The Central Bureau Communists of Poland ( pl, Centralne Biuro Komunistów Polski or CBKP; russian: Центральное бюро коммунистов Польши) was a group of
Polish Communists
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 ...
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 nationa ...
during World War II, hand-picked by the Russian Secretariat of the Central Committee (
BKK) with the aim of assisting in the takeover of power in Poland. It was a secret structure initially, active between January and August 1944, and closely affiliated with the Soviet
Central Committee
Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party organizations, the ...
of the Communist Party.
The Bureau was organized between January and February 1944 based on a decree by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the
All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
"Hymn of the Bolshevik Party"
, headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow
, general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first)Mikhail Gorbachev (last)
, founded =
, banned =
, founder = Vladimir Lenin
, newspaper ...
regarding the takeover of power in postwar Poland.
The founding date was January 10, 1944, when the Office manifesto has been issued officially. The Polish members of the Bureau declared themselves to have an overriding role over the
PPR. The CBKP was an internal structure, and its personnel composition remained secret for the outside world even when others were informed of its very existence. The PPR authorities learned about the CBKP from a telegram received at the beginning of August 1944 in Lublin, similar to the PPR Secretary General Władysław Gomułka who was informed about it on July 18, 1944 in Warsaw.
Leadership
Management of CBKP included:
Aleksander Zawadzki
Aleksander Zawadzki, alias Kazik, Wacek, Bronek, One (; 16 December 1899 – 7 August 1964) was a Polish communist politician, first Chairman of the Council of State of the People's Republic of Poland, divisional general of the Polish Ar ...
- Chairman,
Stanisław Radkiewicz - Secretary,
Karol Świerczewski
Karol Wacław Świerczewski (; callsign ''Walter''; 10 February 1897 – 28 March 1947) was a Polish and Soviet Red Army general and statesman. He was a Bolshevik Party member during the Russian Civil War and a Soviet officer in the wars foug ...
- Member,
Jakub Berman
Jakub Berman (23 December 1901 – 10 April 1984) was a Polish communist politician. Was born in Jewish family, son of Iser and Guta. An activist during the Second Polish Republic, in post-war communist Poland he was a member of the Politburo of ...
- Member,
Wanda Wasilewska
ukr, Ванда Львівна Василевська rus, Ванда Львовна Василевская
, native_name_lang =
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Kraków, Austria-Hungary
, death_date =
, death_place ...
- Member,
Hilary Minc
Hilary Minc (24 August 1905, Kazimierz Dolny – 26 November 1974, Warsaw) was a Polish economist and communist politician prominent in Stalinist Poland.
Minc was born into a middle class Jewish family; his parents were Oskar Minc and Stefa ...
- Plenipotentiary, and Stefan Wierbłowski - Plenipotentiary.
Berman was de facto in charge of the Bureau. The seven members were all approved by the Kremlin and had a significant impact on the Communists in Poland, as well as the
Berling troops in the Soviet Union and in the country. Zawadzki, as CBKP chairman, was to hold the talks with representatives of the Soviet government and the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. Together with Swierczewski, he was to keep watch over the army's political division and deal with the expansion of the Corps. Wasilewska was responsible for the activities of the
Polish Patriots' Association. The internal affairs belonged to Berman, who, along with Radkiewicz, managed the Office. Minc was put in charge of developing a draft of future socio-economic policy in Poland. The propaganda matters belonged to Wierblowski.
Activities
CBKP was tasked with sovietizing the Executive Board of the Polish Patriots' Union along with the entire organization after the concept of PKN was abandoned. It had a say in all national affairs and the decisions of the PPR as well as its subordinate
National State Council. The Bureau deliberated whether the PPR was not too 'sectarian'. It advised Gomułka to mitigate too harsh a wording on
nationalization
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to p ...
of industry. The office made sure that the formation of the local councils would not be perceived by the Poles as an attempt at
sovietization
Sovietization (russian: Советизация) is the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets (workers' councils) or the adoption of a way of life, mentality, and culture modelled after the Soviet Union. This often included ...
. Also, the Bureau was in charge of filling the posts in the ZPP, the First Polish Army Corps in the USSR, and then in the Polish Army in the USSR. It led the search and record of Polish communists in the USSR, established the Polish Communist Partisan Staff, co-decided on the composition of the Polish National Liberation Committee and the content of the
PKWN manifesto
The Manifesto of the Polish Committee of National Liberation, also known as the July Manifesto () or the PKWN Manifesto (), was a political manifesto of the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN), a Soviet-backed administration, which ...
. In August 1944 the members of the office created the PPR Politburo which included
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 ...
, Boleslaw Bierut, Jakub Berman, Hilary Minc and Aleksander Zawadzki (the last three of the CBKP team).
In August 1944, the CBKP office was replaced with the Central Committee of the PPR in Moscow, which operated until 1948. In 1948, the group of former CBKP members removed Gomułka from the post of PPR secretary, in all actuality taking over the leadership of the party.
Notes
{{Reflist
Stalinism in Poland