1956 Poznań protests
Poznań June | |||||||
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Part of the Cold War | |||||||
The sign reads "We demand bread!" | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Protesters |
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Strength | |||||||
100,000[1] |
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 8 killed[3] |
The 1956 Poznań protests, also known as Poznań June (
A crowd of approximately 100,000 people gathered in the city centre near the local Ministry of Public Security building. About 400 tanks and 10,000 soldiers of the Polish People's Army and the Internal Security Corps under the command of the Polish-Soviet general Stanislav Poplavsky were ordered to suppress the demonstration and during the pacification fired at the protesting civilians.
The death toll is estimated from 57[3] to over a hundred people,[2] including a 13-year-old boy, Romek Strzałkowski. Hundreds of people sustained injuries. The Poznań protests were an important milestone on the way to the Polish October and the installation of a less Soviet-controlled government.
Background
After Joseph Stalin's death, the process of de-Stalinization prompted debates on fundamental issues throughout the entire Eastern Bloc. Nikita Khrushchev's speech On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences had wide implications both inside the Soviet Union and in other communist countries. In Poland, in addition to the criticism of the cult of personality, popular topics of debate centered on the right to steer a more independent course of "local, national path[s] to socialism" instead of following the Soviet model down to every little detail; such views were shared by many Polish United Workers' Party members in the discussion and critique of Stalin's execution of older Polish communists from the Communist Party of Poland during the Great Purge.[4] The death of Poland's hardline Communist leader Bolesław Bierut on 12 March 1956—allegedly from shock at the content of the Secret Speech—gave further fuel to the movement for change.
The city of Poznań was one of the largest urban and industrial centers of the
Finally, a delegation of about 27 workers was sent to Warsaw around 23 June. On the night of 26 June, the delegation returned to Poznań, confident that some of their demands had been considered in a favourable light. However, the next morning, the Minister of Machine Industry met with the workers and withdrew several promises that their delegation had been given in Warsaw.[4]
Strikes
Eastern Bloc |
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On 28 June 1956, a spontaneous strike started at 6:30 a.m. at the multifactory complex of the
Between 9 and 11 a.m., about 100,000 people gathered on the
After 10 a.m., the situation rapidly deteriorated, with rumours spreading that members of the negotiating delegation had been arrested. The local units of the regular police (Milicja Obywatelska) were unable to contain the crowd and the situation turned into a violent uprising as the crowds stormed the prison at Młyńska Street, where members of the delegation were believed to have been imprisoned; hundreds of prisoners were released around 10:50 am. At 11:30 am, the arms depot at the prison building was seized and the firearms distributed among the demonstrators.[6]
The crowd ransacked the Communist Party's local headquarters and then, at around 11 a.m., attacked the office of the
In the meantime, at about 11:00 am, 16 tanks, 2 armored personnel carriers and 30 other vehicles were sent from the Officers' School of Armored and Mechanized Formations, a Poznań garrison, to protect the designated buildings, but no shots were exchanged between them and the insurgents. These soldiers engaged in friendly conversation with the protesters; some reports state that two tanks were seized and some troops disarmed.[7] Konstantin Rokossovsky, the Soviet general, and Poland's Defence Minister, then decided to take personal control, and the situation changed dramatically.[1][7][8][9]
Rokossovsky sent his deputy, the Polish-Soviet general
Between 4 p.m. and 5 a.m. the following day, troops from the
There are varying estimates of casualties. The historian Łukasz Jastrząb from the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) estimates casualties at 57 dead and about 600 wounded (including eight on the side of the government), noting that larger estimates, such as that by IPN scholar, Stanisław Jankowiak, who places the figure at slightly over 100, are not fully supported by available data.[2] Estimates of a similar range, such as the "over 70 deaths", can be found in media reports.[11]
Aftermath
About 250 people were arrested in the first few days, including 196 workers;[3] several hundred others were arrested in the following weeks.[6] Stanisław Hejmowski, the lawyer who defended them, faced repressions by the government for his statement that the government's actions had led to the death of innocent civilians. The government failed in its attempts to coerce the detainees into stating that they were provoked by foreign (Western) secret services; nonetheless, this became the official line of the government for years to come.[12]
Soon the ideologues realized that they had lost the support of the Soviet Union, and the regime turned to conciliation by announced wage rises and other reforms. Realizing the need for a change in leadership, the Polish communists chose a new leader, Władysław Gomułka, who was considered a moderate; this transition is known as Polish October (or "Gomułka Thaw"). In spite of this, the communist authorities censored all information on the Poznań events for a quarter of a century.[13]
Historians were denied source materials for research, and censorship was effective in eliminating any mention of the events of June 1956 from publicly available sources. Persecution of the most active participants would be carried out for many years. The memory of the events was preserved by the participants and members of opposition. After the Gdańsk Agreement in 1980, the Solidarity movement, as one of its first actions decided to raise a monument in memory of the Poznań June 1956 events.[13]
Many historians consider the Poznań 1956 protests to be an important milestone in
Commemoration
On 21 June 2006, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the events, the Polish parliament
See also
- Poznań '56, a 1996 film
- Plzeň uprising of 1953, violent protest of workers in Czechoslovakia
- Hungarian Revolution of 1956
- Polish 1970 protests
References
- ^ a b c d (in Polish) Waldemar Lewandowski, Poznańska bitwa pancerna Gazeta Wyborcza, 29 June 2006. Last accessed on 10 August 2007
- ^ a b c (in Polish) "Z perspektywy historyka i w świetle dokumentów…" – interview with dr Łukasz Jastrząb
- ^ ISBN 83-01-14487-4. p. 203.
- ^ a b c d Reasons for the outbreak from the official city of Poznań website dedicated to 1956 events. Last accessed on 3 April 2007.
- ISSN 0966-8136.
- ^ a b c d e f Black Thursday – course of events from the official city of Poznań website dedicated to 1956 events. Last accessed on 3 April 2007.
- ^ a b c (in Polish) Piotr Bojarski, Przebieg wydarzeń podczas czarnego czwartku Gazeta Wyborcza, 28 June 2006. Last accessed on 10 August 2007
- ^ a b (in Polish) Waldemar Lewandowski, Sowieccy generałowie w polskich mundurach Gazeta Wyborcza, 29 June 2006. Last accessed on 10 August 2007
- ^ a b (in Polish) Waldemar Lewandowski, Jak wojsko pacyfikowało powstanie Gazeta Wyborcza, 28 June 2006. Last accessed on 10 August 2007
- ^ Radio Free Europe Background Reports Archived 2008-04-04 at the Wayback Machine: 1976-12-2
- ^ Warsaw Voice31 May 2006. Last accessed on 3 April 2007.
- ^ Investigation from the official city of Poznań website dedicated to 1956 events. Last accessed on 3 April 2007.
- ^ a b Forbidden remembrance and The monument from the official city of Poznań website dedicated to 1956 events. Last accessed on 3 April 2007.
- ^ Interview with Karol Modzelewski, one of the leaders of the revolt Archived 17 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine Last accessed on 3 April 2007.
- ^ (in Polish) UCHWAŁA SEJMU RZECZYPOSPOLITEJ POLSKIEJ z dnia 21 czerwca 2006 r. w sprawie ustanowienia dnia 28 czerwca Narodowym Dniem Pamięci Poznańskiego Czerwca 1956 Archived 2011-07-24 at the Wayback Machine. Last accessed on 3 April 2007
Further reading
- Curp, T. David. "The Revolution Betrayed? The Poznan Revolt and the Polish Road to Nationalist Socialism." The Polish Review 51.3/4 (2006): 307–324. online
- Kemp-Welch, Tony. "Dethroning Stalin: Poland 1956 and its legacy." Europe-Asia Studies 58.8 (2006): 1261–1284. Online
- Kramer, Mark. "The Soviet Union and the 1956 Crises in Hungary and Poland: Reassessments and New Findings." Journal of Contemporary History 33.2 (1998): 163–214.
- Machcewicz, Paweł. Rebellious Satellite: Poland, 1956 (Stanford University Press, 2009)
- Shneiderman, S.L. The Warsaw Heresy. New York: Horizon Press, 1959.
- "Poznan Workers' Riots: Poland 1956" in Neil Schlager, ed. St. James encyclopedia of labor history worldwide (2 vol, 2004) 2:144–147.
In Polish
- (in Polish) Piotr Grzelczak, Poznański Czerwiec 1956. Walka o pamięć w latach 1956-1989 [Poznań June 1956. Struggle for memory, 1956-1989], Poznań 2016
- (in Polish) Stanisław Jankowiak, Paweł Machcewicz, Agnieszka Rogulska, "Zranione miasto : Poznań w czerwcu 1956 r.", Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, 2003
- (in Polish) Łukasz Jastrząb, "Rozstrzelano moje serce w Poznaniu. Poznański Czerwiec 1956 r. – straty osobowe i ich analiza", Wydawnictwo Comandor, Warszawa 2006, ISBN 83-7473-015-3
- (in Polish) Norbert Wójtowicz, Ofiary "Poznańskiego Czerwca", Rok 1956 na Węgrzech i w Polsce. Materiały z węgiersko–polskiego seminarium. Wrocław październik 1996, ed. Łukasz Andrzej Kamiński, Wrocław 1996, p. 32–41.
External links
- Poznań – Budapest – 1956 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland)
- Black Thursday – timeline of events (City of Poznań)
- 50 years since the Poznan uprising (International Viewpoint online magazine)