Polish People's Republic

Government and politics

The government and politics of the Polish People's Republic were dominated by the Polish United Workers' Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR). Despite the presence of two minor parties, the United People's Party and the Democratic Party, the country was a one-party state until 1989 because these two parties were completely subservient to the Communists and had to accept the PZPR's "leading role" as a condition of their existence. It was politically influenced by the Soviet Union to the extent of being its satellite country, along with East Germany, Czechoslovakia and other Eastern Bloc members.

From 1952, the highest law was the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic, and the Polish Council of State replaced the presidency of Poland. Elections were held on the single lists of the Front of National Unity. Despite these changes, Poland was one of the most liberal communist nations and was the only communist country in the world which did not have any communist symbols (red star, stars, ears of wheat, or hammer and sickle) on its flag and coat of arms. The White Eagle, founded by Polish monarchs in the Middle Ages, remained as Poland's national emblem; the only feature removed by the communists from the pre-war design was the crown, which was seen as imperialistic and monarchist.

The Polish People's Republic maintained a large standing army and hosted Soviet troops in its territory, as Poland was a Warsaw Pact signatory. The UB and succeeding SB were the chief intelligence agencies that acted as secret police. The official police organisation, which was also responsible for peacekeeping and suppression of protests, was renamed Milicja Obywatelska. The Milicja's elite ZOMO squads committed various serious crimes to maintain the communists in power, including the harsh treatment of protesters, the arrest of opposition leaders and in some cases, murder. According to Rudolph J. Rummel, at least 22,000 people were killed by the regime during its rule. As a result, Poland had a high imprisonment rate but one of the lowest crime rates in the world.

The Polish People's Republic was additionally a centralised and unitary state.

The Polish People's Republic had totalitarian Stalinist elements from 1948 to 1956, after which it became an authoritarian hardline communist state. The country experienced a military dictatorship in 1981–1983. During the so-called carnival of Solidarity in 1980–1981 and during the late 1980s perestroika-influenced liberalization (1986–1988), Poland de facto became an anocracy, despite still claiming a communist constitutional monopoly, it iniated talks with opposition leader Wałęsa, officially legalizing opposition in April 1989, held semi-free elections in June 1989 and chose Solidarity-aligned Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki by August 1989. The Polish People's Republic (August–December 1989) functioned as an embryonic democracy in practice.

Foreign relations

In foreign relations, the Polish People's Republic had a particularly close relationship with the Soviet Union and was within Moscow's circle of influence. However, during its existence, the Polish People's Republic maintained close relations not only with the Soviet Union, but also with other communist states in the Eastern Bloc. It also had friendly relations with the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Western Bloc as well as the People's Republic of China. At the height of the Cold War, Poland attempted to remain neutral in the conflict between the Soviets and the Americans. In particular, Edward Gierek sought to establish Poland as a mediator between the two powers in the 1970s. Both the American presidents and the Soviet general secretaries or leaders visited communist Poland.

Poland was hostile to the Republic of China, which had retreated to Taiwan following the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War and was viewed as an illegitimate state by Poland's government. The seizure of the cargo ships Praca and Prezydent Gottwald in 1953 and 1954, respectively, particularly inflamed tensions between the two countries.

Under pressure from the Soviet Union, Poland participated in the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

The Polish People's Republic's relations with Israel were on a fair level in the aftermath of the Holocaust. In 1947, Poland voted in favour of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, which led to Israel's recognition by Poland on 19 May 1948. However, by the Six-Day War, it severed diplomatic relations with Israel in June 1967 and supported the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) which recognised the State of Palestine on 14 December 1988. In 1968, Poland became the first communist country except China to sell weapons to the PLO. In 1989, Poland restored relations with Israel.

The Polish People's Republic participated as a member of the United Nations (as a founding member), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the Warsaw Pact, Comecon, the International Energy Agency, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the International Atomic Energy Agency and Interkosmos.

The status of homosexuals

Homosexuality was always legal in the Polish People's Republic and Polish law has never provided for discriminatory measures such as different ages of consent for homosexual and heterosexual relations, but it remained socially unacceptable and was often kept out of public view. In the 1970s, though gay movements began to grow more active in Western Europe and some Eastern Bloc countries, such as East Germany and the Soviet Union, the Polish gay subculture remained politically passive. This is attributed to the influence of Catholicism on Polish society and same-sex sexual relations not being criminalized. Nevertheless, an LGBT movement began to emerge in the 1980s, marked by the publication of the first gay magazines and the founding of the first LGBT organizations.

Economy

Early years

Poland suffered tremendous economic losses during World War II. In 1939, Poland had 35.1 million inhabitants, but the census of 14 February 1946 showed only 23.9 million inhabitants. The difference was partially the result of the border revision. Losses in national resources and infrastructure amounted to approximately 38%. The implementation of the immense tasks involved with the reconstruction of the country was intertwined with the struggle of the new government for the stabilisation of power, made even more difficult by the fact that a considerable part of society was mistrustful of the communist government. The occupation of Poland by the Red Army and the support the Soviet Union had shown for the Polish communists were decisive in the communists gaining the upper hand in the new Polish government.

As control of the Polish territories passed from occupying forces of Nazi Germany to the subsequent occupying forces of the Soviet Union, and from the Soviet Union to the Soviet-imposed puppet satellite government, Poland's new economic system was forcibly imposed and began moving towards a radical, communist centrally planned economy. One of the first major steps in that direction involved the agricultural reform issued by the Polish Committee of National Liberation government on 6 September 1944. All estates over 0.5 km² in pre-war Polish territories and all over 1 km² in former German territories were nationalised without compensation. In total, 31,000 km² of land were nationalised in Poland and 5 million in the former German territories, out of which 12,000 km² were redistributed to farmers and the rest remained in the hands of the government (Most of this was eventually used in the collectivisation and creation of sovkhoz-like State Agricultural Farms "PGR"). However, the collectivisation of Polish farming never reached the same extent as it did in the Soviet Union or other countries of the Eastern Bloc.

Nationalisation began in 1944, with the pro-Soviet government taking over industries in the newly acquired territories along with the rest of the country. As nationalisation was unpopular, the communists delayed the nationalisation reform until 1946, when, after the 3xTAK referendums they were fairly certain they had total control of the state and could deal a heavy blow to eventual public protests. Some semi-official nationalisation of various private enterprises had also begun in 1944. In 1946, all enterprises with over 50 employees were nationalised, with no compensation to Polish owners.

The Allied punishment of Germany for the war of destruction included Polish administration over the bulk of the former German East. These lands proved to be essential for the Polish Communists, because the former German industries and farms immediately passed to state control. In fact, the former German industrial facilities doubled Poland's industrial base. Economic arguments had been an essential point in the arguments presented by the Polish delegation at the Potsdam Conferencec.

There is a consensus that the German eastern provinces gained by Poland were economically better developed than the lost Kresy. A recent proposal for a macroeconomic calculation of the economic consequences of the westward Shift of Poland obtained that the German eastern provinces were valued 25,8 billion International Dollars, while the whole of the Kresy was valued 9,4 billion International Dollars.

Additionally, Germany was intended to transfer large-scale reparations to Poland. However, those were truncated into insignificance by the break-up of Germany into East (former Central Germany) and West and the onset of the Cold War. Poland was then relegated to receive its share from the Soviet-controlled East Germany. However, even this was attenuated, as the Soviets pressured the Polish Government to cease receiving the reparations far ahead of schedule as a sign of 'friendship' between the two new communist neighbours and, therefore, now friends. Thus, without the reparations and without the massive Marshall Plan implemented in the West at that time, Poland's postwar recovery was much harder than it could have been.

Later years

During the Gierek era, Poland borrowed large sums from Western creditors in exchange for the promise of social and economic reforms. None of these was delivered due to resistance from the hardline communist leadership as it would effectively require abandoning the Marxian economy with central planning, state-owned enterprises and state-controlled prices and trade. After the West refused to grant Poland further loans, the living standards began to fall sharply again as the supply of imported goods dried up, and as Poland was forced to export everything it could, particularly food and coal, to service its massive debt, which would reach US$23 billion by 1980. In 1981, Poland notified Club de Paris (a group of Western European central banks) of its insolvency, and a series of negotiations on the repayment of its foreign debt was completed between 1989 and 1991.

The party was forced to raise prices, which led to further large-scale social unrest and the formation of the Solidarity movement. During the Solidarity years and the imposition of martial law, Poland entered a decade of economic crisis, officially acknowledged as such even by the regime. Rationing and queuing became a way of life, with ration cards (Kartki) necessary to buy even such basic consumer staples as milk and sugar. Access to Western luxury goods became even more restricted, as Western governments applied economic sanctions to express their dissatisfaction with the government repression of the opposition, while at the same time, the government had to use most of the foreign currency it could obtain to pay the crushing rates on its foreign debt.

In response to this situation, the government, which controlled all official foreign trade, continued to maintain a highly artificial exchange rate with Western currencies. The exchange rate worsened distortions in the economy at all levels, resulting in a growing black market and the development of a shortage economy. The only way for an individual to buy most Western goods was to use Western currencies, notably the U.S. dollar, which in effect became a parallel currency. However, it could not simply be exchanged at the official banks for zlotys, since the government exchange rate undervalued the dollar and placed heavy restrictions on the amount that could be exchanged, and so the only practical way to obtain it was from remittances or work outside the country. An entire illegal industry of street-corner money changers emerged as a result. These so-called Cinkciarze gave clients an exchange rate far better than the official one and became wealthy from their opportunism, albeit at the risk of punishment, usually diminished by the wide-scale bribery of the Milicja.

As Western currency came into the country from emigrant families and foreign workers, the government in turn attempted to gather it up by various means, most visibly by establishing a chain of state-run Pewex and Baltona stores in all Polish cities, where goods could only be bought with hard currency. It even introduced its own ersatz U.S. currency (bony PeKaO in Polish). This paralleled the financial practices in East Germany running its own ration stamps at the same time. The trend led to an unhealthy state of affairs where the chief determinant of economic status was access to hard currency. This situation was incompatible with any remaining ideals of socialism, which were soon completely abandoned at the community level.

In this desperate situation, all development and growth in the Polish economy slowed to a crawl. Most visibly, work on most of the major investment projects that had begun in the 1970s was stopped. As a result, most Polish cities acquired at least one infamous example of a large unfinished building languishing in a state of limbo. While some of these, such as the Szkieletor skyscraper in Kraków, were eventually finished decades later, most were never finished at all, wasting the considerable resources devoted to their construction. Polish investment in economic infrastructure and technological development fell rapidly, ensuring that the country lost whatever ground it had gained relative to Western European economies in the 1970s. To escape the constant economic and political pressures during these years, and the general sense of hopelessness, many family income providers traveled for work in Western Europe, particularly West Germany (Wyjazd na saksy). During the era, hundreds of thousands of Poles left the country permanently and settled in the West, few of them returning to Poland even after the end of socialism in Poland. Tens of thousands of others went to work in countries that could offer them salaries in hard currency, notably Libya and Iraq.

After several years of the situation continuing to worsen, during which time the socialist government unsuccessfully tried various expedients to improve the performance of the economy—at one point resorting to placing military commissars to direct work in the factories — it grudgingly accepted pressures to liberalise the economy. The government introduced a series of small-scale reforms, such as allowing more small-scale private enterprises to function. However, the government also realised that it lacked the legitimacy to carry out any large-scale reforms, which would inevitably cause large-scale social dislocation and economic difficulties for most of the population, accustomed to the extensive social safety net that the socialist system had provided. For example, when the government proposed to close the Gdańsk Shipyard, a decision in some ways justifiable from an economic point of view but also largely political, there was a wave of public outrage and the government was forced to back down.

The only way to carry out such changes without social upheaval would be to acquire at least some support from the opposition side. The government accepted the idea that some kind of a deal with the opposition would be necessary, and repeatedly attempted to find common ground throughout the 1980s. However, at this point, the communists generally still believed that they should retain the reins of power for the near future, and only allowed the opposition limited, advisory participation in the running of the country. They believed that this would be essential to pacifying the Soviet Union, which they felt was not yet ready to accept a non-Communist Poland.

Culture

Television and media

The origins of Polish television date back to the late 1930s, however, the beginning of World War II interrupted further progress at establishing a regularly televised program. The first prime state television corporation, Telewizja Polska, was founded after the war in 1952 and was hailed as a great success by the communist authorities. The foundation date corresponds to the time of the first regularly televised broadcast, which occurred at 07:00 p.m CET on 25 October 1952. Initially, the auditions were broadcast to a limited number of viewers and at set dates, often a month apart. On 23 January 1953 regular shows began to appear on the first and only channel, TVP1. The second channel, TVP2, was launched in 1970 and coloured television was introduced in 1971. Most reliable sources of information in the 1950s were newspapers, most notably Trybuna Ludu (People's Tribune).

The chief newscast under the Polish People's Republic for over 31 years was Dziennik Telewizyjny (Television Journal). Commonly known to the viewers as Dziennik, aired in the years 1958–1989 and was utilised by the Polish United Workers' Party as a propaganda tool to control the masses. Transmitted daily at 07:30 p.m CET since 1965, it was infamous for its manipulative techniques and emotive language as well as the controversial content. For instance, the Dziennik provided more information on world news, particularly bad events, war, corruption or scandals in the West. This method was intentionally used to minimise the effects of the issues that were occurring in communist Poland at the time. With its format, the show shared many similarities with the East German Aktuelle Kamera. Throughout the 1970s, Dziennik Telewizyjny was regularly watched by over 11 million viewers, approximately in every third household in the Polish People's Republic. The long legacy of communist television continues to this day; the older generation in contemporary Poland refers to every televised news program as "Dziennik" and the term also became synonymous with authoritarianism, propaganda, manipulation, lies, deception and disinformation.

Under martial law in Poland, from December 1981 Dziennik was presented by officers of the Polish Armed Forces or newsreaders in military uniforms and broadcast 24-hours a day. The running time has also been extended to 60 minutes. The program returned to its original form in 1983. The audience viewed this move as an attempt to militarise the country under a military junta. As a result, several newsreaders had difficulty finding employment after the fall of communism in 1989.

Despite the political agenda of Telewizja Polska, the authorities did emphasise the need to provide entertainment for younger viewers without exposing the children to inappropriate content. Initially created in the 1950s, an evening cartoon block called Dobranocka, which was targeted at young children, is still broadcast today under a different format. Among the most well-known animations of the 1970s and 1980s in Poland were Reksio, Bolek and Lolek, Krtek (Polish: Krecik) and The Moomins.

Countless shows were made relating to Second World War history such as Four Tank-Men and a Dog (1966–1970) and Stakes Larger Than Life with Kapitan Kloss (1967–1968), but were purely fictional and not based on real events. The horrors of war, Soviet invasion and the Holocaust were taboo topics, avoided and downplayed when possible. In most cases, producers and directors were encouraged to portray the Soviet Red Army as a friendly and victorious force which entirely liberated Poland from Nazism, Imperialism or Capitalism. The goal was to strengthen the artificial Polish-Soviet friendship and eliminate any knowledge of the crimes or acts of terror committed by the Soviets during World War II, such as the Katyn massacre. Hence, the Polish audience was more lenient towards a TV series exclusively featuring Polish history from the times of the Kingdom of Poland or the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Being produced in a then-socialist country, the shows did contain a socialist agenda, but with a more informal and comical tone; they concentrated on everyday life, which was appealing to ordinary people. These include Czterdziestolatek (1975–1978), Alternatywy 4 (1986–1987) and Zmiennicy (1987–1988). The wide range of topics covered featured petty disputes in the block of flats, work issues, human behaviour and interaction, as well as comedy, sarcasm, drama and satire. Every televised show was censored if necessary and political content was erased. Ridiculing the communist government was illegal, though Poland remained the most liberal of the Eastern Bloc members and censorship eventually lost its authority by the mid-1980s. The majority of the TV shows and serials made during the Polish People's Republic earned a cult status in Poland today, particularly due to their symbolism of a bygone era.

Cinema

In November 1945, the newly formed communist government founded the film production and distribution corporation Film Polski, and placed the well-known Polish filmmaker of Jewish descent Aleksander Ford in charge. The Film Polski output was limited; only thirteen features were released between 1947 and its dissolution in 1952, concentrating on Polish suffering at the hands of the Nazis during World War II for propaganda purposes. In 1947, Ford's contribution to film was crucial in establishing the new National Film School in Łódź, where he taught for 20 years. The first film produced in Poland following the war was Forbidden Songs (1946), which was seen by 10.8 million people in its initial theatrical screening, almost half of the population at the time. Ford's biggest success was Knights of the Teutonic Order from 1960, one of the most celebrated and attended Polish films in history.

The change in political climate in the 1950s gave rise to the Polish Film School movement, a training ground for some of the icons of world cinematography. It was then that independent Polish filmmakers such as Andrzej Wajda, Roman Polanski, Wojciech Has, Kieślowski, Zanussi, Bareja and Andrzej Munk often directed films which were a political satire aimed at stultifying the communist authorities in the most gentle manner as possible. However, due to censorship, some films were not screened in cinemas until 1989, when communism ended in Central and Eastern Europe. The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973) was so controversial that the communist government forbade Wojciech Has from directing for a period of ten years. The authorities also hired or bribed film critics and literary scholars to poorly review the film. The reviewers, however, were so ineffective that in turn the film was applauded in the West and won the Jury Prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.

The first nominated Polish film at the Academy Awards was Knife in the Water by Polanski in 1963. Between 1974 and 1981, Polish films were nominated five times and three consecutively from 1974 to 1976.

Movies

• A Generation
• Ashes and Diamonds
• Nights and Days
• The Deluge
• Knights of the Teutonic Order
• The Quack
• The Doll
• Countess Cosel – Anna Constantia von Brockdorff
• Salt of the Black Earth
• Westerplatte – Battle of Westerplatte
• Death of a President – Assassination of Gabriel Narutowicz
• The Coup d'État
• The Cruise
• Sexmission
• Teddy Bear
• How I Unleashed World War II

Architecture

The architecture in Poland under the Polish People's Republic had three major phases – short-lived socialist realism, modernism and functionalism. Each of these styles or trends was imposed either by the government or by communist doctrine.

Under Stalinism in the late 1940s and 1950s, the Eastern Bloc countries adopted socialist realism, an idealized and monumental realistic art intended to promote communist values, such as the emancipation of the proletariat. This style became alternatively known as Stalinist Empire style due to its grandeur, excessive size and political message (a powerful state) it tried to convey. This expensive form greatly resembled a mixture of classicist architecture and Art Deco, with archways, decorated cornices, mosaics, forged gates and columns. It was under this style that the first skyscrapers were erected in communist states. Stalin ordered the construction of one of the largest buildings in Europe at the time, the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw. With the permission of the Polish authorities, who wouldn't dare to object, the construction started in 1952 and lasted until 1955. It was deemed a "gift from the Soviet Union to the Polish people" and at 237 meters in height it was an impressive landmark on European standards. With its proportions and shape it was to mediate between the Seven Sisters in Moscow and the Empire State Building in New York, but with style it possesses traditionally Polish and Art Deco architectural details.

Following the Polish October in 1956, the concept of socialist realism was condemned. It was then that modernist architecture was promoted globally, with simplistic designs made of glass, steel and concrete. Due to previous extravagances, the idea of functionalism (serving for a purpose) was encouraged by Władysław Gomułka. Prefabrication was seen as a way to construct tower blocks or plattenbau in an efficient and orderly manner. A great influence on this type of architecture was Swiss-French architect and designer Le Corbusier. Mass-prefabricated multi-family residential apartment blocks began to appear in Poland in the 1960s and their construction continued until the early 1990s, although the first examples of multi-dwelling units in Poland date back to the 1920s. The aim was to quickly urbanise rural areas, create space between individual blocks for green spaces and resettle people from densely populated, poorer districts to increase living conditions. The apartment blocks in Poland, commonly known as bloki, were built on East German and Czechoslovak standards, alongside department stores, pavilions and public spaces. As of 2017, 44% of Poles reside in blocks built between the 1960s and 1980s.

Some groundbreaking architectural achievements were made during the People's Republic, most notably the reconstruction of Warsaw with its historical Old Town and the completion of Warszawa Centralna railway station in the 1970s under Edward Gierek's personal patronage. It was the most modern railway station building in that part of Europe when completed and was equipped with automatic glass doors and escalators, an unlikely sight in communist countries. Another example of pure late modernism was the Smyk Department Store, constructed in 1952 when socialist realism was still in effect; it was criticized for its appearance as it resembled the styles and motifs of the pre-war capitalist Second Polish Republic.

Education

Communist authorities placed an emphasis on education since they considered it vital to create a new intelligentsia or an educated class that would accept and favour socialist ideas over capitalism to maintain the communists in power for a long period.

Prior to the Second World War, education in the capitalist Second Polish Republic (1918–1939) had many limitations and wasn't readily available to all, though under the 1932 Jędrzejewicz reform, primary school was made compulsory. Furthermore, the pre-war system of education was in disarray; many educational facilities were much more accessible in wealthier western and central Poland than in the rural east (Kresy), particularly in the Polesie region, where there was one large school per 100 square kilometres (39 square miles). Schools were also in desperate need of staff, tutors and teachers before 1939.

After the 1947 Polish legislative election, the communists took full control of education in the newly formed Polish People's Republic. All private schools were nationalised, subjects that could question the socialist ideology (economics, finance) were either supervised or adjusted and religious studies were completely removed from the curriculum (secularisation).

Primary as well as secondary, tertiary, vocational and higher education was made free. Attendance gradually grew, which put an end to illiteracy in rural areas. The communist government also introduced new beneficial content into the system; sports and physical education were enforced and students were encouraged to learn foreign languages, especially German, Russian, or French, and from the 1980s also English. On 15 July 1961, two-year vocational career training was made obligatory to boost the number of skilled labourers and the minimum age of graduation rose to 15. Additionally, special schools were established for deaf, mute and blind children. Such institutions for the impaired were almost nonexistent in the Second Polish Republic. During the 1960s, thousands of modern schools were founded.

The number of universities nearly doubled between 1938 and 1963. Medical, agricultural, economic, engineering and sport faculties became separate colleges, under a universal communist model used in other countries of the Eastern Bloc. Theological faculties were deemed unnecessary or potentially dangerous and were therefore removed from state universities. Philosophy was also seen as superfluous. In order to strengthen the post-war Polish economy, the government created many common-labour faculties across the country, including dairying, fishing, tailoring, chemistry and mechanics to achieve a better economic output alongside efficiency. However, by 1980, the number of graduates from primary and secondary schools was so high that admission quotas for universities were introduced.

Religion

The experiences in and after World War II, wherein the large ethnic Polish population was decimated, its Jewish minority was annihilated by the Germans, the large German minority was forcibly expelled from the country at the end of the war, along with the loss of the eastern territories which had a significant population of Eastern Orthodox Belarusians and Ukrainians, led to Poland becoming more homogeneously Catholic than it had previously been.

The Polish anti-religious campaign was initiated by the communist government in Poland, which, under the doctrine of Marxism, actively advocated for the disenfranchisement of religion and planned atheisation. The Catholic Church, as the religion of most Poles, was seen as a rival competing for the citizens' allegiance by the government, which attempted to suppress it. To this effect the communist state conducted anti-religious propaganda and persecution of clergymen and monasteries. As in most other Communist countries, religion was not outlawed as such (an exception being Communist Albania) and was permitted by the constitution, but the state attempted to achieve an atheistic society.

The Catholic Church in Poland provided strong resistance to Communist rule and Poland itself had a long history of dissent to foreign rule. The Polish nation rallied to the Church, as had occurred in neighbouring Lithuania, which made it more difficult for the government to impose its antireligious policies as it had in the USSR, where the populace did not hold mass solidarity with the Russian Orthodox Church. It became the strongest anti-communist body during the epoch of Communism in Poland, and provided a more successful resistance than had religious bodies in most other Communist states.

The Catholic Church unequivocally condemned communist ideology. This led to the antireligious activity in Poland being compelled to take a more cautious and conciliatory line than in other Communist countries, largely failing in their attempt to control or suppress the Polish Church.

The state attempted to take control of minority churches, including the Polish Protestant and Polish Orthodox Church in order to use it as a weapon against the anti-communist efforts of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland, and it attempted to control the person who was named as Metropolitan for the Polish Orthodox Church; Metropolitan Dionizy (the post-war head of the POC) was arrested and retired from service after his release.

Following the forcible conversion of Eastern Catholics in the USSR to Orthodoxy, the Polish government called on the Orthodox church in Poland to assume 'pastoral care' of the Eastern Catholics in Poland. After the removal of Metropolitan Dionizy from the leadership of the Polish Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Macarius was placed in charge. He was from western Ukraine (previously eastern Poland) and had been instrumental in the compulsory conversion of eastern Catholics to Orthodoxy there. Polish security forces assisted him in suppressing resistance to his taking control of Eastern Catholic parishes. Many eastern Catholics who remained in Poland after the postwar border adjustments were resettled in Western Poland in the newly acquired territories from Germany. The state in Poland gave the POC a greater number of privileges than the Roman Catholic Church in Poland; the state even gave money to this Church, although it often defaulted on promised payments, leading to a perpetual financial crisis for the POC.

Demographics

Before World War II, a third of Poland's population was composed of ethnic minorities. After the war, however, Poland's minorities were mostly gone, due to the 1945 revision of borders, and the Holocaust. Under the National Repatriation Office (Państwowy Urząd Repatriacyjny), millions of Poles were forced to leave their homes in the eastern Kresy region and settle in the western former German territories. At the same time, approximately 5 million remaining Germans (about 8 million had already fled or had been expelled and about 1 million had been killed in 1944–1946) were similarly expelled from those territories into the Allied occupation zones. Ukrainian and Belarusian minorities found themselves now mostly within the borders of the Soviet Union; those who opposed this new policy (like the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the Bieszczady Mountains region) were suppressed by the end of 1947 in the Operation Vistula.

The population of Jews in Poland, which formed the largest Jewish community in pre-war Europe at about 3.3 million people, was all but destroyed by 1945. Approximately 3 million Jews died of starvation in ghettos and labour camps, were slaughtered at the German Nazi extermination camps or by the Einsatzgruppen death squads. Between 40,000 and 100,000 Polish Jews survived the Holocaust in Poland, and another 50,000 to 170,000 were repatriated from the Soviet Union, and 20,000 to 40,000 from Germany and other countries. At its postwar peak, there were 180,000 to 240,000 Jews in Poland, settled mostly in Warsaw, Łódź, Kraków and Wrocław.

According to the national census, which took place on 14 February 1946, the population of Poland was 23.9 million, out of which 32% lived in cities and towns, and 68% lived in the countryside. The 1950 census (3 December 1950) showed the population rose to 25 million, and the 1960 census (6 December 1960) placed the population of Poland at 29.7 million. In 1950, Warsaw was again the biggest city, with a population of 804,000 inhabitants. Second was Łódź (pop. 620,000), then Kraków (pop. 344,000), Poznań (pop. 321,000), and Wrocław (pop. 309,000).

Females were the majority in the country. In 1931, there were 105.6 women for 100 men. In 1946, the difference grew to 118.5/100, but in subsequent years, the number of males grew, and in 1960, the ratio was 106.7/100.

Most Germans were expelled from Poland and the annexed eastern German territories at the end of the war, while many Ukrainians, Rusyns and Belarusians lived in territories incorporated into the USSR. Small Ukrainian, Belarusian, Slovak, and Lithuanian minorities resided along the borders, and a German minority was concentrated near the southwestern city of Opole and in Masuria. Groups of Ukrainians and Polish Ruthenians also lived in western Poland, where they were forcefully resettled by the authorities.

As a result of the migrations and the Soviet Union's radically altered borders under the rule of Joseph Stalin, the population of Poland became one of the most ethnically homogeneous in the world. Virtually all people in Poland claim Polish nationality, with Polish as their native tongue.

Life expectancy in Poland was around 46 in the 1930s and this dropped by 20-25 years after World War II, life expectancy began to rapidly increase to 70 years by the 1960s and infant mortality which had long been one of the highest in Europe, became comparable to or even better than other European nations such as Portugal, Italy, and Austria. Life expectancy by the late 1960s was only a few years behind England, Wales and West Germany, which had been higher by nearly 20 years pre-war. This rapid progress, however, began to stagnate in large part due to the high rates of smoking.

Military

World War II

The Polish People's Army (LWP) was initially formed during World War II as the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division, but more commonly known as the Berling Army. Almost half of the soldiers and recruits in the Polish People's Army were Soviet. In March 1945, Red Army officers accounted for approximately 52% of the entire corps (15,492 out of 29,372). Around 4,600 of them remained by July 1946.

It was not the only Polish formation that fought along the Allied side, nor the first one in the East – although the first Polish force formed in the USSR, the Anders Army, had by that time moved to Iran. The Polish forces soon grew beyond the 1st Division into two major commands – the Polish First Army commanded by Zygmunt Berling, and the Polish Second Army headed by Karol Świerczewski. The Polish First Army participated in the Vistula–Oder Offensive and the Battle of Kolberg (1945) before taking part in its final offensive with the Battle of Berlin.

After the war

Following the Second World War, the Polish Army was reorganized into six (later seven) main military districts: the Warsaw Military District with its headquarters in Warsaw, the Lublin Military District, Kraków Military District, Łódź Military District, Poznań Military District, the Pomeranian Military District with its headquarters in Toruń and the Silesian Military District in Katowice.

Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Polish Army was under the command of Polish-born Marshal of the Soviet Union Konstantin Rokossovsky, who was intentionally given the title "Marshal of Poland" and was also Minister of National Defense. It was heavily tied into the Soviet military structures and was intended to increase Soviet influence as well as control over the Polish units in case of war. This process, however, was stopped in the aftermath of the Polish October in 1956. Rokossovsky, viewed as a Soviet puppet, was excluded from the Polish United Workers' Party and driven out back to the Soviet Union where he remained a hero until death.

The Polish government subsequently established the Mazur Commission on 10 December 1956 to investigate allegations of unlawful conduct in the military courts that had occurred during Rokossovsky's tenure. The commission concluded their investigation with a list of alleged perpetrators and their victims, but many cases were dismissed or not indictable because the alleged perpetrators had by then already died.

Geography

Geographically, the Polish People's Republic bordered the Baltic Sea to the North; the Soviet Union (via the Russian SFSR (Kaliningrad Oblast), Lithuanian, Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSRs) to the east; Czechoslovakia to the south and East Germany to the west. After World War II, Poland's borders were redrawn, following the decision taken at the Tehran Conference of 1943 at the insistence of the Soviet Union. Poland lost 77,000 km² of territory in its eastern regions (Kresy), gaining instead the smaller but much more industrialised (however ruined) so-called "Regained Territories" east of the Oder-Neisse line.

Administration

The Polish People's Republic was divided into several voivodeships (the Polish unit of administrative division). After World War II, the new administrative divisions were based on the pre-war ones. The areas in the East that were not annexed by the Soviet Union had their borders left almost unchanged. Newly acquired territories in the west and north were organized into the voivodeships of Szczecin, Wrocław, Olsztyn and partially joined to Gdańsk, Katowice and Poznań voivodeships. Two cities were granted voivodeship status: Warsaw and Łódź.

In 1950, new voivodeships were created: Koszalin – previously part of Szczecin, Opole – previously part of Katowice, and Zielona Góra – previously part of Poznań, Wrocław and Szczecin voivodeships. In addition, three other cities were granted the voivodeship status: Wrocław, Kraków and Poznań.

In 1973, Poland's voivodeships were changed again. This reorganisation of the administrative division of Poland was mainly a result of local government reform acts of 1973 to 1975. In place of the three-level administrative division (voivodeship, powiat, gmina), a new two-level administrative division was introduced (49 small voivodeships and communes). The three smallest voivodeships: Warsaw, Kraków and Łódź had a special status of municipal voivodeship; the city mayor (prezydent miasta) was also province governor.