Page 55 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol Two

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No Uprising in Poland

The extract below is from an editorial that appeared in This voice supports the leadership of the Party
the Polish newspaper Trybuna Ludu on 25 October elected in accordance with the will of the people. It
1956, two days after the start of the Hungarian Upris- supports the correction of abuses, further democrati-
ing.The editorial writer hastened to make clear that the zation, and all the strengthening of the alliance and
Polish people would not be joining their Hungarian friendship with the Soviet Union and all people of the
neighbors in rising up against socialism or the Soviet great socialist family on the basis of the Leninist foun-
Union. dation of equality and mutual respect for the sover-
eignty and independence of each country.
In these exciting and uncommon times the Polish
Love for the fatherland and the cause of socialism
working class has clearly made its voice heard. This
have burst forth in Poland with a bright flame. The
class leads the nation not by someone’s appointment
political maturity and discipline of the working class
or decree, but by virtue of its position in society. In
arouse admiration.
these exciting and unusual days, it is evident that the
But, as in the time of any great mass movement,
leading role of the Party has been tangibly confirmed.
evidences of irresponsibility and thoughtlessness,
The Party has been united as never before with the
diverging from the current of reform, are revealed in
class which gave it birth, with the peasant masses,
a few places.
with the student youth, with the progressive intelli-
It would be naïve to think that the forces which
gentsia, and with the Polish People’s Army.The Party
have been attempting to poison this great, renovating,
is united with the nation.
and pure current with the poison of anti-Soviet dem-
We perceive the strength of this bond, hearing
agogy have capitulated.
with deep emotion the clear and wise voice of our
Source: Lincoln, W. B. (1968). Documents in world history, 1945–1967 (p. 126). San
working class, our people, and our soldiers. Francisco: Chandler Publishing Company.

camps know as the Gulag. Close to a million people were was chaos and violence that came to the edge of civil war,
executed between 1936 and 1941. Perhaps four or five and Mao found himself forced to call in the military to
million more were sent to the Gulag, where they were restore order and Communist Party control. Both the
forced to work in horrendous conditions and died in Soviet “Terror” and the Chinese “Cultural Revolution”
appalling numbers.Victimizers too were numerous as the badly discredited the very idea of socialism and con-
Terror consumed the energies of a huge corps of officials, tributed to the ultimate collapse of the Communist exper-
investigators, interrogators, informers, guards, and exe- iment at the end of the century.
cutioners.
While the search for enemies in the Soviet Union The End of the Communist
occurred largely in secret and under the clear control of Experiment
the state, in China it became a much more public process, The demise of world Communism was both rapid and
particularly during the “Cultural Revolution” of 1966– largely unexpected, and it occurred in various ways. In
1969. Mao became convinced that many within the Eastern European countries, where Communist govern-
Communist Party itself had been seduced by capitalist ments had been imposed by Soviet military force after
values of self-seeking and materialism and were no longer World War II, popular movements in 1989 swept away
animated by the idealistic revolutionary vision of earlier despised governments with stunning rapidity. The dra-
times.And so, he called for rebellion against the Commu- matic breaching of the Berlin Wall, which had long sep-
nist Party itself. Millions of young people responded and, arated East and West Berlin, became the enduring symbol
organized as “Red Guards,” set out to rid the country of of these movements. In the U.S.S.R., Mikhail Gor-
those who were “taking the capitalist road.” The outcome bachev’s efforts to reform Communism (1985–1991),