As hard as he tried to impose communism on Poland post World War II, this famous comment made by Joseph Stalin in 1944 seemed to be almost prophetic when Poland became the first Eastern European state to break free of communism in 1989. As Poland elected the first non-communist Prime Minister in Eastern Europe since the Second World War, it led the collapse of communism and the Soviet Bloc as well as ushering in the end of the Cold War. However, after surviving 45 years of turbulent communist rule, this change was a long time coming.
The Yalta Conference, held in February 1945 between the Big Three, (Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin) decided the fate of several war-affected countries, including Poland. Due to the dominant position of the Soviet Union’s Red Army in Poland at the time, Poland was formally decreed to be under Soviet control. Under Stalin’s rule, almost all Polish war-time leaders were either imprisoned, killed or driven out of the country. While general elections were officially held, these were later proven to be manipulated, and resulted in the communists coming to power. Various communist parties were consolidated with the formation of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) which continued to rule the country till 1989.
In their bid to communize Poland, the Soviet governments nationalized all commercial and industrial enterprises which employed more than 50 workers. Heavy industry was prioritized in the thrust towards industrialization. The government attempted to enforce collective agriculture, however this was eventually abandoned. These and several other policies of the Communist government were met with resistance in the form of frequent protests throughout the tenure of communist rule. In 1956, a large-scale industrial strike broke out at Poznań, with workers demanding “bread and freedom”. March 1968 saw mass protests by student and the intelligentsia at Warsaw, Kraków, Lublin, Gdańsk and other cities. Fluctuating prices and frequent price hikes resulted in the strikes and protests in 1970 and ’76. The communist government used unrestrained force to suppress these protests. However, they could not change the fact that the social and economic conditions of Poland were collapsing dramatically and political ferment was brewing as support for the opposition grew.
In 1980, when the government announced further hikes in food prices, it triggered off widespread strikes and riots all over the country. The 1980 protests were more widespread and more organized that the protests that had taken place before. Although they started with demands of raising wages, the strikes soon incorporated larger economic and political aspects. By this time, the communist government was no longer in a strong enough position to suppress the protests by force, and eventually, had to concede to several of the strikers’ demands. One of the pivotal outcomes of the 1980 strikes was that the workers obtained the right to form independent trade unions, and to strike. This resulted in the convention of workers from across Poland and the formation of Solidarność or ‘Solidarity’, a nation-wide independent and self-governing trade union, which eventually grew to be the representative body of the entire Polish population with 10 million members, or 60 percent of the then Polish workforce.
The last decade of communist rule in Poland was a period of great turmoil, with the clash between the demand for significant economic reforms and the attempt to maintain communist control. The formation of Solidarity gave the Polish people a glimpse into democracy that had so far been doggedly suppressed by the communist government. Debates on reform policies took place in public forums, the independent press flourished. With growing public dialogue, the pressure on the government to implement social and economic reforms intensified, resulting in large scale social tension. In order to suppress this growing dissent, martial law was imposed on Poland in December 1981. Poland was under martial law for a period of close to two years, during which the government first suspended and eventually dissolved Solidarity. Military rule was finally lifted in July 1983, however, it wasn’t until the election of Gorbachev in the Soviet Union in 1985 that the democratization of Poland became a possibility.
In 1989, the government, the opposition and the Polish Church convened for the Round Table Talks, through which Solidarity was re-established and the opposition was allowed to stand for parliamentary elections. The elections that followed were not entirely free, as the communists had reserved 65 percent of the seats in the lower house of Parliament for themselves. Despite this however, Solidarity won an overwhelming majority in the Upper House in the elections, and subsequently put up a non-communist representative, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, as Prime Minister, even as the Presidency was held by the former Prime Minister of the communist party, Wojciech Jaruzelski. Eventhough they weren’t completely free, it was these elections that eventually led the way to a Poland that was free of Soviet-communist control, as the PZPR, losing members and confidence, dissolved itself in 1990. In November 1990, the first fully free elections were held for the post of President, which were won by the Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa.
After 45 years of the former Soviet Union trying to saddle a cow, Poland ultimately emerged as a Parliamentary Representative Democratic Republic.
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