Level 1 Polish History: Sovietization 4 March 1998

The Sovietization of Poland (1945-1954)

Poland consigned by Tehran Conference (1943) to Soviet zone of influence (E. Europe; W. & S. Europe - UK/USA).

Curzon line put forward by USSR as Poland's E. border. Poles to be compensated after war by so-called "Western" or "Regained Territories" ("Ziemie odzyskane") surrounding Wroc³aw and Gdañsk. These never guaranteed by W. allies (Byrne, Sept 1946, on Oder-Neisse frontier): German Federal Republic created on 7 Sept 1949, to which the Soviets responded with the foundation of the German Democratic Republic (7 Oct 1949), further isolated Poland from Western influence. Peace Treaty signed between GDR and Poland on 6 July 1950 meant that Poles were heavily reliant on USSR to guarantee their W. border.

General Stages of Sovietization

1. Communists minorities gather national resistance groups in "patriotic fronts"; after liberation supported by Red Army
2. Establishment of "provisional governments": exiled communists, schooled in Moscow receive key positions in state and Party
3. Relatively free elections, coalition governments led by bourgeois candidates. Communists control Ministry of Interior (apparatus of state repression). Reconstruction: popular land reforms and nationalisation
4. Elimination of bourgeois party majorities, esp. by terror. Formation of socialist unity parties under Communist leadership "bloc" politics, new coalition governments with "fellow-travelling" parties, leaders of the opposition eliminated (some fled to West)
5. Formation of Communist governments through controlled national elections based on unity lists Persecution of the Church & internal purges of the Party: show trials of "deviators" (Titoists/CIA agents, etc.) - Rajk (Hungary 1949), Slansky (Czechoslovakia, 1952)
6. New peoples' democracies conform to Soviet example: Collectivisation of agriculture, supra-regional economic planning & military commands: COMINFORM (1947); by 1948, treaties of friendship and mutual assistance signed with USSR and other democracies; COMECON (1949); the WARSAW PACT (1955) - joint supreme command under the Soviets.

General Features

A. Distinction between Party and State eroded: Party penetrates all state organisations/institutions under the supervision of Soviet advisers.
B. Militarization of society in Cold War conditions - "paranoia"/war psychosis: Korea (1950-1953) - subordination of economy to military requirements
C. Social engineering - promotion of working & peasant classes
D. Supremacy of Soviet model in all fields
E. "Personality cult" [Stalin] - "kult jednostki"