The Polish United Workers' Party (Polish: Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza [ˈpɔlska zjɛdnɔˈt͡ʂɔna ˈpartja rɔbɔtˈɲit͡ʂa], 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. 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" of the Polish United Workers' Party was de facto equivalent to Poland's head of state. Throughout its existence, the PZPR maintained close ties with ideologically similar parties of the Eastern Bloc, most notably the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Between 1948 and 1954, nearly 1.5 million individuals registered as Polish United Workers' Party members, and membership rose to 3 million by 1980.
Ideologically, the party was based on the theories of Marxism–Leninism, with a strong emphasis on left-wing nationalism. It was also described as a "hybrid populist party that combined (nativist) right-wing and (economic) left-wing ideology". Later, in 1988–1989 some factions of the party adopted milder democratic socialism, which was seen as the impact of the perestroika in the neighbouring Soviet Union. Its primary objective was to impose socialist agenda unto Polish society. The communist government sought to nationalize all institutions. Some concepts imported from abroad, such as large-scale collective farming and secularization, failed in their early stages. The PZPR was considered more liberal and pro-Western than its counterparts in East Germany or the Soviet Union, and was more averse to radical politics. Although propaganda was utilized in major media outlets like Trybuna Ludu (lit. 'People's Tribune') and televised Dziennik ('Journal'), censorship became ineffective by the mid-1980s and was gradually abolished. On the other hand, the Polish United Worker's Party was responsible for the pacification of civil resistance and protesters in the Poznań protests of 1956, the 1970 Polish protests and throughout martial law between 1981 and 1983. The PZPR also initiated an antisemitic campaign during the 1968 Polish political crisis, which forced the remainder of Poland's Jews to emigrate.
Amidst the ongoing political and economic crises, the Solidarity movement emerged as a major anti-bureaucratic social movement that pursued social change. With communist rule being relaxed in neighbouring countries, the PZPR systematically lost support and was forced to negotiate with the opposition and adhere to the Polish Round Table Agreement, which permitted free democratic elections. The elections on 4 June 1989 proved victorious for Solidarity, thus bringing 40-year communist rule in Poland to an end. The Polish United Workers' Party was dissolved in January 1990 and was succeeded by Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland along with several parties claiming the legacy of the PZPR. Though the SdRP performed modestly in elections, it was later merged into the Democratic Left Alliance in 1999; and turn became part of the New Left coalition in 2021.
Contents
Programme and goals
Until 1989, the PZPR held dictatorial powers (the amendment to the constitution of 1976 mentioned "a leading national force") and controlled an unwieldy bureaucracy, the military, the secret police, and the economy.
Its main goal was to create a Communist society and help to propagate Communism all over the world. On paper, the party was organised on the basis of democratic centralism, which assumed a democratic appointment of authorities, making decisions, and managing its activity. These authorities decided about the policy and composition of the main organs; although, according to the statute, it was a responsibility of the members of the congress, which was held every five or six years. Between sessions, the regional, county, district and work committees held party conferences. The smallest organizational unit of the PZPR was the Fundamental Party Organization (FPO), which functioned in workplaces, schools, cultural institutions, etc.
The main part in the PZPR was played by professional politicians, or the so-called "party's hardcore", formed by people who were recommended to manage the main state institutions, social organizations, and trade unions. The crowning time of the PZPR development (the end of the 1970s) consisted of over 3.5 million members. The Political Office of the Central Committee, Secretariat and regional committees appointed the key posts within the party and in all organizations having 'state' in its name – from central offices to even small state and cooperative companies. It was called the nomenklatura system of state and economy management. In certain areas of the economy, e.g., in agriculture, the nomenklatura system was controlled with the approval of the PZPR and by its allied parties, the United People's Party (agriculture and food production), and the Democratic Party (trade community, small enterprise, some cooperatives). After martial law began, the Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth was founded to organize these and other parties.
PZPR was regarded as a socially conservative and national communist movement. Political scientist Gerald M. Easter argues that ever since Władysław Gomułka came to power in 1956 and introduced his "Polish road to socialism", the PZPR abandoned any ambition to transform the Polish culture or society, opting instead to preserve traditional values. Polish communists rejected the communist ideal of a radical change in social norms, family and interpersonal relations; Gomułka abandoned collectivization of the agriculture and instead "re-enshrined the family" and "traditional peasant villages". Female tractors drivers, infamous in the 1940s, disappeared in favor of laws that banned women from 'masculine' jobs. Welfare and childcare funding patterns were also changed to encourage return to traditional nurting roles for women, including pushing grandmothers to retire early. Polish communists "stopped trying to create an internationalist, cosmopolitan, socialist subjects" and instead became "national, even nationalistic". This became particularly prominent after the rise of the Endo-Communist Partisans faction to power in the 1960s. Socialist Poland promoted the red-and-white Polish flag while sideling the communist red one, and stressed its national character, always discussing "Polish proletariat" or "Polish communism" in its declarations. According to Easter, the PZPR "glorified ethno-national homogeneity, resurrecting old stories about national martyrdom in the struggle for independence" and promoted "hatred towards foreigners, particularly Germans and Jews". This also led to the members of the Endecja movement collaborating with the communists and attaining prominent positions within the state apparatus. Writing on the fall of the PZPR, Easter wrote:
History
Establishment and Sovietization period
On 14 December 1948, the 2nd Congress of the PPR and the 28th Congress of the PPS were held simultaneously, at which the decision was made to unite both parties. The Polish United Workers' Party was established at the unification congress of the Communist Polish Workers' Party and the Polish Socialist Party during meetings held at the main building of the Warsaw University of Technology from 15 to 21 December 1948. The unification was possible because the PPS had effectively been taken over by pro-Communist fellow travelers, and the activists who opposed unification had been forced out of the party. Similarly, the members of the PPR who were accused of "rightist–nationalist deviation" (Polish: odchylenie prawicowo-nacjonalistyczne) were expelled. Thus, the merger was actually an absorption of the PPS by the PPR, resulting in what was a renamed and enlarged PPR for all intents and purposes.
The new party included about 1 million members of the PPR and about 0.5 million members of the PPS. The highest positions in the party were taken by members of the PPR. The Political Bureau established during the Unification Congress included: Bierut, Jakub Berman, Józef Cyrankiewicz, Hilary Minc, Stanisław Radkiewicz, Adam Rapacki, Marian Spychalski, Henryk Świątkowski, Roman Zambrowski and Aleksander Zawadzki. All of them - in accordance with the Soviet model - held high positions in the state apparatus at the same time.
"Rightist-nationalist deviation" was a political propaganda term used by the Polish Stalinists against prominent activists, such as Władysław Gomułka and Marian Spychalski who opposed Soviet involvement in the Polish internal affairs, as well as internationalism displayed by the creation of the Cominform and the subsequent merger that created the PZPR. It is believed that it was Joseph Stalin who put pressure on Bolesław Bierut and Jakub Berman to remove Gomułka and Spychalski as well as their followers from power in 1948. It is estimated that over 25% of socialists were removed from power or expelled from political life.
On 20–21 April 1949, a plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party was held, devoted to matters of culture and science. Party apparatchiks demanded a bold "ideological offensive", i.e. the introduction of socialist realism to culture. In this way, the direction of action already imposed on the writers during the January congress in Szczecin was continued. Alongside Jerzy Albrecht and Jerzy Putrament - the main speakers pointing to the need to popularize socialist realism - Henryk Jabłoński appeared, criticizing the state of history teaching at universities.
Gomułka's autarchic communism
On 20 March 1956, shortly after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the VI Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party was held, during which the memory of Bolesław Bierut was honored. Jerzy Albrecht and Edward Gierek were co-opted as secretaries of the Central Committee. In the fight for the election of Bierut's successor, the PZPR leadership split into two factions, dubbed Natolinians and Puławians. The Natolin faction – named after the place where its meetings took place, in a government villa in Natolin – were against the post-Stalinist liberalization programs (Gomułka thaw). The most well known members included Franciszek Jóźwiak, Wiktor Kłosiewicz, Zenon Nowak, Aleksander Zawadzki, Władysław Dworakowski, Hilary Chełchowski.
The Puławian faction – the name comes from the Puławska Street in Warsaw, on which many of the members lived – sought great liberalization of socialism in Poland. After the events of Poznań June, they successfully backed the candidature of Władysław Gomułka for First Secretary of party, thus imposing a major setback upon Natolinians. Among the most prominent members were Roman Zambrowski and Leon Kasman. Both factions disappeared towards the end of the 1950s.
During the plenum, the "Natolinians" candidate for the position of First Secretary was Zenon Nowak, who gained Khrushchev's favor. In turn, the Puławians put forward Roman Zambrowski. Ultimately, because none of the cliques was strong enough to take over full power, an amicable resolution of the dispute was reached. The centrist Edward Ochab, who enjoyed the full trust of the Kremlin, was elected First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party.
On 18–28 July 1956, during the 7th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, the Natolinians and the Puławy faction clashed again. The former saw the 1956 Poznań protests as an agent-like and counter-revolutionary action. The Pulawians saw it as a mass protest of an economic nature. The balance of power between the cliques meant that an absurd formula was finally adopted, in which two trends were distinguished in the Poznań protests: a broad, peaceful, mainly workers', which organized a strike and protest march, and a narrower, rebellious, which took up armed struggle. At the same time, mass rallies were ordered, during which party activists were to condemn the Poznań protests. The meetings – against the will of the party leaders – became a forum for discussions on the terrible material situation, shortages of basic food products and other topics.
Gierek's rule
In the late 1960s, Edward Gierek had created a personal power base and become the recognized leader of the young technocrat faction of the party. When rioting over economic conditions broke out in late 1970, Gierek replaced Gomułka as party first secretary. Gierek promised economic reform and instituted a program to modernize industry and increase the availability of consumer goods, doing so mostly through foreign loans. His good relations with Western politicians, especially France's Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and West Germany's Helmut Schmidt, were a catalyst for his receiving western aid and loans.
On 6–11 December 1971, the 6th Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party was held (for the first time the television broadcast of its proceedings took place using color broadcasting), attended by 1,804 delegates representing a million members of communist parties. Delegations from 70 such parties arrived. During the congress the program of "dynamic development" and "building socialism in Poland" was adopted. At the same time, a generational change took place in the authorities of the Polish United Workers' Party. The old generation, active in the period of the Second Polish Republic in the Communist Party of Poland and later in the Polish Workers' Party, died. The positions were taken by "youth" who began their careers in the Stalinist Union of Polish Youth. Unable to refer to the condemned times of Gomułka, they reached for the tradition of the fifties, glorifying people from that period such as Bierut and Rokosowski, a situation which led to the decade of the seventies being sometimes called "Stalinism without terror". Gierek strengthened his position by filling the Political Bureau with his supporters. Besides himself, Edward Babiuch, Henryk Jablonski, Mieczyslaw Jagielski, Jaroszewicz, Jaruzelski, Wladyslaw Kruczek, Stefan Olszowski, Franciszek Szlachic, Jan Szydlak and Jozef Tejchma became members of the Political Bureau.
This short-term development was accompanied by a careful policy of indoctrination and total ordering of the society of the PZPR, whose institutional and ideological monopoly was expanded throughout the decade. The ranks of the PZPR grew rapidly: in 1970 it had 2.3 million members, the party was the price paid for promotions, careers, and its activists gained the title of "owners of the PRL". Many of the changes that were made had Soviet patterns, which Gierek did not hide, proclaiming that "our party's place is with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the place of the People's Republic of Poland - with the Soviet Union". It began with securing the interests of the party apparatus. In the autumn of 1972, the State Council issued decrees that privileged people holding the highest positions in the state and their families in terms of remuneration. At that time, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party issued "guidelines" regarding the nomenclature of management staff, which by the end of the decade included half a million people. Its existence and functioning proved the party's total monopoly, and at the same time exposed the superficiality of the state, administrative and scientific structures operating in the Polish People's Republic. Detailed lists included positions whose appointment was dependent on the "recommendation" of a given party body - from the Political Bureau to the city and district committees. PZPR (including directors of factories, schools, presidents of cooperatives, agricultural circles, social organizations). The unification of the youth movement and changes in the education system were elements of subordinating society to communist ideology.
Jaruzelski's martial law
On 11 February 1981, Jaruzelski was elected Prime Minister of Poland. On 16–18 October 1981, at the IV Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, the First Secretary, Stanislaw Kania, resigned, and the Central Committee, by a vote of 180–4, elected Wojciech Jaruzelski as his successor, as Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence, and now the First Secretary has all the power in his hands. The number of military personnel in the highest authorities of the Polish United Workers' Party and the administration has been growing.
Before initiating the plan of suppressing Solidarity, he presented it to Soviet Premier, Nikolai Tikhonov. On 13 December 1981, Jaruzelski imposed martial law in Poland.
In 1982, Jaruzelski revitalized the Front of National Unity, the organization the Communists used to manage their satellite parties, as the Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth.
In 1985, Jaruzelski resigned as prime minister and defence minister and became chairman of the Polish Council of State, a post equivalent to that of president, with his power centered on and firmly entrenched in his coterie of "LWP" generals and lower rank officers of the Polish People's Army.
On 20–21 December 1988, the first part of the 10th Plenum of the PZPR Central Committee took place, but then the sessions were interrupted until mid-January. Jaruzelski, preparing an operation to win over some of the opposition as jointly responsible for the terrible state of the country, removed six activists from the fifteen-member Political Bureau of the Central Committee, considered to be "hardliners", i.e. those opposed to the planned talks at the Round Table. Janusz Reykowski, among others, was promoted to the Political Bureau of the Central Committee.
On 16–18 January 1989, the second part of the 10th Plenum of the PZPR Central Committee took place. In the face of the statements criticizing the plan of agreement with the opposition, among which Miodowicz's statements were among the harshest, Jaruzelski threatened his own resignation, as well as the resignation of Prime Minister Rakowski, Ministers Kiszczak and Siwicki, and members of the Political Bureau - Czyrek and Barcikowski. In this situation, opponents of the Round Table, who had neither a ready plan of action nor a significant leader, gave up further resistance. The regime used this incident to its own ends and two days later Ciosek, in a conversation with Mazowiecki and Father Orszulik, presented the dispute at the Central Committee session as a dangerous attempt at a coup aimed at restoring the rule of an iron fist. In this way, the PZPR leadership suggested to the opposition not to set too high demands, because Jaruzelski's "reformist" team could be replaced by party dogmatists.
Dissolution of the PZPR
Starting in January 1990, the collapse of the PZPR became inevitable. All over the country, public occupations of the party buildings started in order to prevent stealing the party's possessions and destroying or taking the archives. On 29 January 1990, the XI Congress was held, which was supposed to recreate the party. Finally, the PZPR dissolved, and some of its members decided to establish two new social-democratic parties. They got over $1 million from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union known as the Moscow loan. Of this, $300,000 was spent to set up Trybuna, a left-wing newspaper, $200,000 on severance pay for employees of PUWP, $500,000 given back to the Russians, and $200,000 circulated to pay off the loan in installments.
The former activists of the PZPR established the Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland (in Polish: Socjaldemokracja Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej, SdRP), of which the main organizers were Leszek Miller and Mieczysław Rakowski. The SdRP was supposed (among other things) to take over all rights and duties of the PZPR, and help to divide out the property. Up to the end of the 1980s, it had considerable incomes mainly from managed properties and from the RSW company 'Press- Book-Traffic', which in turn had special tax concessions. During this period, the income from membership fees constituted only 30% of the PZPR's revenues. After the dissolution of the Polish United Workers' Party and the establishment of the SdRP, the rest of the activists formed the Social Democratic Union of the Republic of Poland (USdRP), which changed its name to the Polish Social Democratic Union, and The 8th July Movement. The Moscow loan caused controversy in Polish politics and occasioned a year-long prosecution effort. In the end nobody was sentenced.
At the end of 1990, there was an intense debate in the Sejm on the takeover of the wealth that belonged to the former PZPR. Over 3000 buildings and premises were included in the wealth and almost half of it was used without legal basis. Supporters of the acquisition argued that the wealth was built on the basis of plunder and the Treasury grant collected by the whole society. Opponents of SdRP claimed that the wealth was created from membership fees; therefore, they demanded wealth inheritance for SdPR which at that time administered the wealth. Personal property and the accounts of the former PZPR were not subject to control of a parliamentary committee.
On 9 November 1990, the Sejm passed "The resolution about the acquisition of the wealth that belonged to the former PZPR". This resolution was supposed to result in a final takeover of the PZPR real estate by the Treasury. As a result, only a part of the real estate was taken over mainly for a local government by 1992, whereas a legal dispute over the other party carried on till 2000. Personal property and finances of the former PZPR practically disappeared. According to the declaration of SdRP Members of Parliament, 90–95% of the party's wealth was allocated for gratuity or was donated for social assistance.
Structure
The highest statutory authority of the Voivodeship party organization was the voivodeship conference, and in the period between conferences – the PZPR voivodeship committee. To drive current party work, the provincial committee chose the executive. Voivodeship conferences convened a provincial committee in consultation with the Central Committee of PZPR – formally at least once in year. Plenary meetings of the Voivodeship committee were to be convened at least every two months and executive meetings – once a week.
In practice, the frequency of holding provincial conferences and plenary meetings KW deviated from the statutory standards were held less often. Dates and basic Topics of session of Voivodeship party conferences and plenary sessions of Voivodeship Committee PZPR in the provinces of Poland were generally correlated with dates and topics of plenary sessions Central Committee of the PZPR. They were devoted mainly to "transferring" resolutions and decisions of the Central Committee to the provincial party organization. The provincial committee had no freedom in shaping the original, its own meeting plan. The initiative could be demonstrated – in accordance with the principle of democratic centralism – only in the implementation of resolutions and orders of instances supreme.
The dependence of the Voivodeship party organization and its authorities was also determined by that its activity was financed almost entirely from a subsidy received from the Central Committee of PZPR. Membership fees constituted no more than 10% of revenues. The activities of the Voivodeship Committee between PZPR Voivodeship conferences were formally controlled by the Audit Committee (elected during these conferences). Initially only examined the budget implementation and accounting of PZPR Voivodeship Committee. In the following years, the scope of its activities was expanded, including control over the management of party membership cards, security OF confidential documents, how to deal with complaints and complaints addressed to the party. The number of inspections carried out grew systematically, and the work of committees accepted more planned and formalized character.
Building
The Central Committee had its seat in the Party's House, a building erected by obligatory subscription from 1948 to 1952 and colloquially called White House or the House of Sheep. Since 1991 the Bank-Financial Center "New World" is located in this building. Between 1991 and 2000, the Warsaw Stock Exchange also had its seat there.
Party leaders
By the year 1954 the head of the party was the Chair of Central Committee:
Notable politicians after 1989
Presidents
Wojciech Jaruzelski
Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Prime ministers
Józef Oleksy
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz
Leszek Miller
Marek Belka
European Commissioners
Danuta Hübner