EASTERN E U R O P E , 1 9 4 5 ­ 2 0 0 0 883

Great Britain and the United States charged that the Yalta provisions Party. By not electing Marshal Rokossovsky to the new , the for free and honest elections had been violated. Polish gained some independence from interference Feb. 4. Boleslaw Bierut was elected president of the republic, and by the . Josef Cyrankiewicz formed a new coalition cabinet. Oct. 24. Gomulka announced that Soviet troops stationed in Feb. 19. The Diet approved an interim constitution and proclaimed would return to their regular bases " w i t h i n two days." But the Soviet liberty and equality for all citizens. troop removal, which began on Oct. 25, did not include the three or Sept. Mikolajczyk was forced to resign. four Soviet divisions from that had entered Poland a Sept. 14. Poland denounced its concordat and entered on a series of few days earlier. Polish militia used tear gas to quell Polish attacks on conflicts w i t h the . Soviet army installations at Legnica (Liegnitz). Oct. 24. A campaign among progovernment members of the Peasant Oct. 28. Marshal Rokossovsky returned to the USSR when an in­ Party for his dismissal led to Mikolajczyk's flight to London and the vestigation unearthed evidence of his plot to stage a military coup purge of his followers from the ranks of the Peasant Party. against Gomulka. 1948, The transformation of Poland into a Communist­dominated So­ Oct. 29. Cardinal Wyszynski was released from custody. viet satellite made further headway as the Socialist Party was fused Oct. 30. The Gomulka government decided to present the Soviet with the Communist Party, and became the Polish United Workers' Union w i t h a b i l l for Poland's fair share (15 percent) of the German Party (PUWP). The Peasant Party joined the government bloc, a com­ reparations payments to the Soviet U n i o n . pulsory youth organization was set up, and the judiciary was changed Nov. 18. Gomulka and Premier Cyrankiewicz signed an agreement along communist lines. i n w i t h Khrushchev and N i k o l a y Bulganin for equality in So­ June 26. A five­year trade agreement was signed with the Soviet viet­Polish relations. Union to counterbalance the Marshall Plan, in which Poland had re­ Dec. 17. A Polish­Soviet agreement limited the role of Soviet troops fused to participate. i n Poland. Sept. 5. The secretary general of the P U W P , Wladyslaw Gomulka, 1957, Jan. 20. The National Front, led by Gomulka, was victorious in was forced to resign because of ideological deviation from the Soviet the national elections. line. Feb. 27. Parliament approved the new government of Premier Josef 1949, Jan. 25. Poland joined the C o u n c i l for Mutual Economic Assist­ Cyrankiewicz. ance (p. 838]. May 1. Subject to U.S. congressional authorization, the United Sept. 30. Poland again showed its adherence to Soviet and C o m i n ­ States formally agreed to provide $95 m i l l i o n in aid in the form of form policy when it renounced its treaty of friendship w i th Yugoslavia. commodities and mining machinery, and a month later (June 7) ar­ Nov. 7. Marshal of the Soviet U n i o n was ranged two loans to Poland amounting to $48,900,000. appointed minister of defense and commander­in­chief of the Polish 1958, Dec. 6. The government revealed plans for building an oil pipeline army. The army was thoroughly reorganized along Soviet lines. from Russian fields to Poland and East Germany. Nov. 11­13. The Central Committee of the United Workers' Party 1959, March 31. The repatriation of Poles from the Soviet U n i o n to East expelled a number of prominent members for Titoist leanings. Poland, under the agreement of November 1956, ended, after some 1950, Poland's relations w i t h the Western powers—having deteriorated 250,000 Poles had been repatriated. steadily since the war—came close to the breaking point as several 1960s. While the Polish government remained a reliable partner of the Western diplomats and correspondents were accused of hostile acts Soviet government, especially in the ideological conflict between against the Polish government. Moscow and Beijing, growing unrest among intellectuals and artists March 20. Hostility between Church and state led to the confisca­ obliged the government to relax measures of repression and to accept tion of Church lands and other restrictions on Catholic activities. greater academic and business contacts w i t h the West. June 6. The East German Democratic Republic recognized the Oder­ 1964, A u g . 12. Edward Ochab, a veteran Polish Communist, was elected Neisse line as the final border. Most Germans east of this line had been president by the Sejur to replace Aleksander Zawardzki, who had died. expelled, and the region had been thoroughly polonized. 1966, M ay 3. Celebration of 1,000 years of Polish Christianity. The pro­ 1951, M a y 22. The deputy prime minister met with Soviet foreign min­ jected attendance of Pope Paul VI was vetoed by the Polish government. ister A. Vishinsky and signed an agreement to cede territory in the 1968. Growing dissatisfaction w i t h the Gomulka regime. Student dem­ area to the USSR in return for part of Drohobyca province, onstrations and outbreaks were accompanied by much factional strug­ which reportedly contained enough oil wells to increase Polish oil pro­ gle in government ranks. This led to a purge of "Zionist" elements and duction by 20 percent. the emigration of many . Gomulka, however, retained the support 1952, N o v . 20. W i t h the abolition of the presidency by the new consti­ of the Soviet authorities. tution, President Bolesjlaw Bierut stepped down to become premier. Aug. The invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia. Gomulka The Council of State became the nation's highest political organ. fully supported the Soviet position, and Polish troops participated in 1953, Sept. 8. Cardinal Jozsef Wyszynski, head of the Polish Catholic the military operations. Church, was arrested for alleged conspiracy against the state; he was Nov. 11­16. The Polish Communist Party Congress failed to shake held in a monastery for years. Gomulka's position. Dec. 18. On the radio in it was reported that all Roman 1970, Dec. 7. Signature of the T R E A T Y W I T H T H E G E R M A N FEDER­ Catholic bishops in Poland had taken an oath of loyalty to the state. A L R E P U B L I C , by which the latter at least provisionally recognized 1954, March 19. Josef Cyrankiewicz succeeded Bierut as prime minister. the Oder­Neisse line as Poland's western frontier and the Polish gov­ 1956, A p r i l 6. Wladyslaw G o m u l k a , who had been arrested in 1951, and ernment assented to the repatriation of Germans still living in the other Polish Communists were reported to have been freed and reha­ area east of that line. bilitated. Dec. 14. Outbreak of serious RIOTS IN G D A N S K A N D O T H E R June 28. Rioting, leading to more than one hundred deaths, broke PORT CITIES, resulting from food shortages and increased prices on out in Poznan after workers demonstrated for better social and eco­ food and other commodities. Police and troops were able to quell the nomic conditions. disturbances only with difficulty and w i t h considerable loss of life. Oct. 10. Signs of an approaching storm occurred when the trials of Dec. 20. W i t h their regime badly shaken by the riots, Gomulka and Poznan rioters ended abruptly and (Oct. 16) several Communist lead­ other members of the Politburo were obliged to resign. , ers urged that Soviet officers be removed from the Polish army. chief of the party in Upper Silesia, succeeded to Gomulka's offices. Oct. 20. G o m u l k a reentered the Polish Communist Party. While Dec. 23. President Spychalski and Prime Minister Cyrankiewicz also Khrushchev and other Soviet leaders hastened to Poland to plead for resigned. Cyrankiewicz then became the new president and Piotr Ja­ the continuation of pro­Soviet policies, Defense Minister and C o m ­ roszewicz became the new prime minister; they formed a cabinet that mander­in­Chief Rokossovsky, a former Soviet officer, ordered troops same day. The new government immediately announced a price freeze to take positions near Warsaw. Polish and Soviet frontier troops ex­ on food for at least two years, m i n i m u m wage increases, family allow­ changed fire. ance and pension increases, and credit increases for peasants and small Oct. 21. G o m u l k a became first secretary of the Polish Communist businesses.