• Introduction

  Adam Dziuba, Sylwia Szyc

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 7-12

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Studia

• Reform in Exchange for Credit? Hungary and the International Financial Institutions in the 1980s Reformy w zamian za pożyczkę? Węgry i międzynarodowe instytucje finansowe w latach osiemdziesiątych XX w.

  Pál Germuska

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 15-44

  Abstract

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  Between January 1984 and May 1988, Hungary did not apply for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan, but continued to cooperate with the World Bank, which financed industrial restructuring and infrastructure development projects. In 1985–1986, with the assistance of the World Bank, a plan of measures (the so called “Matrix”) covering eleven areas was drawn up, which in many respects served as a guide to the economic reforms of the following years. The bankruptcy law, personal income tax, the reorganisation of the banking system, and the increase in working capital attraction were increasingly pointing outwards from the socialist system. This article shows the role of international financial institutions in shaping these reforms, and the tailoring of the proposed measures to Hungary and their impact on the Hungarian economy.

• Kádár Must Go Or a Close-up View of the May 1988 Party Meeting Kádár musi odejść, czyli spojrzenie z bliska na konferencję partyjną z maja 1988 r.

  Attila Apor

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 45-64

  Abstract

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  This paper investigates the final phase of Hungarian state socialism through the political transition of 1988, focusing on the removal of János Kádár during the May party conference. The study argues that Károly Grósz’s rise to power would not have been possible without the explicit support of the Soviet leadership, which sought to implement Gorbachev’s reformist agenda across the Eastern Bloc. Drawing on archival sources and contemporary accounts, the paper examines the decisive role of the Soviet Union in influencing Hungarian domestic politics, both directly and indirectly. Special attention is given to the interplay between Hungary’s deepening economic crisis, the internal divisions within the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, and the broader geopolitical shifts initiated by perestroika. The paper highlights the background of the 1988 party conference, the dynamics of the leadership change, and the strategic positioning of Grósz within the party hierarchy. The findings suggest that Kádár’s removal was driven not only by internal political pressures but also by Soviet geopolitical interests, marking an early step in the dismantling of the Socialist system in Hungary.

• The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and Its Response to the East German Refugee Crisis in 1989 Komunistyczna Partia Czechosłowacji i jej reakcja na kryzys uchodźczy w Niemczech Wschodnich w 1989 r.

  Tomáš Malínek

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 65-85

  Abstract

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  After the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, Czechoslovakia became an important transit country for East German refugees. This was even more important in the 1970s and 1980s, when Czechoslovakia was one of the few countries in the world where GDR citizens could travel without limits. The second important factor was the opening of the West German embassy in Prague in 1973/1974. The office was located in the historical centre of Prague and was easily accessible. It is no wonder that it became a very popular destination for GDR citizens who wanted to emigrate to the FRG. In 1984–1985, Prague experienced the first major East German refugee crisis. The refugees hoped for a quick departure to the FRG. However, such expectations were completely unrealistic. Without the consent of the East German government, the Czechoslovak authorities would not allow it. The refugees had to accept a compromise, return to the GDR and apply for legal emigration. On the other hand, no one was punished for attempting to escape. In terms of refugee numbers, 1989 was a very different story. In 1984–1985, hundreds of people came to Prague, in 1989 it was tens of thousands. Some of them were transported to the FRG by trains passing through the territory of the GDR. Later, the East German government allowed them to travel directly from Prague to the FRG. Initially, the Czechoslovak communists remained loyal allies of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). Some of them truly believed that the refugee crisis was provoked by the West German government in order to damage the GDR. On the other hand, it is also true, that the Communist Part of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) always considered the refugee crisis to be rather an inter-German than a Czechoslovak problem. The situation changed significantly at the beginning of November 1989. The leadership of the KSČ began to fear that the East German refugees and the domestic political opposition would join forces to organize some kind of anti-government riots. At this moment, the solidarity between Prague and East Berlin broke down.

• Too Little – Too Late: The Period of Reconstruction in Czechoslovakia Through the Lens of the Documents of the Communist Party of Slovakia Za mało i za późno. Okres „przebudowy” w Czechosłowacji w świetle dokumentacji Komunistycznej Partii Słowacji

  Martin Halmo

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 86-133

  Abstract

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  This study examines selected aspects of ‘reconstruction’ in Czechoslovakia (Slovak: prestavba; Czech: přestavba), with a particular emphasis on developments in Slovakia. The analysis primarily draws on documents from the Communist Party of Slovakia, allowing us to present its activities in the second half of the 1980s. The period of ‘reconstruction’ was the final phase of Communist regimes in the Eastern Bloc before their collapse. This process was a response to the changing international political situation, which necessitated reforms in the planned economy. The reform efforts in the Soviet Union, known as glasnost and perestroika, also influenced Czechoslovakia. While recognizing the country’s economic difficulties, Czechoslovak Communists could not overlook the parallels between ‘reconstruction’ and the 1968 Prague Spring. As a result, they focused their ‘reconstruction’ efforts on economic reforms while rejecting political changes leading to pluralization and democratization. Unlike in Poland and Hungary, they had no intention of engaging in dialogue with the opposition. The party implemented only the necessary personnel changes, aimed at replacing the most compromised officials.

• Intellectuals as the Opposition in Slovenia in the 1980s Intelektualiści jako opozycja w Słowenii w latach osiemdziesiątych XX w.

  Aleš Gabrič

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 134-157

  Abstract

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  In the search for a way out of the 1980s crisis, there were differences both between the leaders of the six Yugoslav republics, and between the authorities and their intellectual critics. In Slovenia, public criticism of the authorities emerged in the punk subculture, in magazines, books and films. Since 1982, open letters and petitions with signatures were published in newspapers, proposing changes to certain laws. Some new social movements found support in the youth organization (Union of Socialist Youth of Slovenia) and in the Slovenian Writers’ Association, so that the activities did not take place in illegal forums. In January 1985, intellectuals and people from the state structures debated both cultural and clearly political issues on a public platform for the first time. Since, in the opinion of Slovenian intellectuals, the League of Communists of Slovenia did not react strongly enough to the centralist pressure from Belgrade, they themselves organized a public tribunal on constitutional changes (1987) and the need for a new Slovenian constitution (1988). Since the Slovenian authorities did not prevent this kind of activity by the Slovenian intellectual opposition, it was criticized by other Yugoslav republics for allegedly supporting “counter-revolutionary” forces and “separatists.”

• The Network of Illegal Agents of the Polish People’s Republic Military Intelligence “in the French Section” during the Cold War

  Anna Jackowska

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 158-191

  Abstract

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  The aim of this study is to present the functioning of a key ‘illegal’ (i.e. working without diplomatic cover) agent network of the military intelligence of the Polish People’s Republic in France during the Cold War. Its origins date back to 1945, when its most important member (both an agent and a resident), Hermann Bertelé, was recruited. After a few years, Bertelé himself began recruiting officers of the French army. The foundation of the new and most important agent network was a group of officers recruited in 1953. When Bertelé was arrested in 1959 as a result of being compromised, a decision was taken to suspend cooperation with the remaining agents, and when an attempt was made to resume it in the first half of the 1960s, it turned out that several members of the network had in the meantime been taken over by the Soviet GRU. This caused tensions between the leadership of the Polish Army General Staff Second Directorate and the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) command. After joint consultations and deliberations, a compromise was reached in 1966, which enabled Polish Communist military intelligence to regain access to the agents and their information. Cooperation was suspended again in 1977, this time due to the exposure of the Main Intelligence Directorate agent network led by Georges Beaufils. The activities of the former network were never fully resumed, but the case was not formally closed until 1990.

• Cubans in Angola Against the Backdrop of Cuba’s Presence in Africa: From Ernesto “Che” Guevara to Arnaldo Ochoa Sánchez

  Krzysztof Kubiak

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 192-222

  Abstract

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  This article examines Cuba’s military involvement in Africa in the years 1965–2002. The author presents the findings that have been made to date by researchers and have been discussed in international literature, taking into account the key fact that Cuban archives remain inaccessible, while access to Soviet materials, even during the ‘Yeltsin thaw’, was selective and limited. He explores the ideological and political origins of the decision to send troops first to Algeria and later to other African countries. The largest-scale intervention took place in Angola, beginning in 1975 and ending in 2022. The article outlines the international context of these events — particularly the relations between Angola, Cuba, and the Soviet Union — their internal circumstances, as well as the overall chronology of Cuba’s wars in Africa. The author argues that the events described represent a textbook example of ‘ideological madness’ characteristic of the ruling circles of many communist dictatorships and that, in the case of Cuba, this tendency was further exacerbated by specific historical conditions, including a particular style of leadership — the so-called caudillismo — and the personality traits of its leader.

• “The Reality of Vietnam Is Full of Paradoxes....”: The Escalation of the Vietnam War in 1965 in the Light of Confidential Reports by Polish Press Correspondents

  Jarema Słowiak

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 223-247

  Abstract

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  In March 1965, the Vietnam War escalated — American air raids on North Vietnam began as part of Operation Rolling Thunder, and the first regular US military units landed in South Vietnam. The developments were followed with concern in Warsaw, as the leadership of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) feared that the local conflict might turn into a global war. At the turn of March and April 1965, two Polish journalists, Stanisław Barteczko and Daniel Luliński, were staying in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. They prepared secret reports for the highest authorities of the Polish United Workers’ Party, describing the internal situation in the country and the effects of the first few weeks of American air raids. Today, these documents constitute a valuable source of information on the internal situation in North Vietnam in the early stages of the confrontation with the United States. Although they present a Communist perspective, they contain considerably less propaganda than most of the accounts and descriptions produced by North Vietnam’s allies and the Vietnamese themselves.

• The Image of the Polish Anti-Communist Underground in the Wiadomości Mazurskie, 1945–1947

  Waldemar Brenda

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 248-280

  Abstract

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  The study analyzes press propaganda in Warmia and Mazury (Masuria) and the image of the anti-Communist underground as presented in Wiadomości Mazurskie between 1945 and 1947. The newspaper was the official daily of the Voivodeship Office of Information and Propaganda in Olsztyn and, after the closure of the agrarian movement’s newspaper Głos Ziemi, became virtually the only regional periodical. Among its contributors were persons associated with the wartime underground movement (1939–1945) as well as those active in the underground structures of the “Wolność i Niezawisłość” movement in Olsztyn. The image of the anti-Communist underground constructed in the newspaper was distinctly negative, with particular emphasis placed on the black legend of the National Armed Forces (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne, NSZ). The article discusses the language of press propaganda at the time and presents specific examples of manipulation and falsehoods. A considerable part of the material on the underground movement published in the periodical was based on official messages passed on from Warsaw.

• The Image of the “Enemy” in Party Training Sessions during the Stalinist Period (1948–1956)

  Sebastian Drabik

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 281-302

  Abstract

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  Party training between 1948 and 1956 was one of the most important instruments of ideological indoctrination for members of the Polish United Workers’ Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR). The image of the ‘enemy’ conveyed during these sessions held particular significance. The party authorities determined who or what was regarded as hostile. This was based on Soviet models, in particular on the content of History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks): Short Course by Joseph Stalin. As a result, both individual political opponents and entire social groups (the clergy, wealthier peasants, townspeople, etc.) were regarded as enemies of the ‘people’s power’ and the party. Efforts were made to dehumanize opponents of the Communist Party, and party ‘newspeak’ was used for this purpose. Although, in theory, most members of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) were covered by the training, its intellectual level and organizational quality remained low. The promotion of the concept of the ‘enemy’ served to consolidate Communist power. In 1956, certain elements of the training changed, yet the concept of the ‘enemy’ continued to play an important role.

• “Class Enemy and Warmonger” – Repression Against People Considered “Kulaks” During the Collectivisation of the Countryside in Central Pomerania in 1948–1956

  Adam Czarnecki

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 303-336

  Abstract

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  In 1948, under pressure from the USSR and contrary to earlier declarations, the Communist authorities in Poland decided to implement the collectivization of agriculture. The new agricultural policy was met with social resistance, which the Communists sought to suppress through state fiscalism, the security apparatus, and the courts. The greatest opponents of the planned transformations were identified as the so-called ‘kulaks,’ i.e. wealthy farmers profiting from the labor of hired workers. Since there was no legal definition of the term ‘kulak,’ it could be applied arbitrarily to almost anyone who opposed the changes, resulting in their marginalization and exclusion from the socio-economic life of the countryside. The aim of this study is to present the course and nature of the repression used against this social group during the collectivization of agriculture in 1948–1956, on the example of Central Pomerania — a region with a specific ethnic composition compared to the rest of the country (settlers from the former Eastern Borderlands of the Second Polish Republic and numerous representatives of the Ukrainian and German minorities).

• “Patriotic Priests” as a Tool for Fighting the Catholic Church and Legitimising Communist Rule in the Poznań Voivodeship Between 1950 and 1955: An Outline of the Problem

  Robert Kolasa

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 337-367

  Abstract

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  This study seeks to describe the activities of the ‘patriotic priests’ movement in the Poznań Voivodeship in 1950–1955. Officially, this organization operated under the banner of the Societies of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy (Związek Bojowników o Wolność i Demokrację, ZBoWiD) Priests’ Commission. The text outlines the establishment of the organizational structures of the District Priests’ Commission in Poznań and their transformations in the successive years of its operation. Although formally a veterans’ organization, the Communist authorities, acting through the security apparatus, turned it into a tool for fighting the Catholic Church. Pro-regime clergy were also used in numerous campaigns aimed at legitimizing the Communist dictatorship – including various activities for world peace (such as the Stockholm Appeal), the integration of the Western and Northern Territories, and participation in elections to the Sejm of the Polish People’s Republic and to national councils. Due to the lack of results in the struggle against the Church hierarchy and the limited influence the Priests’ Commission exerted over the clergy as a whole, the movement was disbanded in the summer of 1955 by order of the secular authorities.

• Examples of Censorship in Głos Olsztyński in 1951–1956: Contexts

  Wojciech Kosiewicz

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 368-390

  Abstract

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  In 1951, Głos Olsztyński, the press organ of the Provincial Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party in Olsztyn, began publication. Between 1951 and 1956 – that is, from the newspaper’s inception until the 1956 October Thaw, when the role of censorship underwent certain changes – the newspaper was censored by a dozen or so employees of the Voivodeship Office for the Control of Press, Publications and Performances in Olsztyn. The aim of this study is to explain the challenges that Stalinism posed for censors, which texts were interfered with and to what extent, what readers saw after the changes and what they were not allowed to see, as well as to show the political context of the publications.

• Comrade Mao’s “Paper Tiger”: The Chinese People’s Liberation Army as Assessed by the Military Attaché at the Embassy of the Polish People’s Republic in Beijing at the Turn of the 1960s and 1970s

  Przemysław Benken

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 391-423

  Abstract

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  The study analyzes the image of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the information reports prepared by the Military Attaché at the Embassy of the Polish People’s Republic in Beijing and sent at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s to the of General Staff of the Polish Army Directorate’s II Military Attaché Department. The assumed timeframe made it possible to focus on the combat potential of the PLA in the period of its greatest influence on the political situation in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its deepest involvement in the Cultural Revolution, as well as on the heightened tensions in Sino-Soviet relations. An analysis of the records shows that as early as the beginning of the 1970s, the PLA had embarked on a long and difficult process of emerging from the crisis resulting from the previous Communist rule in China. This process involved technical modernization and doctrinal changes departing from the concept of people’s war, the elimination of excessive military influence on the PRC’s socio-political system, and, consequently, the reduction of the PLA’s role to a strictly military one.

Varia

• Personnel Policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1981–1983 from the Perspective of the Security Apparatus

  Paweł Skubisz

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 427-464

  Abstract

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  The aim of this study is to outline the course of the personnel review at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1981–1983, conducted under martial law. It formed part of the repressive measures against officials and represented an attempt to reorganize personnel policy within the diplomatic service. The text highlights the relations between the security apparatus and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the internal tensions between representatives of the Polish People’s Republic military and civilian intelligence services – namely between the Polish Army General Staff Directorate II and the Ministry of Internal Affairs Department I. At the heart of the dispute was the question of control over this strategic ministry within the structure of the Polish People’s Republic government administration, which also served — as a cover institution for Communist intelligence officers — as the basis for conducting foreign covert operations.

• Niezależne Zrzeszenie Studentów (Independent Students’ Association) and Political Transformation in Poland: The Case of the Academic Community in Opole, 1988–1990

  Zbigniew Bereszyński

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 465-490

  Abstract

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  In October 1980, the first structures of the Independent Students’ Association (Niezależne Zrzeszenie Studentów, NZS) were established by students of the Wyższa Szkoła Inżynierska (Higher School of Engineering) and the Wyższa Szkoła Pedagogiczna (Higher School of Pedagogy) in Opole, but their activity was interrupted by the introduction of martial law in December 1981. Subsequently, some members of the NZS engaged in underground activity, including initiatives carried out under the banner of the Academic Resistance Movement (Akademicki Ruch Oporu), while others sought to participate in the legal structures of official student self-government. The organizational and personnel continuity of the Opole NZS structures was definitively broken in the mid-1980s as a result of the 1985 amendment to the Higher Education Act, which significantly curtailed the powers of student self-government, and with the graduation of the last members of the 1980–1981 association. The association was revived only at the turn of 1988 and 1989, in parallel with the reconstruction of the openly functioning structures of the Solidarity trade union. NZS members took an active part in the campaign preceding the elections to the Sejm and Senate of the Polish People’s Republic on 4 June 1989 and contributed significantly to the spectacular success of the Solidarity candidates.

Recenzje

• Polish Veterans of the “First Clash against Fascism” Review of the Collection of Studies Dąbrowszczacy i wojna domowa w Hiszpanii. Kontekst międzynarodowy – późniejsze losy – spory o pamięć [The 13th Jarosław Dąbrowski International Brigade and the Spanish Civil War. International Context – Later Fates – Remembrance Disputes], ed. Daniel Czerwiński, Gdańsk–Warsaw: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, 2025, 464 pp.

  Marcin Libor

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 493-502

  Abstract

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  The author reviews the collective publication Dąbrowszczacy i wojna domowa w Hiszpanii. Kontekst międzynarodowy – późniejsze losy – spory o pamięć [The Dąbrowski Brigade and the Spanish Civil War. International context – later fate – disputes over memory], edited by Daniel Czerwiński. The authors of the chapters address a wide range of issues, such as the persecution of the Roman Catholic Church, the struggle of the Ukrainian minority in the Spanish Civil War, the fate of Michał Bron, and the cult of the Dąbrowszczacy in “People’s” Poland. The reviewer appreciates the diversity of the topics discussed, while pointing out a few errors and shortcomings.

• Review: Tadeusz Czekalski, Brzemię tożsamości. Kościoły prawosławne na Bałkanach w polityce państw komunistycznych w latach 1944–1990, Cracow: Towarzystwo Wydawnicze “Historia Iagellonica”, 2024, 340 pp.

  Mateusz Sokulski

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 503-516

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• Review: Andre Schmid, North Korea’s Mundane Revolution: Socialist Living and the Rise of Kim Il Sung, 1953–1965, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2024, 352 pp.

  Sylwia Szyc

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 517-522

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Stan badań

• The State of Research on the History of the Communist Apparatus of Repression in 2014–2023: Part 1: 2014–2018

  Filip Musiał

  Komunizm: system-ludzie-dokumentacja, No. 14 (2025), pages: 525-604

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