Recovered Territories', 1945-1956
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Provided by the author(s) and NUI Galway in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite the published version when available. Title The Sovietisation of Poland's Baltic 'Recovered Territories', 1945-1956. Author(s) McNamara, Paul Martin Publication Date 2013-09-05 Item record http://hdl.handle.net/10379/3972 Downloaded 2021-09-25T05:32:58Z Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. The Sovietisation of Poland’s Baltic ‘Recovered Territories’, 1945-1956 Paul Martin McNamara Ph.D. Dissertation 2013 1 The Sovietisation of Poland’s Baltic ‘Recovered Territories’, 1945-1956 Paul Martin McNamara Ph.D. Dissertation Department of History, National University of Ireland, Galway September 2013 Chair of History: Prof. Steven Ellis Director of Graduate Studies in History: Dr. Alison Forrestal Research Supervisor: Dr. Róisín Healy 2 Table of Contents Page Map of Poland’s Post-war Border Changes ................................................ 7 Map of Poland’s Baltic ‘Recovered Territories’, Border Changes and Administrative Boundaries ................................................................................................. 8 Introduction ............................................................................................... 9 Chapter One – 1945 1.1 Allied Discussions regarding Poland’s Post-war Borders ..................... 30 1.2 The First Wave of Polish Settlement and ‘Degermanisation’ – February-July 1945 ..................................................................................................... 31 1.3 The Potsdam Conference and the Recovered Territories ................... 41 1.4 The Position of the Roman Catholic Church and Further Polish-Soviet Difficulties ................................................................................................... 45 1.5 Polish Settlement and ‘Degermanisation’ Stepped Up ....................... 51 1.6 From ‘Wild expulsions’ to Organised Transports ................................ 54 Chapter Two – 1946 2.1 Main Issues of Time Period ................................................................ 61 2.2 Organised ‘Transports’ of Germans Continue .................................... 62 2.3 Local issues and the Appearance of the Armed Underground ........... 64 2.4 The Expulsions and International Developments ............................... 66 2.5 The Increasing Momentum of the Expulsions and the PSL Threat ...... 70 2.6 The Armed Underground Attempts to Destabilize the ‘Three Times “Yes”’ Referendum ..........................................................................................75 2.7 Jewish Affairs and Polish Settlement in Summer 1946 ........................ 81 2.8 The Fallout from Secretary Byrnes’ Speech ....................................... 84 2.9 Elections on the Horizon and the Decline of the Armed Underground 86 3 Chapter Three, 1947-1948 3.1 Main Issues of time period .................................................................. 93 3.2 Electoral Fraud and the Decline of the Political Opposition – January-April 1947 .................................................................................................................... 97 3.3 Increasing Communist Economic and Political Control –April-December 1947 .................................................................................................................... 105 3.4 Division Points to ‘Unification’ – January-August 1948 ...................... 112 3.5 The Impact of the Fall of Gomułka in the Baltic Provinces – August-December 1948 ........................................................................................................... 117 Chapter Four, 1949-1953 4.1 Main issues of time period ................................................................ 125 4.2 Attempts to Sovietise Youth and Peasants Prove Difficult – January-December 1949 ........................................................................................................... 128 4.3 Problems with the Clergy and Collectivisation – January-December 1950 .................................................................................................................... 134 4.4 The Unexpected Impact of the ‘Gryfice Incident – January-December 1951 .................................................................................................................... 137 4.5 The Failure of Collectivisation Becomes Apparent – January- December 1952 .................................................................................................................... 145 4.6 The Impact of Stalin’s Death and the Berlin Uprising – January-December 1953 .................................................................................................................... 151 Chapter Five, 1954-1956 5.1 The Communists’ Illusory Hold on Power .......................................... 158 5.2 Party Activists Feel Increasing Pressure of Resistance – January-December 1954 ........................................................................................................... 159 5.3 The Party Engages in ‘Self-Criticism’ – January-December 1955 ....... 166 5.4 The Period of Shock Upon Shock – January-October 1956 ............... 174 5.5 The Polish October and its Fallout in the Baltic Recovered Territories – October- December 1956 .......................................................................................... 183 4 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 190 Bibliography ............................................................................................... 196 Abbreviations Used in Footnotes: AAN Archiwum Akt Nowych (Polish State Archives in Warsaw) APG Archiwum Państwowe w Gdańsku (Polish State Archives in Gdansk) APS Archiwum Państwowe w Szczecinie (Polish State Archives in Szczecin) APO Archiwum Państwowe w Olsztynie (Polish State Archives in Olsztyn) GKK Główna Komisja Księży (Central Priests’ Commission) IZP Instytut Zachodni, Poznań (Western Institute, Poznan) IPN Instytut Pamięci Narodowe (Instytut of National Remembrance) KW PPR Komitet Wojewódzki PPR (PPR Provincial Committee) KW PZPR Komitet Wojewódzki PZPR (PZPR Provincial Committee) MAP Ministerstwo Administracji Publicznej (Ministry of Public Administration) MBP Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego (Ministry of Public Security) MIP Ministerstwo Informacji i Propagandy (Ministry of Information and Propaganda) MRN Miejska Rada Narodowa (Municipal National Council) 5 MZO Ministerstwo Ziem Odzyskanych (Ministry of the Recovered Territories) OKK Okręgowa Komisja Księży (District Priests’ Commission) UIPG Urząd Informacji i Propagandy w Gdańsku (Office of Information and Propaganda in Gdansk) UIPS Urząd Informacji i Propagandy w Szczecinie (Office of Information and Propaganda in Szczecin) UIPO Urząd Informacji i Propagandy w Olsztynie (Office of Information and Propaganda in Olsztyn) UWS Urząd Wojewódzki w Szczecinie (Provincial Administration in Szczecin) WUBP Wojewódzki Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego (Provincial Office of Public Security) Acknowledgements: I would like to acknowledge and thank the following people who provided me with assistance in writing this thesis: Dr. Róisín Healy, Prof. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Dr. Enrico Dal Lago, Dr. Catriona Clear at NUI, Galway, the staff at Polish State Archives in Gdansk, Szczecin, Olsztyn and Warsaw, in particular the staff of the Western Institute and the IPN in Poznan. I would also like to express my gratitude to NUI, Galway for awarding me the Lady Gregory Doctoral Research Fellowship for the first year of my doctoral studies, as well as to the Irish Research Council which funded the remaining three years. 6 7 8 Introduction Poland’s ex-German provinces along the Baltic Sea have proved a particularly challenging region for academic study. Incorporated into Poland’s so-called ‘Recovered Territories’ in 1945 and settled with a largely imported Polish population, the Baltic provinces’ historical links with Slavic Pomeranian princes and medieval Polish kings were heavily promoted by Poland’s post-war communist regime in order to confirm the ‘Polishness’ of the region.1 From the outset, however, visitors noticed that the majority of the region’s Polish inhabitants not only had no pre-war roots, but often seemed reluctant to establish their own and showed a lack of interest, even hostility towards examining the region’s past.2 The 1970s and 1980s saw Poland’s Baltic coastline, particularly its ports of Szczecin and Gdansk, become inseparably associated with the Solidarity trade union movement, a movement which was a key player in the fall of the Polish communist regime.3 Even then, the region provided a strong support base for the communist authorities, especially as one travels west towards the German border.4 Indeed, today it continues to provide residual support for Poland’s post- communist parties.5 The explanation for these seeming contradictions can be found in the region’s highly complex and convoluted history immediately following the Second World War when the southern coastline of the Baltic Sea underwent a period of enormous political, demographic, economic and social change. Exceptional not only by their suddenness, intensity and unparalleled scale, these changes were driven by Sovietisation, a process by which the Soviet Union sought to impose its control over the political, economic, social and cultural systems of those countries found within its sphere of influence at