The Spring Will Be Ours: Poland and the Poles from Occupation to Freedom

600 Pages·2003·8.95 MB·English

by  Andrzej Paczkowski

the spring will be ours
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The Spring Will
Image not available
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Be Ours
Poland and the Poles
from Occupation
to Freedom
Image not available Andrzej Paczkowski
Translated byJane Cave
the pennsylvania state university press
university park, pennsylvania
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Disclaimer:
Some images in the original version of this book are not
available for inclusion in the eBook.
FirstpublishedinPolandasPo´łwiekudziejo´w LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-Publication
Polski,1939–1989. Data
Copyright(cid:1)1995byWydawnictwoNaukowe
PWNSp.zo.o.,Warszawa. Englishtranslationcopyright(cid:1)2003
Copyright(cid:1)1998byWydawnictwoNaukowe the pennsylvania state university
PWNS.A.,Warszawa. Allrightsreserved
PublishedbyarrangementwithPolishScientific
PublishersPWN. PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
Publishedby
Publicationofthistranslationhasbeenfunded ThePennsylvaniaStateUniversityPress,
bytheAdamMickiewiczInstitute—thePolish UniversityPark,PA16802-1003
LiteraryFund
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memberoftheAssociationofAmerican
UniversityPresses.
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UniversityPresstouseacid-freepaper.
Publicationsonuncoatedstocksatisfythe
minimumrequirementsofAmericanNational
StandardforInformationSciences—Permanence
ofPaperforPrintedLibraryMaterials,
ansiz39.48-1992.
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Contents
PrefacetotheAmericanEdition vii
GlossaryofAbbreviations xiii
introduction TwentyYearsofIndependence 1
chapter 1 CaptivityandStruggle 37
chapter 2 TwoPolands 121
chapter 3 TheNewReality 146
chapter 4 ConstructingtheFoundations 198
chapter 5 RealSocialism:TheIronFist 279
chapter 6 RealSocialism:LaBelleEpoque 351
chapter 7 TheLongMarch—Prologue 411
chapter 8 TheLongMarch—WarandPeace 446
postscript PolandAfterCommunism 507
Appendix:TableofSeniorStateOfficials 537
BiographicalNotes 541
BibliographybyPadraicKenney 553
Index 563
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Preface to the American Edition
without much difficulty onecanfindcountriesandnationsthatman-
aged to stay out of trouble while traversing the twentieth century. Revolu-
tionsandsocialupheavalspassedthemby,nointernationalarmedconflict
took place on their territory, civil rights were respected, living conditions
improved, andnew technologiesrapidly made their way intothe everyday
lives of at least the majority of their citizens. Some of these countries, like
New Zealand, were situated far from the epicenter of disturbances and
wars; others, like Switzerland, managed to protect themselves from the
storms of history even though terrible human tragedies were occurring
close by. Such countries and nations are, however, far outnumbered by
thosethatstruggled,oftenconstantly,withsevereinternalconflicts,fought
in bloody wars, or were attacked by their neighbors and deprived of their
sovereignty.
One of the countries subjected to such painful trials and tribulations
was Poland. This in itself is no reason to pay it particular attention, since
any attempt to establish a ranking in terms of casualties, to calculate who
enduredthegreatestwrongsorsufferedthegreatestlosses,iswithoutintel-
lectual significance, although it has considerable importance in national
mythology and relations between nations. It seems to me that an outside
observerwillfindthehistoryofPolandandthePolesofinterest,notbecause
of the casualties, although there were many, but because on several occa-
sionsinthetwentiethcenturythisrelativelysmallcountryinfluenceddevel-
opmentsonabroader,globalscale.Thiswasthecasein1920,whenPoland,
newly reborn after more than a century of continuous occupation, fought
off an offensive mounted by the Red Army, thus preventing the Bolshevik
revolutionfromspreadingtoWesternEurope.Therevolution’sdestructive
potential was thereby reduced, although not destroyed, as the Soviet
Union’sneighborsweremadealltoopainfullyawarein1939–40.Thiswas
the case in 1939, when Poland became the first country to reject Hitler’s
dictatorshipandtakeupthechallengetowagewaragainstNaziGermany,
at that time the most bloodthirsty country in Europe, thus providing an
vii
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preface to the american edition
example of how, if all other means fail, a country must take up arms to
defenditsindependence.Thiswasalsothecasein1989,wheninternalso-
cial conflict in Poland set in motion a process that began to transform the
system.This hada dominoeffect acrossthewhole Sovietbloc; attemptsto
reform real socialism were abandoned, the entire system was discarded,
andtheSovietUnionitselfcollapsed.
Ofcourse,IamnottryingtoarguethatPolandwasthesolecausalfac-
tor,but onlythatits rolewassignificantbecauseitobligedothercountries
to take action that had far-reaching consequences. In the first case, it
caused the Bolshevikrevolution to remain confinedwithin the boundaries
ofasmallerRussianempire,afactorthatundoubtedlyinfluencedtheshape
of the Soviet system. In the second case, it prompted the formation of the
anti-Nazi coalition that finally defeated Hitler. In the third case, it showed
thatitwaspossibletodismantlethecommunistsystempeacefullyandthus
encourageditscommunistneighborstomakesimilarefforts.Thehistoryof
Polandisthereforeinterestingnotjustinitselfbutalsobecausetheevents
thattookplaceinthecountryhadanimpactonothercountries,eventhose
thatweremuchmorepowerful.
In his book, The Age of Extremes, the noted British Marxist historian
EricHobsbawmintroducedthenotionof“theshorttwentiethcentury.”This
covers the years 1914–91, in other words the period from the eruption of
World War I to the collapse of the Soviet Union. This approach works well
intermsofworldhistory,althoughindividualcountriesmayhavedifferent
chronologicalboundaries.InthecaseofPoland,Hobsbawm’sboundariesfit
fairly well: the outbreak of World War I and its subsequent course were
indeeddecisiveintherebirthofthePolishstate,andthefallofthecommu-
nistsysteminPolandprecededthecollapseoftheSovietUnionbyonlytwo
years.OnecouldevenarguethatPolanddidnotfinallybidfarewelltocom-
munismuntilthedisappearanceoftheSovietUnion,whichafter1989was
the only force capable of reinstalling the system in Poland, just as it had
engineered its creation in 1944–45. My ambitions are, however, far more
modest than those of the author of The Age of Extremes. Not only because
this book deals with the history of Poland, and world history appears only
inthedistantbackground,butalsointhesensethatitfocusesonthesecond
halfoftheshorttwentiethcentury,fromtheoutbreakofWorldWarIItothe
fallofcommunism. Iaminterestedintwomainquestions:Howwasasys-
temasuniversalascommunismintroducedandmadetofunctioninacoun-
try that Lenin saw as the implacable foe of the Bolshevik revolution? And:
viii
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preface to the american edition
Howdidanationthathadforyearsequatedanticommunismandanti-Sovi-
etismwiththeinterestsofbothitselfandthestateadapttothissystem?
The main part of the book begins with the outbreak of World War II,
sinceit wasat thatpoint—or moreprecisely, on23 August 1939, when the
SovietUnionandtheThirdReichsignedwhatbecameknownastheRibbe-
ntrop-Molotovpact—thattherebeganasequenceofeventsthatledtofun-
damentalchanges inthe affairsof Poland.As aresult ofMoscow’s shifting
alliances(initiallywithGermany,andthen,frommid-1940,withBritainand
theUnitedStates)andthemilitarycampaignthatendedwiththetriumphal
entry of the Red Army into Berlin, Poland was changed completely. It was
not just that the borders had moved or that the Holocaust and the subse-
quent resettlement of millions had altered the national composition of the
population; Poland became part of the Soviet “internal empire” and was
forcedtoadopttheSovietpoliticalsystem.Itwouldthereforebedifficultto
understandwhathappenedaftertheendofthewarwithouttakingalookat
whathappenedduringthewar,withtheprovisothatIbelievetheattitudes
ofthepopulationandthebehaviorofthePolishpoliticalelite,aswellasthe
position of the Soviet Union and the Third Reich in relation to Poland and
itsinhabitants,tobemoreimportantthanmilitaryevents.Themainpartof
the book—which takes the form of a traditional chronological narrative—
ends in 1989, when futile attempts to reform the communist system gave
waytoitstotaltransformation.
Thisbookdrawsonasubstantialbodyofliterature,althoughnotevery
period has been equally well researched. Not surprisingly, a far greater
numberofmonographsandmemoirshavebeenwrittenandfarmoredocu-
mentshavebeenpublishedaboutthewaryearsandtheimmediatepostwar
period than about later years. I have benefited from the work of so many
Polish and foreign historians that it would be impossible to mention even
the most important publications. I would, however, like to note that the
workofProfessorKrystynaKersten(includingherbook,TheEstablishment
of Communist Rule in Poland, 1943–48, which has been published in the
United States) has been a major source of intellectual inspiration, as have
the numerous conversations and discussions that we have had together.
TheworkofZbigniewBrzezinskiwasofspecialimportanceinunderstand-
ing the international context, both his early book, The Soviet Bloc, and his
morerecentwork,TheGrandFailure.
Regardless of the enormous debt I owe to authors on whose work I
draw, much of the information—especially concerning the years 1944–45
ix
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