Parliamentary elections were held inPolandon 19 January 1947,[1]the first sinceWorld War II.According to the official results, theDemocratic Bloc(Blok Demokratyczny), dominated by thecommunistPolish Workers Party(PPR) and also including thePolish Socialist Party(PPS), People's Party (SL),Democratic Party(SD) and non-partisan candidates officially received 80% of the vote and 394 of the 444 seats in theLegislative Sejm.The largest opposition party, thePolish People's Party,was officially credited with 28 seats. However, the elections were characterized by violence;[2]anti-communistopposition candidates and activists were persecuted by theVolunteer Reserve Militia(ORMO).[3]The elections were heavily manipulated,[4]and the opposition claimed that it would have won in a landslide had the election been conducted in a fair manner.[5][2][6]
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The election gave the Soviets and the communist-dominated Polishsatellite government[7]enough legitimacy to claim that Poland was 'free and democratic', thus allowing Poland to sign thecharter of the United Nations.[8]
Background
editBy 1946, Poland was mostly under the control of the Soviet Union and its proxies, the PPR. In 1946 the communists already tested their strength by falsifying the"3xYES Referendum"[9]and banning the vast majority ofright-wingparties (under the pretext of their pro-Nazistance). By 1947 the only remaining legal opposition was the Polish People's Party (PSL) ofStanisław Mikołajczyk.[10][11]
TheYalta agreementcalled for"free and unfettered" electionsin Poland.[12]However, the Kremlin and the PPR had no intention of permitting an honest election. Soviet leaderJoseph Stalinwas well aware that if Poland held a free election, it would result in an anti-Soviet government.[2]Conditioned in part by theHungarian Communists' weak showing in1945,the PPR proposed to present voters with a single list from all of the legal parties in the country. The PSL rejected this proposal almost out of hand. Eventually, only the PPS, SD and SL joined the Democratic Bloc.[2]Every electoral district had Democratic Bloc's candidates on List 3.
The January 1947 elections held under the supervision of the PPR fell well short of being "free and unfettered."[12]The PPR, under the leadership of general secretaryWładysław Gomułka,embarked on a ruthless campaign to snuff out the PSL and all other potential opposition.[2]Electoral lawsintroduced before the elections allowed the government – which since its establishment in 1944 by thePolish Committee of National Liberationhad been dominated by the Communists – to remove 409,326 people from the electoral rolls,[13]as 'anti-government bandits' (i.e.,Armia Krajowaand otherPolish resistancemovements loyal to thePolish government in exile). Over 80,000 members of the Polish People's Party were arrested under various false charges in the month preceding the election[citation needed],and around 100 of them were murdered by the Polish Secret Police (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa,UB).[14]98 opposition parliamentary candidates were also crossed from the registration lists under these accusations. In some regions the government disqualified the entire People's Party list under various technical and legal pretenses, most commonly in regions known to be People's Party strongholds.[14]
The electoral fraud was organized and closely monitored by UB specialists, who worked closely with their Soviet counterparts likeAron PalkinandSemyon Davydov,both high-ranking officers from the SovietMGB.Bolesław Bierut,head of the provisional Polish parliament (State National Council) and acting president, asked for Soviet assistance in the election.[15]Over 40% of the members of the electoral commissions who were supposed to monitor the voting were recruited by the UB.[16]
Conduct
editOpposition candidates and activists were persecuted until election day; only the PPR and its allies were allowed to campaign unhindered.[citation needed]The publicized results were falsified,[5]with the official results known to selected government officials long before the actual elections took place and any votes were counted.[17]
The real results were not known to anyone.[citation needed]In areas where the government had sufficient control, some of theballot boxeswere simply destroyed without being counted,[14]or exchanged with boxes filled with prepared votes.[15]Where possible, government officials simply filled in the numbers in the relevant documents as per instructions from Soviet and PPR officials without bothering to count the real votes.[15]
ATimeMagazinearticle covering the elections noted in its lead paragraph: "In a spirit of partisan exuberance tempered with terror, Poland approached its first nationwide popular election, ten days hence. By last week most of the combined opposition (Socialist and Polish Peasant Party) candidates had been jailed, and their supporters more or less completely cowed by the secret police, by striking their names from voting lists and by arrest. The Communist-dominated Government ventured to predict an" overwhelming "victory."[18]Historian Piotr Wrobel wrote that this election saw "the highest level of repression and terror" that was ever seen during the four decades of Communist rule in Poland.[2]
Results
edit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
| Democratic Bloc | 9,003,682 | 80.07 | 394 | |
| Polish People's Party | 1,154,847 | 10.27 | 28 | |
| Labour Faction | 530,979 | 4.72 | 12 | |
| Polish People's Party "Nowe Wyzwolenie" | 397,754 | 3.54 | 7 | |
| Local lists | 157,611 | 1.40 | 3 | |
| Total | 11,244,873 | 100.00 | 444 | |
| Valid votes | 11,244,873 | 99.15 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 96,610 | 0.85 | ||
| Total votes | 11,341,483 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 12,701,058 | 89.30 | ||
| Source: Nohlen & Stöver | ||||
In his post-election report to Stalin, Pałkin estimated that the real results (i.e. votes cast) gave the Democratic Bloc about 50% of the vote.[17]The opposition contended that it had the support of 63 percent of the voting population[2]and would have received about 80% of the votes[6]had the elections been free and fair. The only official electoral document known to exist showed the PSL taking 54 percent of the vote inKielce Voivodeshipto the Democratic Bloc's 44 percent.[2]
Aftermath
edit
Many members of opposition parties, including Mikołajczyk – who would have likely become thePrime Minister of Polandhad the election been honest[19]– saw no hope in further struggle and, fearing for their lives, left the country.[9]Western governments issued only token protests, if any, which led many anti-Communist Poles to speak of postwar "Western betrayal".In the same year, the new Communist-dominated Legislative Sejm adopted theSmall Constitution of 1947,and Bierut, who was also a citizen of the USSR, was elected president by the parliament.
With the support of a majority in its own right and the departure of Mikołajczyk, the Communist-dominated government set about consolidating its now-total control over the country—a process completed in 1948, when the Communists forced what remained of the Polish Socialist Party to merge with them to form thePolish United Workers Party.[12][20]
Gomułka wanted to adapt the Soviet blueprint to Polish circumstances, and believed it was possible to be both a Communist and a Polish patriot at the same time. He was also wary of theCominform,and opposed forcedcollectivization of agriculture.His line was branded as "rightist-nationalist deviation," and he was pushed out as party leader in 1948 in favour of Bierut.[21][2]
The PSL lingered on for a year and a half under increasing harassment. In 1949, the rump of the PSL merged with the pro-Communist People's Party to form theUnited People's Party.[22]Along with the other legal minor party in Poland, theDemocratic Party,it was part of the Communist-led coalition. However, this grouping increasingly took on a character similar to other "coalitions" in the Communist world. The ZSL and SD were reduced to being mostly subservient satellites of the Communists, and were required to accept the Communists' "leading role"as a condition of their continued existence.[23]As a result, this would be the last election in which true opposition parties would be even nominally allowed to take part until the partly free election of1989.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^Dieter Nohlen& Philip Stöver (2010)Elections in Europe: A data handbook,p1491ISBN978-3-8329-5609-7
- ^abcdefghiWrobel, Piotr (2014).Historical Dictionary of Poland 1945-1996.Routledge.ISBN9781135927011.
- ^Piotr Osęka (February 20, 2011)."Jak ORMO czuwało".Historia(in Polish).Polityka.pl.RetrievedSep 2,2013.
- ^Nohlen & Stöver, p1475
- ^abJanusz Wrona (ed.),Kampania wyborcza i wybory do Sejmu Ustawodawczego 19 stycznia 1947(Elections campaign and the elections to the Legislative Sejm of 19 January 1947), Wydawnictwo Sejmowe, 1999ISBN83-7059-322-4[page needed]
- ^abDariusz Baliszewski."Wprost 24 - Demokracja urn".Wprost.pl. Archived fromthe originalon 2009-02-08.Retrieved2009-08-22.
- ^"Commanding Heights: Poland Overview | on PBS".PBS.1990-01-01.Retrieved2009-08-22.
- ^Stephen Schlesinger,Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations,Westview Press, 2003,ISBN0-8133-3324-5"On January 19, 1947, the first Polish elections were held. They were widely seen as fraudulent."Google Print, p.225
- ^abTom Buchanan,Europe's Troubled Peace, 1945-2000: 1945-2000,Blackwell Publishing, 2005,ISBN0-631-22162-X,"...the elections of January 1947 [...] were clearly rigged."Google Print, p.84
- ^"Poland. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05".Archived fromthe originalon 2006-04-20.Retrieved2006-05-15.
- ^"The Historical Setting: The Polish People's Republic".Info-poland.buffalo.edu. Archived fromthe originalon 2009-06-15.Retrieved2009-08-22.
- ^abcPolandatEncyclopedia Britannica
- ^"Instytut Pamięci Narodowej | Pełna treść artykułu".Instytut Pamięci Narodonowej.Archived fromthe originalon 2015-04-08.Retrieved2021-11-12.
- ^abcBarbara Polak,Do wyborów w 1947 r. PSL wchodzi już mocno osłabione.CENA WYGRANEJ.Biuletyn IPN,Nr 1 - 1.2002.(in Polish)
- ^abcNikita Pietrow."Wprost 24 - Wybory Pałkina".Wprost.pl. Archived fromthe originalon 2011-06-07.Retrieved2009-08-22.
- ^Co to jest RSS?."Kalendarium wydarzeń - Kalendarium - Polska.pl".Wiadomosci.polska.pl. Archived fromthe originalon 2008-04-22.Retrieved2009-08-22.
- ^ab"Pułkownik Pałkin raportuje: Sfałszowanie wyborów w Polsce nie zbulwersowało opinii Zachodu".Konstytucje.pl. Archived fromthe originalon 2006-09-28.Retrieved2009-08-22.
- ^"POLAND: Free Election".TIME.1947-01-13. Archived fromthe originalon February 20, 2005.Retrieved2009-08-22.
- ^Alexander Cockburn,The Golden Age Is in Us: Journeys and Encounters, 1987-1994,Verso, 1997,ISBN0-86091-664-2"By January [1947...] the fixed Polish election that sent the Peasant Party leader Stanisław Mikołajczyk, who probably should have won, into exile."Google Print, p.157
- ^"Polish History - Part 13".Poloniatoday.com. Archived fromthe originalon January 17, 2008.Retrieved2009-08-22.
- ^Boleslaw BierutatEncyclopedia Britannica
- ^David Ost,Solidarity and the Politics of Anti-Politics,pp. 34-36, 1990 Philadelphia,Temple University Press,ISBN0-87722-655-5
- ^Poland: a country study.Library of CongressFederal Research Division, December 1989.
Further reading
edit- Michał Skoczylas,Wybory do Sejmu Ustawodawczego z 19 stycznia 1947 roku w świetle skarg ludności(Elections to the Legislative Sejm on 19 January 1947 in the light of citizens complains), TRIO, 2003,ISBN83-88542-43-5
- Jerzy Drygalski, Jacek Kwasniewski,No-Choice Elections,Soviet Studies,Vol. 42, No. 2 (Apr., 1990), pp. 295–315,JSTOR
- Geoff Eley,Forging Democracy the History of the Left in Europe, 1850-2000,Oxford University Press, 2002,ISBN0-19-504479-7"In January 1947, manifestly rigged Polish elections gave Communists 80.1% of the vote..."Google Print, p.300
- George Sakwa, Martin Crouch,Sejm Elections in Communist Poland: An Overview and a Reappraisal,British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Oct., 1978), pp. 403–424,
- Richard F. Staar,Elections in Communist Poland,Midwest Journal of Political Science, Vol. 2, No. 2 (May, 1958), pp. 200–218,JSTOR
- Nikita Petrov,The Role of the MGB of USSR in the Sovietization of Poland: the Referendum and Sejm Elections in 1946-1947([1])
- Davies, Norman (1981).God's Playground: A History of Poland, Volume II, 1795 to the Present.Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 569–570, 575.ISBN019-822592-X.
External links
edit- Results of the 1947 elections
- (in Polish)Pułkownik Pałkin raportuje: Sfałszowanie wyborów w Polsce nie zbulwersowało opinii Zachodu.
- (in Polish)Sfałszowane wybory – 19 stycznia 1947 roku
- (in Polish)Jak sfałszowano pierwsze powojenne wybory,Polityka, 20 stycznia 2007 r.
- (in Polish)Wybory 1947, Institute of National Remembrance