The interwar Communist Party of Poland ( pl, Komunistyczna Partia Polski, KPP) was a
communist party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
active in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
during the
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
. It resulted from a December 1918 merger of the
Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania
The Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania ( pl, Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego i Litwy, SDKPiL), , LKLSD), originally the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP), was a Marxist political party founded in 1893 and ...
(SDKPiL) and the
Polish Socialist Party – Left
Polish Socialist Party – Left ( pl, Polska Partia Socjalistyczna – Lewica, PPS–L), also known as the Young Faction ( pl, Młodzi, links=no), was one of two factions into which Polish Socialist Party divided itself in 1906. Its primary goal ...
(PPS – Left) into the Communist Workers' Party of Poland (''Komunistyczna Partia Robotnicza Polski'', KPRP).
The
communists
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
were a small force in Polish politics.
The Communist Party of Poland (until 1925 the Communist Workers' Party of Poland) was an organization of the radical
Left
Left may refer to:
Music
* ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006
* ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016
* "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996
Direction
* Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right
* L ...
. Following the ideas of
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat party, ...
,
the party's aim was to create a Polish Socialist Republic, to be included in the planned Pan-
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an Commonwealth of Socialist States. The party did not support the formation of the
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
in 1918 and supported the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
(led by
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
) in the 1920
Polish–Soviet War
The Polish–Soviet War (Polish–Bolshevik War, Polish–Soviet War, Polish–Russian War 1919–1921)
* russian: Советско-польская война (''Sovetsko-polskaya voyna'', Soviet-Polish War), Польский фронт (' ...
.
The views adhered to and promulgated by the leaders of the KPP (
Maria Koszutska
Maria Karolina Sabina Koszutska (pseudonym ''Wera Kostrzewa'') (2 February 1876, Główczyn – 9 July 1939, Moscow) was a leader and theoretician of the Polish Socialist Party "Left" faction ''(Polska Partia Socialistyczna, PPS — Lewic ...
,
Adolf Warski
Adolf Warski (born Adolf Jerzy Warszawski; 20 April 1868 – 21 August 1937), was a Polish communist leader, journalist and theoretician of the communist movement in Poland.
Warski was born in Warsaw into an assimilated Polish Jewish family ...
,
Maksymilian Horwitz
Maksymilian Horwitz (pseudonym: ''Henryk Walecki''; 6 September 1877 – 20 September 1937) was a leader and theoretician of the Polish socialist and communist movement.
Biography
Maksymilian Horwitz was born to a Jewish family in Warsaw, the s ...
, and
Edward Próchniak
Edward Próchniak (; 4 December 1888 in Puławy – 21 August 1937) was a leading Polish communist activist and one of the founders of the Communist Party of Poland.
He joined the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania in 1903. ...
) led to the party's difficult relationship with Stalin.
The
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
(Comintern) condemned the KPP for its support of
Józef Piłsudski
), Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire (now Lithuania)
, death_date =
, death_place = Warsaw, Poland
, constituency =
, party = None (formerly PPS)
, spouse =
, children = Wan ...
's
May Coup of 1926 (the party's "May error").
From 1933, the KPP was increasingly treated with suspicion by the Comintern. The party structures were seen as compromised due to infiltration by agents of the Polish military intelligence. Some of the party leaders, falsely accused of being such agents, were subsequently executed in the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. In 1935 and 1936, the KPP undertook a formation of a
unified worker and peasant front in Poland and was then subjected to further persecutions by the Comintern, which also arbitrarily accused the Polish communists of harboring
Trotskyists
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a re ...
elements in their ranks. The apogee of the
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
-held prosecutions, aimed at eradicating the various "deviations" and ending usually in death sentences, took place in 1937–38, with the last executions carried out in 1940.
KPP members were persecuted and often imprisoned by the Polish
Sanation
Sanation ( pl, Sanacja, ) was a Polish political movement that was created in the interwar period, prior to Józef Piłsudski's May 1926 ''Coup d'État'', and came to power in the wake of that coup. In 1928 its political activists would go on ...
regime, which turned out to likely save the lives of a number of future Polish communist leaders, including
Bolesław Bierut
Bolesław Bierut (; 18 April 1892 – 12 March 1956) was a Polish communist activist and politician, leader of the Polish People's Republic from 1947 until 1956. He was President of the State National Council from 1944 to 1947, President of Po ...
,
Władysław Gomułka
Władysław Gomułka (; 6 February 1905 – 1 September 1982) was a Polish communist politician. He was the ''de facto'' leader of post-war Poland from 1947 until 1948. Following the Polish October he became leader again from 1956 to 1970. G ...
,
Alfred Lampe
Alfred Lampe (14 May 1900 – 10 December 1943) was a Polish communist politician and journalist.
Biography
Lampe was born into a Jewish working-class family in Warsaw. He was a member of Poale Zion from 1918 to 1921. In 1921, he joined the Co ...
,
Edward Ochab
Edward Ochab (; 16 August 1906 – 1 May 1989) was a Polish communist politician and top leader of Poland between March and October 1956.
As a member of the Communist Party of Poland from 1929, he was repeatedly imprisoned for his activities u ...
,
Stefan Jędrychowski, and
Aleksander Zawadzki (among former KPP members transferred during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
from the Soviet Union to Poland for conspiratorial work were
Mieczysław Moczar
Mieczysław Moczar (; birth name Mikołaj Diomko, pseudonym ''Mietek'', 23 December 1913 in – 1 November 1986) was a Polish communist politician who played a prominent role in the history of the Polish People's Republic. He is most known for hi ...
and
Marian Spychalski
Marian "Marek" Spychalski (, 6 December 1906 – 7 June 1980) was a Polish architect in pre-war Poland, and later, military commander and a communist politician. During World War II he belonged to the Polish underground forces operating within ...
). During the Great Purge, seventy members and candidate members of the party's
central committee
Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...
fled or were brought to the Soviet Union and were shot there, along with many other activists (almost all prominent Polish communists were murdered or sent to labor camps). The Comintern, in reality directed by Stalin, in 1938 had the party dissolved and liquidated.
Party history
1918–1921
The origins
The KPRP was founded on 16 December 1918. It joined together the
SDKPiL
The Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania ( pl, Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego i Litwy, SDKPiL), , LKLSD), originally the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP), was a Marxist political party founded in 1893 an ...
(one of whose leaders was
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat party, ...
) and the
PPS – Left. It followed the program of the former. Unification of the
trade union movement
The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other.
* The trade union movement ...
was a prime objective behind the merger.
The members of the new party organized
Workers' Councils in Poland
Workers' Councils in Poland ( pl, rady robotnicze w Polsce) or councils of workers' delegates ( pl, rady delegatów robotniczych) were representative organs of workers and peasants, set up at various times in Poland throughout the 20th century, bu ...
, which competed with the more popular
Polish Socialist Party
The Polish Socialist Party ( pl, Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, PPS) is a socialist political party in Poland.
It was one of the most important parties in Poland from its inception in 1892 until its merger with the communist Polish Workers' ...
(PPS) units for
working class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
support. The KPRP remained a small minority of the leftist movement, in part because of Luxemburg's position that Poland should remain a province of
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
rather than regain independence. In March 1919, through its representative
Józef Unszlicht
Józef Unszlicht or Iosif Stanislavovich Unshlikht (russian: Ио́сиф Станисла́вович У́ншлихт; nicknames "Jurowski", "Leon") (31 December 1879 – 29 July 1938) was a Polish and Russian revolutionary activist, a Soviet go ...
, the KPRP took part in the founding of the
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
(Comintern or the Third International) in Moscow.
The Polish-Soviet War
The KPRP opposed Poland's
war against Soviet Russia of 1919–21. During the fighting, the KPRP's legal status was legislatively taken away; the communist party would remain an underground organization in Poland until its demise. Due to the support for the government provided by pro-independence
socialists
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the eco ...
of the PPS, efforts by the KPRP to agitate for workers' solidarity with the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
were forestalled. However, at the height of the Red Army offensive the
Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee
Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee ( pl, Tymczasowy Komitet Rewolucyjny Polski, Polrewkom; russian: Польревком) (July–August 1920) was a revolutionary committee created under the patronage of Soviet Russia with the goal to e ...
was formed on 2 August 1920. It consisted of
Julian Marchlewski
Julian Baltazar Józef Marchlewski (17 May 1866 – 22 March 1925) was a Polish communist politician, revolutionary activist and publicist who served as chairman of the Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee. He was also known under the alia ...
,
Felix Dzerzhinsky
Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky ( pl, Feliks Dzierżyński ; russian: Фе́ликс Эдму́ндович Дзержи́нский; – 20 July 1926), nicknamed "Iron Felix", was a Bolshevik revolutionary and official, born into Poland, Polish n ...
,
Feliks Kon
Feliks Yakovlevich Kon (18 May 1864 – 30 July 1941) was a Polish communist activist, politician, ethnographer, publicist and journalist. He was the editor-in-chief of the Soviet satirical magazine, '' Krokodil''.
Life and career
Born in ...
,
Józef Unszlicht
Józef Unszlicht or Iosif Stanislavovich Unshlikht (russian: Ио́сиф Станисла́вович У́ншлихт; nicknames "Jurowski", "Leon") (31 December 1879 – 29 July 1938) was a Polish and Russian revolutionary activist, a Soviet go ...
, and
Edward Próchniak
Edward Próchniak (; 4 December 1888 in Puławy – 21 August 1937) was a leading Polish communist activist and one of the founders of the Communist Party of Poland.
He joined the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania in 1903. ...
. Its establishment brought no political gains for the party. The traditional
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
position on the land question as understood by the Polish Marxists was abandoned, in favour of
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
's views.
1921–1926
![Uchwala KPRP (HistoriaPolski str](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Uchwala_KPRP_%28HistoriaPolski_str.137%29.jpg)
The period 1921–1926 saw relative political freedom in Poland and the KPRP took advantage of the opportunities. Gains in membership were initially made from the ranks of the reformist workers' organisations and in the late 1920s from a left-wing faction of the PPS, led by Stanislaw Lancucki and
Jerzy Czeszejko-Sochacki. They joined the KPRP, giving the party representation in the ''
Sejm
The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland.
The Sejm has been the highest governing body of t ...
'' (Polish legislature). Gains were also made from the
General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland
The General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland ( yi, אַלגעמײַנער ײדישער אַרבעטער בּונד אין פוילן, translit=Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter-bund in Poyln, pl, Ogólno-Żydowski Związek Robotniczy "Bund" w Polsce) was ...
when a faction led by Aleksander Minc joined and from two smaller Jewish socialist groups:
Poale Zion
Poale Zion (also spelled Poalei Tziyon or Poaley Syjon, meaning "Workers of Zion") was a movement of Marxist–Zionist Jewish workers founded in various cities of Poland, Europe and the Russian Empire in about the turn of the 20th century after ...
and the
United Jewish Socialist Workers Party
United Jewish Socialist Workers Party ( yi, פֿאַראײניקטע ייִדישע סאָציאַליסטישע אַרבעטער־פּאַרטיי, ''fareynikte yidishe sotsialistishe arbeter-partey'') was a political party that emerged in Russia ...
(''Fareynikte''). In the
eastern borderlands
Eastern Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Wschodnie) or simply Borderlands ( pl, Kresy, ) was a term coined for the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural and extensively multi-ethnic, it ...
, the KPRP and then KPP operated as the autonomous
Communist Party of Western Ukraine Communist Party of Western Ukraine (; uk, Комуністична партія Західної України) was a political party in eastern interwar Poland. Until 1923 it was known as the Communist Party of Eastern Galicia (Komunistyczna Par ...
(KPZU) and
Communist Party of Western Belorussia The Communist Party of Western Belorussia ( pl, Komunistyczna Partia Zachodniej Białorusi, KPZB; be, Камуністычная партыя Заходняй Беларусі, КПЗБ) was a banned political party in the Second Polish Republic, I ...
(KPZB);
substantial growth in membership was experienced there at this time. In the area of operation of KPP proper (western and central Poland numerically dominated by ethnic
Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...
), 22–26% of the members were
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, according to the party sources.
In 1922, the leadership consolidated around
Adolf Warski
Adolf Warski (born Adolf Jerzy Warszawski; 20 April 1868 – 21 August 1937), was a Polish communist leader, journalist and theoretician of the communist movement in Poland.
Warski was born in Warsaw into an assimilated Polish Jewish family ...
,
Maksymilian Horwitz
Maksymilian Horwitz (pseudonym: ''Henryk Walecki''; 6 September 1877 – 20 September 1937) was a leader and theoretician of the Polish socialist and communist movement.
Biography
Maksymilian Horwitz was born to a Jewish family in Warsaw, the s ...
and
Maria Koszutska
Maria Karolina Sabina Koszutska (pseudonym ''Wera Kostrzewa'') (2 February 1876, Główczyn – 9 July 1939, Moscow) was a leader and theoretician of the Polish Socialist Party "Left" faction ''(Polska Partia Socialistyczna, PPS — Lewic ...
of the "majority" faction, more moderate and dominant in the party until at least 1924. The "minority" faction was later led by
Julian Leszczyński Julian Leszczyński (; 8 January 1889 in Płock – 20 August 1939), also known by pseudonym Leński, was a Polish communist political activist, publicist, and leader of the Stalinist faction in the Communist Party of Poland (KPP).
He led the ...
.
The party founded the Red Factions within the unions. An electoral list called the "Union of Town and Country Proletariat" was constructed and the party managed to win 130,000 votes and two parliamentary seats in the
legislative election of November 1922.
The party's Second Congress gathered in Moscow in August 1923. The leadership overhauled the party program, particularly with regard to the land and national questions, where more
Leninist
Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishme ...
policies were adopted. Autonomous sections of the party were recognised as needed in Poland's eastern regions, which were heavily inhabited by ethnically non-Polish groups (
Western Ukraine
Western Ukraine or West Ukraine ( uk, Західна Україна, Zakhidna Ukraina or , ) is the territory of Ukraine linked to the former Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, which was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austria ...
and
Western Belorussia
Western Belorussia or Western Belarus ( be, Заходняя Беларусь, translit=Zachodniaja Bielaruś; pl, Zachodnia Białoruś; russian: Западная Белоруссия, translit=Zapadnaya Belorussiya) is a historical region of mod ...
). Within the
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
(Comintern), the Polish leaders aligned with
Grigory Zinoviev and not with the embryonic
Left Opposition
The Left Opposition was a faction within the Russian Communist Party (b) from 1923 to 1927 headed ''de facto'' by Leon Trotsky. The Left Opposition formed as part of the power struggle within the party leadership that began with the Soviet fou ...
.
The Polish party was independently minded, and in the Polish Commission convened at the Comintern's Fifth Congress (1924), made efforts to defend both
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
and
Heinrich Brandler
Heinrich Brandler (3 July 1881 – 26 September 1967) was a German communist, trade unionist, politician, revolutionary activist, and political writer. Brandler is best remembered as the head of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during the party ...
, the leader of the
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...
. The main prosecutor in the case against the Polish leadership was Julian Leszczyński, but the Polish Commission was chaired by Stalin. Leszczyński was appointed, without reference to a party congress, to the new party central committee. His task was to "
Bolshevise" the KPRP.
The party's Third Congress gathered at
Minsk
Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...
in March 1925 with the slogan "Bolshevisation of the party". This meant that the basic party unit was to be a workplace cell and an all-powerful party apparatus was constructed to decide policy. All factional tendencies were banned. Significantly, the party's name was contracted to "Communist Party of Poland" (KPP). Despite being endorsed by the leadership of the Comintern, Leszczyński's leadership group was independently minded enough to adopt positions on
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
and
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
contrary to those of the Comintern. It was removed from office by yet another Polish Commission. Warski returned to the leadership and the party again pursued attempts to build a united front with the PPS.
1926–1938
The KPP and Piłsudski's ''coup''
![Maria Koszutska](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Maria_Koszutska.jpg)
Poland's democratically elected coalition government was conflicted and in 1926 faced serious trouble of economic and other nature. On 12 May, the still-popular, semi-retired General
Józef Piłsudski
), Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire (now Lithuania)
, death_date =
, death_place = Warsaw, Poland
, constituency =
, party = None (formerly PPS)
, spouse =
, children = Wan ...
initiated a ''
coup d’etat''. Pilsudski, who in his youth and before
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
was a leader of the
Polish Socialist Party
The Polish Socialist Party ( pl, Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, PPS) is a socialist political party in Poland.
It was one of the most important parties in Poland from its inception in 1892 until its merger with the communist Polish Workers' ...
(PPS), retained in many circles a reputation as a friend of the Left and the Polish communists were among those confused by his present actions.
[Wereszycki, Henryk (1990). Historia polityczna Polski 1864–1918 olitical history of Poland 1864–1918 Pages 242–243, 275. Wrocław: Ossolineum. .] When railway workers went on strike, the PPS declared a
general strike
A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...
. "Even the tiny and illegal Polish Communist Party announced support for what they termed Piłsudski's 'revolutionary armies'." The railway workers were vital, because during the fighting they blocked troop trains trying to deliver reinforcements for the government. On 14 May, the government leaders decided to stop resisting the ''coup'' and resigned.
During Piłsudski's May ''coup'', the KPP engaged in street battles with troops loyal to the government of
Wincenty Witos
Wincenty Witos (; 22 January 1874 – 31 October 1945) was a Polish politician, prominent member and leader of the Polish People's Party (PSL), who served three times as the Prime Minister of Poland in the 1920s.
He was a member of the Polish Peo ...
, which it called fascist. The KPP leaders directly aided the ''coup'', for which they would pay a steep price. After the events Stalin sharply denounced the KPP leadership and they were eventually ousted for their "May error".
The debate over the "May error" was getting increasingly venomous before and during the party's Fourth Congress in September 1927 in Moscow. In the aftermath, two representatives of the Comintern were placed on the Polish party's Central Committee: the
Finn Otto Wille Kuusinen
Otto Wilhelm "Wille" Kuusinen (; russian: О́тто Вильге́льмович Ку́усинен, Otto Vilgelmovich Kuusinen; 4 October 1881 – 17 May 1964) was a Finnish-born Soviet communist and, later, Soviet politician, literary his ...
and the
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
Dmitry Manuilsky
Dmitriy Manuilsky, or Dmytro Zakharovych Manuilsky ( Russian: Дми́трий Заха́рович Мануи́льский; Ukrainian: Дмитро Захарович Мануїльський; October 1883 in Sviatets near Kremenets – 22 ...
; the KPP was no longer in a position to exercise any independence of thought and action.
Despite the internal factional struggles, the party grew during this period, attracting support from the minorities and among the working class. It participated in the
1928 Polish legislative election. However, the removal of the Warski group from leadership resulted in the party plunged into isolation as it embarked on the "Third Period". Endorsed by the KPP's Fifth Congress in 1930, the Third Period saw the party routinely describing the PPS as fascist and revolution was claimed to be imminent. As the country was hit severely by the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, the KPP became embroiled in a new internal struggle.
Polish communists in the 1930s
![Adolf Warszawski-Warski](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Adolf_Warszawski-Warski.jpg)
The
popular front
A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault".
More generally, it is "a coalition ...
strategy was pursued by the KPP in the mid-1930s. The KPP pressed both the PPS and
Bund for unity, which both rebuffed. The communists tried to infiltrate organisations alien to the workers' movement, such as the
Peasant Party and even
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
groups. Unity of the Left remained an impossible goal, however, possibly because of the KPP's prior animosity toward other parties and civil groups.
Many militants of the KPP joined the
International Brigades
The International Brigades ( es, Brigadas Internacionales) were military units set up by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The organization existed f ...
to fight the
Nationalists
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
. The
Dąbrowski Battalion
The Dabrowski Battalion, also known as Dąbrowszczacy (), was a battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. It was initially formed entirely of volunteers, "chiefly composed of Polish miners recently living and working in F ...
, named for the hero of the
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
, was led by the KPP but counted among its members many PPS workers and other non-KPP volunteers.
The KPP liquidated by Stalin
In the mid and late 1930s the KPP became a victim of paranoia and suspicion that engulfed the Stalin-led communist movement. It culminated in the
Moscow Trials
The Moscow trials were a series of show trials held by the Soviet Union between 1936 and 1938 at the instigation of Joseph Stalin. They were nominally directed against "Trotskyists" and members of "Right Opposition" of the Communist Party of th ...
and purges. A number of KPP members were accused of being agents of institutions of
Sanation
Sanation ( pl, Sanacja, ) was a Polish political movement that was created in the interwar period, prior to Józef Piłsudski's May 1926 ''Coup d'État'', and came to power in the wake of that coup. In 1928 its political activists would go on ...
Poland and liquidated. Next almost the entire leading cadre of the party became embroiled in the purges and murdered. Many were summoned to Moscow for "consultations". Among those killed were: Albert Bronkowski, Władysław Stein-Krajewski,
Józef Unszlicht
Józef Unszlicht or Iosif Stanislavovich Unshlikht (russian: Ио́сиф Станисла́вович У́ншлихт; nicknames "Jurowski", "Leon") (31 December 1879 – 29 July 1938) was a Polish and Russian revolutionary activist, a Soviet go ...
,
Adolf Warski
Adolf Warski (born Adolf Jerzy Warszawski; 20 April 1868 – 21 August 1937), was a Polish communist leader, journalist and theoretician of the communist movement in Poland.
Warski was born in Warsaw into an assimilated Polish Jewish family ...
,
Maria Koszutska
Maria Karolina Sabina Koszutska (pseudonym ''Wera Kostrzewa'') (2 February 1876, Główczyn – 9 July 1939, Moscow) was a leader and theoretician of the Polish Socialist Party "Left" faction ''(Polska Partia Socialistyczna, PPS — Lewic ...
,
Maksymilian Horwitz
Maksymilian Horwitz (pseudonym: ''Henryk Walecki''; 6 September 1877 – 20 September 1937) was a leader and theoretician of the Polish socialist and communist movement.
Biography
Maksymilian Horwitz was born to a Jewish family in Warsaw, the s ...
,
Julian Leszczyński Julian Leszczyński (; 8 January 1889 in Płock – 20 August 1939), also known by pseudonym Leński, was a Polish communist political activist, publicist, and leader of the Stalinist faction in the Communist Party of Poland (KPP).
He led the ...
,
Stanisław Bobiński, Jerzy Heryng, Józef Feliks Ciszewski,
Tomasz Dąbal
Tomasz Jan Dąbal (; 29 December 1890 – 21 August 1937) was a Polish lawyer, activist of the interwar period and politician. He was the co-founder and the head of state of the Republic of Tarnobrzeg, succeeded by the Second Polish Republic.
...
, Saul Amsterdam,
Bruno Jasieński
Bruno Jasieński , born Wiktor Bruno Zysman (17 July 1901 – 17 September 1938), was a Polish poet, novelist, playwright, Catastrophist, and leader of the Polish Futurist movement in the interwar period.Dr Feliks TomaszewskiBruno Jasieński. Biog ...
and Witold Wandurski. The leaderless party was then accused of
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
among other "deviations" and 16.08.1938 dissolved by the Comintern. Most of the KPP activists perished in the
Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...
, but among those who survived were some of the future leaders of
communist Poland
The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...
.
Policies and positions
The KPP was guided by Marxist ideology under a strictly orthodox interpretation. It opposed the establishment of a politically independent Poland. Its activists functioned as party members and government officials in Soviet Russia. The KPP was against land reform (distribution of property to landless peasants). It aimed to organize the working class and to unify the trade union movement. It adhered to policies established by the Comintern in Moscow. Its status was illegal, as it refused to register as a political party.
[Watt, ''Bitter Glory'' (1979), pp. 90-92.]
The Polish Workers' Party
Arriving from the Soviet Union, a group of Polish communists was parachuted into
occupied Poland
' ( Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 Octobe ...
in December 1941. With
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
's permission, in January 1942 they established the
Polish Workers' Party
The Polish Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Partia Robotnicza, PPR) was a communist party in Poland from 1942 to 1948. It was founded as a reconstitution of the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) and merged with the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) in 1948 ...
, a new communist party.
Election Results
See also
*
Communism in Poland
Communism in Poland can trace its origins to the late 19th century: the Marxist First Proletariat party was founded in 1882. Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (''Socjaldemokracja Królest ...
*
List of Polish Communist Party politicians
A list of notable Polish politicians of the historical Communist Party of Poland ( pl, Komunistyczna Partia Polski).
B
* Jakub Berman
* Bolesław Bierut
* Jerzy Borejsza
C
* Jerzy Czeszejko-Sochacki
D
* Gershon Dua-Bogen
* Tomasz Dąbal
F
...
*
Polish Workers' Party
The Polish Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Partia Robotnicza, PPR) was a communist party in Poland from 1942 to 1948. It was founded as a reconstitution of the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) and merged with the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) in 1948 ...
*
Polish United Workers' Party
The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...
*
Communist Party of Poland (Mijal)
*
Polish Communist Party (2002)
The Polish Communist Party ( pl, Komunistyczna Partia Polski, KPP), or the Communist Party of Poland, is an anti-revisionist Marxist–Leninist communist party in Poland founded in 2002 claiming to be the historical and ideological heir of the ...
References
Bibliography
*Robert E. Blobaum, ''Rewolucja. Russian Poland, 1904-1907'' (Cornell University 1995).
*
Edward H. Carr, ''The Communist Party of Poland & the May Error'' (1936; Estratto Annali Dell'istituto Giangiacomo Feltrinelli 1972).
*William J. Chase, ''Enemies within the Gates? The Comintern and the Stalinist repression, 1934-1939'' (Yale University 2001).
*
Robert Conquest
George Robert Acworth Conquest (15 July 1917 – 3 August 2015) was a British historian and poet.
A long-time research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, Conquest was most notable for his work on the Soviet Union. His books ...
, ''
The Great Terror
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...
. A reassessment'' (Oxford University 1990).
*
Robert Vincent Daniels
Robert Vincent "Bill" Daniels (1926–2010) was an American historian and educator specializing in the history of the Soviet Union. He is best remembered as the author of two seminal monographs on the history of Soviet Russia —''The Conscience o ...
, ''The Conscience of the Revolution. Communist opposition in Soviet Russia'' (New York: Simon and Schuster 1960).
*
M. K. Dziewanowski, ''The Communist Party of Poland. An outline of history'' (Harvard University 1959, 2d ed. 1976).
*M. K. Dziewanowski, ''Poland in the 20th century'' (Columbia University 1977).
*
Tony Judt
Tony Robert Judt ( ; 2 January 1948 – 6 August 2010) was a British-American historian, essayist and university professor who specialized in European history. Judt moved to New York and served as the Erich Maria Remarque Professor in European ...
, ''Reappraisals. Reflections on the forgotten twentieth century'' (Harmondsworth: Penguin 2008).
*
Josef Korbel
Josef Korbel (; September 20, 1909 – July 18, 1977) was a Czech-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as Czechoslovakia's ambassador to Yugoslavia, the chair of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan, and then as a p ...
, ''Poland between Eadt & West. Soviet & German diplomacy toward Poland 1919-1933'' (Princeton University 1963).
*W. J. Rose, ''Poland'' (Harmondsworth: A Penguin Special 1939).
*Gabriele Simoncini, ''The Communist Party of Poland 1919-29: A study in political ideology'' (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen 1993).
*Richard M. Watt, ''Bitter Glory. Poland and its fate. 1918-1939'' (New York: Simon and Schuster 1979).
*Piotr S. Wandycz, ''Soviet-Polish Relations, 1917-1921'' (Harvard University 1969).
*Jan B. de Weydenthal, ''The Communists of Poland. An historical outline'' (Hoover Institute 1978, 2d ed. 1987).
*
Ferdynand Zweig, ''Poland between two wars. A critical study of social and economic change'' (London: Secker and Warburg 1944).
**R. F. Leslie,
Antony Polonsky
Antony Barry Polonsky (born 23 September 1940, Johannesburg, South Africa) is Emeritus Professor of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University. He is the author of many historical works on the Holocaust, and is an expert on Polish Jewish history.
...
, Jan M. Ciechanowski,
Z. A. Pelczynski, ''The History of Poland since 1863'' (Cambridge University 1980), edited by Leslie.
**
Adam Daniel Rotfeld
Adam Daniel Rotfeld (Polish pronunciation: ; born 4 March 1938) is a Polish researcher, diplomat, and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland from 5 January 2005 until 31 October 2005 when a change of government took place. He served ear ...
&
Anatoly V. Torkunov, ed., ''White Spots Black Spots. Difficult matters in Polish-Russian relations 1918-2008'' (University of Pittsburgh 2015).
**Jaff Schatz, "Jews and the Communist movement in interwar Poland", pp. 13–37, in ''Dark Times, Dire Decisions. Jews and Communism'' (Oxford University 2004), edited by Jonathan Frankel.
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