Język Polski
English
Zamieszki z udziałem junaków Powszechnej Organizacji „Służba Polsce” i ludności cywilnej w Szczecinie z 1 sierpnia 1948 r. w świetle materiałów źródłowych
Przegląd Archiwalny Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej, No. 11 (2018), pages: 229–246
Publication date: 2023-04-05
PDF (Język Polski)
Abstract
The year 1948 is considered by many historians as the beginning of “formal” Stalinism in Poland. After the first period of relative liberalization, under the cover of which the suppression of the political opposition and the independence underground movement was enforced, the communists put their cards on the table. In the revolutionary reconstruction a great deal of attention was devoted to the most promising, but at the same time eminently “unruly” social group – young people. In the Common Organization “Service to Poland” (SP) established on 25 February 1948, the authorities saw the convenient possibility of implementing several strategic goals. The process of imposing military organizational forms and bringing young people uprooted from their own environments into the barracks, was supposed to serve a homogeneous ideological upbringing thereof and to create the nucleus of future party recruits. Szczecin, lying in the Recovered Territories and in need of support in the fastest possible reconstruction, became a location where up to three PO (Common Organization) Brigades of the “SP” were stationed. The youngsters, by virtue of a political decision, were directed to implement the flagship municipal investments of that period. Incidents that took place in Szczecin on 1 August 1948 with their participation could not be of benefit to the communist authorities. They meant the total failure of the bolstered propaganda image of the “SP” as an organization of the unbreakable leaders of socialist work. Although it is difficult to find a political context in the genesis of the events described in the sources, the date of occurrence thereof was undoubtedly used to the advantage of propaganda.
