polish crisis 1956

By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. [1][4], The leadership's stance contributed to the relatively-moderate political dimension of social protest in October. Hungarian Revolution, popular uprising in Hungary in 1956, following a speech by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in which he attacked the period of Joseph Stalin ’s rule. [4], The Soviet leadership viewed events in Poland with alarm. [15] The Soviet delegation was led by Nikita Khrushchev and included Anastas Mikoyan, Nikolai Bulganin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich and Ivan Konev. [3]:446–448, In February 1956, following the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev delivered the Secret Speech. The power elite was paralysed by internal conflicts and public feelings were strongly anti-Soviet. [5][12][13], The Poznań protests, although the largest, were not unique in Poland, where social protest resumed its fury that autumn. They demanded the return of the eastern territories, an explanation for the Katyn massacre and the elimination of the Russian language from the educational curriculum. He was executed in 1958 What happened on the 23rd of October, 1956? [4] Gomułka proved to be acceptable to both factions of Polish communists: the reformers, who were arguing for liberalization of the system, and the hardliners, who realised that they needed to compromise. Numerous events of protest and revolt, especially among students reverberated across the continent in 1968, but many followed rather than preceded the Polish crisis. 1956 Polish and Hungarian Crises. Zyzniewski, Stanley J. The peasants responded with sullen passive resistance; bad harvests and reluctance to plant crops or breed livestock reduced agricultural production. [8], In October, Edward Ochab, the First Secretary of the Party and the Polish Prime Minister, proposed Władysław Gomułka for election for the First Secretary of the Party during the 8th Plenum meeting. It abolished the powerful and tyrannical Ministry of Security, demoting or arresting many of its chief officials, and declared an amnesty for 100,000 political prisoners. A student demonstration in Budapest in support of Gomułka, asking for similar reforms in Hungary, was one of the events that sparked the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. The overlapping crises in Hungary and Poland in the autumn of 1956 posed a severe challenge for leaders of the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU). These changes stimulated a popular desire for more-radical reforms, but the Polish leadership, which included a substantial number of conservative Stalinists, was reluctant. "The Soviet Stake in Eastern Europe". The Uprising was an almost spontaneous revolt by the Hungarian people against the ruling Communist Party of the time and the Soviet policies which were … The demonstrations were suppressed but they did afford reformist Communists the opportunity to advance an agenda that included significant concessions to … The Polish Crisis and the Hungarian Rebellion, October 20-November 3, 1956: The Advent to Power of Gomulka in Poland and Nagy in Hungary; Soviet Military Intervention in and Subsequent Withdrawal From Hungary; Discussion of the Hungarian Question in the U.N. Security Council (Documents 93-161) Get this stock video and more royalty-free footage. Soviets put a brutal end to Hungarian revolution A spontaneous national uprising that began 12 days before in Hungary is viciously crushed by Soviet tanks and … Destalinisation was underway in the Soviet Union as well, but the Soviet leadership did not view the democratic reform that the Polish public desired as an acceptable solution. Gruson, Sydney. Updates? The 1956 crises in the Soviet Bloc states, and the Hungarian October events in particular, had a profound impact on China’s international and domestic policies. Therefore, any reform in the Polish government would have to concede to some Soviet demands, but the Soviets concurrently would have to concede to a vital partner.[14]. On Wednesday, September 19, Pawel Machcewicz, WWICS Public Policy scholar, and a former WWICS fellow, discussed his research in the causes, effects, and developments of the Polish 1956 events. Poland, 1956. Kemp-Welch, Tony. After the death of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (March 1953), the rigidly authoritarian communist regime in Poland relaxed some of its policies. President Eisenhower handled it by choosing not to intervene militarily on the side of the Hungarians, fearing that it might start a war with the Soviet Union. [2] Norman Davies sums up the effect as a transformation of Poland from puppet state to client state;[2] Raymond Pearson similarly states that Poland changed from a Soviet colony to a dominion. In 1956, talking to President Eisenhower by telephone about the crisis in Hungary, Secretary of State Dulles had said that it was "very difficult to know how to handle the situation." [7], Gomułka, in his public speeches, criticized the hardships of Stalinism and promised reforms to democratize the country; this was received with much enthusiasm by Polish society. This video looks at the Polish Revolution of 1956 and how the Soviet Union dealt with the attack. October Crisis in Poland 1956. [2][7] Because of these restricted ambitions, which were recognized by the Soviets, the limited Polish revolution succeeded where the radical Hungarian one did not. The power in Warsaw, after the negotiation stiffened, and favored the use of the army to brutally silence this popular movement in 1956 in Poznan. The Polish Crisis and the Hungarian Rebellion, October 20-November 3, 1956: The Advent to Power of Gomulka in Poland and Nagy in Hungary; Soviet Military Intervention in and Subsequent Withdrawal From Hungary; Discussion of the Hungarian Question in the U.N. Security Council [2], Ł. Jastrząb, "Rozstrzelano moje serce w Poznaniu. His name was chanted, along with anti-Soviet slogans, at thousands of meetings: "Go home Rokossovsky", "Down with the Russians," "Long live Gomułka" and "We want a free Poland". [2][4], Nonetheless, some social scientists, such as Zbigniew Brzezinski and Frank Gibney, refer to these changes as a revolution, one less dramatic than its Hungarian counterpart but one which may have had an even more profound impact on the Eastern Bloc. [2] Timothy Garton Ash calls the Polish October the most significant event in the post-war history of Poland until the rise of Solidarity. Three years had passed since Joseph Stalin's death and his successor at the Soviet Union's helm, Nikita Khrushchev, denounced him in February. One specific condition that he set was for Soviet Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, who had mobilized troops against the Poznań workers, to be removed from the Polish Politburo and Defence Ministry to which Ochab agreed. Transcription & mark-up by Einde O’Callaghanfor ETOL. Poznań Riots, (June 1956), uprising of Polish industrial workers that caused a crisis among the Polish communist leadership as well as in the Soviet bloc and resulted in the establishment of a new Polish regime headed by Władysław Gomułka. "Khrushchev's 'Secret Speech' and Polish Politics: The Spring of 1956". After brief but tense negotiations, the Soviets gave permission for Gomułka to stay in control and made several other concessions, resulting in greater autonomy for the Polish government. Vicious street fighting broke out, but the Soviets’ great power ensured victory. The Kremlin viewed this situation with concern. [4], In Poland, in addition to criticism of the cult of personality, popular topics of debate centered on the right to steer a more independent course of "local, national socialism", instead of following the Soviet model in every detail. Prague Spring 1968. Brandishing slogan-laden banners demanding bread and freedom, 30,000 demonstrators marched through the city. In the course of this crisis the Soviets have shown their true imperialist colors. Polish October (Polish: Polski październik), also known as October 1956, Polish thaw, or Gomułka's thaw, marked a change in the politics of Poland in the second half of 1956. This page was last edited on 13 January 2021, at 04:51. Deeply stricken, many Poles realised that a decade's worth of anti-Western rhetoric had been false. Poznań Riots, (June 1956), uprising of Polish industrial workers that caused a crisis among the Polish communist leadership as well as in the Soviet bloc and resulted in the establishment of a new Polish regime headed by Władysław Gomułka. The Polish government rehabilitated many victims of the Stalinist era, and many political prisoners were set free. Gomułka was a moderate who had been the First Secretary of the Party from 1943 to 1948 and had been ousted and imprisoned in 1951 after he had been accused of "right-wing nationalist deviation" by Stalinist hardliners, along with Bierut. [24] History professor Iván T. Berend claims that while the effects of the Polish October on the Eastern Bloc may be disputed, it set the course for the eventual fall of communism in the People's Republic of Poland. The protests of the workers within the communist framework seemed to recall the 1956 protests in Poland. How to explain, however, the longevity of the Polish crisis in the early 80s while the earlier protest movements have … Even before learning the details of and securing a summary or copy of Khrushchev’s speech, the U.S. began to position itself to take advantage of the revelations. College students even held debating meetings with foreigners, many of whom turned out not to be communists. "The Soviet Economic Impact on Poland". 1956 Hungarian events as moving in the direction of proletarian political revolu­ tion. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/event/Poznan-Riots, The New York Times - Rioting Over Hard Life in Poland Led to ‘Golden October’ of 1956. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. For Poland, that meant a temporary liberalisation, but eventually, hopes for a full liberalisation were proven false, as Gomułka's regime gradually became more oppressive. Okupant w roli sojusznika, LOC: From Stalinism to the Polish October, Russian Revolution, Russian Civil War, Polish–Soviet War, 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), 18th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance, 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Aggravation of class struggle under socialism, National delimitation in the Soviet Union, Demolition of Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization, 1906 Bolshevik raid on the Tsarevich Giorgi, Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR, On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences, 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland, 1987 Polish political and economic reforms referendum, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polish_October&oldid=1000029692, Articles with Polish-language sources (pl), Articles with unsourced statements from August 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Diffusion of Polish-Soviet tensions; armed conflict averted. That integration made any reform, whether political or economic, in country inevitably have a great impact on the other. Workers' delegations met to consider the return of a former leader, ousted and … In addition, the unexpected death in Moscow in 1956 of Bolesław Bierut, the PZPR First Secretary (known as the "Stalin of Poland"),[6] led to increased rivalry between various factions of Polish communists and to growing tensions in Polish society, which culminated in the Poznań 1956 protests (also known as June '56). In many localities, crowds gathered outside the secret police headquarters, shouted hostile slogans and broke windows. Nationalism was the cement of mass mobilisation and dominated public meetings during which people sang the national anthem and other patriotic songs, demanded the return of the white eagle to the flag and traditional army uniforms and attacked Poland's dependence on the Soviet Union and its military. [2] By the time of the March 1968 events, Gomułka's thaw would be long over, and increasing economic problems and popular discontent would end up removing Gomułka from power in 1970—ironically, in a situation similar to the protests that once had propelled him to power. Some social scientists term it the Polish October Revolution, which was less dramatic than the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 but may have had an even deeper impact on the Eastern Bloc and on the Soviet Union's relationship to its satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe. Download Now ️ Thus, Polish communists found themselves unexpectedly at the head of a national liberation movement. In the summer of 1955, the 5th World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Warsaw. Between 57[9] and 78[10][11] people, mostly protesters, were killed, and hundreds were wounded and arrested. The Polish government initially responded by branding the rioters as "provocateurs, counterrevolutionaries and imperialist agents". The international situation significantly weakened the hardline Stalinist faction in Poland, especially after the Polish communist leader Bolesław Bierut died in March. [citation needed]. The country had been forced to rely on the Soviets for so long that breaking away completely would prove disastrous. [21] The Polish legislative election of 1957 was much more liberal than that of 1952 although still not considered free by Western standards. The documents, most of which are working notes, are from 1956 and come from Russian and Bulgarian archives. But their position in this struggle is much different than the positions they were in during the earlier suppressions of uprisings in East Germany (1953) and Poland (1956) and the invasions of Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia … Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... …heads; a violently suppressed workers’ strike in Poznań in June 1956 shook the whole country. For example, many members of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) criticised Stalin's execution of older Polish communists during the Great Purge. In the end, Gomułka failed in his goal to salvage communism—or socialism—in Poland. Some social scientists term it the Polish October Revolution, which was less dramatic than the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 but may have had an even deeper impact on the Eastern Bloc and on the Soviet Union's relationship to its satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe. In the next several months—despite a series of internal party disputes, a visit by Nikita Khrushchev and a Soviet delegation to Warsaw (October 19–20, 1956), and the threat of a Soviet invasion of Poland—the Central Committee elected Gomułka first secretary of the party (October 21, 1956). The power elite was paralysed by internal conflicts and public feelings were strongly anti-Soviet. [4] Initially very popular for his reforms,[23] which were optimistically referred to at the time as "Gomułka's thaw", Gomułka gradually softened his opposition to Soviet pressures, and the late-1950s hopes for major political change in Poland were replaced with growing disillusionment in the 1960s. Soon, however, the party hierarchy recognised that the riots had awakened a nationalist movement and reversed their opinion. Encouraged by the new freedom of debate and criticism, a rising tide of unrest and discontent in Hungary broke out into active fighting in … [18], Gomułka's anti-Soviet image was exaggerated but was justified in the popular imagination by his anti-Stalinist line in 1948 and years of subsequent internment. Wages were raised by 50%, and economic and political change was promised. "The Soviet Stake in Eastern Europe. The following day the minister of defense, Konstantin Rokossovsky (a former Soviet officer), ordered the local military commander to suppress the uprising, and within a few days nearly 60 people were killed, more than 200 were wounded, and order was restored in Poznań. [8], Information about events in Poland reached the people of Hungary via Radio Free Europe's news and commentary services between 19 October and 22 October 1956. On November 4, 1956, Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest to crush, once and for all, the national uprising. A new Party Congress was demanded, as were a greater role for the Sejm and a guarantee of personal liberties. If it was a threat or not, it was seen as one by some government officials in America. "Dethroning Stalin: Poland 1956 and its Legacy". Many localities, crowds gathered to read and discuss Poland 's new move in long... Communist world national Security Archive Cold War Reader '' series published by Central European University Press 04:51! Others from the Communist world the scandals of Stalinism, the thought of an Polish. Of its economies crops or breed livestock reduced agricultural production ; bad harvests and reluctance to plant crops or livestock! Was striving for integration of its economies process, the party political content exceeded their original agenda were sung and... 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