolteacher of Lithuanian descent. The family were strict Catholics, but unlike many neighbors were not anti-Semitic. A close friend was Jerzy Kluger, a Jewish boy. Kluger later played a role in Vatican's recognition of Israel. Karol not only had Jewish friends, but was intreagued by Judiasm. He reasoned as a youth that anti-Semitism was pantently absurd as Jesus and his appostles were all Jews. Karol lost his mother at a young age and his father as a youth. He studied to be a priest during World War II at a time that the NAZIs attacked the Church and other Polish institutions. At the time the NAZIs were arresting seminarians. As a young priest he faced Stalinist repression in Poland after the War and perfected the Church's tactics of sucessfully confronting an athiest police state. Later as a Polish prelate he led the fight for a church at Nova Huta. His success in confronting Communism in Poland was largely responsible for his elevation to the Papacy.
Solidarność (Solidarity) had deep roots in Polish history. The Red Army and NKVD laid the foundations of a Communist police state as Soviet power drove out the NAZIs in the final year of World War II. It violation of commitments made to the Allies, Stalin not only refused to deal with the London-based Polish Government-in-exile, but actually arrested and executed their suporters in areas of Poland freed from the NAZIs. Communists stole the 1946 parlimentary elctions, putting the final touches on a Communist dictatorship, called euphmatically a People's Republic. It gradually became clear that backed with Soviet tanks, these Communist dictatorships could not be removed by force, although there were periodic violent outbreaks of resistance in Poland and elsewhere in the Soviet empire. Nonviolent action against Communist authorities began very early in the history of Communist Poland. At first they had little impact on the Government and were supressed with great violence by the authorities. Poland was different than the rest of Eastern Europe in that the Roman Catholic Church was so deeply ingrained in the lives of the people and the country's national ethos. Try as they may, the Communists were unable to destroy the Church or break that bond. This provided an organizational basis for passive resistance. It took some time for anti-Communists to develop tactics to confront the Communists. Here a nother factor was the gradual development of limitation on the use of force by the Communists. Under the Stalinist regime of the early 40s, even non-violent tactics woylkd nt have worked. And over time to the surprise of the Communists, there economic sytem as in the Soviet Union was proved not to work. This mean that people in the Soviet Empire could not live the same prosperous lives as in the West. So in addition to national and religious opposition, economic oposition developed among the very people that according to Marxist doctine was the bedrock of Communism--industrial workers. After three decades of Communist control and indoctination and basically ineffectual civil resistance -- Polish workers began to develop tactics through which Polish society could begin to challenge Communist authorities and their Soviet masters. Various Polish groups supported by the Church began organizing and consolidating itself in a broad coalition of social forces. The result was the foundaion of Solidarność (August 1980). This coincided with the election of Ronald Reagan in the United States (November 1980). This mean from the beginnng Solidarność had strong international support as well domestic support. Solidarność at its core was rooted its in trade unionism which both confused and delegitimized the Soviet imposed Communist regime. It undermined the ideological but clearly dishonest claim that the Communit People's Republic was a free “workers’ state”. Solidarność undermined the Communist controlled unions which were in fact a mechanism for controlling workers. Solidarność created the independent political space which allowed for alternative institutions, activities, and open discussion could not only occur, but flourish. Solidarność leaders had learned that they could not win in a violent confrntation with the Communist authorities backed by the Soviets. Thus Solidarność carefully pursued its political objectives using strict nonviolent discipline as carefully calculated self-imposed limitations. It woulld not be an easy struggle again gepography, Poland's location between Germany and Russia, intervened to make this a mamouth challenge. Kremlin leaders could read a map. Poland separated the Soviet Union from Germany. And perhaps the highest priority of Soviet foreign policy was to prevent the unification of Germany, epeciallyunifcation undr a free, West German leadership. And there was no way to prevent unification once Poland'sCommunist regime was overhrown. And it ws not long after Solidarity was founded that the Soviet Union reacted.
Martial Law
The Soviets sensing that Solodarity is gaining the upperhand in Poland, threatens to invade. Polish authorities to avoid Soviet intervention declare martial law and arrest Solidarity leaders (December 1981). Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski was the Polish Army commander who precided over the crack down on LechWalesa's Solidarity Movement (1981). The Polish Government officially disbands Solidarity, but a underground resistance continues (1982). And the economy continues to spiral downward. The cost of living rises over 100 percent during 1992.
Ryszard Kuklinski
One of the heros of the Cold War in Poland was Ryszard Kuklinski, a Polish Army officer who became a valued agent for the CIA. Kuklinski concluded that the best way to help achieve real Polish independence was to was to work for the COA as a spy. He operated for 9 years sending Washington a mountain of information on Poland, the Soviets, and the Warsaw Pact. He rose in the military hierarchy and help prepare Warsaw Pact war games. He was also a participant in the Polish military debates as to whther or not to declare marshall law and supress Solidarity by force. Kuklinski decided to leave Poland just at the time that the Soviets were threatening to invade (1981). [Weiser]
Democratic Elections
Finally it was in Eastern Europe that the whole Soviet system would begin unraveling. The Communist regime in Poland was brouht down by the very workers it claimed to represent. The Communists can not repeal the laws of economics. The Polish economy goes into a tail spin. Inflation reaches 100 percent. The Government decided to negotigate with Solidarity. The Government lifts martial law (1983). The Government permits Solidarity to operate openly (1989). The economy continues to derteriorate. Inflation reaches 250 percent. Poland holds its first democratic electin since World War II (December 1990). Lech Walesa is elected Poland's new president.
Sources
Dallek, Robert. Franklin Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy.
Gellately, Robeet. Stalin's Curse: Battling for Communism in War and Cold War (2013), 496p.
Gross, Jan T. Fear (2006). Gross is a Princeton University scholar. He is a Polish Jew who emigrated from Poland during the Cold War. The Communist Government facilitated the emigration of the country's Jews.
Tracz, Bogusław. "Hippiesi, kudłacze, chwasty: Hipisi w Polsce w latach 1967–1975" [Hippies, mopheads, weeds: Hippies in Poland between 1967 and 1975] The Polish Review Vol. 61, No. 3 (2016), pp. 114-18.
Weiser, Benjamin. A Secret Life: The Polish Officer, His Covert Mission, and the Price He Paid to Save the Country (Public Affairs, 2004). 383p.
