Communist propaganda
Communist propaganda is the artistic and social promotion of the ideology of communism, communist worldview, communist society, and interests of the communist movement. While it tends to carry a negative connotation in the Western world, the t ...
played an important role in the
Polish People's Republic
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 ne ...
, one of the largest and most important
satellite state
A satellite state or dependent state is a country that is formally independent in the world, but under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country. The term was coined by analogy to planetary objects orbitin ...
s of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
following
WWII
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 ...
. Together with the use of force and terror it was instrumental in keeping the country's
communist government
A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...
in power and was designed to shape
Polish society
The demographics of Poland constitute all demographic features of the population of Poland, including population density, ethnicity, education level, the health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the po ...
into a communist one.Wojciech Roszkowski, ''Najnowsza historia Polski 1914-1945''. Warszawa: Świat Książki, 2003, p. 236-240, 678-680, 700-701. .
The language of Poland's communist propaganda was extremely violent, as with many others like in communist nations. All those who disagreed with the voice of the
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 ...
were dubbed as " fascists" and " reactionary thugs". For example, already towards the end of World War II, political officers (similar to Soviet political commissars in the Soviet Red Army) in the Soviet-backed Polish Army received specific guidelines for the training of their soldiers, ordering them to refer to all resistance on Polish lands – other than those they allied with or similarly communist – as the "bastards of the NSZ and AK," and "Hitler’s emulators".
Marek Jan Chodakiewicz
Marek Jan Chodakiewicz (born July 15, 1962) is a Polish-American historian specializing in Central European history of the 19th and 20th centuries."The Legal Basis of Torture and the Communist Propaganda" in ''The Dialectics of Pain: The Interrogation Methods of the Communist Secret Police in Poland, 1944-1955''. The insurgents of anti-German uprisings (such as at Warsaw and in the city's Jewish ghetto) became synonymous with "bandits", "traitors", "anti-Semites" and "Jew-killers." Since 1944, the Polish communist propaganda campaigns were usually followed by jarring abuses of human rights and the application of physical, mental and psychological torture in the communist legal system.
Starting from the 1970s, Polish propaganda was significantly altered and then dominated by the form known as "
propaganda of success Propaganda of success is propaganda that exaggerates positive outcomes.
Characteristics
Propaganda of success is characterized by an exaggeration of political successes and economic results. Its goal is to mislead recipients about the factual stat ...
".
See also
*
Censorship in the Polish People's Republic
Censorship in Communist Poland was primarily performed by the Polish ' (''Główny Urząd Kontroli Prasy, Publikacji i Widowisk''), a governmental institution created in 1946 by the pro-Soviet Provisional Government of National Unity with Stalin's ...
*
Education in the Polish People's Republic
Education in the Polish People's Republic in years of its existence was controlled by the communist state, which provided primary schools, secondary schools, vocational education and universities. Education in communist Poland was compulsory fro ...
*
Polish underground press
Polish underground press, devoted to prohibited materials ( sl. pl, bibuła, lit. semitransparent blotting paper or, alternatively, pl, drugi obieg, lit. second circulation), has a long history of combatting censorship of oppressive regimes in ...
(''bibuła'')
*
Eastern Bloc information dissemination
Eastern Bloc media and propaganda was controlled directly by each country's communist party, which controlled the state media, censorship and propaganda organs. State and party ownership of print, television and radio media served as an important ...
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 populou ...