Poznan 1956 protests
Encyclopedia
The Poznań 1956 protests, also known as Poznań 1956 uprising or Poznań June , were the first of several massive protests of the Polish people
against the communist government of the People's Republic of Poland
. Demonstrations by workers demanding better conditions began on June 28, 1956, at Poznań
's Cegielski Factories and were met with violent repression
.
A crowd of approximately 100,000 gathered in the city center near the UB secret police
building. 400 tanks and 10,000 soldiers of Ludowe Wojsko Polskie and the Internal Security Corps under Polish-Soviet general Stanislav Poplavsky
were ordered to suppress the demonstration and during the pacification
fired at the protesting civilians.
The death toll was placed between 57 and 78 people, including a 13-year-old boy, Romek Strzałkowski. Hundreds of people sustained injuries. Nonetheless the Poznań protests were an important milestone on the way to the installation of a less Soviet-controlled government in Poland in October
.
's death, the process of destalinization prompted debates about fundamental issues throughout the entire Eastern Bloc
. Nikita Khrushchev
's speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences
had wide implications outside the Soviet Union
and in other communist countries. In Poland, in addition to the criticism of the cult of personality
, popular topics of debate centered around the right to steer a more independent course of 'local, national socialism' instead of following the Soviet model down to every little detail; such views were seen in discussion and critique by many Polish United Workers' Party
members of Stalin's execution of older Polish communists from Communist Party of Poland
during the Great Purge
.
Anti-communist resistance in Poland
was also bolstered, and a group of opposition leaders and cultural figures founded the Klub Krzywego Koła (Club of the Skewed Wheel Street) in Warsaw. It promoted discussions about Polish independence, questioned the efficiency of the state controlled economy, and government disdain and even persecution of the Polish Armed Forces in the West
and Armia Krajowa
actions during the Second World War. While intelligentsia
expressed its dissatisfaction with discussions and publications (bibuła), workers took to the streets. The living conditions in Poland did not improve, contrary to government propaganda, and workers increasingly found that they had little power compared to bureaucracy of the Party (Nomenklatura
).
The city of Poznań was one of the largest urban and industrial centers of the People's Republic of Poland
. Tensions were growing there, particularly since autumn of 1955. Workers in the largest factory in the city, Joseph Stalin's (or 'Cegielski's) Metal Industries
, were complaining about higher taxes for most productive workers ('udarnik
's), which affected several thousands of workers. Local directors were unable to make any significant decisions due to micromanagement
by the higher officials; over several months, petitions, letters and delegations were sent to the Polish Ministry of Machine Industry and Central Committee of Polish United Workers' Party, to no avail.
Finally, a delegation of about 27 workers was sent to Warsaw around June 23. On the night of Jun 26, the delegation returned to Poznań, confident that some of their demands had been considered in a favourable light. The Minister of Machine Industry met with the workers next morning and withdrew several promises that their delegation was given in Warsaw.
. Around 80% of its workers, most of whom had lost bonus pay in June as the government suddenly raised the required work quota, took to the streets demanding pay compensation and some freedom concessions, marching towards the city centre. Workers at other plants, institutions and students joined the procession.
Between 9:00 am and 11:00 am, about 100,000 people gathered on the Adam Mickiewicz
Square in front of the Imperial Castle in Poznań
, surrounded by buildings occupied by the city and party authorities and police headquarters. The demonstrators demanded lower food prices, wage increases and the revocation of some recent changes in the law that had eroded workers' conditions. They further requested a visit from Polish Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz
, as the local government declared that they had no authority to solve the problems. Some police officers also joined the crowd.
After 10:00 am the situation rapidly deteriorated when provocateurs
came into action, claiming that members of the negotiating delegation had been arrested. However the local units of Milicja Obywatelska
were unable to contain the crowd and the situation turned into a violent uprising as the crowds stormed the prison at Młyńska Street, where some protesters believed the members of the delegation to have been imprisoned; hundreds of prisoners were released around 10:50 am. At 11:30 am, the arms depot at the prison building was seized and the firearms were distributed among the demonstrators.
The crowd ransacked the Communist Party Headquarters and then at around 11:00 am attacked the Security Office of Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (Polish Secret Police) on Kochanowskiego Street, but were repulsed when the first shots were fired from its windows into the crowd. From then until 6:00 pm, they seized or besieged many government buildings and institutions in and around Poznań, including the District Courthouse and the Prosecutor's Office, Social Insurance Institution at Dąbrowskiego Street, Civic Police stations in Junikowo, Wilda
, Swarzędz
, Puszczykowo
and Mosina
. The Prisoners' Camp in Mrowino and the Military School at the Poznań University of Technology
were seized and weapons were taken. The police documents at local police station, procurature and court were destroyed.
In the meantime, at about 11:00 am, 16 tanks, 2 armoured personnel carriers and 30 vehicles had been sent from the Officer School of Armoured and Mechanised Formations, a Poznań garrison, to protect the designated buildings, but no shots were exchanged between them and the insurgents. These soldiers engaged in friendly conversation with the protesters; some reports state that two tanks were seized and some troops disarmed. Then the Soviet General Konstantin Rokossovsky
, the Minister of National Defense, who was then in command of all armed forces in Poland, decided to take personal control, and the situation changed dramatically.
Rokossovsky sent his deputy, the Polish-Soviet general Stanislav Poplavsky
and a group of lower Soviet officers, with orders to put down the protest in a manner consistent with Russian standards, intending to end the demonstrations as soon as possible to prevent an occurrence similar to the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
, when a similar protest, not quelled in time, spread to many other regions. The Russian officers arrived at 2:00 pm at Ławica Airport and took command. Poplavsky did not bother to use local regulars from Poznań garrisons, instead taking other troops from Silesian Military District
and recalling special troops from the Biedrusko
military base north of Poznań. The troops were told that the protesters were led and organized by "German provocateurs" who were attempting to darken Poland's image during the ongoing Poznań International Fair
.
Between 4:00 pm and 5:00 am the following day, the Polish 10th Armoured Division, Polish 19th Armoured Division, Polish 4th Infantry Division and Polish 5th Infantry Division
, totaling about 10,300 troops and the Internal Security Corps under the command of Poplavsky entered Poznań. A two hour long procession of tanks, armored cars, field guns, and lorries full of troops went through the city and surrounded it. At 9:00 pm a wave of detentions began. The detainees were taken to Ławica airport, where they were subjected to brutal interrogation; 746 persons were detained until August 8. The protests continued until June 30, when the troops finally pacified the city, after exchanging fire with some violent demonstrators. At 7:30 am on June 29 the Prime Minister arrived and infamously declared on the local radio station that "any provocateur or lunatic who raises his hand against the people's government may be sure that this hand will be chopped off."
The number of casualties is currently a subject of academic dispute. The historian Łukasz Jastrząb from the IPN Institute
estimates it to be 57 dead and about 500 wounded, while another IPN scholar, Stanisław Jankowiak
places the figure at slightly over 100 with 600 wounded, arguing that court records of eyewitness statements that were deemed by Dr Jastrząb to be unreliable, should also be included. The official, government-approved list of victims from 1981 places the list at 74.
Soon the ideologues realized that they had lost the support of the Soviet Union, and the regime turned to conciliation by announced wage rises and other reforms. Realizing the need for a change in leadership, the Polish communists chose a new leader, Władysław Gomułka, who was considered a moderate; this transition is known as Polish October
(or Gomułka thaw). In spite of this, the communist authorities censored all information on the Poznań events for a quarter of a century.
Historians were denied source materials for research, and the campaign was effective in eliminating any mention of the events of June 1956 from publicly available sources. Persecution of the most active participants would be carried out for many years. The memory of the events was however preserved by the participants and members of opposition. After the Gdańsk Agreement
in 1980, the Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity" as one of its first actions decided to raise a monument in the memory of the Poznań June 1956 events.
Many historians consider the Poznań 1956 protests to be an important milestone in modern history of Poland
, and one of the events that precipitated the fall of communism in Poland. Nonetheless it should be noted that the protests of 1956 were not motivated by anti-communist ideology; the workers' demands were mostly of economic nature, centering around better work conditions rather than any political objectives. The workers sang "The Internationale
" and their banners read "We demand bread." It was the government's consistent failure to fulfil the first demand which eventually led to the demands for political change, but even during the history of Solidarity
few demanded wide political reforms.
Environment factory workers was fairly closed and conservative, so the person working in a factory does not necessarily have to realize that the new government came from the east and resulted in a different respect for the law and the citizen. Hence the widespread opinion among Poznan that accidents were backing the June economic and social rather than political. Poznań average does not say in his memoirs about politics and about breach of the contract and order.
declared June 28 to be a national holiday in Poland; the Day of Remembrance of the Poznań June 1956.
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
against the communist government of the People's Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
. Demonstrations by workers demanding better conditions began on June 28, 1956, at Poznań
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
's Cegielski Factories and were met with violent repression
Political repression
Political repression is the persecution of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take political life of society....
.
A crowd of approximately 100,000 gathered in the city center near the UB secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
building. 400 tanks and 10,000 soldiers of Ludowe Wojsko Polskie and the Internal Security Corps under Polish-Soviet general Stanislav Poplavsky
Stanislav Poplavsky
Stanislav Gilyarovich Poplavsky was a general in the Soviet and Polish armies.-Biography:He was born in Imperial Russia, in the vicinity of Kiev. His family was ethnically Polish, and in his younger years he considered himself a Pole...
were ordered to suppress the demonstration and during the pacification
Peace
Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
fired at the protesting civilians.
The death toll was placed between 57 and 78 people, including a 13-year-old boy, Romek Strzałkowski. Hundreds of people sustained injuries. Nonetheless the Poznań protests were an important milestone on the way to the installation of a less Soviet-controlled government in Poland in October
Polish October
Polish October, also known as October 1956, Polish thaw, or Gomułka's thaw, marked a change in the Polish internal political scene in the second half of 1956...
.
Background
After Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's death, the process of destalinization prompted debates about fundamental issues throughout the entire Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
. Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
's speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences
On the Personality Cult and its Consequences
On the Personality Cult and its Consequences was a report, critical of Joseph Stalin, made to the Twentieth Party Congress on February 25, 1956 by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. It is more commonly known as the Secret Speech or the Khrushchev Report...
had wide implications outside the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and in other communist countries. In Poland, in addition to the criticism of the cult of personality
Cult of personality
A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are usually associated with dictatorships...
, popular topics of debate centered around the right to steer a more independent course of 'local, national socialism' instead of following the Soviet model down to every little detail; such views were seen in discussion and critique by many Polish United Workers' Party
Polish United Workers' Party
The Polish United Workers' Party was the Communist party which governed the People's Republic of Poland from 1948 to 1989. Ideologically it was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism.- The Party's Program and Goals :...
members of Stalin's execution of older Polish communists from Communist Party of Poland
Communist Party of Poland
The Communist Party of Poland is a historical communist party in Poland. It was a result of the fusion of Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania and the Polish Socialist Party-Left in the Communist Workers Party of Poland .-1918-1921:The KPRP was founded on 16 December 1918 as...
during the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
.
Anti-communist resistance in Poland
Anti-communist resistance in Poland
Anti-communist resistance in Poland can be divided into two types: the armed partisan struggle, mostly led by former Armia Krajowa and Narodowe Siły Zbrojne soldiers, which ended in the late 1950s , and the non-violent, civil-resistance struggle that culminated in the creation and victory of the...
was also bolstered, and a group of opposition leaders and cultural figures founded the Klub Krzywego Koła (Club of the Skewed Wheel Street) in Warsaw. It promoted discussions about Polish independence, questioned the efficiency of the state controlled economy, and government disdain and even persecution of the Polish Armed Forces in the West
Polish Armed Forces in the West
Polish Armed Forces in the West refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight alongside the Western Allies against Nazi Germany and its allies...
and Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
actions during the Second World War. While intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
expressed its dissatisfaction with discussions and publications (bibuła), workers took to the streets. The living conditions in Poland did not improve, contrary to government propaganda, and workers increasingly found that they had little power compared to bureaucracy of the Party (Nomenklatura
Nomenklatura
The nomenklatura were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of those countries' activity: government, industry, agriculture, education, etc., whose positions were granted only with approval by the...
).
The city of Poznań was one of the largest urban and industrial centers of the People's Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
. Tensions were growing there, particularly since autumn of 1955. Workers in the largest factory in the city, Joseph Stalin's (or 'Cegielski's) Metal Industries
H. Cegielski - Poznan S.A.
H. Cegielski - Poznań S.A. is a well-known Polish manufacturing company from the city of Poznań. The company is locally known as Ceglorz, and since 1923 has also used the HCP symbol.-History:...
, were complaining about higher taxes for most productive workers ('udarnik
Udarnik
Udarnik is a Russian, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian term for a superproductive worker in the Soviet Union and ex-Yugoslavia. The term is derived from the expression "udarny trud" for "superproductive, enthusiastic labour", which is often translated as strike labour , and udarnik as strike worker,...
's), which affected several thousands of workers. Local directors were unable to make any significant decisions due to micromanagement
Micromanagement
In business management, micromanagement is a management style where a manager closely observes or controls the work of her or his subordinates or employees...
by the higher officials; over several months, petitions, letters and delegations were sent to the Polish Ministry of Machine Industry and Central Committee of Polish United Workers' Party, to no avail.
Finally, a delegation of about 27 workers was sent to Warsaw around June 23. On the night of Jun 26, the delegation returned to Poznań, confident that some of their demands had been considered in a favourable light. The Minister of Machine Industry met with the workers next morning and withdrew several promises that their delegation was given in Warsaw.
Strikes
A spontaneous strike started at 6:00 am at the multifactory complex of Joseph Stalin's (or 'Cegielski's) Metal IndustriesH. Cegielski - Poznan S.A.
H. Cegielski - Poznań S.A. is a well-known Polish manufacturing company from the city of Poznań. The company is locally known as Ceglorz, and since 1923 has also used the HCP symbol.-History:...
. Around 80% of its workers, most of whom had lost bonus pay in June as the government suddenly raised the required work quota, took to the streets demanding pay compensation and some freedom concessions, marching towards the city centre. Workers at other plants, institutions and students joined the procession.
Between 9:00 am and 11:00 am, about 100,000 people gathered on the Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ) was a Polish poet, publisher and political writer of the Romantic period. One of the primary representatives of the Polish Romanticism era, a national poet of Poland, he is seen as one of Poland's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all of Polish literature...
Square in front of the Imperial Castle in Poznań
Imperial Castle in Poznan
The Imperial Castle in Poznań, popularly called Zamek , is a palace in Poznań, Poland. It was constructed in 1910 by Franz Schwechten for William II, German Emperor, with significant input from William himself...
, surrounded by buildings occupied by the city and party authorities and police headquarters. The demonstrators demanded lower food prices, wage increases and the revocation of some recent changes in the law that had eroded workers' conditions. They further requested a visit from Polish Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz
Józef Cyrankiewicz
Józef Cyrankiewicz was a Polish Socialist, after 1948 Communist political figure. He served as premier of the People's Republic of Poland between 1947 and 1952, and again between 1954 and 1970...
, as the local government declared that they had no authority to solve the problems. Some police officers also joined the crowd.
After 10:00 am the situation rapidly deteriorated when provocateurs
Agent provocateur
Traditionally, an agent provocateur is a person employed by the police or other entity to act undercover to entice or provoke another person to commit an illegal act...
came into action, claiming that members of the negotiating delegation had been arrested. However the local units of Milicja Obywatelska
Milicja Obywatelska
Milicja Obywatelska was a state police institution in the People's Republic of Poland. It was created in 1944 by Soviet-sponsored PKWN, effectively replacing the pre-war police force. In 1990 it was transformed back into Policja....
were unable to contain the crowd and the situation turned into a violent uprising as the crowds stormed the prison at Młyńska Street, where some protesters believed the members of the delegation to have been imprisoned; hundreds of prisoners were released around 10:50 am. At 11:30 am, the arms depot at the prison building was seized and the firearms were distributed among the demonstrators.
The crowd ransacked the Communist Party Headquarters and then at around 11:00 am attacked the Security Office of Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (Polish Secret Police) on Kochanowskiego Street, but were repulsed when the first shots were fired from its windows into the crowd. From then until 6:00 pm, they seized or besieged many government buildings and institutions in and around Poznań, including the District Courthouse and the Prosecutor's Office, Social Insurance Institution at Dąbrowskiego Street, Civic Police stations in Junikowo, Wilda
Poznan-Wilda
Wilda is a southern part of the city of Poznań in western Poland. It was the smallest of the five governmental districts into which the city was divided prior to 1990, and which are retained for certain administrative purposes...
, Swarzędz
Swarzedz
Swarzędz is a town in central Poland of 29,766 inhabitants and a mixed urban-rural commune of 40,166 inhabitants...
, Puszczykowo
Puszczykowo
Puszczykowo is a town in Poznań County, Poland, with 9,177 inhabitants . It is located about south of Poznań, the area is surrounded by the Wielkopolski National Park ....
and Mosina
Mosina
Mosina is a town in Poznań County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, about 20 km south Poznań, with 12,107 inhabitants .-External links:*...
. The Prisoners' Camp in Mrowino and the Military School at the Poznań University of Technology
Poznan University of Technology
Poznań University of Technology, PUT is a university located in Poznań, Poland. Poznań University of Technology is known as one of the best technical universities in Poland...
were seized and weapons were taken. The police documents at local police station, procurature and court were destroyed.
In the meantime, at about 11:00 am, 16 tanks, 2 armoured personnel carriers and 30 vehicles had been sent from the Officer School of Armoured and Mechanised Formations, a Poznań garrison, to protect the designated buildings, but no shots were exchanged between them and the insurgents. These soldiers engaged in friendly conversation with the protesters; some reports state that two tanks were seized and some troops disarmed. Then the Soviet General Konstantin Rokossovsky
Konstantin Rokossovsky
Konstantin Rokossovskiy was a Polish-origin Soviet career officer who was a Marshal of the Soviet Union, as well as Marshal of Poland and Polish Defence Minister, who was famously known for his service in the Eastern Front, where he received high esteem for his outstanding military skill...
, the Minister of National Defense, who was then in command of all armed forces in Poland, decided to take personal control, and the situation changed dramatically.
Rokossovsky sent his deputy, the Polish-Soviet general Stanislav Poplavsky
Stanislav Poplavsky
Stanislav Gilyarovich Poplavsky was a general in the Soviet and Polish armies.-Biography:He was born in Imperial Russia, in the vicinity of Kiev. His family was ethnically Polish, and in his younger years he considered himself a Pole...
and a group of lower Soviet officers, with orders to put down the protest in a manner consistent with Russian standards, intending to end the demonstrations as soon as possible to prevent an occurrence similar to the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
The Uprising of 1953 in East Germany started with a strike by East Berlin construction workers on June 16. It turned into a widespread anti-Stalinist uprising against the German Democratic Republic government the next day....
, when a similar protest, not quelled in time, spread to many other regions. The Russian officers arrived at 2:00 pm at Ławica Airport and took command. Poplavsky did not bother to use local regulars from Poznań garrisons, instead taking other troops from Silesian Military District
Silesian Military District
Silesian Military District with its headquarters in Wrocław is one of two current military districts in Poland ....
and recalling special troops from the Biedrusko
Biedrusko
Biedrusko is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Suchy Las, within Poznań County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It lies on the Warta river, approximately north of the regional capital Poznań. In 2006 the village had a population of 2,200.Biedrusko is first...
military base north of Poznań. The troops were told that the protesters were led and organized by "German provocateurs" who were attempting to darken Poland's image during the ongoing Poznań International Fair
Poznan International Fair
The Poznań International Fair is the biggest industrial fair in Poland. It is held on the Poznań fairground in Poland. Poznań International Fair is located in the centre of the city opposite the main railway station - Poznań Główny, in the centre of Poland and in the centre of...
.
Between 4:00 pm and 5:00 am the following day, the Polish 10th Armoured Division, Polish 19th Armoured Division, Polish 4th Infantry Division and Polish 5th Infantry Division
Polish 5th Infantry Division
5th Lwów Infantry Division was a unit of the Polish Army in the interbellum period, with headquarters stationed in Lwów. It was created on May 20, 1919, during the Polish-Ukrainian War in Eastern Galicia. Originally, it consisted of three infantry regiments, but later it was strengthened with...
, totaling about 10,300 troops and the Internal Security Corps under the command of Poplavsky entered Poznań. A two hour long procession of tanks, armored cars, field guns, and lorries full of troops went through the city and surrounded it. At 9:00 pm a wave of detentions began. The detainees were taken to Ławica airport, where they were subjected to brutal interrogation; 746 persons were detained until August 8. The protests continued until June 30, when the troops finally pacified the city, after exchanging fire with some violent demonstrators. At 7:30 am on June 29 the Prime Minister arrived and infamously declared on the local radio station that "any provocateur or lunatic who raises his hand against the people's government may be sure that this hand will be chopped off."
The number of casualties is currently a subject of academic dispute. The historian Łukasz Jastrząb from the IPN Institute
Institute of National Remembrance
Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute with lustration prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal and historical sciences and...
estimates it to be 57 dead and about 500 wounded, while another IPN scholar, Stanisław Jankowiak
Stanisław Jankowiak
Stanisław Jankowiak was a Polish sprint canoer who competed in the mid 1960s. He was eliminated in the semifinals of the K-4 1000 m at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.-References:*...
places the figure at slightly over 100 with 600 wounded, arguing that court records of eyewitness statements that were deemed by Dr Jastrząb to be unreliable, should also be included. The official, government-approved list of victims from 1981 places the list at 74.
Aftermath
About 250 people were arrested in the first few days, including 196 workers; several hundred others were arrested in the following weeks. Stanisław Hejmowski, the lawyer who defended them was later repressed for his statement that the government's actions had led to the death of innocent civilians. The government failed in its attempts to coerce the detainees into stating that they were provoked by foreign (Western) secret services; nonetheless this became the official line of the government for years to come.Soon the ideologues realized that they had lost the support of the Soviet Union, and the regime turned to conciliation by announced wage rises and other reforms. Realizing the need for a change in leadership, the Polish communists chose a new leader, Władysław Gomułka, who was considered a moderate; this transition is known as Polish October
Polish October
Polish October, also known as October 1956, Polish thaw, or Gomułka's thaw, marked a change in the Polish internal political scene in the second half of 1956...
(or Gomułka thaw). In spite of this, the communist authorities censored all information on the Poznań events for a quarter of a century.
Historians were denied source materials for research, and the campaign was effective in eliminating any mention of the events of June 1956 from publicly available sources. Persecution of the most active participants would be carried out for many years. The memory of the events was however preserved by the participants and members of opposition. After the Gdańsk Agreement
Gdansk Agreement
The Gdańsk Agreement was an accord reached as a direct result of the strikes that took place in Gdańsk, Poland...
in 1980, the Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity" as one of its first actions decided to raise a monument in the memory of the Poznań June 1956 events.
Many historians consider the Poznań 1956 protests to be an important milestone in modern history of Poland
History of Poland (1945–1989)
The history of Poland from 1945 to 1989 spans the period of Soviet Communist dominance imposed after the end of World War II over the People's Republic of Poland...
, and one of the events that precipitated the fall of communism in Poland. Nonetheless it should be noted that the protests of 1956 were not motivated by anti-communist ideology; the workers' demands were mostly of economic nature, centering around better work conditions rather than any political objectives. The workers sang "The Internationale
The Internationale
The Internationale is a famous socialist, communist, social-democratic and anarchist anthem.The Internationale became the anthem of international socialism, and gained particular fame under the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1944, when it was that communist state's de facto central anthem...
" and their banners read "We demand bread." It was the government's consistent failure to fulfil the first demand which eventually led to the demands for political change, but even during the history of Solidarity
History of Solidarity
The history of Solidarity , a Polish non-governmental trade union, begins in August 1980, at the Lenin Shipyards at its founding by Lech Wałęsa and others. In the early 1980s, it became the first independent labor union in a Soviet-bloc country...
few demanded wide political reforms.
Reasons for strike
The background to the incidents was the prevailing general impression that in the 1950s standard of living was lower than before the war. Nor was there such a law (mainly in the legal sense), which was "too German" (at the time of annexation) and in the interwar period. Arrogance on the part of government, reflected in breach of earlier agreements on the calculation of overtime pay, is mentioned as one of the main causes. For the average Poznań, brought up the Prussian drill, such behavior was perceived as a major slap at his residence and caused a feeling of instability, and thus fear.Environment factory workers was fairly closed and conservative, so the person working in a factory does not necessarily have to realize that the new government came from the east and resulted in a different respect for the law and the citizen. Hence the widespread opinion among Poznan that accidents were backing the June economic and social rather than political. Poznań average does not say in his memoirs about politics and about breach of the contract and order.
Commemoration
On June 21, 2006, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the events, the Polish SejmSejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
declared June 28 to be a national holiday in Poland; the Day of Remembrance of the Poznań June 1956.
See also
- Uprising of 1953 in East GermanyUprising of 1953 in East GermanyThe Uprising of 1953 in East Germany started with a strike by East Berlin construction workers on June 16. It turned into a widespread anti-Stalinist uprising against the German Democratic Republic government the next day....
- Hungarian Revolution of 1956
- Polish 1970 protestsPolish 1970 protestsThe Polish 1970 protests were protests that occurred in northern Poland in December 1970. The protests were sparked by a sudden increase of prices of food and other everyday items...
External links
Site about the Poznań 1956 protests Powstanie Poznańskiego Czerwca- Black Thursday - timeline of events
- Hot June '56
- 50 years since the Poznan uprising
- Article celebrating fiftieth anniversary of the protests
- Interview with Karol Modzelewski, one of the leaders of the revolt
- CIA Daily and Weekly intelligence summaries from October and November 1956
- Poznań - Budapest - 1956
- Gallery of events