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Abstract
This contribution examines the Polish experience of de-Stalinisation and its consequences. In 1956, Polish communists first acknowledged that society could no longer be ruled without listening to its voice. Khrushchev's ‘secret speech’ denouncing aspects of Stalin's rule was published in full. During the ensuing October crisis, Gomułka persuaded the Soviet leadership to restore the outward semblances of national sovereignty. The Polish Party admitted that domestic campaigns against private agriculture and the Catholic Church had failed, and both were promised a permanent place within the ‘socialist order’. But workers' hopes for economic rationality and intellectuals' aspirations for a freer public life were soon disappointed. They did not revive until the 1970s.
Notes
1Archiwum Akt Nowych (AAN) Oddzial VI (PZPR) p. 112 t. 26, pp. 213 – 220.
2‘Co robić?’, Po prostu, 8 April 1956.
3AAN 237/XVIII/161 (Klub Krzywego Koła); Jedlicki (Citation1963).
4AAN 237/XVIII/161, p. 24.
5AAN 237/V/204, pp. 90 – 93 (29 March 1956) and special report AAN 237/VII/3859, Meldunki, 43, 28 May 1956.
6AAN 237/V/231 (Roman Werfel).
7AAN 237/V/231 (Stefan Żółkiewski).
8AAN 236/VII/3859, Meldunki, 33, 24 April 1956.
9Stasiak interviewed in Polityka, 13 June 1981.
10Marshal of the Soviet Union and Poland, Minister of Defence (from November 1949), and Politburo member (from 1950). On his original appointment see Sto sorok besed s Molotovym (Citation1991, pp. 55 – 59).
11For General Anders' statement on the ‘events’ in Poznań (29 June 1956) see Drozdowski (Citation1998, pp. 166 – 167).
12‘Poznań po wypadkach’, Polska Kronika Filmowa, 28/56, 3 July 1956.
13‘Proclamation to the People of Poznań’, 29 June 1956, in Zinner (Citation1956, p. 135).
14AAN 237/V/237, pp. 5 – 29.
15AAN 237/V/274, pp. 122 – 133.
16 Borba, 1 July 1956.
17AAN 237/V/237, p. 87.
18Central Committee Statement, 30 June 1956. National Communism and Popular Revolt: A Selection of Documents (New York, 1956), p. 331.
20Editorial, Pravda, 16 July 1956.
19 Pravda, 1 July 1956.
21 Pravda, 2 July 1956.
22Editorial, Pravda, 3 July 1956.
23 Trybuna Ludu, 21 October 1956.
24 Po Prostu, 21 October 1956.
25Jakub Andrzejewski is a pseudonym used by Andrzej Paczkowski.
26 Trybuna Ludu, 5 August 1956.
27AAN VI, p. 12, t. 46a, pp. 66 – 68.
28Numbers in CWIHP Virtual Archive: ‘Khrushchev to Gomułka (22 October1956)’, note 1.
29‘The Emerging Dispute between Beijing and Moscow, 1956 – 1958’, CWIHP Bulletin, No 6/7, 1995 – 1996.
30AAN VI, p.107 t. 5, pp. 85 – 88.
31 Trybuna Ludu, 20 October 1956.
32 Trybuna Ludu, 20 October 1956.
33 Trybuna Ludu, 20 October 1956. Coal was a major export to the USSR—at very low prices.
34 Trybuna Ludu, 25 October 1956.
35 Trybuna Ludu, 25 October 1956.
36AAN PZPR p.112 t.26, pp. 176 – 177 (22 October 1956).
37Report by Gomułka (22 November 1956) in Paczkowski (Citation1998, pp. 19 – 30).
38Gomułka's notes in Paczkowski (Citation1998, pp. 13 – 15).
39AAN VI, p.112 t. 26, pp. 213 – 220.
40This had been part of the programme of Mutual Understandings with which he had become Primate. It convened in November 1956.