Polish People's Republic

With a population of approximately 37.9 million inhabitants near the end of its existence, it was the most populous state of the Eastern Bloc after the Soviet Union. The Polish United Workers' Party became the dominant political faction, officially making Poland a socialist country, but with more liberal policies than other states of the Eastern Bloc.

Generally, in Western Europe the term Eastern Bloc referred to the USSR and its East European satellite states in the Comecon (East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania); in Asia, the Soviet Bloc comprised the Mongolian People's Republic, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Lao People's Democratic Republic and the People's Republic of Kampuchea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and the People's Republic of China (before the Sino-Soviet split in 1961).

Having a unitary Marxist–Leninist communist government imposed by the Soviet Union following World War II, it was also one of the main signatories of the Warsaw Pact.

ДДСВ) Warsaw Pact, formally known as the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defence 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.

The former country covers the history of contemporary Poland between 1952 and 1989 under the Soviet-backed communist government established after the Red Army's release of its territory from German occupation in World War II.

The history of Poland from 1945 to 1989 spans the period of Soviet dominance and communist rule imposed after the end of World War II over Poland, as reestablished within new borders.

The former country covers the history of contemporary Poland between 1952 and 1989 under the Soviet-backed communist government established after the Red Army's release of its territory from German occupation in World War II. The Polish People's Republic (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989, and the predecessor of the modern democratic Republic of Poland.

In 1947, the Polish People's Republic was established as a satellite state under Soviet influence.

The largest city and official capital since 1947 was Warsaw, followed by industrial Łódź and cultural Kraków.

Following the occupation of the city by the Soviet Army, Łódź, which sustained insignificant damage during the war, became part of the newly established Polish People's Republic.

The Polish United Workers' Party became the dominant political faction, officially making Poland a socialist country, but with more liberal policies than other states of the Eastern Bloc.

The Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP; Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR) was the Communist party which governed the Polish People's Republic from 1948 to 1989.

The official police organization, responsible for supposed peacekeeping and violent throttling of protests, was renamed Citizens' Militia.

Milicja Obywatelska (Citizens' Militia), commonly abbreviated to MO, was the national police organization of the Polish People's Republic.

The Polish People's Army was the main branch of the Armed Forces.

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.

The name People's Republic was introduced and defined by the Constitution of 1952 which was based on the 1936 Soviet Constitution.

The 1952 constitution introduced a new name for the Polish state, the Polish People's Republic (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL), replacing the previously used Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita Polska).

With a population of approximately 37.9 million inhabitants near the end of its existence, it was the most populous state of the Eastern Bloc after the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was in the process of incorporating the lands to the east of the Curzon Line, which it had invaded and occupied between 1939 and 1941.

The country bordered Afghanistan, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Turkey from 1945 to 1991.

The Soviet Union was in the process of incorporating the lands to the east of the Curzon Line, which it had invaded and occupied between 1939 and 1941.

An agreement at the Yalta Conference permitted the Soviet Union to annex almost all of their Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact portion of the Second Polish Republic, compensating the Polish People's Republic with the greater southern part of East Prussia and territories east of the Oder–Neisse line.

Under the command of the Ministry of Public Security of Poland "UB", the Militia committed serious crimes to maintain the Communists in power, including the harsh treatment of protesters, arrest of opposition leaders and in extreme cases murder, with at least 22,000 people killed by the regime during its rule.

From the end of the 1940s to 1954, the Ministry of Public Security – operating alongside the Ministry of Defence – was one of the largest and most powerful institutions in post-war People's Republic of Poland.

In June 1946, the "Three Times Yes" referendum was held on a number of issues—abolition of the Senate of Poland, land reform, and making the Oder–Neisse line Poland's western border.

After a brief period of existence in the inter-war period the Senate was again abolished (by many accounts illegally) by the authorities of the Polish People's Republic.

In compensation, the USSR gave Poland former German populated territories in Pomerania, Silesia, and Brandenburg east of the Oder–Neisse line, plus the southern half of East Prussia.

Following Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II in 1945, war-torn East Prussia was divided at Joseph Stalin's insistence between the Soviet Union (the Kaliningrad Oblast became part of the Russian SFSR, and the constituent counties of the Klaipėda Region in the Lithuanian SSR) and the People's Republic of Poland (the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship).

The largest city and official capital since 1947 was Warsaw, followed by industrial Łódź and cultural Kraków.

After liberation, rebuilding began as in other cities of the communist-ruled People's Republic of Poland.

He had severed relations with the Polish government-in-exile in London in 1943, but to appease Roosevelt and Churchill he agreed at Yalta that a coalition government would be formed.

After the war, as the Polish territory came under the control of the People's Republic of Poland, a Soviet satellite state, the government-in-exile remained in existence, though largely unrecognized and without effective power.

The largest city and official capital since 1947 was Warsaw, followed by industrial Łódź and cultural Kraków.

After the war, under the Polish People's Republic, the intellectual and academic community of Kraków was put under complete political control.

Another faction, led by Józef Cyrankiewicz, argued that the Socialists should support the Communists in carrying through a socialist program, while opposing the imposition of one-party rule.

He served as premier of the People's Republic of Poland between 1947 and 1952, and again for 16 years between 1954 and 1970.

In June, workers in the industrial city of Poznań went on strike, in what became known as Poznań 1956 protests.

The Poznań protests of 1956, also known as Poznań June (Poznański Czerwiec), were the first of several massive protests against the communist government of the Polish People's Republic.

In compensation, the USSR gave Poland former German populated territories in Pomerania, Silesia, and Brandenburg east of the Oder–Neisse line, plus the southern half of East Prussia.

In 1945, after World War II, the bulk of Silesia was transferred, on demands of the Polish delegation, to Polish jurisdiction by the Potsdam Agreement of the victorious Allies and became part of Poland whose Communist government expelled the majority of Silesia's previous population.

In 1949, Soviet Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky became Polish Minister of National Defence, with the additional title Marshal of Poland, and in 1952 he became Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers (deputy premier).

After the war, Rokossovsky became Defence Minister and Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers in the newly established Polish People's Republic.

They also forced another major change in the government, as Gomułka was replaced by Edward Gierek as the new First Secretary.

Gierek replaced Władysław Gomułka as first secretary of the ruling Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) in the Polish People's Republic in 1970.

Kania resigned under Soviet pressure in October and was succeeded by Wojciech Jaruzelski, who had been Defence minister since 1968 and Premier since February.

He was First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party from 1981 to 1989, and as such was the last leader of the People's Republic of Poland.

Throughout the mid-1980s, Solidarity persisted solely as an underground organization, but by the late 1980s was sufficiently strong to frustrate Jaruzelski's attempts at reform, and nationwide strikes in 1988 were one of the factors that forced the government to open a dialogue with Solidarity.

The 1988 Polish strikes were a massive wave of workers' strikes which broke out in 1988 in the Polish People's Republic.

Labour turmoil led to the formation of the independent trade union Solidarity (Solidarność) in September 1980, originally led by Lech Wałęsa.

While working at the Lenin Shipyard (now Gdańsk Shipyard), Wałęsa, an electrician, became a trade-union activist, for which he was persecuted by the Communist authorities, placed under surveillance, fired in 1976, and arrested several times.