Polish United Workers' Party Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | PZPR |
| General Secretary | Bolesław Bierut (first) Mieczysław Rakowski (last) |
| Founded | 21 December 1948;76 years ago (21 December 1948) |
| Dissolved | 30 January 1990;35 years ago (30 January 1990) |
| Merger of | PPR,PPS |
| Succeeded by | PUS,SdRP,KPP(not legal successors) |
| Headquarters | Nowy Świat 6/12, 00-497Warsaw |
| Newspaper | Trybuna Ludu |
| Youth wing |
|
| Membership | 3,000,000 (1980'sest.)[1] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Far-left |
| National affiliation |
|
| International affiliation | Cominform(1948–56) |
| Colors | Red |
| Slogan | "Workers of the world, unite!" |
ThePolish United Workers' Party, (PZPR), was thecommunist party which ruled thePolish People's Republic as aone-party state from 1948 to 1989. It was based on the theories ofMarxism-Leninism, with a strong emphasis onleft-wingnationalism. It had total control over public institutions in the country as well as thePolish People's Army, the Ministry of Public Security, theCitizens' Militia police force and themedia.
The falsified1947 Polish legislative election granted the CommunistPolish Workers' Party complete political authority in post-war Poland. The PZPR was founded in December 1948 by joining it to thePolish Socialist Party. From 1952 onward, the position of "First Secretary" of the Polish United Workers' Party was really Poland'shead of state. Throughout its existence it was very close toideologically-similar parties of theEastern Bloc, like theSocialist Unity Party of Germany,Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union. Between 1948 and 1954, nearly 1.5 million people were Polish United Workers' Party members, and membership rose to 3 million by 1980.[2]
The party's main aim was to imposesocialist agenda into Polish society. The communist government sought to improve the living standards of theproletariat, makeeducation andhealthcare available to all, establish a centralizedplanned economy,nationalize all institutions and provide internal or external security with a strongarmed force. Some ideas imported from abroad, such as large-scalecollective farming andsecularization, failed in their early stages. The PZPR was moreliberal and pro-Western than its counterparts inEast Germany or theSoviet Union, and was more averse toradical politics. Althoughpropaganda was used in major media outlets likeTrybuna Ludu (lit. 'People's Tribune') and televisedDziennik ('Journal'),censorship stopped working by the mid-1980s and was gradually abolished. The Polish United Worker's Party was responsible for the brutal pacification ofcivil resistance andprotesters in thePoznań protests of 1956, the1970 Polish protests and throughoutmartial law between 1981 and 1983. It started a bitteranti-Semitic campaign during the1968 Polish political crisis, which forced most of the last of Poland'sJews toemigrate.
In 1980 theSolidarity movement emerged as a major anti-bureaucratic social movement that pursued social change.[3] With communist rule being relaxed in neighbouring countries, the PZPR lost support and was forced to negotiate with the opposition and adhere to thePolish Round Table Agreement, which permitted free democratic elections. Theelections on 4 June 1989 proved victorious for Solidarity, bringing 40-year communist rule in Poland to an end. The Polish United Workers' Party was dissolved in January 1990.
