Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) and Working People of Cities and Villages, in the View of Constitution of the Polish People’s Republic (PRL) and Electoral Law (1952–1989)

From the very beginning, the PZPR was the main structure for organizing working people of cities and villages as a sovereign in the PRL, but this matter was only implicitly regulated by constitutional law. Expressis verbis, it happened in 1976 on the basis of joint ordinance of Polish People’s Republic Seym and national councils dated January 17th and the provision of Article 3 of Polish Constitution after the amendment dated 10th February. It can be concluded that the regulation of the PZPR legal and constitutional position after more than a quarter of a century, since the Constitution of the Polish People’s Republic was adopted, has finally found its full expression. With the legal solution contained in those two legal acts, the PZPR, while controlling the electoral process, at the same time it determined the content of the law constituted in Seym, which would be done in accordance with the principle of the sovereignty of the working people of towns and villages. That is exactly what the process of expressing the will of a sovereign in a socialist state like the Polish People’s Republic was, and raising that will to the dignity of a statute. But due to the systemic and political anachronism, the existence of too much dissonance with the realities of the Polish People’s Republic in the late 70s of the last century, a retreat from this legal regulation will begin soon afterwards. On the basis of legal solutions of 6th May, 1987, establishing the institutions of a nationwide referendum, we were dealing in the legal and constitutional sense with the beginning of the establishment of a new sovereign in place of working people class. As a result, the structures of organizing the working people along with the PZPR instances had to lose their significance. This process deepened greatly after the adoption of the electoral regulations for the PRL Sejm and the PRL Senate on 7th April 1989.

W pracy podjęto się zagadnienia analizy propagandowego ujęcia postaci Edwarda Gierka na łamach dziennika „Trybuna Ludu”. Na podstawie analizy przekazów prasowych „Trybuny Ludu” z okresu rządów I Sekretarza Komitetu Centralnego Polskiej Zjednoczonej Partii Robotniczej w latach 1970–1980 r. dokonano analizy treści dotyczącej kształtowania propagandowego wizerunku E. Gierka na płaszczyźnie działań na rzecz m.in. polityki gospodarczej Polskiej Rzeczypospolitej Ludowej oraz ewolucji na polu polityki wizerunkowej na tle innych I Sekretarzy KC PZPR. Problemem badawczym przyjętym na potrzeby niniejszego artykułu były pytania: jakimi metodami propagowano postać Edwarda Gierka na łamach „Trybuny Ludu”? W jaki sposób kreowano postać Edwarda Gierka jako I sekretarza KC PZPR? Ponadto autor zaprezentował krótką charakterystykę Edwarda Gierka oraz jego działalność polityczną w PRL w latach 70. XX w. W niniejszym artykule zastosowano metodę analizy treści, którą autor uznał za najefektywniejszą metodę badawczą do podjętej tematyki, w tym zwłaszcza przedstawienia mechanizmów propagandy oraz działalności politycznej Edwarda Gierka jako I Sekretarza KC PZPR w latach 70. XX w.

A real center of local power in the Stalinist period – the District Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party in Nidzica in 1948–1956

The article presents selected aspects of the history of the Polish United Workers’ Party in the Nidzica poviat in the years 1948–1956. The genesis of the Stalinist party in this poviat was characterized, i.e. selected aspects of the activities of the Polish Workers’ Party and its activities in 1946–1948. Attention was drawn to the extremely developed propaganda activity of the communist authorities, which used lies on a very large scale, promoting, inter alia, Soviet models in all areas of life, from political matters to the economy and the sphere of culture. The process of strengthening the position of the PPR in the Nidzica poviat was emphasized, which was related to, inter alia, with the destruction of the illegal opposition, as well as the Polish People’s Party and the Polish Socialist Party. The course of major political events of that period was also presented: the falsified people’s referendum in June 1946, the equally falsified parliamentary elections in January 1947, and the increasingly wider scope of political repressions against communist opponents. The process of creating the structures of the Polish United Workers’ Party and its leading activists was described, from December 1948 to 1956. Selected aspects of the PZPR’s activities in the political, social and economic fields were characterized. The consolidation of the hegemonic position of the PZPR in political life, socialist realism in the sphere of culture and the Stalinization of economic life, including activities for the collectivization of agriculture. Very strong ties between the party leadership and the local security apparatus, that is, above all, with the County Public Security Office, were emphasized. Attention was paid to the persecution of political opponents, and at the same time to various manifestations of social resistance against communists.