Constitution of the Polish People's Republic and Related...

Polish People's Republic

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Country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland.

Poland's fate was heavily discussed at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. Joseph Stalin, whose Red Army occupied the entire country, presented several alternatives which granted Poland industrialized territories in the west whilst the Red Army simultaneously permanently annexed Polish territories in the east, resulting in Poland losing over 20% of its pre-war borders - areas primarily inhabited by ethnic Belarusians or Ukrainians. Soviet-backed Polish communists came to power and oversaw the country's entry into the Warsaw Pact in 1955.

Border changes of Poland after World War II. The eastern territories (Kresy) were annexed by the Soviets. The western territories, referred to as the "Recovered Territories", were granted as war reparations. Despite the western lands being more industrialized, Poland lost 77,035 km2 (29,743 sq mi) and major cities like Lviv and Vilnius.

The 1970 Polish protests were put down by the Communist authorities and Citizens' Militia. The riots resulted in the deaths of 42 people and over 1,000 injured.

Queues waiting to enter grocery stores in Warsaw and other Polish cities and towns were typical in the late 1980s. The availability of food and goods varied at times, and the most sought after basic item was toilet paper.

The new Warszawa Centralna railway station in Warsaw had automatic doors and escalators. It was a flagship project during the 1970s economic boom and was dubbed the most modern station in Europe at the time of its completion in 1975.

Lech Wałęsa co-founded and headed the Solidarity movement which toppled Communism. He later became the President of Poland.

The 1980 Gdańsk Shipyard Strike and subsequent Summer 1981 Hunger Demonstrations were instrumental in strengthening the Solidarity movement's influence.

Władysław Gomułka and Leonid Brezhnev in East Berlin, 1967

An abandoned State Agricultural Farm in south-eastern Poland. State farms were a form of collective farming created in 1949.

Łódź was Poland's largest city after the destruction of Warsaw during World War II. It was also a major industrial centre in Europe and served as the temporary capital due to its economic significance in the 1940s.

Female textile workers in a state-run factory, Łódź, 1950s

Supersam Warsaw, the first self-serve shopping centre in Poland, 1969

Pewex, a chain of hard currency stores which sold unobtainable Western goods and items

Bar mleczny, a former milk bar in Gdynia. These canteens offered value meals to citizens throughout Communist Poland.

Trybuna Ludu (People's Tribune) was a government-sponsored newspaper and propaganda outlet

Andrzej Wajda was a key figure in Polish cinematography during and after the fall of communism

Allegory of communist censorship, Poland, 1989. Newspapers visible are from all Eastern Bloc countries including East Germany, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia

The 237-meter Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, constructed in 1955. At the time of its completion it was one of the tallest buildings in Europe

Polish university students during lecture, 1964

One of many schools constructed in central Warsaw in the 1960s

Jerzy Popiełuszko was a Roman Catholic priest who supported the anti-communist opposition. He was murdered by the Security Services "SB" of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

A demographics graph illustrating population growth between 1900 and 2010. The highest birth rate was during the Second Polish Republic and consequently under the Polish People's Republic.

A typical socialist apartment building in Warsaw representing the style of functionalism, built due to the ever-growing population and high birth rate at the time

Konstantin Rokossovsky, pictured in a Polish uniform, was Marshal of the Soviet Union and Marshal of Poland until being deposed during the Polish October in 1956.

The name "People's Republic" was introduced and defined by the Constitution of 1952.

Polish United Workers' Party

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The communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989.

Statute of the Polish United Workers' Party, 1956 edition

Władysław Gomułka, at the height of his popularity, on 24 October 1956, addressing hundreds of thousands of people in Warsaw, asked for an end to demonstrations and a return to work. "United with the working class and the nation", he concluded, "the Party will lead Poland along a new way of socialism".

First Secretary of PZPR Edward Gierek (left) with Speaker of the House of Representatives Carl Albert (right), Washington D.C., 1974

PZPR's newspaper "Trybuna Ludu" issue 13 December 1981 reports martial law in Poland.

Dom Partii building in Warsaw, former headquarters of PZPR

After a new constitution abolished the presidency, Bierut took over as Prime Minister, a post he held until 1954.

Sejm

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Lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland.

In 1791, the "Great Sejm" or Four-Year Sejm of 1788–1792 and Senate adopted the May 3rd Constitution at the Royal Castle in Warsaw

Tadeusz Rejtan tries to prevent the legalisation of the first partition of Poland by preventing the members of the Sejm from leaving the chamber (1773). Painting by Jan Matejko

Stanisław Dubois speaking to envoys and diplomats in the Sejm, 1931

Józef Beck, Minister of Foreign Affairs, delivers his famous Honour Speech in the Sejm, 5 May 1939.

Sessions chamber viewed from the rostrum

Under the 1952 Constitution, the Sejm was defined as "the highest organ of State authority" in Poland, as well as "the highest spokesman of the will of the people in town and country."

History of Poland (1945–1989)

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The history of Poland from 1945 to 1989 spans the period of communist rule imposed over Poland after the end of World War II.

Map showing the different borders and territories of Poland and Germany during the 20th century, with the current areas of Germany and Poland in dark gray

The PKWN Manifesto, officially issued on 22 July 1944. In reality it was not finished until mid-August, after the Polish communist Moscow group was joined by the late-arriving Warsaw group, led by Gomułka and Bierut.

Postwar Polish communist propaganda poster depicting "The giant and the putrid reactionary midget", meaning the communist People's Army soldier and the pro-Western Home Army soldier, respectively

ORMO paramilitary police unit during street parade at the Victory Square, 9 June 1946, Warsaw

The show trial of Captain Witold Pilecki, sentenced to death and executed May 1948

The Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, initially called the Stalin's Palace, was a controversial gift from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin

1951 East German stamp commemorative of the Treaty of Zgorzelec establishing the Oder–Neisse line as a "border of peace", featuring the presidents Wilhelm Pieck (GDR) and Bolesław Bierut (Poland)

Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, Primate of Poland

The Fourth Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party, held in 1963

The Polski Fiat 125p, produced in Poland from the late 1960s, was based on technology purchased from Fiat

Standard-bearers of the 27 Tank Regiment, mid-1960s

Dziady, a theatrical event that spawned nationwide protests

Demonstrators in Gdynia carry the body of Zbigniew Godlewski, who was shot and killed during the protests of 1970

Queue line, a frequent scene at times of shortages of consumer goods in the 1970s and 1980s

Millions cheer Pope John Paul II in his first visit to Poland as pontiff in 1979

Lech Wałęsa speaks during the strike at the Gdańsk Shipyard, August 1980

25th anniversary of Solidarity, summer 2005 in Gdańsk

General Wojciech Jaruzelski led the People's Republic during its final decade and became one of the key players in the systemic transition of 1989–90

Apartment block residences built in People's Poland loom over the urban landscape of the entire country. In the past administratively distributed for permanent use, after 1989 most were sold to residents at discounted prices.

Adam Michnik, an influential leader in the transformation of Poland

The July Constitution was promulgated on 22 July 1952 and the country officially became the Polish People's Republic (PRL).

Emblem worn by LWP soldiers; the "Piast eagle" without the crown

The Polish People's Army (Ludowe Wojsko Polskie, LWP) constituted the second formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the East in 1943–1945, and in 1945–1989 the armed forces of the Polish communist state (from 1952, the Polish People's Republic), ruled by the Polish Workers' Party and then the Polish United Workers' Party.

Prime Minister of Poland

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Head of the cabinet and the head of government of Poland.

The cabinet of Prime Minister Leopold Skulski in a session in 1920. Due to the deep political divides of the early Second Republic, governments were short-lived, frequently falling within months.

Tadeusz Mazowiecki, former prime minister of Poland browsing an exhibition at the Europeana 1989 roadshow in Warsaw.

Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz (left) being sworn in by President Aleksander Kwaśniewski (right) in October 2005.

President Lech Kaczyński (left) and Prime Minister Donald Tusk (right), seen during Tusk's oath of office in November 2007. Frequent disputes between the two leaders characterized Polish politics between 2007 and 2010.

The Chancellery, located along Ujazdów Avenue in Śródmieście, Warsaw, is home to the premier's executive office and support staff.

Under the communist Polish People's Republic, the ruling Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) dominated all sections of the government, as recognized under the 1952 Constitution.

President of Poland

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Head of state of Poland.

Presidential Palace in Warsaw. It serves as the official seat of presidency.

The Belweder Palace, often known simply as 'Belvedere', is the traditional and current official residence of the President.

The office of president at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw.

He served until the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic of 1952 eliminated the office of the president.

A meeting of the Council of State during the 1960s

Polish Council of State

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Introduced by the Small Constitution of 1947 as an organ of executive power.

Under the 1952 Constitution of the Polish People's Republic, the office of the President of Poland was eliminated the Council of State became a collective head of state organ.

Bolesław Bierut

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Polish communist activist and politician, leader of the Polish People's Republic from 1947 until 1956.

Bolesław Bierut in 1933, after his arrest by Polish Police

After World War II, based in part on the Potsdam Conference Allied determinations, the Polish authorities ordered the remaining Germans to leave Poland.

Bolesław Bierut inspecting members of the Union of Polish Youth, 1946

Bierut decorating the most productive workers on the rebuilt Poniatowski Bridge in Warsaw, 1946

Bolesław Bierut, President of Poland and General Secretary of the PZPR

1951 East German stamp commemorative of the Treaty of Zgorzelec, which established the Oder–Neisse line as a "border of peace"; presidents Wilhelm Pieck (GDR) and Bolesław Bierut are featured shaking hands over the border

Bierut was often photographed with children, which was meant to contribute to his cult of personality

Bierut reading Trybuna Ludu ('The People's Tribune'), the official newspaper of the Polish United Workers' Party

Bierut's funeral bier attended by Józef Cyrankiewicz, Edward Ochab and Aleksander Zawadzki

Bierut's tomb at Powązki Military Cemetery

Bolesław Bierut and Józef Cyrankiewicz during the opening of the Warsaw W-Z Route, 2 July 1949

In 1952, the new Constitution of the Polish People's Republic (until then known as the Republic of Poland) abolished the position of president and a Marxist–Leninist government was officially imposed.

May 3rd Constitution (painting by Jan Matejko, 1891). King Stanisław August (left, in regal ermine-trimmed cloak), enters St. John's Cathedral, where Sejm deputies will swear to uphold the new Constitution; in background, Warsaw's Royal Castle, where the Constitution has just been adopted.

Constitution of Poland

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Founded on 2 April 1997.

Formally known as the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (Konstytucja Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej), it replaced the Small Constitution of 1992, the last amended version of the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic, known from December 1989 as the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.

A report on Constitution of the Polish People's Republic

16 related topics with Alpha

Polish People's Republic

Polish United Workers' Party

Sejm

History of Poland (1945–1989)

Polish People's Army

Prime Minister of Poland

President of Poland

Polish Council of State

Bolesław Bierut

Constitution of Poland