User:Mrbeanon99/Polish transition to democracy

Polish People's Republic
1947–1989
Flag (1947–1980) Coat of arms
Polish People's Republic, during the Cold War.
Status	Member of the Warsaw Pact (1955–1989) Satellite state of the Soviet Union
Capital	Warsaw
Common languages	Polish (official) Silesian, Kashubian, German
Demonym(s)	Pole, Polish
Government	Unitary Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist republic Under a military junta (1981–83)
First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party
• 1947–1948	Władysław Gomułka (first)
• 1989–1990	Mieczysław Rakowski (last)
Head of State
• 1947–1952	Bolesław Bierut (first)
• 1985–1989	Wojciech Jaruzelski (last)
Prime Minister
• 1944–1947	Edward Osóbka-Morawski (first)
• 1989	Tadeusz Mazowiecki (last)
Historical era	Cold War
• Small Constitution	19 January 1947
• Workers' Party established	16–21 December 1948
• Constitution adopted	22 July 1952
• Democracy restored	30 December 1989
Area
312,685 km2 (120,728 sq mi)
Population
• 1989	37,970,155
Currency	Polish złoty
ISO 3166 code	PL
Preceded by Succeeded by Provisional Government of National Unity Third Polish Republic

Poland was a dictatorship country, there had been a significant change since 1981 to 1989. During that particular period, Poland gone through three political systems, from dictatorship in 1981 to 1986 to broadened dictatorship between 1986 to 1989 and finally changed to negotiated democracy in 1989. The impact of the Soviet had a huge influence towards the changes in Poland political system. The more intervention from the Soviet Union, the more repressive for the Poland government refuse for the change. The less intervention from the Soviet Union, Poland government more willing to seek for radical reforms. Which shows that during that time, the high level of intervention from the Soviet Union enhances the stability of the communist dictatorship system.

Polish transition to democracy - Poland's democratization in the late 1980s and early 90s

Main Article: Polish People's Republic

This page introduces and analyses the establishment of the people's democratic regime in Poland after the war, and the differences between the internationalists and the Moscow factions in the future development of the Polish Party. It is pointed out that the so-called "internationalists" are correct in advocating the people's democratic road in accordance with the national conditions of Poland. Once, for some historical reasons, Poland had to passively accept the "Soviet model" which ignored its own historical traditions and national reality. After a long period of oppression and dictatorship, the contradiction between the two has deepened. Ultimately, the Polish people did not accept the Polish model of the Soviet Union, but embarked on another tortuous and difficult road. They rebelled against the dictatorship at that time and established their own regime, and gradually moved towards the road of democratization.

Political Crisis in Poland (Since1945- 1989)

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

Main Article: History of Poland

After a difficult struggle for the people's democratic regime, the Polish National Liberation Commission was immediately recognized by the Soviet government. It was not until February 1945, when the Yalta Conference and the restructured Polish government were recognized by Britain, the United States and other countries. Thus, modern Poland was established. During this period, Polish political culture was mainly reflected in passive acceptance of the combination of Soviet political culture and Polish traditional political culture. The highly centralized Soviet-style socialist political culture was the mainstream political culture in Polish society at that time. It dislocated from the traditional Polish culture as a sub-culture and caused great harm to the Polish people. The whole society broke and stagnated . Among them, on June 28, 1956, workers in the Tsegel factory in Poznan took to the streets to March because of unreasonable labor quota and wage system, and they had bloody conflicts with the army and police, resulting in casualties. After the incident, the Polish government carried out an armed repression to analyze the deep-seated causes of the incident in Poznan, Poland, and the autocratic culture enforced by the Soviet Union for a long time in Poland. In spite of this, Polish traditional political culture still exerts a subtle influence on the Polish people and has never been eliminated or assimilated, but has been inspiring the aspiration and pursuit of freedom, equality and democracy of this nation.

The Polish transition to democracy

Main Article: History of Poland

Dictatorship Period (1981-1986)

On December 13, 1981, a world-shaking news came out from Warsaw: the Polish State Council, in accordance with Article 33 of the Constitution, declared that the whole country would enter a "state of war" from that day, and established the "Military Commission for Saving the Nation", headed by the First Secretary and Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) of the Polish Unified Workers Party (UPP). Troops were stationed in factories, mines and enterprises, and strikes and demonstrations were banned. The National Salvation Military Commission not only arrested the leaders of the Polish Solidarity Union, but also the former First Secretary of the Unified Workers' Party (Ukraine), former Prime Minister Jaroszewicz, Politburo member Grudzień, Szydlak and Ukashevic, who were responsible for the political and economic crisis in Poland.

In the summer of 1980, the Polish government announced an increase in meat and food prices, triggering a year and a half of national strikes and mass demonstrations. The Union of Solidarity, established in August 1980, expanded rapidly to all sectors of society except the army and the police, and nearly a third of the members of the Unified Workers' Party and a considerable number of Central Committee members joined it. In the crisis of 1981, the Solidarity Union expressed its intention to take over the regime. Not only was Poland in danger of falling into civil war, but by the summer of 1981, the Soviet Union had become increasingly impatient with the situation in Poland (and historians believed that the Soviet Union had no actual intention of intervening in Poland at that time). After a series of arrangements, Yasser served as the First Secretary, Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of the Party in October of that year, thus integrating the power of the Party, the government and the army. This also shows that the Polish military control is not his personal decision, but the arrangement made by the Central Committee of the Unified Workers' Party.

These measures further aggravated Poland's dislike of the Soviet Union. After all, what is intertwined with Russia-weariness is the various historical legacies between Poland and the Soviet Union in the twentieth century: the war between Poland and the Soviet Union in 1920, the secret agreement between the Soviet Union and Germany in 1939, the exile of 300,000 Poles in 1939-1940, the Katyn tragedy, the failure of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, the permanent annexation of Eastern Polish territory after World War II. Although the post-war People's Republic of Poland has long promoted the Soviet Union as the liberator of Poland and the protector of Poland's independence, only two percent of Poles regard the Soviet Union as the most friendly country to Poland.

Nevertheless, in the post-World War II Eastern European countries, Poland has always maintained its unique national self-esteem and has occasionally drifted away from Moscow's orthodoxy. The National Anthem "Poland Never Dies" of the Second Republic of Poland was still the National Anthem in the period of the People's Republic. The pattern of the old national emblem "White Eagle with Crown under the Red Sky" just removed the crown. The Polish People's Army continued its old-fashioned salute with only two fingers outstretched - Duke Constantine, the Polish governor of Russia, once mocked himself that when Poles saluted the Russians with two fingers outstretched, the other three were holding stones ready to be thrown at Russia.

General Wojciech Jaruzelski led the People's Republic during his final dictatorship period

The Broadened Dictatorship Period  (1986-1989)

At this stage, the dictatorship has reached a peak in Poland, and even the authorities are no longer able to contain the situation by tough means. Of course, this is not a matter of overnight. As early as March 1968, a student protest in Poland was triggered by Gomulka's ban on the performance of "Ancestors' Sacrifice". It describes the brutal rule and persecution of the Polish people by Czarist Russia when Poland was divided, and expresses the deep hatred of the Polish people for their national enemies and their strong desire for national independence . Economically, high food prices in 1970 and 1980 caused bloody tragedies and large-scale strikes in cities such as Gdansk. On the surface, the workers are dissatisfied with their living conditions . On the deep level, it reflects the contradiction between the people and the ruling party, the conflict with the Soviet model and the yearning for democracy and freedom.

The Polish authorities' views on the opposition, including the Solidarity Trade Union, have changed slightly in 1980s, as dissatisfaction with the dictatorship has become difficult to suppress. At the Seventh Plenary Session of the 10th Central Committee of the Polish Unified Workers' Party, held from June 13 to 14, 1988, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party, Wojciech Jaruzelski, publicly stated that "many so-called opposition figures hold a position of civic responsibility and patriotism." The idea of the round table was put forward for the first time. He said that the Unified Workers Party of Poland wanted to establish the broadest joint position, so it was advisable to hold `round table' meetings with representatives of a wide range of advocacy associations . Secondly, the ruling party allows the opposition to enter the government. When the new Prime Minister Mieczysław Rakowski formed his cabinet, he abandoned the "monopoly" status of the Unified Workers' Party to the regime, hoped to form a coalition government with the opposition, and even left the opposition a vice-prime minister and three ministers.

Democracy Period(Since 1989)

On May Day 1989, the Polish Independent Solidarity Union organized a march of 200,000 people. On September 12 of the same year, general elections were held throughout the country, and representatives of the Independent Solidarity Union of Poland occupied the majority of seats. On December 29 of the same year, Poland was renamed the Republic of Poland. In November 1990, after the upheaval of Poland's Independent Solidarity Trade Union in 1989, the Central and Eastern European countries initiated a political transformation based on the Western democratic system, in which the political transformation of political parties is an important part . Socialism of the Soviet model no longer dominates the ideological sphere, and its deep-rooted traditional political culture has a more significant impact on Polish political development, mainly reflected in the cultural background of democracy and freedom, the cultural tradition of openness and tolerance, and the influence of the national mentality of Russian hatred on Polish political and diplomatic development patterns and trends in the current and future period.

Its main manifestations are also reflected in the following aspects:

First of all, this is reflected in Poland's return to democratic political tradition. In February 1989, Poland held a historic round table and adopted the following important resolution: the Government called Solidarity Trade Union a legitimate organization. Parliamentary democracy, the addition of the Senate, the establishment of the presidency. Moreover, they reached an agreement on the allocation of seats and elections for the tenth Parliament and the Senate. In June of that year, it held elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate, and in December the Third Republic of Poland was established. The implementation of multi-party parliamentary democracy inherited Poland's ancient political tradition of democracy and freedom and re-established the democratic political model. Ideological pluralism should be practiced in the ideological field, and people's democratic freedom and human rights should be emphasized. So far, Poland has achieved a smooth transition of overall transition, established basic democratic political principles, re-established the basic democratic political framework, basically completed the primary goal of transition with democratization, reflecting the inheritance and respect of Polish democratic political tradition .

Secondly, this is reflected in the trend of Poland's relations with the European Union, the United States and Russia. Poland belongs to a part of European civilization in history. At the same time, the open cultural tradition, the ambition of "big powers" and the national mentality of hatred of Russia formed in Poland's history also permeate into the system transition, manifesting in its active accession to the European Union, close relations between Poland and the United Stated.

Eastern Europe and Western Europe are political concepts that have been artificially divided in history. In fact, Eastern Europe is an integral part of Europe. For more than a thousand years, there have been various clashes between the two European powers. Poland has been partitioned or occupied by the Western European powers in its history . Because of the integration of its internal structure, Western Europe has gradually integrated into a "Western civilization". It is under the influence of this European unified culture that the European Union was established and developed. After the democratization of Eastern European countries in 1989, Poland established diplomatic relations with the European Community. In 1995, Poland became an EU associated country. In 2004, Poland finally looked forward to EU admission tickets and became a member of the European family. Poland, which was on the periphery of Europe after its accession to the EU, feared "discrimination" among members of the EU. For this reason, the then ruling party, the Law and Justice Party, held European skepticism and opposed the expansion of the powers of the EU institutions. Poland's actions made it a well-known non-conformist in the EU. Joining the EU and realizing Europeanization is an important symbol of Poland's political development and can help it get rid of the troubles of the Soviet model for many years. "Returning to Europe" is a foreign policy and a political slogan for Poland, but it is also a cultural concept .

After the upheaval, Poland has extensive exchanges and cooperation with Western countries, especially the United States. Poland and the United States have been in the "honeymoon period", and the United States has given a lot of economic, technical and military support during the transition period of Poland. On March 12, 1999, Poland finally joined NATO and its military strength increased dramatically. In 2003, when the United States pointed its anti-terrorism spearhead at Iraq, Poland resolutely continued to give unconditional support to the United States, despite fierce controversy and differences within Europe, and quickly made a decision to send troops to the Persian Gulf. Poland's position on the Iraq war is a concentrated reflection of its pro-American diplomacy .

Soviet Union Political influence

Main Article: Polish People's Republic

Before the upheaval of 1989, the mainstream culture in Poland was a socialist culture with a deep Soviet brand. Highly centralized power is the most basic political feature of the Soviet model and the main feature of this political culture . Socialism in the Soviet model is shrouded in extreme forms of nationalism, emphasizing the dictatorship of the state and ignoring democracy and the rule of law. Socialist democracy and legal system have been trampled upon. It is difficult for the people to truly participate in political affairs and deliberations. The mechanism of supervision and restriction is weak, and there is no effective bottom-up supervision. At the same time, people are deprived of their political rights and freedom of expression.

Soviet-style socialist culture was transplanted to Poland through external force, lacking legitimacy and stability. On the one hand, Poland has neither the environment needed to produce such a political culture nor the soil suitable for cultural survival. On the other hand, this mainstream political culture is difficult to obtain the general recognition of the Polish people, which has caused great harm to Poland and seriously affected the normal development of Polish politics, economy and social culture. Therefore, the Polish people are extremely disgusted with the Soviet model and strongly demand change.

In the socialist period before the upheaval, although Poland established the socialist system of the Soviet model, the traditional political culture of Poland never disappeared, which was dislocated from the highly centralized Soviet-style socialist culture. Through some typical events, we can see the strong vitality and extensive continuity of Polish traditional political culture in this period.

The highly centralized Soviet model has always lacked legitimacy in Poland. It has been in serious conflict with Poland's historical and cultural tradition of pursuing democracy and freedom, which has triggered a series of social crises.

See also

History of Poland

Wojciech Jaruzelski

Władysław Gomułka

Polish People's Republic

Poland