The Ministry of Public Security ( Polish : Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego ), was the secret police , intelligence and counter-espionage agency operating in the Polish People's Republic . From 1945 to 1954 it was known as the Security Office ( Urząd Bezpieczeństwa , UB), and from 1956 to 1990 as the Security Service ( Służba Bezpieczeństwa , SB).
165-602: The Polish United Workers' Party ( Polish : Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza , pronounced [ˈpɔlska zjɛdnɔˈt͡ʂɔna ˈpartja rɔbɔtˈɲit͡ʂa] ), commonly abbreviated to 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 . Ideologically, it
330-528: A "Polish way to socialism", and beginning an era known as Gomułka's thaw , he came under Soviet pressure. Gomułka participated in the Warsaw Pact intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968. At that time he was also responsible for persecuting students as well as toughening censorship of the media. In 1968, he incited an anti-Zionist propaganda campaign , part of a wider Communist bloc opposition to
495-499: A / (spelled a ), / ɔ / (spelled o ) and / u / (spelled u and ó as separate letters). The nasal vowels are / ɛ w̃ / (spelled ę ) and / ɔ w̃ / (spelled ą ). Unlike Czech or Slovak, Polish does not retain phonemic vowel length — the letter ó , which formerly represented lengthened /ɔː/ in older forms of the language, is now vestigial and instead corresponds to /u/. The Polish consonant system shows more complexity: its characteristic features include
660-425: 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
825-771: A dialect of Polish. Many Silesians consider themselves a separate ethnicity and have been advocating for the recognition of Silesian as a regional language in Poland . The law recognizing it as such was passed by the Sejm and Senate in April 2024, but has been vetoed by President Andrzej Duda in late May of 2024. According to the last official census in Poland in 2011, over half a million people declared Silesian as their native language. Many sociolinguists (e.g. Tomasz Kamusella , Agnieszka Pianka, Alfred F. Majewicz, Tomasz Wicherkiewicz ) assume that extralinguistic criteria decide whether
990-669: A few culturally and linguistically related tribes from the basins of the Vistula and Oder before eventually accepting baptism in 966. With Western Christianity , Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet , which made it possible to write down Polish, which until then had existed only as a spoken language . The closest relatives of Polish are the Elbe and Baltic Sea Lechitic dialects ( Polabian and Pomeranian varieties). All of them, except Kashubian , are extinct. The precursor to modern Polish
1155-520: A large number of branches in all of these areas) offers services available in Polish at all of their cash machines in addition to English and Spanish . According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England and Wales who consider Polish to be their "main" language. In Canada , there is a significant Polish Canadian population : There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to
1320-543: A lect is an independent language or a dialect: speakers of the speech variety or/and political decisions, and this is dynamic (i.e. it changes over time). Also, research organizations such as SIL International and resources for the academic field of linguistics such as Ethnologue , Linguist List and others, for example the Ministry of Administration and Digitization recognized the Silesian language. In July 2007,
1485-454: A nasal consonant, rather than a nasal vowel. For example, ą in dąb ("oak") is pronounced [ɔm] , and ę in tęcza ("rainbow") is pronounced [ɛn] (the nasal assimilates to the following consonant). When followed by l or ł (for example przyjęli , przyjęły ), ę is pronounced as just e . When ę is at the end of the word it is often pronounced as just [ɛ] . Depending on
1650-676: A post he held until 1954. He remained party leader until his death in 1956. Bierut oversaw the trials of many Polish wartime military leaders, such as General Stanisław Tatar and Brig. General Emil August Fieldorf , as well as 40 members of the Wolność i Niezawisłość (Freedom and Independence) organisation, various Church officials and many other opponents of the new regime including Witold Pilecki , condemned to death during secret trials . Bierut signed many of those death sentences. Bierut's mysterious death in Moscow in 1956 (shortly after attending
1815-486: 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 December 6-11, 1971, the 6th Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party was held (for the first time
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#17327868360921980-402: A reversed diacritic hook called an ogonek . Polish is a synthetic and fusional language which has seven grammatical cases . It has fixed penultimate stress and an abundance of palatal consonants . Contemporary Polish developed in the 1700s as the successor to the medieval Old Polish (10th–16th centuries) and Middle Polish (16th–18th centuries). Among the major languages, it
2145-491: A single word. This applies in particular to many combinations of preposition plus a personal pronoun, such as do niej ('to her'), na nas ('on us'), prze ze mnie ('because of me'), all stressed on the bolded syllable. The Polish alphabet derives from the Latin script but includes certain additional letters formed using diacritics . The Polish alphabet was one of three major forms of Latin-based orthography developed for Western and some South Slavic languages,
2310-460: A stroke). A dynamic younger man, Edward Gierek , took over the Party leadership and tensions eased. 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
2475-405: A verse by Jan Brzechwa ) is W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie [fʂt͡ʂɛbʐɛˈʂɨɲɛ ˈxʂɔw̃ʂt͡ʂ ˈbʐmi fˈtʂt͡ɕiɲɛ] ('In Szczebrzeszyn a beetle buzzes in the reed'). Unlike languages such as Czech, Polish does not have syllabic consonants – the nucleus of a syllable is always a vowel. The consonant /j/ is restricted to positions adjacent to a vowel. It also cannot precede
2640-478: A vowel when it precedes another vowel (it represents /j/ , palatalization of the preceding consonant, or both depending on analysis). Also the letters u and i sometimes represent only semivowels when they follow another vowel, as in autor /ˈawtɔr/ ('author'), mostly in loanwords (so not in native nauka /naˈu.ka/ 'science, the act of learning', for example, nor in nativized Mateusz /maˈte.uʂ/ 'Matthew'). Some loanwords , particularly from
2805-711: Is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group within the Indo-European language family written in the Latin script . It is primarily spoken in Poland and serves as the official language of the country, as well as the language of the Polish diaspora around the world. In 2024, there were over 39.7 million Polish native speakers. It ranks as the sixth most-spoken among languages of the European Union . Polish
2970-419: Is also spoken as a second language in eastern Germany , northern Czech Republic and Slovakia , western parts of Belarus and Ukraine as well as in southeast Lithuania and Latvia . Because of the emigration from Poland during different time periods, most notably after World War II , millions of Polish speakers can also be found in countries such as Canada , Argentina , Brazil , Israel , Australia ,
3135-526: Is considered to be the symbolic end of the process of liberalization of the system in the Gomułka era. During the session, the First Secretary delivered one of the most important speeches in his career. He devoted the report "On the current problems of the ideological work of the party" to policy towards culture, considering that the most important threat on the "cultural front" is revisionism. He condemned
3300-427: Is most closely related to Slovak and Czech but differs in terms of pronunciation and general grammar. Additionally, Polish was profoundly influenced by Latin and other Romance languages like Italian and French as well as Germanic languages (most notably German ), which contributed to a large number of loanwords and similar grammatical structures. Extensive usage of nonstandard dialects has also shaped
3465-447: Is possible to say ko goście zoba czy li? – here kogo retains its usual stress (first syllable) in spite of the attachment of the clitic. Reanalysis of the endings as inflections when attached to verbs causes the different colloquial stress patterns. These stress patterns are considered part of a "usable" norm of standard Polish - in contrast to the "model" ("high") norm. Some common word combinations are stressed as if they were
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#17327868360923630-595: Is subdivided into regional dialects and maintains strict T–V distinction pronouns, honorifics , and various forms of formalities when addressing individuals. The traditional 32-letter Polish alphabet has nine additions ( ą , ć , ę , ł , ń , ó , ś , ź , ż ) to the letters of the basic 26-letter Latin alphabet , while removing three (x, q, v). Those three letters are at times included in an extended 35-letter alphabet. The traditional set comprises 23 consonants and 9 written vowels , including two nasal vowels ( ę , ą ) defined by
3795-524: Is the Old Polish language . Ultimately, Polish descends from the unattested Proto-Slavic language. The Book of Henryków (Polish: Księga henrykowska , Latin : Liber fundationis claustri Sanctae Mariae Virginis in Heinrichau ), contains the earliest known sentence written in the Polish language: Day, ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai (in modern orthography: Daj, uć ja pobrusza, a ti pocziwaj ;
3960-529: Is the most widely-used minority language in Lithuania's Vilnius County , by 26% of the population, according to the 2001 census results, as Vilnius was part of Poland from 1922 until 1939. Polish is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. In Ukraine, it is most common in the western parts of Lviv and Volyn Oblasts , while in West Belarus it is used by the significant Polish minority, especially in
4125-791: 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
4290-430: The kropka (superior dot) over the letter ż , and the ogonek ("little tail") under the letters ą, ę . The letters q, v, x are used only in foreign words and names. Polish orthography is largely phonemic —there is a consistent correspondence between letters (or digraphs and trigraphs ) and phonemes (for exceptions see below). The letters of the alphabet and their normal phonemic values are listed in
4455-401: The ś in święty ("holy") all represent the sound / ɕ / . The exceptions to the above rule are certain loanwords from Latin, Italian, French, Russian or English—where s before i is pronounced as s , e.g. sinus , sinologia , do re mi fa sol la si do , Saint-Simon i saint-simoniści , Sierioża , Siergiej , Singapur , singiel . In other loanwords
4620-598: The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ) gave rise to much speculation about poisoning or a suicide, and symbolically marked the end of Stalinism era in Poland. On November 11-13, 1949, a plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party was held, which was devoted to the tasks of the party in the fight for revolutionary vigilance. The plenum was dedicated to two leading topics: increasing indoctrination and continuing
4785-596: The Brest and Grodno regions and in areas along the Lithuanian border. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries. In the United States , Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. According to the 2000 United States Census , 667,414 Americans of age five years and over reported Polish as
4950-481: 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. The party's 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
5115-661: The Council of Ministers decided to replace the ministry with two separate administrations: the Committee for Public Security ( Komitet do Spraw Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego or KDSBP), headed by Władysław Dworakowski , and the Ministry of Interior ( Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych or MSW), headed by Władysław Wicha . The number of employees of the Committee for Public Security was cut by 30% in central headquarters and by 40–50% in local structures. The huge network of secret informers
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5280-803: The Home Army ( Armia Krajowa ) and later anti-communist organizations like Freedom and Independence (WiN). The Ministry of Public Security was established on 1 January 1945 and ceased operations on 7 December 1954. It was the chief secret service in communist Poland during the period of Stalinism . Throughout its existence, the UB was responsible for brutally beating, arresting, imprisoning, torturing and murdering at least tens of thousands of political opponents and suspects as well as taking part in actions such as Operation Vistula in 1947. The headquarters were located on Koszykowa Street in central Warsaw , but its branches and places of detention were scattered across
5445-736: The Internal Security Corps ( Korpus Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego , KBW), 57,000 officers in the Citizens' Militia ( Milicja Obywatelska ), 32,000 officers and soldiers in the Border guard (Wojska Ochrony Pogranicza), 10,000 prison officers (Straż Więzienna), and 125,000 members of Volunteer Reserves of the Citizens Militia (Ochotnicza Rezerwa Milicji Obywatelskiej, ORMO ), a paramilitary police used for special operations. Political penetration and military control over
5610-612: The Kremlin , was elected First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party. On July 18-28, 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
5775-609: 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 December 20-21, 1988, the first part of the 10th Plenum of
5940-496: The Polish United Workers' Party . Among other activities, Światło had been ordered to falsify evidence that was used to incriminate Władysław Gomułka , whom he personally arrested. He had also arrested and falsified evidence against Marian Spychalski , the future Minister of National Defence , who was at the time a leading politician and high-ranking military officer. The political and administrative matters of
6105-666: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 's influence gave Polish the status of lingua franca in Central and Eastern Europe . The process of standardization began in the 14th century and solidified in the 16th century during the Middle Polish era. Standard Polish was based on various dialectal features, with the Greater Poland dialect group serving as the base. After World War II , Standard Polish became
6270-655: The Secret Office was established for Internal counter-intelligence. The Special Office conducted surveillance on members of the MPB itself. On March 2, 1949, the Special Bureau was established, renamed in 1951 simply as Department Ten . Department 10 conducted surveillance of high-ranking members of the Polish United Workers' Party and people associated with them. Josef Goldberg) (1945/47) All over Poland Ministry of Public Security had regional offices. There
6435-517: The Six-Day War . On 20-22 January 1960, during the 4th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, many personnel changes were made in the highest positions in the party. Jerzy Morawski 's place in the Central Committee secretariat was taken by Ryszard Strzelecki , associated with the Natolinians . Together with him, another experienced Edward Ochab was co-opted to
6600-692: 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
6765-522: The United Kingdom and the United States . Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. At the time, it was a collection of dialect groups with some mutual features, but much regional variation was present. Mieszko I , ruler of the Polans tribe from the Greater Poland region, united
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6930-545: The anti-communist resistance , who opposed the new occupiers and attacked the Stalinist strongholds, were eventually hunted down by UB security services and assassination squads. The underground structures had been destroyed, and most members of the Armia Krajowa and WiN who remained opposed to communism, were executed after kangaroo trials (staged by Wolińska-Brus and Zarakowski among others), or deported to
7095-474: The classical languages , have the stress on the antepenultimate (third-from-last) syllable. For example, fizyka ( /ˈfizɨka/ ) ('physics') is stressed on the first syllable. This may lead to a rare phenomenon of minimal pairs differing only in stress placement, for example muzyka /ˈmuzɨka/ 'music' vs. muzyka /muˈzɨka/ – genitive singular of muzyk 'musician'. When additional syllables are added to such words through inflection or suffixation ,
7260-578: The flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–50) , as well as the expulsion of Ukrainians and Operation Vistula , the 1947 migration of Ukrainian minorities in the Recovered Territories in the west of the country, contributed to the country's linguistic homogeneity. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak Polish somewhat differently, although the differences between modern-day vernacular varieties and standard Polish ( język ogólnopolski ) appear relatively slight. Most of
7425-404: The standard language ; considerable colloquialisms and expressions were directly borrowed from German or Yiddish and subsequently adopted into the vernacular of Polish which is in everyday use. Historically, Polish was a lingua franca , important both diplomatically and academically in Central and part of Eastern Europe . In addition to being the official language of Poland, Polish
7590-555: The 12th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party was held, devoted to assessing the events of the past. As a sign of protest against the anti-Semitic campaign, Edward Ochab resigned from his mandate as a member of the Political Bureau and the Central Committee. On November 11-16 of that year, the 5th Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party was held with the participation of Leonid Brezhnev , Walter Ulbricht and Todor Zhivkov . Brezhnev presented
7755-416: The 16th century, which is also regarded as the " Golden Age of Polish literature". The orthography was modified in the 19th century and in 1936. Tomasz Kamusella notes that "Polish is the oldest, non-ecclesiastical, written Slavic language with a continuous tradition of literacy and official use, which has lasted unbroken from the 16th century to this day." Polish evolved into the main sociolect of
7920-423: 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,
8085-409: The 1st National Conference of the Polish United Workers' Party, a "great and universal action of working people undertaken for the purpose of educating the 30th anniversary of the People's Republic of Poland" was initiated. Reports of increased production and coal mining began to arrive from all over the country. However, the quality of life did not improve. On February 15 of that year, the 13th Plenum of
8250-486: The 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto (91,810 speakers) and Montreal . The geographical distribution of the Polish language was greatly affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II and Polish population transfers (1944–46) . Poles settled in the " Recovered Territories " in the west and north, which had previously been mostly German -speaking. Some Poles remained in
8415-423: The 5th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party met under the slogan "For consistent implementation of the socio-economic program of the 7th Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party, for higher efficiency of management". Stefan Olszowski and Alojzy Karkoszka were appointed as secretaries. On 9-10 January 1978, the 2nd National Conference of the Polish United Workers' Party met under
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#17327868360928580-477: The Central Committee secretariat, already as a full member. The idea of strengthening the power of the party apparatus was returned to by establishing two new departments in the Central Committee - the Department of Science and Education, headed by Andrzej Werblan , and the Department of Culture headed by Wincenty Kraska . The personnel carousel also included several first secretaries of the Central Committee of
8745-412: The Central Committee was held, devoted to the topic of "Ideological and educational tasks of the party in the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the People's Republic of Poland". During the meeting, Wincenty Kraska and Andrzej Werblan were elected secretaries of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, while Kazimierz Barcikowski, recommended for the position of Minister of Agriculture,
8910-747: The Communal Offices of Public Security ( Gminny Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego , or GUBP), which were stationed at the local militia precincts ( MO ), with 3 UBP security officers on staff. In 1953, in the field, there were 17 Voivode Offices of Public Security (WUBP), and 2 Regional Offices of Public Security on the order of WUBP. There were 268 District Offices of Public Security (PUBP) and 5 City Offices of Public Security (MUBP), which operated as District Offices of Public Security (PUBP). Together, they employed 33,200 permanent officers, of which 7,500 were stationed in their Warsaw headquarters . According to professor Andrzej Paczkowski , in 1953, there
9075-555: The Federation of Socialist Unions of Polish Youth was established, an organization operating under the leadership of PZPR, whose goal was to indoctrinate youth in the spirit of Marxist ideology. In 1974, the Institute of Basic Problems of Marxism-Leninism was established at the Central Committee of PZPR in order to educate party apparatchiks. Unification and centralization also included economic and cooperative structures, including
9240-583: The Henryków monastery, noted that "Hoc est in polonico" ("This is in Polish"). The earliest treatise on Polish orthography was written by Jakub Parkosz [ pl ] around 1470. The first printed book in Polish appeared in either 1508 or 1513, while the oldest Polish newspaper was established in 1661. Starting in the 1520s, large numbers of books in the Polish language were published, contributing to increased homogeneity of grammar and orthography. The writing system achieved its overall form in
9405-616: The IX Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party convened, under an attack by the "concrete", demanding a change of leadership to a more decisive one. Under the influence of the Soviet letter, Kania also hardened his position. On 14-20 July, the IX Extraordinary Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party was held (over 350 thousand members left the party during the year), at which Stanisław Kania
9570-506: The MBP remained in the committee. It therefore maintained full surveillance and repression capabilities. Several people were removed from prominent positions, but the personal continuity of the MBP-KdsBP management was maintained. In 1956 the marginally less repressive Security Service (SB) replaced the committee in 1956. All secret servicemen, functionaries, and employees were widely known by
9735-412: The Ministry came under the authority of Jakub Berman , a Stalinist from the Polish United Workers' Party . The Ministry of Public Security structure was being changed constantly from January 1945 on, as the Ministry expanded. It was divided into departments and each department was subdivided into sections entrusted with different tasks. In January 1945, the largest and the most important department in UB
9900-828: The NKVD-run militsiya during World War II. He worked as chief of the NKVD Secret Political Department, before becoming People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the USSR. In 1941–1945, he was the First Deputy People's Commissar of the State Security and later – Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union. Once he became main advisor to
10065-655: The PKWN was joined by several members of the London-based Polish government in exile , among them Stanisław Mikołajczyk (later chased out of the country). PKWN was then transformed into Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland ( Polish : Rząd Tymczasowy Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej or RTRP ). All departments were renamed: the Department of Public Security became the Ministry of Public Security ( Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego ) or MBP and UB. From
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#173278683609210230-715: 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
10395-575: 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,
10560-437: The PZPR for lack of activity and violations of party ethics, 33,000 of whom were for various offenses. On May 16-17, 1967, the 8th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party was held, devoted to "current tasks in the political work of the party". Zenon Kliszko appealed to artists to promote heroes fighting for the victory of socialism and the topics of the "socialist approach to work". On July 8-9, 1968,
10725-464: 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 –
10890-401: 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
11055-424: The PZPR were to appear before special commissions to determine their ideological stance. As a result of the verification action, which turned out to be the largest purge in the history of the PZPR, by May 1958, 207,000 members (15.5%) of all members and candidates had been excluded from the party. In the 1960s Gomułka supported persecution of the Roman Catholic Church and intellectuals (notably Leszek Kołakowski who
11220-417: The Polish People's Republic. On March 20, 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,
11385-437: The Polish United Worker's Party was responsible for the brutal 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 a bitter anti-Semitic campaign during the 1968 Polish political crisis , which forced the remainder of Poland's Jews to emigrate. Amidst the ongoing political and economic crises,
11550-428: 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
11715-415: The Polish United Workers' Party. The 7th Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party took place on December 8-12, 1975. Among the guests was Leonid Brezhnev , for who arrived to the newly opened Warszawa Centralna railway station . Gierek delivered the programmatic report of the Political Bureau "for further dynamic development of socialist construction - for higher quality of work and living conditions of
11880-529: The Polish United Workers' Party. Additionally, in May that year, Jerzy Albrecht resigned from the position of the Central Committee secretary. This confirmed the direction of staff exchange in key positions by purging the apparatus of active participants in the October changes . On July 4-6, 1963, the 13th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party was held, devoted to ideological matters. It
12045-423: 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
12210-516: The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party and secretary of the Central Committee, which was interpreted as an affront. He had already taken these positions in July in exchange for the position of head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs , which Gomułka filled with his associate, Kazimierz Świtała . On June 18, 1969, during a meeting of the Central Committee of Party Control, its chairman Zenon Nowak informed that 1968
12375-590: The Silesian Voivodeship Committee PZPR, Edward Gierek, was the most praised. Two "technocrats" became new members of the Political Bureau: Eugeniusz Szyr and Franciszek Waniolka . At the end of 1964, the PZPR had over 1.6 million members. Over the five years, between the 3rd and 4th Congresses, over 800,000 members and candidates were accepted into the party. At the same time, 150,000 were expelled from
12540-671: The Silesian language was recognized by ISO , and was attributed an ISO code of szl. Some additional characteristic but less widespread regional dialects include: Polish linguistics has been characterized by a strong strive towards promoting prescriptive ideas of language intervention and usage uniformity, along with normatively-oriented notions of language "correctness" (unusual by Western standards). Polish has six oral vowels (seven oral vowels in written form), which are all monophthongs , and two nasal vowels . The oral vowels are / i / (spelled i ), / ɨ / (spelled y and also transcribed as /ɘ/ or /ɪ/), / ɛ / (spelled e ), /
12705-682: The Soviet GULAG system. In November 1953, First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party , Bolesław Bierut , asked Politburo member Jakub Berman to send MBP Lieutenant Colonel Józef Światło on an important mission to East Berlin . Światło, deputy head of UB Department 10 , together with Colonel Anatol Fejgin , were asked to consult with the East German Ministry for State Security's chief Erich Mielke about eliminating Wanda Brońska . The two officials traveled to Berlin and spoke with Mielke. On December 5, 1953,
12870-527: 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
13035-517: The UB in March 1945, Ivan Serov oversaw the kidnapping of 16 top Polish politicians and underground resistance leaders, secretly transported them to Moscow , where they were tortured and thrown into jail after the staged Trial of the Sixteen . None survived. Infiltrated by NKGB and NKVD agents – the Ministry of Public Security was well known for its criminal nature . From January 1945 (or, July 22),
13200-446: The advancing Red Army. PKWN was proclaimed "the only legitimate Polish government" by Stalin, with full political control and Soviet sponsorship. Within the PKWN's internal structure, there were thirteen departments called Resorty . One of these was the Department of Public Security (Resort Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego) or RBP, headed by Stanisław Radkiewicz . It was a precursor of the Polish communist secret police. On 31 December 1944,
13365-496: The authorities - Jaruzelski, who had been prime minister since February 1981, gained support; many representatives of the army, which was gaining more and more influence, were also elected. Gierek, Babiuch , Lukaszewicz , Pyka , Szydlak and Żandarowski were ousted from the PZPR. Kania admitted that the party had made many economic mistakes, and advocated working with Catholic and trade unionist opposition groups. He met with Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa , and other critics of
13530-521: The authorities in Warsaw. Światło had intimate knowledge of the internal politics of the Polish government, especially the activities of the various secret services. Over the course of the following months, American newspapers and Radio Free Europe reported extensively on political repression in Poland based on Światło revelations, including the torture of prisoners under interrogation and politically motivated executions. Światło also detailed struggles inside
13695-573: The border guard. In 1956 the Committee was dissolved, most of its functions merged into Ministry of Interior; the secret police was renamed to the 'Security Service' ( Służba Bezpieczeństwa or SB) on 28 November 1956. The order was made by Władysław Wicha , who was the incumbent Minister of Interior until 1964. In Warsaw, most of the killings were carried out at the Mokotów Prison . The victims' bodies – often placed naked in cement bags – were wheeled out at night and buried in unmarked graves in
13860-485: The cases mentioned above, the letter i if followed by another vowel in the same word usually represents / j / , yet a palatalization of the previous consonant is always assumed. The reverse case, where the consonant remains unpalatalized but is followed by a palatalized consonant, is written by using j instead of i : for example, zjeść , "to eat up". The letters ą and ę , when followed by plosives and affricates, represent an oral vowel followed by
14025-460: 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
14190-742: The core of MBP or UB in January 1945. On September 6, 1945, from the existing structure of Department II emerged three additional departments: Department IV commanded by Aleksander Wolski-Dyszko, Department V commanded by Julia Brystygier , and Department VI headed by Teodor Duda (pl) . In July 1946, further changes were enacted. UB was divided into eight (8) departments, five of which dealt with operational cases, including Counter-espionage (Dep 1), Technical operations and technology (Dep 2), Fighting underground resistance (Dep 3), Protection of economy (Dep 4), and Counteraction of hostile penetration and church influences (Dep 5). In June 1948
14355-713: The corresponding sentence in modern Polish: Daj, niech ja pomielę, a ty odpoczywaj or Pozwól, że ja będę mełł, a ty odpocznij ; and in English: Come, let me grind, and you take a rest ), written around 1280. The book is exhibited in the Archdiocesal Museum in Wrocław, and as of 2015 has been added to UNESCO 's " Memory of the World " list. The medieval recorder of this phrase, the Cistercian monk Peter of
14520-769: The country by the Soviet Union was evident in the early years of the Polish People's Republic. The Soviet Northern Group of Forces was stationed in Poland until 1956. The command and administrative structure of the Polish Armed Forces, Intelligence , Counter-intelligence , special services and Internal security organs both civilian (UB) and military ( Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army GZI WP) were infiltrated by Soviet intelligence and counter-intelligence officers, who served as
14685-641: The day after meeting Mielke, Światło defected to the United States through their military mission in West Berlin . The next day, American military authorities transported Światło to Frankfurt and by December, Światło had been flown to Washington D.C, where he underwent an extensive debriefing. Światło's defection was widely publicized in the United States and Europe by the American authorities, as well as in Poland via Radio Free Europe , embarrassing
14850-420: 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
15015-457: The destructive fascination with the West, which was evident among young writers, and criticized the work of radio and television for their tendency towards sterile negation and mindless criticism. Gomułka also presented his vision of conducting historical policy, in which the development of the history of the workers' movement was to occupy a prominent place. He emphasized that the ideological front of
15180-479: The disappearance of yers . Polish can have word-initial and word-medial clusters of up to four consonants, whereas word-final clusters can have up to five consonants. Examples of such clusters can be found in words such as bezwzględny [bɛzˈvzɡlɛndnɨ] ('absolute' or 'heartless', 'ruthless'), źdźbło [ˈʑd͡ʑbwɔ] ('blade of grass'), wstrząs [ˈfstʂɔw̃s] ('shock'), and krnąbrność [ˈkrnɔmbrnɔɕt͡ɕ] ('disobedience'). A popular Polish tongue-twister (from
15345-430: The distinction between regular penultimate and exceptional antepenultimate stress. Another class of exceptions is verbs with the conditional endings -by, -bym, -byśmy , etc. These endings are not counted in determining the position of the stress; for example, zro biłbym ('I would do') is stressed on the first syllable, and zro bi libyśmy ('we would do') on the second. According to prescriptive authorities ,
15510-531: The eastern parts of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth wrote Polish in the Arabic alphabet. The Cyrillic script is used to a certain extent today by Polish speakers in Western Belarus , especially for religious texts. The diacritics used in the Polish alphabet are the kreska (graphically similar to the acute accent ) over the letters ć, ń, ó, ś, ź and through the letter in ł ;
15675-425: The end of the 1940s to 1954, the Ministry of Public Security – operating alongside the Ministry of Defence – was one of the largest and most powerful institutions in post-war People's Republic of Poland . It was responsible for internal and foreign intelligence, counter-intelligence , monitoring anti-state activity in Poland and abroad, monitoring government and civilian communications ( wiretapping ), supervision of
15840-452: 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
16005-420: The end of words (where devoicing occurs) and in certain consonant clusters (where assimilation occurs). For details, see Voicing and devoicing in the article on Polish phonology. Most Polish words are paroxytones (that is, the stress falls on the second-to-last syllable of a polysyllabic word), although there are exceptions. Polish permits complex consonant clusters, which historically often arose from
16170-462: The entire country, the most infamous being Mokotów Prison . The Ministry of Public Security was replaced by a short-lived Committee for Public Security (1954–1956). Propaganda publicized these events, although the changes were in reality cosmetic. The competences of the MBP were taken over by the KdsBP, headed by Władysław Dworakowski. All operational, technical-operational and accounting departments of
16335-476: The entire country. Polish has traditionally been described as consisting of three to five main regional dialects: Silesian and Kashubian , spoken in Upper Silesia and Pomerania respectively, are thought of as either Polish dialects or distinct languages , depending on the criteria used. Kashubian contains a number of features not found elsewhere in Poland, e.g. nine distinct oral vowels (vs.
16500-710: The establishment of the RSW " Prasa-Książka-Ruch " concern, a powerful machine financing the activities of PZPR. Already in the early 1970s, the PZPR leadership had been considering changes to the constitution. They were approved by the Sejm of the Polish People's Republic in February 1976. The main program, "Dziennik Telewizyjny", almost every edition of which began with the words "First Secretary of PZPR...", broadcasts from party conferences or information about exceeded plans or completed construction or party activities. February 4, 1974 At
16665-409: The fight against right-wing nationalist deviation. In relation to the first topic, an offensive of propaganda activities and intensification of the ideologization of public life were assumed. Yet, in connection with the strengthening of the sole rule of Bolesław Bierut, the deliberations were largely dominated by aggressive criticism of Władysław Gomułka and people from his circle. The latter, weakened by
16830-467: The following table. The following digraphs and trigraphs are used: Voiced consonant letters frequently come to represent voiceless sounds (as shown in the tables); this occurs at the end of words and in certain clusters, due to the neutralization mentioned in the Phonology section above. Occasionally also voiceless consonant letters can represent voiced sounds in clusters. The spelling rule for
16995-475: 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
17160-548: The language spoken at home, which is about 1.4% of people who speak languages other than English , 0.25% of the US population, and 6% of the Polish-American population. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census (over 50%) were found in three states: Illinois (185,749), New York (111,740), and New Jersey (74,663). Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services (which has
17325-411: The leadership of the Polish United Workers' Party, representing different possibilities of overcoming the political and economic crisis that plagued the Polish People's Republic. The criticism of the Ministry of Public Security made during the session indicated that the leadership of the ministry would become a "scapegoat" on which the PZPR leaders would blame the responsibility for the terror reigning in
17490-439: The letter y . The predominant stress pattern in Polish is penultimate stress – in a word of more than one syllable, the next-to-last syllable is stressed. Alternating preceding syllables carry secondary stress, e.g. in a four-syllable word, where the primary stress is on the third syllable, there will be secondary stress on the first. Each vowel represents one syllable, although the letter i normally does not represent
17655-736: The local governments, maintaining a militsiya , maintaining prisons, fire services, rescue services, and border patrol; as well as several concentration camps set up by the NKVD (such as Zgoda labour camp ). In July 1947, the UB absorbed Section II of General Staff of the Polish People's Army (the Polish Military Intelligence). Military and civilian intelligence merged to become Department VII of Ministry of Public Security. In 1950s Ministry of Public Security employed around 32,000 people. Also, UB had control over 41,000 soldiers, including 29,053 privates and 2,356 officers of
17820-450: The main guarantee of pro-Soviet policy of the new Polish socialist state. The Red Army provided assistance to MPB not only in the form of advisors, but also with their own paramilitary units including NKGB , NKVD , GRU , SMERSH ; and, in later years MGB , MVD and KGB . The first Russian chief advisor to the MPB was Major General Ivan Serov , a well-trained Stalinist experienced with Soviet security organs. Serov became commander of
17985-431: The middle aged and young speak vernaculars close to standard Polish, while the traditional dialects are preserved among older people in rural areas. First-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty recognizing the regional and social differences. The modern standard dialect , often termed as "correct Polish", is spoken or at least understood throughout
18150-460: The most widely spoken variant of Polish across the country, and most dialects stopped being the form of Polish spoken in villages. Poland is one of the most linguistically homogeneous European countries; nearly 97% of Poland's citizens declare Polish as their first language . Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in areas which were once administered or occupied by Poland, notably in neighboring Lithuania , Belarus , and Ukraine . Polish
18315-573: The name Tarzan . Ministry of Public Security (Poland) The initial UB was headed by Public Security General Stanisław Radkiewicz and supervised by Jakub Berman of the Polish Politburo . The main goal of the Department of Security was the swift eradication of anti-communist structures and socio-political base of the Polish Underground State , as well as the persecution of former underground soldiers of
18480-482: 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
18645-612: The nation". After the congress, Gierek remained at the head of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party; a ceremonial concert for the leaders of the Polish United Workers' Party and delegates took place in the Grand Theatre. Among others, the Central Artistic Ensemble of the Polish Army performed, presenting a ballet version of "Capriccio" by Krzysztof Penderecki . On 1-2 December 1976,
18810-526: The national income was to increase by 30%. Gomułka , who was formally re-elected to the position of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, sharply criticized the leaders of the Chinese communists for their splitting activities. During the congress, the smell of incense wafted continuously over the conference hall. First secretaries of provincial committees, in particular, blew incense to Gomułka and themselves. The secretary of
18975-649: The nobles in Poland–Lithuania in the 15th century. The history of Polish as a language of state governance begins in the 16th century in the Kingdom of Poland . Over the later centuries, Polish served as the official language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , Congress Poland , the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria , and as the administrative language in the Russian Empire 's Western Krai . The growth of
19140-534: 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. On December 14, 1948 The 2nd Congress of
19305-466: The number of members of the Polish Underground State deported to Siberia and various labor camps in the Soviet Union reached 50,000. Overall, in the years 1944–1956 around 300,000 Polish citizens had been arrested, of whom many thousands were sentenced to long-term imprisonment. There were 6,000 death sentences pronounced, the majority of them carried out "in the majesty of the law". A special disciplinary legislation had been introduced, which allowed for
19470-673: The others being Czech orthography and Croatian orthography , the last of these being a 19th-century invention trying to make a compromise between the first two. Kashubian uses a Polish-based system, Slovak uses a Czech-based system, and Slovene follows the Croatian one; the Sorbian languages blend the Polish and the Czech ones. Historically, Poland's once diverse and multi-ethnic population utilized many forms of scripture to write Polish. For instance, Lipka Tatars and Muslims inhabiting
19635-401: The palatal sounds / ɕ / , / ʑ / , / tɕ / , / dʑ / and / ɲ / is as follows: before the vowel i the plain letters s, z, c, dz, n are used; before other vowels the combinations si, zi, ci, dzi, ni are used; when not followed by a vowel the diacritic forms ś, ź, ć, dź, ń are used. For example, the s in siwy ("grey-haired"), the si in siarka ("sulfur") and
19800-430: The party leaders – became a forum for discussions on the terrible material situation, shortages of basic food products and other topics. On October 24-26, 1957, the 10th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party was held. Gomułka indicated revisionism and liquidation as the main source of the party's weakness. In order to heal the party, a resolution was passed to verify its members. All members of
19965-402: The party was insufficiently offensive in the fight against opponents. On June 15-20, 1964, the 4th Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party took place, which strengthened the so-called small stabilization. Gomułka outlined economic plans for the following years, assuming a 50% increase in industrial production. In the five-year period of 1966-1970, 1.5 million new jobs were to be created, and
20130-478: The party. Though Kania agreed with his predecessors that the Communist Party must maintain control of Poland, he never assured the Soviets that Poland would not pursue actions independent of the Soviet Union. On 18 October 1981, the Central Committee of the Party withdrew confidence in him, and Kania was replaced by Prime Minister (and Minister of Defence) Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski . On 11 February 1981, Jaruzelski
20295-624: The period of the Second Polish Republic in the Communist Party of Poland and later in the Polish Workers' Party, passed away. 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
20460-576: The planned price increases were suspended. High foreign debts, food shortages, and an outmoded industrial base compelled a new round of economic reforms in 1980. Once again, price increases set off protests across the country, especially in the Gdańsk Shipyard and Szczecin Shipyard . Gierek was forced to grant legal status to Solidarity and to concede the right to strike. ( Gdańsk Agreement ). On 9-10 June 1981, amidst much social and economic unrest,
20625-520: The previously Polish-ruled territories in the east that were annexed by the USSR , resulting in the present-day Polish-speaking communities in Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, although many Poles were expelled from those areas to areas within Poland's new borders. To the east of Poland, the most significant Polish minority lives in a long strip along either side of the Lithuania - Belarus border. Meanwhile,
20790-489: The principles of Soviet foreign policy , assuming the Brezhnev Doctrine . The 5th Congress brought many changes in the highest positions in the party, introducing a group of young generation activists to the ruling elite. 25 new members joined the Central Committee. The expected assault on the positions of Mieczysław Moczar 's "partisans" did not take place. He himself only retained the position of deputy member of
20955-630: The public as Ubecy ; in English "Ubeks" and singular "Ubek/Esbek" ( pronounced: OO -beck ). In July 1944, behind the Soviet front line, a brand new Polish provisional government was formed, called the Polish Committee of National Liberation ( Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego , PKWN). It was established in Chełm on the initiative of Polish communists, in order to assume control over Polish territories liberated from Nazi Germany by
21120-420: The removal from state functions, was also deprived of party functions during the plenum, by removing him from the Central Committee. At the same time, his co-authors, Marian Spychalski and Zenon Kliszko , were excluded from the party authorities. On November 24-25, 1953, a secret session of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party was held. Cliques began to emerge within
21285-567: 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. The attempt to impose a naked military dictatorship notwithstanding, the policies of Mikhail Gorbachev stimulated political reform in Poland. By the close of the tenth plenary session in December 1988, the Polish United Workers Party
21450-540: The same applies to the first and second person plural past tense endings -śmy, -ście , although this rule is often ignored in colloquial speech (so zro bi liśmy 'we did' should be prescriptively stressed on the second syllable, although in practice it is commonly stressed on the third as zrobi li śmy ). These irregular stress patterns are explained by the fact that these endings are detachable clitics rather than true verbal inflections: for example, instead of ko go zoba czy liście? ('whom did you see?') it
21615-593: The same day, the Central Committee Commission for Clergy was established in the Central Committee Secretariat, consisting of Zenon Kliszko, Antoni Alster, Władysław Bieńkowski , Tadeusz Galiński , Artur Starewicz , Walenty Titkow , Andrzej Werblan and Stanisław Zawadzki . The post-October liberalization of religious policy turned out to be merely a tactical move. Initially very popular for his reforms and seeking
21780-567: The secret police. From September 3, 1955 to November 28, 1956 it also controlled the Polish Army's Main Directorate of Information ( Główny Zarząd Informacji Wojska ), which ran the Military Police and counter espionage service. The Ministry of Interior was responsible for the supervision of local governments, the Milicja Obywatelska (Citizens' Militia, MO) police force, correctional facilities, fire and rescue forces, and
21945-562: The sentencing of civil persons before military tribunals including young people and children. The courts were concerned with the alleged crimes, not the age and the maturity of its victims. For many years, the public prosecutors and judges as well as functionaries of the Ministry of Public Security, Security Service of the Ministry of Interior (SB) and Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army (GZI WP) engaged in acts recognized by international law as crimes against humanity and crimes against peace . The so-called " Cursed soldiers " of
22110-410: The series of affricate and palatal consonants that resulted from four Proto-Slavic palatalizations and two further palatalizations that took place in Polish. The full set of consonants, together with their most common spellings, can be presented as follows (although other phonological analyses exist): Neutralization occurs between voiced – voiceless consonant pairs in certain environments, at
22275-506: The six of standard Polish) and (in the northern dialects) phonemic word stress, an archaic feature preserved from Common Slavic times and not found anywhere else among the West Slavic languages . However, it was described by some linguists as lacking most of the linguistic and social determinants of language-hood. Many linguistic sources categorize Silesian as a regional language separate from Polish, while some consider Silesian to be
22440-539: The slogan "For consistent implementation of the program of improving the quality of work and living conditions, for further strengthening of the leading party's power and deepening the moral and political unity of the nation". The standard of living improved in Poland in the early 1970s, the economy , however, began to falter during the 1973 oil crisis , and by 1976 price hikes became necessary. New protests broke out in June 1976 , and although they were forcibly suppressed,
22605-446: The state of history teaching at universities. Bolesław Bierut, an NKVD agent and a hardline Stalinist , served as first Secretary General of the ruling PZPR from 1948 to 1956, playing a leading role in imposing communism and the installation of its repressive regime. He had served as president since 1944 (though on a provisional basis until 1947). After a new constitution abolished the presidency, Bierut took over as prime minister ,
22770-494: The stress normally becomes regular. For example, uniwersytet ( /uɲiˈvɛrsɨtɛt/ , 'university') has irregular stress on the third (or antepenultimate) syllable, but the genitive uniwersytetu ( /uɲivɛrsɨˈtɛtu/ ) and derived adjective uniwersytecki ( /uɲivɛrsɨˈtɛt͡skʲi/ ) have regular stress on the penultimate syllables. Loanwords generally become nativized to have penultimate stress. In psycholinguistic experiments, speakers of Polish have been demonstrated to be sensitive to
22935-418: 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 April 20-21, 1949 a plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party
23100-540: The surviving members of the Home Army laid down their arms, granted an official amnesty (lasting till October 15). Most were arrested by UB on the spot, tortured and tried for treason. The UB carried out brutal pacification of civilians, mass arrests (see: Augustów roundup ), as well as makeshift executions (see: Mokotów Prison murder , Public execution in Dębica ) and secret assassinations. According to depositions by Józef Światło and other communist sources, in 1945 alone
23265-446: 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
23430-563: The vowel i is changed to y , e.g. Syria , Sybir , synchronizacja , Syrakuzy . The following table shows the correspondence between the sounds and spelling: Digraphs and trigraphs are used: Similar principles apply to / kʲ / , / ɡʲ / , / xʲ / and /lʲ/ , except that these can only occur before vowels, so the spellings are k, g, (c)h, l before i , and ki, gi, (c)hi, li otherwise. Most Polish speakers, however, do not consider palatalization of k, g, (c)h or l as creating new sounds. Except in
23595-443: The word, the phoneme / x / can be spelt h or ch , the phoneme / ʐ / can be spelt ż or rz , and / u / can be spelt u or ó . In several cases it determines the meaning, for example: może ("maybe") and morze ("sea"). In occasional words, letters that normally form a digraph are pronounced separately. For example, rz represents /rz/ , not / ʐ / , in words like zamarzać ("freeze") and in
23760-478: Was Department One, responsible for counter-espionage and anti-state activities . It was headed by General Roman Romkowski . Department I was divided into Sections, each responsible for a different but specific function self-described in the following way: Two new departments were formed in addition to departments and sections created for the Resort Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego (RBP) forming
23925-493: Was a record year in terms of the number of new candidates to the Polish United Workers' Party. 213 thousand people were accepted, and this result was only improved after 10 years. As of 31 December 1968, the PZPR had 2.1 million members and candidates, and since 1956 its numbers had increased by 700,000. In December 1970, a bloody clash with shipyard workers in which several dozen workers were fatally shot forced his resignation (officially for health reasons; he had in fact suffered
24090-593: 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 , Zambrowski and Aleksander Zawadzki . All of them - in accordance with
24255-534: 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
24420-452: Was also declared a legal organization. During the following Polish elections the Communists won 65 percent of the seats in the Sejm , though the seats won were guaranteed and the Communists were unable to gain a majority, while 99 out of the 100 seats in the Senate — all freely contested — were won by Solidarity-backed candidates. Jaruzelski won the presidential ballot by one vote. Jaruzelski
24585-406: Was also substantially reduced and the most implicated functionaries of the Ministry of Public Security were arrested. Surveillance and repressive activities were reduced; in the majority of factories, special cells of public security, set up to spy on workers, were secretly closed. The Committee for Public Security took responsibility for intelligence and counter-espionage, government security and
24750-588: Was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism , with a strong emphasis on left-wing nationalism . 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
24915-470: 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,
25080-407: 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. In the spring of 1973,
25245-543: Was dismissed from this position. The following day, it was announced that Józef Tejchma had been appointed Minister of Culture and Art, while retaining his position as Vice-President of the Council of Ministers. A few days later, Józef Pinkowski was dismissed from the position of Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission at the Council of Ministers, taking up the position of secretary of the Central Committee of
25410-439: Was dissolved in January 1990. 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
25575-491: Was elected Prime Minister of Poland . On October 16-18, 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
25740-540: Was forced into exile). On July 4th, 1958, during the meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, a decision was made to send a letter to the executives of the provincial, district and city committees regarding the policy towards the Church. This meant the beginning of a new stage of confrontation with the Church. The July letter warned of an offensive by militant clericalism. On
25905-462: Was forced, after strikes , to approach leaders of Solidarity for talks. From 6 February to 15 April 1989, negotiations were held between 13 working groups during 94 sessions of the roundtable talks . These negotiations resulted in an agreement that stated that a great degree of political power would be given to a newly created bicameral legislature . It also created a new post of president to act as head of state and chief executive. Solidarity
26070-596: 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
26235-513: 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
26400-475: Was one UB officer for every 800 Polish citizens. Never again, in the 45-year-old history of the People's Republic of Poland , were its special services' formations so large in numbers. The highly publicized defection of Colonel Światło, not to mention the general hatred of the Ministry of Public Security among the Polish public led to changes in late 1954. In December of that year, the Polish Council of State and
26565-594: Was one, or more UB office in each voivodeship , each of them called the Voivode Office of Public Security ( Wojewódzki Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego , or WUBP). Each WUBP had 308 full-time UB officers and employees on staff. Beside WUBP, there were also City Offices of Public Security ( Miejski Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego or MUBP), with 148 MPB officers and employees; as well as District Offices of Public Security ( Powiatowy Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego or PUBP), with 51 officers and employees; and finally,
26730-414: 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
26895-455: Was promoted to the Political Bureau of the Central Committee. On January 16-18, 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
27060-402: Was re-elected First Secretary (for the first time in the history of the Polish People's Republic in a democratic manner). He received 1,311 votes against 568 cast for Kazimierz Barcikowski . Only 4 of its previous members (Jaruzelski, Barcikowski, Olszowski, Kania) joined the new politburo. The congress was a defeat for both the reformers and the "concrete". Many new supporters found themselves in
27225-686: Was unsuccessful in convincing Wałęsa to include Solidarity in a "grand coalition" with the Communists and resigned his position of general secretary of the Polish United Workers Party. The PZPR' two allied parties broke their long-standing alliance, forcing Jaruzelski to appoint Solidarity's Tadeusz Mazowiecki as the country's first non-communist prime minister since 1948. Jaruzelski resigned as Poland's President in 1990, being succeeded by Wałęsa in December. Polish language Polish ( endonym : język polski , [ˈjɛ̃zɘk ˈpɔlskʲi] , polszczyzna [pɔlˈʂt͡ʂɘzna] or simply polski , [ˈpɔlskʲi] )
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