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The Polish Communist Party 1938—1942

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Andrzej Korbonski
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Extract

The purpose of this paper is to fill in some of the gaps in the history of the Polish Communist movement in the interval between the dissolution of the old and the formation of the new Communist party. English-language sources in particular devote little space to the period or contain serious factual errors. Consequendy, there is a need to put the record straight by presenting new evidence which has been appearing in Polish sources since the spring of 1956, when the prewar Polish party was officially rehabilitated. Obviously, not all the evidence is in as yet, and some of it may never be made available. Nevertheless, the new sources represent a significant step forward and throw light on some hitherto obscure segments of the history of Polish communism.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , September 1967 , pp. 430 - 444
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1967

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References

1 For example, Dziewanowski, M. K., The Communist Party of Poland (Cambridge, Mass., 1958), pp. 149 ff.Google Scholar; Rozek, Edward J., Allied Wartime Diplomacy : A Pattern in Poland (New York, 1958), pp. 95 ff.Google Scholar One of the most recent articles dealing with the history of the Polish Communist party, Charles, Malamuth, “Gomulka : Head of ‘People's Poland, '” Part I, Communist Affairs, Vol. III, No. 5 (Sept.-Oct. 1965)Google Scholar, does not even include a reference to the KPP dissolution, and its account of the formation of the new party is incorrect.

2 The new evidence consists mostly of personal memoirs and reminiscences and of articles based on them. They arelisted below in the notes. It is my belief that they can be trusted so far as developments within the Polish Communist movement are concerned.

3 While one may, perhaps, understand the withholding of source materials concerning the KPP in view of the circumstances surrounding its dissolution, it is interesting to note that similar gaps exist in the case of the traditionally orthodox party, that of Czechoslovakia, covering roughly the same period, 1939-41. See G. Bares et al., Odboj a revoluce 1938-1945 (Prague, 1965), pp. 62, 98-99, 118.

4 For some estimates, see Kochański, A. and Tych, F., “Druki programowe KPP,” Z Pola Walki (hereafter cited as ZPW), No. 1, 1965, pp. 74–75 Google Scholar; Ajzner, S, “Z dziejów polskich oddziałów ochotniczych w Hiszpanii,” ZPW, No. 3, 1958, p. 14 Google Scholar; Bron, M,” Udział Polaków w Wojnie Hiszpanskiej wlatach 1936-1939,” Wojskowy Przeglad Historyczny, VIII, No. 1 (Jan.-March 1963), 118 Google Scholar; Dziewanowski, pp. 150-51 and 339.

5 M. Malinowski, “Grupa Inicjatywna Polskiej Partii Robotniczej,” ZPW, No. 4, 1965, P. 57.

6 Future Communistleaders in Polish jails at the time of the purge were Gomulka, Bicrut (Secretary General of the Polish United Workers Party [PUWP] 1948-56), Ochab (First Secretary of PUWP March-Oct. 1956, currently titular head of state), Zawadzki (long-time Politburo member, titular head of state until his death in 1964), and many others.

7 To judge by the membership of thelast Central Committee of KPP prior to the dissolution, only two members survived the purge : Alfred Lampe (in a Polish jail) and Julian Brun (living in France until 1940).

8 Malinowski, “Grupa Inicjatywna,” p. 57.

9 See Ignacy Blum, Z dziejów aparatu politycznego Wojska Polskiego (Warsaw, 1957), p. 29.

10 Malinowski, “Grupa Inicjatywna,” p. 57; and his “Kształtowanie sie załozeń programowych polskiego ruchu komunistycznego wlatach 1939-1942,” ZPW, No. 4, 1961, pp. 19-20.

11 Istoriia Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny Sovetskogo Soiuza (Moscow, 1963), I, 187.

12 See Alfred Burmeister [pseud, of Wanda Pampuch-Bronska], “Tragedia polskich komunistów,” Kultura (Paris), No. 1 (Jan.), 1952, pp. 101-9; and her “Górnicy polscy w Donbasie,” ibid., No. 4 (April), 1952, pp. 115-22.

13 Maria Turlejska, “We Lwowie, w Wilnie i Biahłmstoku,” Polityka (Warsaw), Jan. 16, 1965.

14 G. M. Dimitrov, “Voina i rabochii klass kapitalisticheskikh stran,” Kommunisticheskii Interndtsional (Moscow), No. 8-9, 1939, pp. 23-36.

16 Malinowski, “Grupa Inicjatywna,” p. 58.

18 See Maria Turlejska, “Za Bugiem,” Polityka, Nov. 21, 1964; and Ignacy Blum, “Rola partii w organizacji i ksztaltowaniuludowcgo charakteru wojska polskiego,” Wojskowy Przeglqd Historyczny, VIII, Jan.-March 1962, 39.

17 Only in March 1941 were former KPP members allowed to join the ranks of CPSU (Maria Turlejska, “Komunisci polscy w ZSRR a powstanie PPR,” Polityka, May 15, 1965). According to Blum, “Rola partii,” p. 40, by June 1941 only about a dozen former KPP members had actually been admitted.

18 The most comprehensive account of the activities of the Polish Communists in Sovietoccupied Poland can be found in P. M. Kalenichenko, Pol'ska progresyvna emigratsiia v SRSR v roki drugoi svitovoi viiny (Kiev, 1957).

19 Turlejska, “We Lwowie, w Wilnie i Biafymstoku.“

20 Polski ruch robotniczy w okresie wojny i okupacji hitlerowskiej (Warsaw, 1964), p. 100.

21 Ibid., p. 101.

22 M. Malinowski, “Powstanie Polskiej Partii Robotniczej,” in W. Góra and J. Gołebiowski, Z najnowszych dziejów Polski 1939-1947 (Warsaw, 1961), p. 107.

23 Turlejska, “We Lwowie, w Wilnie i Biafymstoku.“

24 According to some sources, collaboration between Polish Communists and the German occupation authorities did in fact exist. For details see Bor-Komorowski, Tadeusz, The Secret Army (London, 1951), p. 46 Google Scholar; Pobóg-Malinowski, Władyslaw, Najnowsza historia polityczna Polski 1864-/943, III (London, 1960), 401 Google Scholar; Józef Šwiatlo, Za kulisami bezpieki i partii (n.p., n.d.), pp. 27-28.

25 Among them, M., Malinowski, Z dziejów powstania Polskiej Partii Robotniczej (Warsaw, 1958)Google Scholar; and Polski ruch robotniczy, pp. 62-70 and 80-96. The best single account, although brief, is that of Marian Spychalski in ZPW, No. 4, 1961, pp. 182-84.

26 Malinowski, “Ksztaltowanie,” p. 29.

27 The name “Bulletin Group” came from the radio news bulletin that the group had been publishing.

28 Malinowski, “Ksztahowanie,” pp. 33-34. A recent history of the Polish Communist movement branded the Union's program as sectarian; see Polski ruch robotniczy, p. 84. See also Zenon, Kliszko, Z problemów historii PPR (Warsaw, 1958), p. 10 Google Scholar. It is interesting to note that another party, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, together with its branch organization, the Communist Party of Slovakia, published similar programs during the same period, and that they also have been criticized by recent official histories. See BareS et al., pp. 97, 121-22, 158-59; and Dijiny KSC (Prague, 1966), p. 129.

29 Polski ruch robotniczy, p. 86.

30 Ibid., pp. 92-94.

31 Ibid., p. 135. Interestingly enough, the Gestapo also managed to infiltrate the newly reconstituted party in thelatter stages of the war (Maria Turlejska, O wojnie i podzemiu [Warsaw, 1959], p. 177).

32 Polski ruch robotniczy, p. 138.

33 Maria Turlejska, “Komunišci warszawscy,” Polityka, March 20, 1965; and her “Zanim powstała partia …” ibid., April 3, 1965.

34 After the fall of Warsaw in September 1939 Gomulka went first to Biah/stok and then to Lw6w, where he found a job as a section chief in a paper factory, in which he worked until the outbreak of the German-Soviet war in June 1941. Apparently at the beginning of 1942 he established contact with the newly formed party and was sent to his home territory in Eastern Galicia as an organizer. From there he was ordered by the party to Warsaw in July 1942 (Wielka Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN, IV [Warsaw, 1964], 315).

35 For details, see Turlejska, , “Komunisci polscy w ZSRR“; Zbiniewicz, Fryderyk, Armia Polska w ZSRR (Warsaw, 1963), pp. 15, 22 Google Scholar; Kowalski, J, “Rozgłošnia im. Tadeusza Kosciuszki,” ZPW, No. 4, 1961, pp. 327 ff.Google Scholar

36 Apparently in 1940-41 some 100, 000 Poles were drafted into the Red Army, only to be transferred to the speciallabor battalions soon after the outbreak of the Soviet-German war; see Zbiniewicz, p. 13; and Blum, “Rola partii,” pp. 39 ff.

37 Kalenichenko, p. 96.

38 Turlejska, “Komunisci polscy w ZSRR.“

39 Apparently the son and daughter of Dzierzyński were involved in the negotiations between Dimitrov and the Poles; see Malinowski, “Grupa Inicjatywna,” pp. 61 ff. Dzierzynski's widow wasleft in charge of the Polish section of the Comintern after the arrest of its entire personnel at the end of 1937 (Alfred Burmeister, “Dissolution and Aftermath of the Comintern” [New York : Research Program on the USSR, 1955], pp. 1-3 [“Mimeographed Series,” No. 77]).

40 Malinowski, “Grupa Inicjatywna,” pp. 66-73. See also J. Ludwiriska, “Narodziny Polskiej Partii Robotniczej,” ZPW, No. 4, 1961, pp. 295-96. The author is one of the few surviving members of the second Initiative Group.

41 Malinowski, “Grupa Inicjatywna,” p. 73. See also Wolfgang Leonhard, Child of the Revolution (Chicago, 1958), p. 178. The reasons for selecting Berman as the Comintern'sliaison man are obscure.

42 Ludwinska, pp. 294 ff.

43 Contact with Comintern was reestablished in June 1942 with the aid of a transmitter brought from the USSR by a member of the second Initiative Group, which was dropped in May 1942 (Wspomnienia warszawskichpeperowcSw [Warsaw, 1963], p. 29). The first message addressed to Dimitrov and published in a selection of dispatches exchanged between him and the PPR is dated June 9, 1942; see “Perepiska General'nogo Sekretariia IKKI G. M. Dimitrova s rukovodstvom Pol'skoi Rabochei Partii,” Novaia i Noveishaia Istoriia (Moscow), No. 5, 1964, p. 113; and “Depesze KC PPR do Georgia Dimitrova 1942-43,” ZPW, No. 4, 1961, p. 174.

44 For an account of the meeting by a participant, see Wlodzimierz Dabrowski, “Wspomnienia dzialacza PPR,” ZPW, No. 4, 1961, pp. 262-63.

45 Ibid. See also Malinowski, “Grupa Inicjatywna,” pp. 78-79.

46 According to the first message from PPR addressed to Dimitrov, dated June 9, 1942, the strength of the party at that time was 4000 members (“Depesze KC PPR do Georgia Dimitrova,” p. 174). In view of the acknowledged weakness of the Polish Communist movement prior to 1942, this figure appears exaggerated.

47 Similar observations have been made with regard to other Communist parties; thus it has been suggested that one of the possible roots of the Sino-Soviet conflict was the feeling on the part of the Chinese Communist party of being sold out by Stalin in 1927 andlater ( Zagoria, Donald S., The Sino-Soviet Conflict [Princeton, 1962], pp. 12-13Google Scholar).

48 See, for example, a rather candid and bitter article by Roman, Werfel, “Mysli w sprawie aktywu Nowe Drogi (Warsaw), No. 8 (Aug.), 1957, pp. 48 ff.Google Scholar

49 See Zbigniew, Brzezinski, The Soviet Bloc (New York, 1961), pp. 61–62 and 297-300.Google Scholar

50 See, for example, ibid., p. 43.

51 Malinowski, “Grupa Inicjatywna,” pp. 78 ff.