Polish United Workers' Party
The Polish United Workers' Party was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other legally permitted subordinate minor parties together as the Front of National Unity and later Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth. The Polish United Workers' Party had total control over public institutions in the country as well as the Polish People's Army, the UB and SB security agencies, the Citizens' Militia police force and the media.
The falsified 1947 Polish legislative election granted the Communist Polish Workers' Party complete political authority in post-war Poland. The PZPR was founded forthwith in December 1948 through the unification of the PPR and the Polish Socialist Party. From 1952 onward, the position of "First Secretary" of the Polish United Workers' Party was de facto equivalent to Poland's head of state. Throughout its existence, the PZPR maintained close ties with ideologically similar parties of the Eastern Bloc, most notably the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Between 1948 and 1954, nearly 1.5 million individuals registered as Polish United Workers' Party members, and membership rose to 3 million by 1980.
Ideologically, the party was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism, with a strong emphasis on left-wing nationalism. It was also described as a "hybrid populist party that combined right-wing and left-wing ideology". Later, in 1988-1989 some factions of the party adopted milder democratic socialism, which was seen as the impact of the perestroika in the neighbouring Soviet Union. Its primary objective was to impose socialist agenda unto Polish society. The communist government sought to nationalize all institutions. Some concepts imported from abroad, such as large-scale collective farming and secularization, failed in their early stages. The PZPR was considered more liberal and pro-Western than its counterparts in East Germany or the Soviet Union, and was more averse to radical politics. Although propaganda was utilized in major media outlets like Trybuna Ludu and televised Dziennik, censorship became ineffective by the mid-1980s and was gradually abolished. On the other hand, the Polish United Worker's Party was responsible for the pacification of civil resistance and protesters in the Poznań protests of 1956, the 1970 Polish protests and throughout martial law between 1981 and 1983. The PZPR also initiated an anti-Semitic campaign during the 1968 Polish political crisis, which forced the remainder of Poland's Jews to emigrate.
Amidst the ongoing political and economic crises, the Solidarity movement emerged as a major anti-bureaucratic social movement that pursued social change. With communist rule being relaxed in neighbouring countries, the PZPR systematically lost support and was forced to negotiate with the opposition and adhere to the Polish Round Table Agreement, which permitted free democratic elections. The elections on 4 June 1989 proved victorious for Solidarity, thus bringing 40-year communist rule in Poland to an end. The Polish United Workers' Party was dissolved in January 1990.
Programme and goals
Until 1989, the PZPR held dictatorial powers and controlled an unwieldy bureaucracy, the military, the secret police, and the economy.Its main goal was to create a Communist society and help to propagate Communism all over the world. On paper, the party was organised on the basis of democratic centralism, which assumed a democratic appointment of authorities, making decisions, and managing its activity. These authorities decided about the policy and composition of the main organs; although, according to the statute, it was a responsibility of the members of the congress, which was held every five or six years. Between sessions, the regional, county, district and work committees held party conferences. The smallest organizational unit of the PZPR was the Fundamental Party Organization, which functioned in workplaces, schools, cultural institutions, etc.
The main part in the PZPR was played by professional politicians, or the so-called "party's hardcore", formed by people who were recommended to manage the main state institutions, social organizations, and trade unions. The crowning time of the PZPR development consisted of over 3.5 million members. The Political Office of the Central Committee, Secretariat and regional committees appointed the key posts within the party and in all organizations having 'state' in its name – from central offices to even small state and cooperative companies. It was called the nomenklatura system of state and economy management. In certain areas of the economy, e.g., in agriculture, the nomenklatura system was controlled with the approval of the PZPR and by its allied parties, the United People's Party, and the Democratic Party. After martial law began, the Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth was founded to organize these and other parties.
History
Establishment and Sovietization period
On 14 December 1948, the 2nd Congress of the PPR and the 28th Congress of the PPS were held simultaneously, at which the decision was made to unite both parties. The Polish United Workers' Party was established at the unification congress of the Communist Polish Workers' Party and the Polish Socialist Party during meetings held at the main building of the Warsaw University of Technology from 15 to 21 December 1948. The unification was possible because the PPS had effectively been taken over by pro-Communist fellow travelers, and the activists who opposed unification had been forced out of the party. Similarly, the members of the PPR who were accused of "rightist–nationalist deviation" were expelled. Thus, the merger was actually an absorption of the PPS by the PPR, resulting in what was a renamed and enlarged PPR for all intents and purposes.The new party included about 1 million members of the PPR and about 0.5 million members of the PPS. The highest positions in the party were taken by members of the PPR. The Political Bureau established during the Unification Congress included: Bierut, Jakub Berman, Józef Cyrankiewicz, Hilary Minc, Stanisław Radkiewicz, Adam Rapacki, Marian Spychalski, Henryk Świątkowski, Roman Zambrowski and Aleksander Zawadzki. All of them - in accordance with the Soviet model - held high positions in the state apparatus at the same time.
"Rightist-nationalist deviation" was a political propaganda term used by the Polish Stalinists against prominent activists, such as Władysław Gomułka and Marian Spychalski who opposed Soviet involvement in the Polish internal affairs, as well as internationalism displayed by the creation of the Cominform and the subsequent merger that created the PZPR. It is believed that it was Joseph Stalin who put pressure on Bolesław Bierut and Jakub Berman to remove Gomułka and Spychalski as well as their followers from power in 1948. It is estimated that over 25% of socialists were removed from power or expelled from political life.
On 20–21 April 1949, a plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party was held, devoted to matters of culture and science. Party apparatchiks demanded a bold "ideological offensive", i.e. the introduction of socialist realism to culture. In this way, the direction of action already imposed on the writers during the January congress in Szczecin was continued. Alongside Jerzy Albrecht and Jerzy Putrament - the main speakers pointing to the need to popularize socialist realism - Henryk Jabłoński appeared, criticizing the state of history teaching at universities.
Bolesław Bierut, an NKVD agent and a hardline Stalinist, served as first Secretary General of the ruling PZPR from 1948 to 1956, playing a leading role in imposing communism and the installation of its repressive regime. He had served as president since 1944. After a new constitution abolished the presidency, Bierut took over as prime minister, a post he held until 1954. He remained party leader until his death in 1956.
Bierut oversaw the trials of many Polish wartime military leaders, such as General Stanisław Tatar and Brig. General Emil August Fieldorf, as well as 40 members of the Wolność i Niezawisłość organisation, various Church officials and many other opponents of the new regime including Witold Pilecki, condemned to death during secret trials. Bierut signed many of those death sentences.
Bierut's mysterious death in Moscow in 1956 gave rise to much speculation about poisoning or a suicide, and symbolically marked the end of Stalinism era in Poland.
On 11–13 November 1949, a plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party was held, which was devoted to the tasks of the party in the fight for revolutionary vigilance. The plenum was dedicated to two leading topics: increasing indoctrination and continuing the fight against right-wing nationalist deviation. In relation to the first topic, an offensive of propaganda activities and intensification of the ideologization of public life were assumed. Yet, in connection with the strengthening of the sole rule of Bolesław Bierut, the deliberations were largely dominated by aggressive criticism of Władysław Gomułka and people from his circle. The latter, weakened by the removal from state functions, was also deprived of party functions during the plenum, by removing him from the Central Committee. At the same time, his co-authors, Marian Spychalski and Zenon Kliszko, were excluded from the party authorities.
On 24–25 November 1953, a secret session of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party was held. Cliques began to emerge within the leadership of the Polish United Workers' Party, representing different possibilities of overcoming the political and economic crisis that plagued the Polish People's Republic. The criticism of the Ministry of Public Security made during the session indicated that the leadership of the ministry would become a "scapegoat" on which the PZPR leaders would blame the responsibility for the terror reigning in the Polish People's Republic.