A report on Polish People's Republic, Eastern Bloc and History of Poland (1945–1989)

Communist states in Europe before the Tito–Stalin split of 1948

Soviet Union stamp of 1950, depicting the flags and peoples of the Eastern Bloc.

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

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.

The Big Three (British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Premier of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin) at the Yalta Conference, February 1945

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.

World War II Polish Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk fled Poland in 1947 after facing arrest and persecution

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.

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.

Political situation in Europe during the Cold War

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

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.

Germans watching Western supply planes at Berlin Tempelhof Airport during the Berlin Airlift

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

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.

Countries which once had overtly Marxist–Leninist governments in bright red and countries the USSR considered at one point to be "moving toward socialism" in dark red

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

Communist countries and Soviet republics in Europe with their representative flags (1950s)

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

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

Trybuna Ludu 14 December 1981 reports martial law in Poland

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

Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, once the most dominant landmark in Baku, was demolished in the 1930s under Stalin

Władysław Gomułka and Leonid Brezhnev in East Berlin, 1967

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)

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

Prominent examples of urban design included Marszałkowska Housing Estate (MDM) in Warsaw

Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, Primate of Poland

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.

During World War II, 85% of buildings in Warsaw were destroyed by German troops

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

A line for the distribution of cooking oil in Bucharest, Romania in May 1986

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

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

Reconstruction of a typical working class flat interior of the khrushchyovka

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

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

Propaganda poster showing increased agricultural production from 1981 to 1983 and 1986 in East Germany

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

A Robotron KC 87 home computer made in East Germany between 1987 and 1989

Dziady, a theatrical event that spawned nationwide protests

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

Per capita GDP in the Eastern Bloc from 1950 to 2003 (1990 base Geary-Khamis dollars) according to Angus Maddison

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

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

GDP per capita of the Eastern Bloc in relations with GDPpc of United States during 1900–2010

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

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

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

Czechoslovaks carry their national flag past a burning Soviet tank in Prague

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

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

The Cold War in 1980 before the Iran–Iraq War

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

Otto von Habsburg, who played a leading role in opening the Iron Curtain

25th anniversary of Solidarity, summer 2005 in Gdańsk

Polish university students during lecture, 1964

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

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

Changes in national boundaries after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc

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.

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.

European countries by total wealth (billions USD), Credit Suisse, 2018

Adam Michnik, an influential leader in the transformation of Poland

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 map of communist states (1993–present)

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

The "three worlds" of the Cold War era between April–August 1975:
1st World: Western Bloc led by the United States and its allies
2nd World: Eastern Bloc led by the Soviet Union, China and their allies
3rd World: Non-Aligned and neutral countries

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

- History of Poland (1945–1989)

With a population of approximately 37.9 million near the end of its existence, it was the second most-populous communist and Eastern Bloc country in Europe.

- Polish People's Republic

In Western Europe, the term Eastern Bloc generally referred to the USSR and its satellite states and puppet states in the Comecon (East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, People's Republic of Bulgaria, People's Republic of Quandale, and Albania).

- Eastern Bloc

The new government solidified its political power, while the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) under Bolesław Bierut gained firm control over the country, which would remain an independent state within the Soviet sphere of influence.

- History of Poland (1945–1989)

In addition to emigration restrictions, civil society, defined as a domain of political action outside the party's state control, was not allowed to firmly take root, with the possible exception of Poland in the 1980s.

- Eastern Bloc

During the Gierek era, Poland borrowed large sums from Western creditors in exchange for promise of social and economic reforms.

- Polish People's Republic

3 related topics with Alpha

Warsaw Pact

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The Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland, where the Warsaw Pact was established and signed on 14 May 1955

A "Soviet Big Seven" threats poster, displaying the equipment of the militaries of the Warsaw Pact

A typical Soviet military jeep UAZ-469, used by most countries of the Warsaw Pact

Meeting of the seven representatives of the Warsaw Pact countries in East Berlin in May 1987. From left to right: Gustáv Husák, Todor Zhivkov, Erich Honecker, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nicolae Ceaușescu, Wojciech Jaruzelski, and János Kádár

Soviet tanks, marked with white crosses to distinguish them from Czechoslovak tanks, on the streets of Prague during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968

Protest in Amsterdam against the nuclear arms race between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, 1981

The Pan-European Picnic took place on the Hungarian-Austrian border in 1989.

The Warsaw Pact before its 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, showing the Soviet Union and its satellites (red) and the two independent non-Soviet members: Romania and Albania (pink)

A Romanian TR-85 tank in December 1989 (Romania's TR-85 and TR-580 tanks were the only non-Soviet tanks in the Warsaw Pact on which restrictions were placed under the 1990 CFE Treaty )

The Romanian IAR-93 Vultur was the only combat jet designed and built by a non-Soviet member of the Warsaw Pact.

Expansion of NATO before and after the collapse of communism throughout Central and Eastern Europe

The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republics of Central and Eastern Europe in May 1955, during the Cold War.

From 1989 to 1991, Communist governments were overthrown in Albania, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union.

Solidarity (Polish trade union)

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Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland.

30th anniversary mural depicting the murdered priest Jerzy Popiełuszko who publicly supported Solidarity during the 1980s

Students in Scotland collect signatures for a petition in support of Solidarity in 1981

Solidarity, ETUC Demonstration—Budapest 2011

Solidarity's leader Lech Wałęsa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and the union is widely recognised as having played a central role in the Historyend of Communist rule in Poland.

The survival of Solidarity was an unprecedented event not only in Poland, a satellite state of the USSR ruled in practice by a one-party Communist state, but the whole of the Eastern bloc.

Kraków

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Second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland.

Tomb of Casimir III the Great at Wawel Cathedral. Kraków was the capital of Poland from 1038 to 1596.

The Church of St. Adalbert is one of the oldest churches in the city, dating from the 11th century.

Woodcut of Kraków from the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493

View of Kraków (Cracovia) near the end of the 16th-century

Tadeusz Kościuszko takes the oath of loyalty to the Polish nation in Kraków's market square (Rynek), 1794

Act of granting the constitution to the Free City of Krakow. After the Partitions of Poland, Kraków was independent city republic and the only piece of sovereign Polish territory between 1815 and 1846.

Flower vendors in Rynek. First autochrome in Poland, dated 1912

Kraków Ghetto, 1942—a German checkpoint during operation Aktion Krakau

Kraków's territorial growth from the late 18th to the 20th century

Convent of Norbertine Sisters in Kraków-Zwierzyniec and the Vistula River during the summer season

The Renaissance Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) in Main Market Square

The Kraków Barbican dating from around 1498 was once a fortified outpost of the inner medieval city.

Kanonicza Street, at the foot of the Wawel Castle

View of Kraków from St. Mary's Basilica in the Market Square

Palace of Art at Szczepański Square is an example of Art Nouveau architecture in central Kraków.

Basztowa Street, filled with some of the most unique historical buildings in all architectural styles; part of the Royal Route of Kraków

Pawilon Wyspiański 2000 is a rare example of Postmodern architecture present in Kraków's Old Town.

Planty Park, which surrounds Kraków's Old Town

A pavilion within the Planty Park during winter

The New Town Hall of Podgórze, which used to be a self-governing independent town until its incorporation into Kraków in 1915

Entrance to the Wielopolski Palace from 1560, the seat of Kraków's mayor, administration and city council

Matejko Square, featuring the Grunwald Monument at Kleparz, is one of the city's most important public spaces.

The Center for Business Innovation office complex in Kraków

Unity Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the city

Bombardier city tram on Piłsudski Bridge

PKP Intercity train at the Main Railway Station

Wawel Cathedral, home to royal coronations and resting place of many national heroes; considered to be Poland's national sanctuary

Saint Anne's Church is the leading example of Baroque architecture in Poland.

Collegium Maius, Jagiellonian University's oldest building

Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine, at the Czartoryski Museum

The National Museum in Kraków is one of Poland's finest galleries of art.

Kraków Congress Centre – the business and cultural flagship of the city

Kraków's renowned Juliusz Słowacki Theatre

German concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau

After the war, under the Polish People's Republic (officially declared in 1952), the intellectual and academic community of Kraków came under complete political control.

From 1953, critical opinions in the Party were increasingly frequent, and the doctrine was given up in 1956 marking the end of Stalinism.

Poland was the only Eastern Bloc country to allow free Jewish aliyah (emigration to Israel) without visas or exit permits upon the conclusion of World War II.