• Wstęp

  Sylwia Szyc, Adam Dziuba

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 7-12

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Studia

• Primate Stefan Wyszyński and the Crises of Power in the Polish People’s Republic (1956–1966–1968–1970–1976–1980) – an Attempt at an Overview

  Rafał Łatka

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 15-51

  Abstract

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  The article presents Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński’s approach to the successive crises of the communist system, of which there was no shortage in the years when he was the Primate of Poland. The text discusses both the assessments of these events, formulated by the head of the Catholic Church in Poland, as well as the actions he took as a result. The Cardinal accurately assessed the weaknesses of the authorities in “people’s” Poland and took advantage of those in accordance with the interests of the Church and Polish society. His decisions were generally the result of profound logical reflections, which he presented during the debates of the Polish Episcopate and in his diary Pro memoria.

• The Idea of Slavic Reciprocity. The Attitude of the Communist Authorities Towards Slavic Associations and the Activities of Jan Stachniuk in 1944–1949

  Marcela Gruszczyk

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 52-77

  Abstract

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  One of the effects of the pro-Slavic policy of the communist authorities after World War II was the emergence of associations of a Slavic profile. This article outlines the history of the development of Slavic reciprocity in the 19th and 20th centuries. The attitude of the communist authorities towards the activities of the most important organisations with a Slavic profile in Poland in 1944–1949 (the Slavic Committee and the four Polish-Slavic Friendship Societies) is also discussed here. The circumstances enabling Jan Stachniuk’s activities in the post-war reality were also analysed. The Communists’ rejection of New Slavic and neo-pagan ideas is presented in this paper as a manifestation of the struggle against ‘nationalist-right deviation’.

• “Agentry of the Bourgeoisie” or “Independence Left”? A Change in Perception of the Polish Socialist Party Traditions after 1956

  Piotr Juchowski

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 78-103

  Abstract

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  This article reveals the changes in the approach of the Polish United Workers’ Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR) leadership, party publicists and historians to the traditions and legacy of the Polish Socialist Party (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, PPS), both those that occurred at the level of discourse about the Polish Socialist Party and those of an organisational nature. The paper analyses historical books, articles and speeches referring to the history of the PPS, indicating which elements of the PPS legacy could have been appreciated and which pre-war activists of this party could have counted on being commemorated.

• Youth in Party Scenarios of Public Holidays: 1 May and 22 July in 1956–1970 (on the Example of the Katowice Voivodeship)

  Joanna Mercik

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 104-133

  Abstract

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  During the “people’s” Poland period, the celebration of official state holidays, especially the most important ones, was an essential instrument of the communist authorities’ policy to indoctrinate society, especially the youth. Schools and youth organisations played a key role in this process. Young people participated in national celebrations – marching in 1st May parades, taking part in rallies and parades to

  mark 22 July – as well as engaging in activities accompanying the festivities in the form of “community deeds”, and school academies. Participation was often not voluntary. From the early post-war years, the communist authorities used the potential of public holidays to shape the attitudes of young people in line with socialist ideology; after 1956, a nationalist element was added to the ideological core. Despite attempts to impose a uniform historical and ideological narrative, young people did not become passive recipients of propaganda. They manifested their critical attitude towards imposed narratives and resisted the authorities, such as during the 1968 countrywide academic protests.

• The Road to a Treaty on the Foundations of Normalisation of the Relations Between the Polish People’s Republic and Germany. Polish-West German Relations in 1970 in Trybuna Ludu and Życie Warszawy Newspapers

  Anna Patecka-Frauenfelder

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 134-191

  Abstract

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  The year 1970 is considered one of the most important turning points in the history of Polish-German relations. The signing of an agreement between the Polish People’s Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany on the foundations of the normalisation of mutual relations was the central event of this year.

  The aim of this article is to reconstruct the press discourse on Polish-West German relations. The paper uses qualitative content analysis and critical discourse analysis (CDA). The adopted methodology enabled answering the questions how the press assessed the possibilities of fulfilling Polish demands in connection with the SPD-FPD coalition coming to power in Germany, how it presented the key issues of Polish-West German relations – which issues were highlighted and which were omitted – and whether the role of the press in the period under study went beyond journalistic coverage of events. The research material entailed the publications of Trybuna Ludu and Życie Warszawy dailies, as well as of the available sources documenting the preparation and course of negotiations on the normalization treaty.

  The study showed that the presented discourse was consistent with the assumptions of the Polish People’s Republic (PRL) foreign policy at that time. The Polish reader is introduced to the position of the Polish United Workers’ Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR) leadership and the Polish interpretation of the normalization treaty. The signing of the treaty was advertised as a success, and was a bid to legitimize communist rule in Poland. The press campaigns were intended to support the negotiations and reinforce the arguments used during the confidential talks, and it can be assumed that these campaigns were also aiming at an audience in Germany.

  There were one-sided interpretations in the dailies, attempts to “favour” the German coalition parties, in particular the SPD, or to evoke particular associations. Certain content was omitted or kept silent. This practice had a negative impact on the desire, visible at that time, to present differentiated reporting on Polish foreign policy in respect to Germany.

• “History Will Judge Your Efforts”. Echoes of Social Reactions to Martial Law from the Perspective of Private Letters Sent to Wojciech Jaruzelski Between 1982 and 1989 (Research Reconnaissance)

  Patryk Pleskot

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 192-210

  Abstract

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  In the 1980s, many Poles chose to send individual, private letters to General Wojciech Jaruzelski, rightly regarded as the most important person in the state. Those letters were received by the Chancellery of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR), the Office of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Defence and, from 1985, also by the Chancellery of the President of the Council of State. Jaruzelski kept some of this correspondence for his own use – today those records are available in the Hoover Archives. A significant group of senders referred to the 1981 Martial Law and expressed their support for the decision to impose it. Of course, these letters do not constitute a representative sample allowing an overall analysis of public sentiment, but they do reflect the opinions of at least some Poles, which are worth reading. What is worth emphasising is that there are not only the letters itself that are interesting, but also the various annotations, the places underlined by the General’s closest associates and himself, the draft replies, etc. In general, the documentation presents an interesting picture of the above authors’ attitudes and, at the same time, points out the elements of the mechanism for handling this kind of contact with citizens.

• The State Tribunal in the Legal Discourse of the Polish People’s Republic Last Decade

  Paweł Fiktus

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 211-267

  Abstract

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  The institution of the State Tribunal (Trybunał Stanu), which already existed in interbellum Poland, was well-known in the Polish legal system. However, despite two attempts to use it, there was no conviction. After the Second World War, the tribunal was mentioned by the so-called Small Constitution of 19 February 1947 (Mała Konstytucja), but was completely omitted by the Constitution of the Polish People’s Republic of 22 July 1952. For the next several decades of the Polish People’s Republic, the concept of reactivating the State Tribunal was within the interest of the Alliance of Democrats (Stronnictwo Demokratyczne, SD). At the beginning of the 1980s, the project by the Alliance of Democrats earned the support from the Polish United Workers’ Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR) and, at the turn of 1982, a draft bill was prepared to be then approved by the Polish Sejm during the 8th term.

  However, the approved bill included numerous defects. Immediately after it became effective, the bill started to be analysed by legal circles, revealing the bill’s errors. The law was applied to members of the 1970s government. However, due to the amnesty of 1984 they were not convicted, and the bill of 1982 ended up with the same result as the State Tribunal from the Interwar Period.

• Images of the Beginning, Development and Collapse of Communism in Polish Dystopia of the 1980s and 1990s

  Robert Klementowski

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 268-290

  Abstract

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  The paper analyses literature as a research tool of perceptions of Poland and its reality in the 1970s and 1980s, using the example of the trend known as political fiction or social fiction (soc-fiction). One of the interpretative codes of this literature is its use of allusion towards the reality of the time. In addition to a description of the mechanisms of the system at the political, social and economic level, one can also find reflections on its amenability to reform, subversion, or the consequences of its impact on individual identity.

• A Controversial Farewell (?) to Communism. The Political Changes of 1989– 1991 and the Related Polemic on the Example of the Local Environment in Opole

  Zbigniew Bereszyński

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 291-314

  Abstract

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  The years 1989–1990 brought a fundamental transformation of the socio-political landscape of the Opole Voivodeship. The early initiatives to legalise the local German minority movement gradually developed into a mass social movement. At the same time, new opposition groups in local youth circles were developing dynamically, providing an attractive alternative to the Solidarity movement, much-weakened in previous years. In the first weeks of 1989, differences of opinion deepened between local trade union activists, and a certain part of local opposition activists, who were popular mainly among the youth. This controversy concerned the Round Table talks, and the arrangements made there. In the atmosphere of heated political disputes, there was a rapid development of opposition initiatives contesting the Round Table agreement. The attitude to the 4 June 1989 elections to the Sejm and Senate of the Polish People’s Republic also became the subject of controversy. Some local opposition circles were also sharply critical of further political developments in the country and the region, demanding a deepening of the transformation. The problems related to the political and economic transformation led to heated disputes among local Solidarity activists, who had beforehand in 1989 held similar positions on basic political issues. Mutual accusations began to multiply, including accusations of alleged collaboration with the Security Service (Służba Bezpieczeństwa, SB). The controversies surrounding this issue, although largely devoid of any substantive justification, have not died down to this day, and continue to poison the atmosphere among former trade union and opposition activists.

Varia

• Between Rootedness and Marginalisation – the Pre-war Communist Movement in Upper Silesia

  Dariusz Zalega

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 317-339

  Abstract

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  The communist movement in inter-war German and Czech Upper Silesia took root to an extent unseen in other areas inhabited by a Polish population. The author points to the social democratic traditions of the region at the turn of the 20th century, the influence of the wave of social radicalism of 1918–1923 and, finally, national issues as the causes of this phenomenon as the communists tried not to antagonize various mixed Silesian communities. In the Polish part of the region, the communist movement proved to be on the margins of social life, due to repression by the authorities, the difficult social situation, but also the persistently high level of national conflict.

• Out of the Sanation Frying Pan into the Stalinist Fire. Franciszek Józef Pityński (1897–1937) – Case Study

  Marcin Antczak

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 340-362

  Abstract

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  The article describes the fate of Franciszek Józef Pityński – a local activist of the Communist Party of Poland (Komunistyczna Partia Polski, KPP), secretary of the party’s Stare Miasto district in Łódź, where he moved from Ulanów, a town in the Polish Carpathian mountains. Pityński was involved in “class” (i.e. socialist) trade unions infiltrated by communists in the 1920s, and in the illegal subversive movement (he took the pseudonym “Karol”). In the ranks of the KPP, he took part in at least several subversive actions such as the Łódź tram drivers’ strike in 1932.

  After the turn the world communist movement took in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he became involved in the formation of the Trade Union of Factory and Workshop Workers of the Textile Industry, an organisation of an explicitly revolutionary nature, opposed to the socialist structures of the time. These actions, on the one hand, enabled Pityński to rise in the party hierarchy and, on the other, resulted in repression from the State Police. Between 1926 and 1928, Pityński was imprisoned in Łęczyca, while in 1932 the threat of arrest prompted him to flee via Gdańsk to the Soviet Union, where he was arrested a few years later and executed on suspicion of espionage. He thus shared the fate of thousands of victims of the Great Terror and the NKVD Polish Operation. He was only rehabilitated during perestroika.

• Communist Ideology, the Soviet Union and the Polish Cause in the Last Months of World War II (1944–1945) in the Light of Reports from Polish Diplomatic Missions in South America. Initial Research Reconnaissance

  Marcin Kruszyński

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 363-387

  Abstract

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  South America remained on the sidelines of the major events unfolding during World War II, and Poland’s relations with the its countries were similarly peripheral, so this text will not discuss issues of key importance to the Polish government-in-exile at the time. Nevertheless, it was considered a Polish diplomatic service’s duty to make the voice on the geopolitical position of the Second Polish Republic heard everywhere. In the final months of the war, the most important contacts proved to be those between Polish diplomats and various South American decision-makers to clarify issues such as communism, the Soviets, and Moscow’s actions in the territories of the Second Polish Republic, where the Red Army was entering.

• Rape, Theft, and Murder. The Attitude of the Red Army Towards Poles in Western Pomerania in 1945–1947

  Przemysław Benken

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 388-413

  Abstract

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  This article focuses on the crimes committed by Red Army soldiers against Poles in Western Pomerania between 1945 and 1947, with particular reference to Szczecin. The choice of such a timeframe is related to the occurrence that, in the period indicated, Soviet rapes, thefts and murders were particularly frequent – the greatest number of crimes were committed in Western Pomerania in 1945, and their significant decrease became noticeable only from mid-1947. For research purposes the communist security apparatus records stored in the Archives of the Institute of National Remembrance Branch in Szczecin were analysed as a valuable addition to the existing literature on the subject. In this respect they contain a significant volume of detailed information, as well as allowing for a complete analysis of Soviet crimes during the period of interest to the author. Published material from the Polish civilian administration was also consulted.

• The Role and Influence of the Polish Workers’ Party (PPR) and Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) Party Organisations on the Everyday Life of the Security Apparatus Officers on the example of the Lublin Voivodeship in 1944–1956

  Justyna Dudek

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 414-445

  Abstract

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  The article discusses the Polish Workers’ Party (Polska Partia Robotnicza, PPR) and Basic Party Organization (Podstawowa Organizacja Partyjna, POP) of the Polish United Workers’ Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR) party organ- izations in the Security Departments of the Lublin Voivodeship from 1944 to 1956. The author outlines the degree of the party’s share in the local security service staff, and indicates the most important areas of the security officers’ lives in which party cells interfered. Undoubtedly, the most important role of party organizations was to shape ideologically conscious functionaries – party members – who had a materialist worldview. They were mobilized for both political and general self-education and encouraged to read specific press and books. The party meetings also dealt with with marital problems and disciplinary matters. The functionaries themselves treated party meetings as an opportunity to solve their personal problems, e.g. they made demands to improve their housing situation. No less important was the management of leisure time of employees of the apparatus of repression through the organisation of cultural events (academies, lectures) and sports.

• The Bonds That Cannot Be Torn Apart: Discussions in the Party Organization in Department III of the Ministry of Internal Affairs During Post-Stalinist Reckonings and the Antisemitic Purges of 1968

  Konrad Rokicki

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 446-475

  Abstract

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  The Security Service (Służba Bezpieczeństwa, SB) was the political police of the Polish People’s Republic, and the majority of its officers were Communist Party members. In the beginning of its existence – after the October 1956 political upheaval – the SB was the direct successor of the stalinist Security Office’s (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa, UB) legacy. During several subsequent years, in the party organization existing in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and particularly in its Department III, factional struggles were fought between ‘dogmatists’ and supporters of change in the ministry. These became the most lively meetings of this party organization – but after the top-down silencing of disputes by the ministry’s leadership, routine returned with its rhythm being measured by training, lectures and periodic reports. The next period of renewed ‘agitation’ did not come until the antisemitic purges of 1967–1968, when it turned out that the “dogmatists” had not been completely silenced, and indeed the situation once again proved ripe for personal machinations, during which ardent ideological declarations were not of insignificant importance.

• Participation of the Office for Religious Affairs in the Preparation of the Draft Act of 31 January 1959 on Cemeteries and the Burial of the Deceased

  Marek Strzała

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 476-493

  Abstract

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  In 1958, work began on preparing a new cemetery law, which was to replace the interwar regulations. The Office for Religious Affairs of the Polish People’s Republic (Urząd do spraw Wyznań, UdsW) was involved in its drafting. The UdsW’s main demands were for increased state supervision of the administration of parish (or generally religious) cemeteries, an expansion of the powers of the UdsW itself, the compulsory acceptance by religious cemetery boards of burials in certain cases and the nationalisation of faith cemeteries. The final government bill submitted to the Sejm took into account most of the demands of the UdsW, especially those concerning the establishment by the state administration of the amount of fees accepted by the religious cemeteries boards, the participation of the UdsW in issuing decisions on the closure of a religious cemetery and on the permits for the use of cemetery land for other purposes before the expiry of the statutory term, the limitation of the obligation to accept the deceased for burial by the board of a religious cemetery to situations in which there was no municipal cemetery in a given locality, or a cemetery of another religion appropriate for the deceased. However, at the drafting stage, UdsW proposals to add a provision introducing general supervision of the administration of religious cemeteries by public administrations were rejected.

• August 1980 as a Catalyst for the Organisational and Ideological Crisis of Society for the Promotion of Secular Culture with Particular Reference to the South of Poland

  Bogusław Wójcik

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 494-516

  Abstract

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  The year 1980 stopped the worldview offensive of the Society for the Promotion of Secular Culture (Towarzystwo Krzewienia Kultury Świeckiej, TKKŚ), and forced its activists to move to the defence of the status quo. From the outbreak of the workers’ strikes and the signing of the August 1980 Agreements until the imposition of 1981 Martial Law, the association ceased to act in most workplaces and also limited its activities in schools. Many rank-and-file activists, succumbing to the public mood, withdrew from their previous activities, while others became involved in the internal discussion on the future of the TKKŚ, its place in society, its programme, structure and methods of operation. However, the changes in thinking associated with the Solidarity revolution made them realise the low effectiveness of their attempts to revive the association’s former “glory”. In the new political reality, it was impossible to hide the ideological nature of the views propagated by the TKKŚ or the degree of instrumentalisation of its activists by the decision-makers of the Polish United Workers’ Party.

Edycje źródłowe

• Echoes of the Death of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko in Serbian Émigré Periodical Naša reč

  Mateusz Sokulski

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 519-536

  Abstract

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  The text portrays the discussion within the Yugoslav democratic émigré community related to the trial of the murderers of Father Jerzy Popieluszko in 1984–1985. Leading émigré personalities, Desimir Tošić (editor-in-chief of the journal Naša reč) and Mihajlo Mihajlov, in the most important Yugoslav periodical published abroad, presented diametrically opposite views on the nature of the judicial proceedings in Poland. In doing so, they attempted to find common elements in the contemporary political trials in Yugoslavia and in the Polish People’s Republic.

Recenzje

• On the Present and the Future Through the Lens of History, with Communism in the Background. Review of the Series Polska a Europa Środkowo-Wschodnia w XX Wieku [Poland and Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th Century], ed. Przemysław Waingertner, vol. 1–4, University of Łódź Publishing House, Łódź– Warsaw 2020

  Artur Kuprianis

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 539-558

  Abstract

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  Review of the series „Polska a Europa Środkowo-Wschodnia w XX Wieku” ["Poland and Central and Eastern Europe in 20th century"], ed. Przemysław Waingertner, vols. 1–4, Łódź–Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, 2020.

• Zjazd Filmowy w Wiśle. Źródła, komentarze, opracowania [Film Convention in Wisła. Sources, Comments, and Studies], edited and compiled by Barbara Giza, Adam Wyżyński, Warsaw 2024, 528 pp. [Rev.]

  Andrzej Boboli

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 559-563

  Abstract

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  Review of the book Zjazd Filmowy w Wiśle. Źródła, komentarze, opracowania [Film Convention in Wisła. Sources, Comments, and Studies], eds. Barbara Giza, and Adam Wyżyński, Warsaw 2024, concerning I Film Convention in Wisła (17-20 November 1949).

In memoriam

• Professor Przemysław Waingertner (1969–2024)

  Artur Kuprianis

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 13 (2024), pages: 564-567

  Abstract

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  Obituary of Professor Przemysław Andrzej Waingertner (b. 5th February 1969, d. 31 January 2024), lecturer at the Institute of History, University of Łódź.