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Polish Communists
Communism in Poland can trace its origins to the late 19th century: the Marxist First Proletariat party was founded in 1882. Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (''Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego i Litwy'', SDKPiL) party and the publicist Stanisław Brzozowski (1878–1911) were important early Polish Marxists. During the interwar period in the Second Polish Republic, some socialists formed the Communist Party of Poland (''Komunistyczna Partia Polski'', KPP). Most of the KPP's leaders and activists perished in the Soviet Union during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge in the 1930s, and the party was abolished by the Communist International (Comintern) in 1938. Second World War In 1939, World War II began and Poland was conquered by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The government of the Polish Republic went into exile. In 1942, Polish communists backed by the Soviet Union in German-occupied Poland established a new P ...
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Occupation Of Poland (1939–1945)
During World War II, Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union following the invasion in September 1939, and it was formally concluded with the defeat of Germany by the Allies in May 1945. Throughout the entire course of the occupation, the territory of Poland was divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (USSR), both of which intended to eradicate Poland's culture and subjugate its people. In the summer-autumn of 1941, the lands which were annexed by the Soviets were overrun by Germany in the course of the initially successful German attack on the USSR. After a few years of fighting, the Red Army drove the German forces out of the USSR and crossed into Poland from the rest of Central and Eastern Europe. Sociologist Tadeusz Piotrowski argues that both occupying powers were hostile to the existence of Poland's sovereignty, people, and the culture and aimed to destroy them. Before Operation Barbarossa, Germany and the Soviet Union coordinated th ...
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On The Cult Of Personality And Its Consequences
"On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" () was a report by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, made to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on 25 February 1956. Popularly known as the Secret Speech (), this is something of a misnomer, as copies of the speech were read out at thousands of meetings of Communist Party and Komsomol organisations across the country. Khrushchev's speech was sharply critical of the rule of the deceased General Secretary and Premier Joseph Stalin, particularly with respect to the purges which had especially marked the last years of the 1930s. Khrushchev charged Stalin with having fostered a leadership cult of personality despite ostensibly maintaining support for the ideals of communism. The speech was shocking in its day. There are reports that some of those present suffered heart attacks and that the speech even inspired suicides, due to the shock of all o ...
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1947 Polish Parliamentary Election
Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 19 January 1947,Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1491 the first since World War II. According to the official results, the Democratic Bloc (''Blok Demokratyczny''), dominated by the communist Polish Workers Party (PPR) and also including the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), People's Party (SL), Democratic Party (SD) and non-partisan candidates officially received 80% of the vote and 394 of the 444 seats in the Legislative Sejm. The largest opposition party, the Polish People's Party, was officially credited with 28 seats. However, the elections were characterized by violence; anti-communist opposition candidates and activists were persecuted by the Volunteer Reserve Militia (ORMO). The elections were heavily manipulated, and the opposition claimed that it would have won in a landslide had the election been conducted in a fair manner.Janusz Wrona (ed.), ''Kampania wyborcza i wybory do S ...
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August Hlond
August Hlond, SDB (5 July 1881 – 22 October 1948) was a Polish Salesian prelate who served as Archbishop of Poznań and Gniezno and as Primate of Poland. He was later appointed Archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw and was made a cardinal of the Catholic Church by Pope Pius XI in 1927. He was the only member of the College of Cardinals to be arrested and taken into custody by the Gestapo during World War II, and for the final years of his life was a critic of the Soviet-backed communist regime in Poland. His cause of beatification commenced in 1992 and he was granted the title Servant of God. On 19 May 2018, he was named venerable after Pope Francis confirmed his heroic virtue. Early life and ordination Second son of a railway worker, he was born in the Upper Silesian village Brzęczkowice (), then ruled by Germany, now part of Mysłowice (), on 5 July 1881. At twelve-years-of-age, Hlond went to Turin, Italy to study for the priesthood in the Salesian Congregation. He l ...
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Polonization
Polonization or Polonisation ()In Polish historiography, particularly pre-WWII (e.g., L. Wasilewski. As noted in Смалянчук А. Ф. (Smalyanchuk 2001) Паміж краёвасцю і нацыянальнай ідэяй. Польскі рух на беларускіх і літоўскіх землях. 1864–1917 г. / Пад рэд. С. Куль-Сяльверставай. – Гродна: ГрДУ, 2001. – 322 с. (2004). Pp.24, 28.), an additional distinction between the Polonization () and self-Polonization () has been being made, however, most modern Polish researchers do not use the term ''polszczenie się''. is the acquisition or imposition of elements of Polish culture, in particular the Polish language. This happened in some historic periods among non-Polish populations in territories controlled by or substantially under the influence of Poland. Like other examples of cultural assimilation, Polonization could be either voluntary or forced. It was most vis ...
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Land Reform
Land reform (also known as agrarian reform) involves the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership, land use, and land transfers. The reforms may be initiated by governments, by interested groups, or by revolution. Land reform is often considered a contentious process, as land is a key driver of a wide range of social, political and economic outcomes. The structure and distribution of land rights has been linked to state formation, economic growth, inequality, political violence, and identity politics, making land reform highly consequential for the long-term structures of society. Overview Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural land. Land reform can, therefore, refer to transfer of ownership from the more powerful to the less powerful, such as from a relatively small number of wealthy or noble owners with extensive land holdings (e.g., plantations, large ranches, or ...
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Polish United Workers' Party
The Polish United Workers' Party (, ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other legally permitted subordinate minor parties together as the Front of National Unity and later Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth. Ideologically, it was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism, with a strong emphasis on left-wing nationalism. The Polish United Workers' Party had total control over public institutions in the country as well as the Polish People's Army, the UB and SB security agencies, the Citizens' Militia (MO) police force and the media. The falsified 1947 Polish legislative election granted the Communist Polish Workers' Party (PPR) complete political authority in post- war Poland. The PZPR was founded forthwith in December 1948 through the unification of the PPR and the Polish Socialist Party (PPS). From 1952 onward, the position of "First Secretary ...
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Polish Socialist Party
The Polish Socialist Party (, PPS) is a democratic socialist political party in Poland. It was one of the most significant parties in Poland from its founding in 1892 until its forced merger with the communist Polish Workers' Party to form the Polish United Workers' Party in 1948. Józef Piłsudski, founder of the Second Polish Republic, was a member of and later led the PPS in the early 20th century. The party was re-established in 1987, near the end of the Polish People's Republic. However, it remained on the margins of Polish politics until 2019, when it won a seat in the Senate of Poland. History The Polish Socialist Party (PPS) was founded in Paris in 1892, during the period known as the Great Emigration. In 1893, a faction called the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) split from the PPS. The PPS focused more on nationalism and Polish independence, while the SDKPiL adopted a far-left (Marxist), internationalist stance. In November 1892, ...
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Polish People's Republic
The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million near the end of its existence, it was the second most-populous communist government, communist and Eastern Bloc country in Europe. It was also where the Warsaw Pact was founded. The largest city and capital was Warsaw, followed by the industrial city of Łódź and cultural city of Kraków. The country was bordered by the Baltic Sea to the north, the Soviet Union to the east, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Czechoslovakia to the south, and East Germany to the west. The Polish People's Republic was a unitary state with a Marxist–Leninist government established in the country after the Red Army's takeover of Polish territory from Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), German occupation in ...
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Socialist State
A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country is a sovereign state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. This article is about states that refer to themselves as socialist states, and not specifically about communist states that refer to themselves as socialist states. It includes information on liberal democratic states with constitutional references to socialism as well as other state formations that have referred to themselves as socialist. Overview Constitutional references to socialism A number of countries make references to socialism in their constitutions that are not single-party states embracing Marxism–Leninism and planned economies. In most cases, these are constitutional references to the building of a socialist society and political principles that have little to no bearing on the structure and guidance of these country's machinery of government and economic system. The preamble to the 1976 Constitution of Po ...
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Union Of Polish Patriots
Union of Polish Patriots (''Society of Polish Patriots'', , ZPP, ) was a political body created by Polish communists in the Soviet Union in 1943. The ZPP, unofficially controlled and directed by Joseph Stalin, became one of the founding structures of the Soviet-controlled communist government that after World War II took power in Poland. The ZPP was a mass organization with about 100,000 members (Polish citizens in the Soviet Union, mostly war refugees and Soviet deportees left after the departure of Anders' Army). It was dominated by former members of the Communist Party of Poland, in particular people from the Central Bureau Communists of Poland, which was established after the ZPP and also operated in the Soviet Union. The ZPP included activists of many political orientations. During World War II, there were about 1,500 declared Polish communists in the Soviet Union.Andrzej Werblan, Szkice i polemiki ketches and polemics p. 168, published in 1970 by Książka i Wiedza, Wa ...
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