Propaganda Instructions for the Unification Congress of the Polish Workers’ Party and Polish Socialist Party on December 15–21, 1948

Abstract

The following paper is a critical edition of a document that established propaganda guidelines for the so-called unification congress of the workers’ movement in Poland, held on December 15–21, 1948. By means of a scholarly presentation of an archival record, the author shows that behind the veil of a grandiose and joyful atmosphere, accompanying the „unification” of the Polish Workers’ and Socialist Parties as well as the establishment of the Polish United Workers’ Party, the congress, as a matter of fact, was a skillfully directed event that intended to create a particular mood. The writer points out that the congress itself was an ideological mass undertaking – an utter theatre in honour of Bolesław Bierut and Józef Stalin, which formalized the totalitarian system of the dictatorial communist party. And like in a real theatre, a painstaking script was written and roles assigned. That scenario outlined all elements of the state’s life and almost all spheres of human life, which at that time were already under the reign of the totalitarian regime. Therefore this campaign, preparing for the Unification Congress is considered to be the largest and the most important in the communist Poland.