• Wstęp

  Adam Dziuba

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 7-11

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Studia

• Aviation weekly “Skrzydła i Motor” [Wings and Engine] (1946–1953)

  Agnieszka Cieślikowa

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 15-35

  Abstract

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  The article presents the creation and publication of an aviation weekly for young people “Skrzydła i Motor” [Wings and Engine] (1946–1953) against the background of the reconstruction of the aviation press in post-war conditions in Poland. The text discusses the activities of the publishing house, the editorial team, the magazine’s illustrations and the interference of censorship. The weekly “Skrzydła i Motor” was prepared by the same editorial team as the monthly “Skrzydlata Polska” [Winged Poland], under the supervision of Janusz Przymanowski and then Alfred Windholz. It was intended for young people involved in the development of aviation sports in the Liga Lotnicza organisation (Aviation League). The weekly “Skrzydła i Motor” was closed after the dissolution of the Liga Lotnicza.

• The Alexandrov Choir as a tool of Soviet propaganda (on the example of the 1946 and 1951 tours in Poland)

  Wiktor Węglewicz

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 36-53

  Abstract

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  The article deals with the use of the Alexandrov Choir as a tool of Soviet propaganda outside the USSR. Two concert tours in People’s Poland in 1946 and 1951 are used as an examples. The history of the ensemble up to the 1940s is presented, both tours are discussed, the propaganda content with which the Soviet artists performed in front of audiences is shown, and the achieved results are analyzed.

• The case of Napoleon Idzikowski’s spy network (1954–1955) in the perspective of Wanda Odolska’s propaganda reportage Ostrowiecki process

  Tomasz Krok

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 54-86

  Abstract

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  The article presents the little-known history of the activity of a smuggler and former prisoner of the Buchenwald concentration camp, Napoleon Robert Idzikowski, who was a member of the Polish Guard Companies attached to the US occupying forces in Germany. Between 1954–1955, he cooperated with British and later American services and led a spy network operating on the territory of Poland, consisting of members of his family. The second part of the text provides an analysis of Ostrowiec trial, a book written by Wanda Odolska, a communist journalist and member of the Polish Radio editorial team. Published in March 1956, this brochure presents a propagandistic description of Idzikowski’s spy network history based on security documentation and trial records. In addition to describing Idzikowski’s espionage activities and the operational game of the security and Soviet services that led to the dismantling of his network, the article aims to highlight the propagandistic features of Odolska’s publication as a typical example of Stalinist propaganda in Poland.

• German Topics in the October Polish press titles

  Anna Patecka-Frauenfelder

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 87-128

  Abstract

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  In the press of the People’s Republic of Poland, German topics were one of the most widely discussed foreign policy issues. The aim of the study was to answer the question of the role and importance of German themes in the October press. A qualitative content analysis of press articles mainly from political and socio-cultural periodicals was conducted. This was necessary to provide a closer look at the press narrative of June 1956. Analysis of the wider context of international politics allowed the conclusion that journalists commenting on foreign policy issues, including German topics, presented the position of the authorities. The journalists emphasised Poland’s increased importance after October 1956 and its predisposition to play an important role in the international arena, among other things, to co-shape the policy of the socialist countries on German issues. Using various journalistic forms (reportage, press polemics), the press legitimised the alliance with the Soviet Union and the socialist system and the new policy towards the West and Germany.

• “Attention: the Bundeswehr!”. The West German armed forces in the propaganda discourse of the Polish People’s Army in the 1960s

  Tomasz Leszkowicz

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 129-160

  Abstract

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  The military rivalry during the Cold War had its propaganda background. The Armed Forces of the Polish People’s Republic in the 1960s, faced with the outbreak of a Third World War, intensively created a negative image of its main opponent – the West German Bundeswehr. The article analyses propaganda texts, produced in the circle of the Polish People’s Army, dealing with topics related to the German armed forces. The main issues raised are: the traditions of German militarism and the Nazi past of the West German generals, the intensive rearmament and aggressive plans of the Bundeswehr, as well as the socio-economic system of West Germany, fostering militarism and revisionism. Intensively manipulating information. The military propaganda also referred to numerous facts that put West Germany in a bad light.

• “Project Truth” vs “Blood Money”. Romuald Spasowski’s and Zdzisław Rurarz’s escapes in the context of Polish and American propaganda – media campaigns in the shadow of martial law

  Patryk Pleskot

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 161-186

  Abstract

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  The introduction of martial law in communist Poland had at least one unexpected side effect for General Jaruzelski and his military team: on December 19, 1981 Romuald Spasowski, the Polish ambassador in the United States, asked the Americans for political asylum. Four days later Zdzisław Rurarz – who represented Poland in Japan – did the same thing. The escapes caused serious damage to the communist Poland’s public image. The Reagan administration decided to profit from this situation, using both diplomats (especially Spasowski) in intensive media campaigns. Its main goal was to demonstrate support for the Solidarity movement and to condemn martial law. Simultaneously, the Polish authorities, in order to minimise the damage, started their own media campaign – limited but visible – violently critisising the two defectors. Both ex-ambassadors were accused of treason, ingratitude, base motives and even mental problems. In the first few weeks after escapes the Polish and American campaigns reached their peak. In this article, the author has tried to characterise both propaganda narratives.

Varia

• In the fight for power. Activities of the Polish Workers’ Party and the Public Security Office in Piła in 1945–1948 Powstanie Polskiej Partii Robotniczej i Urzędu Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego w Pile

  Robert Kolasa

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 189-217

  Abstract

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  The article depicts the activities of the Polish Workers’ Party and the Public Security Office during their struggle for power and the construction of a hegemonic position on the local political scene. Of course, there are references to the national situation to better understand the historical context. In this way, we learn about the circumstances of the establishment of political parties in Piła and the period of the power struggles during the referendum and elections to the Legislative Sejm. The last part describes the situation after the “victorious” elections for the communists, when the PWP secret service destroyed the opposition Polish People’s Party and marginalized its “allies”. This culminated in the absorption of the “allied” Polish Socialist Party by the PWP and the creation of the Polish United Workers’ Party, which was dominated by communists.

• People’s referendum of June 30, 1946 in Płock and Płock county

  Mariusz Żuławnik

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 218-241

  Abstract

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  The article describes the preparation and conduct of the June 30, 1946 people’s referendum in Płock and Płock county. The subject has not yet been the subject of separate scientific studies. Based on hitherto untapped archival sources, stored, among others, in the Archives of the Institute of National Remembrance and the State Archives in Plock, the author discussed the activities of political parties in the Plock area in the period preceding the vote, along with the referendum campaign of the so-called Democratic Bloc, led by the Polish Workers’ Party, and the activities of the opposition Polish People’s Party, hampered by the regime authorities. In addition, there is a discussion of the role of the repressive apparatus in the referendum campaign, including the Office of Security and the Civic Militia, along with a presentation of evidence of falsifications committed by the Communists during the People’s Vote, which was one of the most important political events in postwar Poland.

   

• Women – security – party – career. An attempt at a collective portrait of female functionaries in managerial positions at WUBP (Provincial Office of Public Security) in Katowice (1945–1956)

  Marta Paszek

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 242-272

  Abstract

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  The article is an attempt at a collective portrait of women officers who held managerial positions at WUBP in Katowice during 1945–1956. During this period, there were as many as seven women who made a career in the security services, which was unique in the history of the security apparatus of the Polish People’s Republic. Their place of origin, nationality, social origin, religion and education were taken into account. The fate of women officers during the war was not omitted. In addition, the party activity of the promoted women and the opinions of their superiors and subordinates about their work as managers and chiefs were presented.

• The security apparatus as executor of the directives of the Polish United Workers’ Party on combating pro-German attitudes. The Opole casus (1950–1956)

  Adriana Dawid

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 273-289

  Abstract

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  In the years 1950–1956, many autochthons lived in the Opole Voivodeship who declared German nationality. This was contrary to official propaganda, according to which there was no German minority in Poland. Pro-German attitudes were combated through extensive agitation led by the Polish United Workers’ Party. Moreover, repressive actions were taken against those who showed pro-German sympathies. They were implemented by the political police in accordance with guidelines and under the control of the party. Periodically, provincial political police structures submitted reports on their activities to the Executive of the Provincial Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party. As these reports show, most attention in the region was devoted to combating pro-German attitudes.

• “The Executive is responsible for the Office and its work”. Implementation by district committees of the PZPR in the Cracow province (1955–1956) of the resolution of the Third Plenum of the Central Committee of the PZPR on the work of the security organs

  Marcin Kasprzycki

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 290-321

  Abstract

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  The article discusses the implementation by district party structures in the Cracow province of the guidelines of the January 1955 resolution of the Third Plenum of the Central Committee of the PZPR in connection with the reorganization of the security apparatus in late 1954 and early 1955. It presents the stages of compliance with the recommendations of the central party leadership, taking into account the role of the Central Committee of the PZPR in Cracow in this process. Attention was paid to the problems raised at individual county executive meetings, the activity of PZPR activists in mobilizing the political police to combat opponents of the government, and in addition the extent of this action in 1955–1956 was analyzed. The article is accompanied by a table that includes the dates of executive meetings at which, in 1955–1956, security issues were discussed in the counties and the functioning of the field units of the UB was evaluated.

• Relations of the Security Service and the CV PUWP using the example of Kraków in the period of “little stabilization” in the light of party files

  Sebastian Drabik

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 322-356

  Abstract

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  The article attempts to present relations between the Security Service and the VC PUWP in the years 1956–1970 using the example of Kraków and the Kraków Voivodeship. In the initial period after October ’56, there were misunderstandings and conflicts between the party authorities and the political police, especially when Bolesław Drobner was the First Secretary of the VC PUWP in Kraków. Very quickly, however, the two sides returned to close cooperation. The SB was needed by the PUWP to maintain its monopoly of power. The party authorities determined the more important operational directions of the political police: combating former PSL members, fighting the Church, suppressing attempts at strikes and work stoppages, preventing social speeches against the authorities, especially during elections to the Sejm and national councils. In the mid-1960s, people associated with the “Partisans” group (1st Secretary Czesław Domagała) took power in the Kraków PUWP. This milieu also strengthened its influence in the political police (including Stanisław Wałach). Senior Security Service officers in Kraków were part of the establishment of the time. They maintained close contacts, including social contacts, with the more important employees of the party apparatus. They also participated in personal games and intrigues. The revolts of student and high school students in 1968 and of workers in 1970 came as a big surprise to both the party authorities and the political police. The beginning of the next decade saw personnel changes in the PUWP and Security Service.

• “For the national and social authenticity of Polish socialism”. Some reflections on the genesis of Janusz Zabłocki’s 1968 “manifesto”

  Tomasz Sikorski

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 357-395

  Abstract

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  The article discusses the genesis of Janusz Zabłocki’s manifesto (memorial) entitled “For the National and Social Authenticity of Polish Socialism.” It is a document presenting the view of Zabłocki (the founder of the Center for Documentation and Social Studies, and at the same time one of the leaders of the “Znak” movement) on several issues: 1) the conflict within the Polish United Workers’ Party, 2) the background and consequences of the March 1968 revolt; 3) the possibility of dialogue and democratization; 4) the so-called Jewish question and anti-Semitism; 4) the “national self-determination” of society. In fact, Zabłocki, declaring his neutrality towards internal conflicts in the Communist Party, actually recognized that Gomulka and his closest associates (e.g., Zenon Kliszko) were no longer guarantors of democratisation, and that their previous position was being eroded. Without ruling out “playing two pianos,” he opted for the party’s “national-patriotic” current (the “partisan” faction), open to Polish tradition, history and culture, while being openly anti-Semitic. Making a diagnosis of the balance of real forces in the party, he concluded that the “national communists” had a better chance of realizing the reform program and democratization. This was met with criticism from the other “Znak” deputies and much of the movement as a whole. Initially Zabłocki intended to express his point of view in the Sejm, but eventually did so in the memorial “For the National and Social Authenticity of Polish Socialism”, which was to appear in the pages of “Więź” (but was never printed). The document itself was maintained in the convention of anti-March newspeak (twinned with party press propaganda), and the formulations contained therein, and not at all invalid, but directly contained support for the “national” current in the PZPR. The views and opinions expressed by Zabłocki deepened the crisis in the “Znak” movement, which had been growing for years.

• “It is not possible to continue the leadership along the lines of Bolesław without Bolesław”. The case of the election of the chairman of the PAX Association after the death of Bolesław Piasecki

  Maciej Motas

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 396-422

  Abstract

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  Bolesław Piasecki, the long-time chairman of the PAX Association, died on January 1, 1979. The life of the organization was centered around him from the moment of its establishment for more than three consecutive decades. The death of the undisputed leader of the milieu of socially progressive Catholics marked the most important caesura in the Association’s history. The election of a new chairman fundamentally changed the political line of PAX. The purpose of this article is to show the processes that took place both inside and outside the Association, which eventually led to the appointment of Piasecki’s successor. Important from this perspective is the fact that the election of the PAX chairman was part of a power play also within the party-state apparatus. Determining the exact course of the election enriches the knowledge of the history of this important political center for lay Catholics in the Polish People’s Republic. The source base of the article is archival documentation, published memoirs and accounts, and the press.

• From licensed Christian associations to Solidarity Secular Catholics in search of their place in the Polish socio-political reality following the example of the fate of Jan Całka and Jerzy Łysiak in the last quarter of a century of the People’s Poland and in the Third Polish Republic

  Zbigniew Bereszyński

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 423-457

  Abstract

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  When Solidarity was founded in 1980, the organizers of the new social movement also included some people previously involved in the activities of licensed Christian associations. In Opole Silesia, the figure of Jan Całka, a long-time full-time employee of the PAX Association, who in 1981 became a member of the Management Board of the Opole Silesia Region of NSZZ “Solidarność”, stood out. During martial law, he co-organized conspiratorial activities in the Opole region, as a result of which he was arrested and appeared before the Military Court. In 1989, he became the chairman of the rebuilt regional structures of Solidarity. One of the leading activists of the local Solidarity movement was also Jerzy Łysiak, former activist of the Christian Social Association and the temporary head of the Opole branch of ChSS. People coming from the ranks of licensed Christian associations were sometimes perceived with a great deal of distrust and even suspicion by other Solidarity activists. A particularly dramatic example of this is the fate of Jan Całka, who for many years was unjustly stigmatized in the public space as an agent of the Security Service.

Edycje źródłowe

• Report by British Embassy Attaché Robert Bates Kirby on the holding of elections in the Silesian Voivodship on January 19, 1947

  Mateusz Sokulski

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 461-477

  Abstract

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  The holding of free elections in the post-war Polish Republic was viewed in London as an opportunity to prevent the full sovietization of Poland. British politicians showed the greatest – albeit unsuccessful – consistency when it came to fulfilling the Communist-dominated Provisional Government’s commitments. London was aware of the disregard for the principle of freedom of elections by Polish Workers’ Party (PPR) politicians. British diplomats and journalists filled most of the sixteen British-American teams observing elections throughout Poland. Robert Bates Kirby, who served a diplomatic mission in Poland from 1946 to 1952, was sent to Silesia. The report on the elections in the Silesian Voivodship is the most important part of this source article. The Labour Attaché at the United Kingdom Embassy in Warsaw prepared a detailed note on election manipulations, and interviewed important political figures in Silesia at the time. His observations show an awareness of the Communist Party’s mechanisms for violating the freedom and fairness of elections. United Kingdom Ambassador to Warsaw Victor Cavendish-Bentinck described Kirby’s report as noteworthy and sent an official letter to British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin as an attachment to the ambassador’s report on the conduct of elections in Poland.

Recenzje

• Kilka spostrzeżeń na temat książki Krzysztofa Lesiakowskiego Ignacy Loga-Sowiński (1914–1992). Portret gomułkowca, Łódź 2022, s. 426

  Paweł Sztama

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 481-490

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• Recenzja książki Bartłomieja Kapicy Władysław Bieńkowski. Biografia polityczna, Warszawa 2022, 500 s.

  Piotr Juchowski

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 491-499

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• Droga do władzy komunisty nietypowego O najnowszej biografii Edwarda Gierka (Mirosław Szumiło, Gierek. Droga do władzy, Łódź–Lublin 2023, 400 s.)

  Tomasz Kurpierz

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 12 (2023), pages: 500-510

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