Anniversary of the announcement by the alleged Provisional Government of National Amnesty Unity for members of the underground independence.
Today in our calendar we will look at the situation in Poland just after the end of planet War II in Europe and the circumstances accompanying the announcement of amnesty.
Polish society was exhausted by years of business and fighting. The impoverished, starved, and devoid of elites, in rule focused on the current problems and safeguarding themselves a minimum of existence. It was widely expected to stabilise rapidly. It was believed that post-war Poland would be democratic, not communist. Equally commonly, russian terror, arrests and contingents were considered temporary.
Many naively thought that the Red Army and the NKVD would decision to their country, and if not, planet War III would break out and drive them out of Poland Americans. On June 28, 1945, a long-awaited transformation took place RTRP in the Provisional Government of National Unity (TRJN). Next to the communists, he and respective co-workers of the politicians of London Stanisław Mikołajczyk entered. He was entrusted with the position of Deputy Prime Minister and the portfolio of the Minister of Agriculture.
This led to a strong belief among Poles in the anticipation of a peaceful evolution of the strategy towards independency and democracy, based on a camp of London politicians. These delusions failed only in the following period, thanks to the 1946 falsified People's referendum and akin elections to the 1947 Sejm. The foretaste of what was to happen, however, has already revealed Władysław Gomulka's speech to PSL members in Moscow, on 18 June 1945:
Don't be offended, gentlemen, that we're just offering you seats in government, as we consider possible. We are hosts .... We will never quit power erstwhile gained .... We will not give power, so that the Polish people will not face the fresh demolition which threatens them in the event of a false political line which they are trying to impose on the nation .... We won't quit power .... We'll destruct all reactionaries without scruples. You can inactive shout that the blood of the Polish people is pouring, that the NKVD rules Poland, but it will not turn us off the road.
Nevertheless, in mid-1945 the majority inactive had the illusion of regaining full sovereignty, or simply "civilizing" communists. The second powerfully fueled these hopes, acting as standardists and defenders of the Polish national interest, e.g. on border conflict with Czechoslovakia, confiscation of German estates, prosecution of folksdojczów and upowców, or yet the management and settlement of Poles with alleged reclaimed lands.
This work facilitated full control of the Communists over the media. Since August 1944, the press, radio and public spectacles have been operating as part of the Information and Press Department of the Information and Propaganda Centre of PKWN. On 19 January 1945, the MBP set up an additional control body, which was the Central Office of Press Control, Publications and Widwigas (CBKPPiW) with Leon Randowski at the head.
The Office had provincial offices, these in turn region attorneys. No press memo, poster, radio appearance, or speech at a local rally could get out of the control of censorship, which worked closely with local PPR structures.
On July 5, TRJN was recognized by the United States, followed by Britain and another states of the anti-Hitler coalition. It was a large triumph for the communists and at the same time a large blow to the authority of the emigration government in London. On 2 August, the National Council announced an amnesty for underground members, although the decree itself did not enter into force until 21 August.
As part of the amnesty, about 30,000 soldiers, believing that the end of the NKVD panic had come, and from now on, will only be better. In the future, most of them will be arrested, given long word prison sentences or murdered.
Previous entry from our calendar is available Here.
