The Second World War had a devastating and
unparalleled impact on Poland. The War began with yet another
partition of Poland, by Germany and Russia. Although the Poles
were able to inflict 50,000 casualties on the invading forces,
by mid-October Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov was able to claim
that, 'Poland has ceased to exist'. The broader campaign that
followed would result in the deaths of 18% of the total pre-war
Polish population. This compares to 0.2% in the USA, 0.9% in the
UK, 7.4% in Germany, 2.2% in Czechoslovakia and 11.2 % in the
USSR. (Davies: 56). During the 40 years of communist rule, the
distinctive nature of Polish communism and also the groups that
opposed it would be coloured by this experience of war. Over a
quarter of the pre-war population had been Jews, Germans or
Ukrainians. These minorities would be either murdered or
forcibly relocated during or after the war. As a result, Poland
became a much more homogenous, Catholic country than at any time
in its history. This characteristic Catholicism would surface
again, in each of the crisis moments in its post-war history. It
helped define the national identity and also the identity of
opposition. Unlike other Central European states, at no point
was the Communist Party strong enough to challenge the hegemony
of the church. The history of opposition and the history of the
Church were constantly interlaced. Although communism would
transform Polish society, the transformation was much less
profound than in neighbouring countries where religious and
historical national identity was less pronounced.
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- Warsaw Uprising
Of all the countries 'liberated' by the Russian Red
Army at the end of the war, the experience of Poland felt the most like
occupation. The difficult relationship with its eastern neighbour would
not only characterise the opponents of Communism, but also the
relationship of the Polish Communist Party itself with the parent party
in Russia. In 1939, Poland had fought a bitter war with the Soviet Union
on its eastern border. In 1940 thousands of Polish officers were
murdered on Stalin's orders at Katyn
and in 1944 200,000 died as the Polish underground Home Army (AK) in
Warsaw was crushed in an uprising, while the Red Army appeared to hold
back on the opposite bank of the Vistula River. As the Red Army
progressed westwards, Soviet reparation squads dismantled Polish
industrial complexes and removed them to the USSR, whilst at the same
time the leaders of Poland's wartime resistance were arrested and put on
trial for treason. The experience of the war meant that when Stalin came
to impose his will on the Polish people there was no means left to
resist.
And then there was Yalta, the
decisive meeting of Allied leaders in February 1945 at which the
post-war settlement was agreed. Poland was abandoned by
Roosevelt and Churchill to the Soviet sphere of influence. This
'betrayal of Yalta' would take on mythical proportions in the
minds of Poles. For the USA, a Russian-dominated Poland was the
price to pay for a compromise that insured Soviet involvement in
the United Nations and Red Army reinforcements in the war with
Japan. For the UK, the issue was Soviet support for continued
British influence in Greece and the Mediterranean. When there
was so much else to be decided and other more 'realistic' Allied
aims still to be achieved, Poland was not considered enough of a
priority to be saved. In fact, the future of Poland and her
borders had already been sacrificed at the meeting of the big
three at Teheran in November 1943.
In the absence of a promised
Allied second front in Western Europe, the Soviets were appeased
with an acceptance of the new 'Curzon Line' borders of Poland; a
geographical restructuring that Churchill was able to
demonstrate to Stalin with use of matchsticks. She would lose
70,000 square miles to Russia in the east and she would be
compensated with 40,000 square miles from Germany. (see map) The
Poles were not consulted. A Polish Committee of National
Liberation was established under Soviet guidance in Lublin in
July 1944. It was this organisation that the Allies recognized
at Yalta as Poland's provisional government, not the London
government that had been in exile throughout the war. As
Roosevelt himself admitted, 'somewhat more emphasis is placed on
the Lublin Poles than on the other… groups from whom the new
government is to be drawn.' (Kemp-Welch: 7)
Of all the communist takeovers of Central and Eastern
Europe after the war, Poland's was the least home-grown. Stalin remarked
that, 'imposing communism on Poland is like putting a saddle on a cow'.
For Poles, it may have been more like 'putting a yoke on a stallion', (Garton-Ash:
6) but on the unlikelihood of it happening, Stalin was certainly
correct. Poland's pre-war Communist Party (KPP) had been dissolved on
Stalin's orders in 1938 and approximately 5000 of its activists
murdered. With the resurrection of the Polish communist party during the
War, the name Polish Workers Party (PPR) was chosen because as even
Stalin recognised, the word communist 'frightens off' many who might
otherwise support the programme. (Kemp-Welch: 18) As the war came to an
end there were 'hardly enough native Polish communists to run a factory,
let alone a country of some thirty million people'. (Davies: 2) Now that
diplomatic dealings had put the PPR in power at the head of a five party
coalition, what would happen about the promised 'free and unfettered
elections'? Hugh Seton-Watson identified three stages of a communist
seizure of power: coalition, bogus coalition and dictatorship.
(Seton-Watson 1961) In contrast to the democratic successes of communist
parties in Czechoslovakia and Hungary, Poland went straight from 'bogus'
coalition to 'dictatorship' without any genuine electoral success. In
June 1946, a referendum was held on issues that included land reform, nationalisation and acceptance of Poland's new borders with the Soviet
Union. These issues would be essential features of any future communist
programme. They were supported by significant majorities, on an
impressive 85% turnout of voters. However, in 1990, after the opening up
of the party archives, it was revealed that 73% of votes had been cast
against the communist regime. (Paul G. Lewis: 48-9) The referendum
results had quite simply been falsified. The power to control elections
required in place a second feature of the stage of 'bogus coalition',
the most significant security and policing functions must be controlled
by the Party. In Poland, they controlled the Ministry of Public Security
and a militia of more than 100,000. When the first post-war election was
held in January 1947, the Communists were able to rig the vote and
arrest 142 candidates and thousands of opposition supporters. The
Peasant Party leader Mikolajczk was said to have later fled for his life
in the boot of the US ambassador's car. The PPR therefore won the
'election' and immediately introduced a soviet style constitution.
Poland became a Stalinist democracy. The people's party was to have
dictatorship over the people, statues of Stalin appeared everywhere and
Katowice was renamed 'Stalinogrod'. The newly nationalised industries
focused on heavy industry and the peasants were evicted and handed over
to the collective 'Polish Agricultural Enterprises'. Even the Church was
attacked through deportations and property expropriation. However,
compared to other states in Central Europe undergoing the Stalinist
transformation, Poland 'dragged its feet'. (Davies: 8) There were no
great famines, no mass purges or show trials and the Church managed to
remain the focus of Poland's spiritual and social life.
'One may despise the Soviet's manipulative techniques;
but one is forced to admire their ingenuity. Layer after layer after
layer of interlocking political control mechanisms enabled Moscow to
hold its dependents in check at every turn. And if one check snapped
there were plenty of others in reserve. Moscow's allies were not merely
held by a collar around the neck; they were held by a leash on the
collar, a chain on the leash, a handler on the chain, a collar and lead
on the handler, a handler's handler, and, for safety's sake, a muzzle on
the mouth, blinkers on the eyes, and a set trip-wires fastened to the
paws and tail. In the parlance of Soviet dog-handling they called it
'fraternal assistance'. (Norman Davies, Heart of Europe: 84)
How was Soviet control
established? - Czechoslovakia
“Truth Prevails” Czechoslovak State Motto
Czechoslovakia emerged from the collapsed
Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was an artificial creation
comprising mainly of Czechs and Slovaks, plus large German and
Hungarian minorities. The new state satisfied the Allies’
demands for a re-organisation of Central Europe, Czech
nationalists’ demands for autonomy and represented an
improvement in status for the Slovaks. Thus Czechoslovakia was
founded on opposition to imperial control.
As neighbouring countries succumbed to
dictatorship in the 1930s, Czechoslovakia developed as a
relatively prosperous democracy. Czechs and Slovaks shared this
new state as well as mutually comprehensible languages, ethnic
ties and a common interest in supporting each other against
powerful neighbours and non-Slavic minorities. In 1938,
abandoned by the Western powers at the Munich Conference,
Czechoslovakia lost the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany.
How far do you agree that
“Geography is destiny”?
“We must always bear in mind that we
are a small nation in an unfavourable geographical
position.” T.G.Masaryk, first President of
Czechoslovakia
“If you were to look for
Czechoslovakia on a map, it would suffice to place your
finger precisely in the middle of Europe; it’s right
there. To be anchored in the very heart of Europe is not
merely geographical location; it means the very fate of
the land and of the nation that inhabits it.” (Karel
Capek, At the Crossroads of Europe, 1938: 2)
In March 1939, Germany invaded the remainder of the
Czech lands and established a puppet regime in Slovakia. In the face of
the overwhelming superiority of the German troops, President Hacha
ordered the Czechoslovak Army not to resist, accepting that it was
necessary to sacrifice the state in order to save the nation. “For
Czechs and Slovaks..., ‘Munich’ became a shorthand designation for
betrayal, and‘ o nás bez nás’ –‘ about us without us’ - was still heard
at the end of the century and beyond as a reproach for anyone who dared
decide their fate without consulting them first”.
During the War, in London, ex-President Benes worked
hard at promoting Czechoslovakia’s diplomatic interests. He established
a government in exile and by 1943 had gained recognition from Stalin
even though Czechoslovak Communist leaders such as Klement Gottwald had
gathered in Moscow. Benes, aware of his country’s vulnerability to
hostile neighbours, even entered negotiations with his Polish
counterparts regarding a possible post-war Czecho-Slovak-Polish
Federation.
The most concerted attempt at self-liberation, the Slovak
National Uprising of 1944, just as similar efforts in Poland, ended in
tragic failure. With the Soviet forces poised on the border, both Stalin
and the western allies failed to deliver promised assistance in time.
However, it was the Red Army, eventually, which liberated most of
Czechoslovakia. The Americans halted their advance at Pilsen in the West
and then, in accordance with the political deals brokered by the Allied
leaders at the Yalta Conference, withdrew. Some continuity with the
pre-war regime was achieved when Benes returned as President; Gottwald’s
Moscow Communists, under Stalin’s orders, agreed to co-operate in a
‘National Front’ coalition government. This generosity masked the fact
that within the new coalition, the Communists secured control of several
key ministries, including control of the police and the military.
Czechoslovakia had suffered proportionately fewer war casualties than
neighbouring countries and less damage to its economic infrastructure.
The destruction of the Jewish population, the annexation of Ruthenia by
the Soviet Union, and the violent ethnic cleansing of the German and
Hungarian minorities immediately after the war left a more ethnically
homogenous country dominated by Czechs and Slovaks. In the first
post-war elections, held in 1946, the Communists emerged as the largest
party gaining 38 percent of the vote, one of the best ever performances
by any communist party in a free election. The Communists had achieved a
popular mandate, Gottwald became Prime Minister within a new coalition,
and, pressed by Stalin, took steps to increase his party’s control.
Memories of ‘Munich’ remained a factor as Czechoslovakia re-orientated
towards the East. At the end of a decade in which the capitalist system
had struggled from crisis to crisis, the western democracies had
sacrificed Czechoslovakia in an act of notorious betrayal. Neither the
Czechoslovak Communist Party nor the Soviet Union had ever accepted the
Munich Agreement. Communist propagandists, air-brushing their own
inconsistencies regarding the Nazi-Soviet Pact, relentlessly contrasted
their record of heroic liberation with the pusillanimity of the liberal
democracies. In addition, as the Czechs sought revenge against Nazi
sympathizers, Communists took a leading role in the deportation of the
Sudeten German minority. The Communist-run Ministries of the Interior
and of Agriculture distributed the Germans’ confiscated land among Czech
workers, shoring up further sources of support.
Pre-War Czechoslovakia had been
economically the most developed country in the region, an advantage that
had increased in relative terms as neighbouring states suffered greater
war damage. As Gottwald’s regime fomented a class war against the rich,
there was plenty of wealth to be redistributed.
What motivated
individuals to join the Party? • Whether out of ideological
commitment, careerism, self-preservation, or in hope of a share of the
spoils of class war, Party membership grew rapidly in Czechoslovakia,
where the Communists could truly claim to be a mass movement.
Growth of Communist
Party Membership 1945-49 (millions)
Poland
Czechoslovakia
Hungary
1945
0.24
0.71
0.15
1949
1.37
2.31
1.20
Gottwald
uncharacteristically flirted with pursuing a foreign policy independent
of the Soviet Union when he declared an interest in accepting Marshall
Aid. Stalin forced the reversal of this policy, exposing the limits of
Czechoslovak independence and underlining the Soviet intention to
dominate the satellite nations within its sphere. Returning from a
meeting on the matter with Stalin, Czechoslovak Foreign Minister Jan
Masaryk remarked, “I left for Moscow as Minister of a sovereign state. I
am returning as Stalin’s stooge.” Within Czechoslovakia the
intimidation of non-Communist politicians increased prompting several
resignations. In March 1948, Jan Masaryk, the Foreign Minister died
having fallen from a window, with the obvious suspicion of foul play.
President Benes, increasingly isolated and struggling against ill
health, resigned in June and died soon after. New elections were held,
this time uncontested. Gottwald became President, Antonin Zapotocky took
over as Prime Minister and the Communist coup was completed. Through
Gottwald’s puppet government, a style of government subservient to the
policies of the Soviet Union and bearing many features of
Stalinism was imposed. The Party established monopoly rule based
on their single, dominating ideology. The private sector was replaced by a nationalised,
centrally commanded economy. Civil society, in the form of
clubs, churches, unions or charities, was brought within party
control or destroyed. State security forces were used to
intimidate, imprison and kill opponents.
Official
investigations at the time concluded that Masaryk had
committed suicide by jumping from a third floor window.
However, one does not have to be an excessively
credulous collector of conspiracy theories to have
doubts about the findings of the Communist
investigators.
Although
the passage of time makes it unlikely we will ever have
a definitive answer, we can find evidence supporting
each theory and in doing so reveal something of the
nature of the Communist seizure of power. For example, the
highest-ranking Soviet Bloc intelligence defector, Lt.
Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, described his conversation with
Nicolae Ceauscescu, who told him about "ten
international leaders the Kremlin killed or tried to
kill". Jan Masaryk was one of them.'The
Kremlin’s Killing Ways - Ion Mihai Pacepa
Membership of the Party was no guarantee of security
though, and as the show trials of the early 1950s demonstrate, it was
often events outside Czechoslovakia, as well as internal personal
rivalry, that determined who would fall victim. Yugoslavia’s desertion
of the Soviet bloc, to pursue their own path to socialism, was a
particular source of paranoia. Expressions of independent thought risked
the accusation of ‘Titoism’. As a result, an ability to recognise, and
not deviate from, Soviet orthodoxy became valued over initiative.
In February 1948, Communist
leader Klement Gottwald stepped out on the balcony of a Baroque
palace in Prague to address the hundreds of thousands of
citizens packed into Old Town Square. It was a crucial moment in
Czech history - a fateful moment of the kind that occurs once or
twice in a millennium.
Gottwald was flanked by his comrades, with
Clementis standing next to him. There were snow flurries, it was
cold, and Gottwald was bareheaded. The solicitous Clementis took
off his fur hat and set it on Gottwald's head.
The Party propaganda section put
out hundreds of thousands of copies of the photograph taken on
that balcony with Gottwald, a fur cap on his head and comrades
at his side, speaking to the nation. On that balcony the history of Communist
Czechoslovakia was born. Every child knew the photograph from
posters, schoolbooks, and museums. Four years later, Clementis was charged with
treason and hanged. The propaganda section immediately
airbrushed him from history and, obviously, from all
photographs. Ever since, Gottwald has stood on that balcony
alone. Where Clementis once stood, there is only bare palace
wall. All that remains of Clementis is the cap on Gottwald's
head.'
