| Year |
Date |
Event
|
| 1945
|
May 8 |
End of World War II in Europe
|
| June 18–21 |
Trial of the Sixteen Polish Underground leaders in Moscow
|
| July 10–25 |
Augustów roundup of anti-Communist partisans
|
| August 2 |
Potsdam Conference concludes between the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States
|
| August 11 |
Kraków pogrom with one dead victim
|
| 1946 |
January 20 |
By order of the Minister of National Defence, military district courts (WSR) were established with seats in voivodeship capitals.
|
| February 21 |
The Voluntary Reserves of the Citizens' Militia were established
|
| March 28 |
The State Security Commission was established, whose purpose was to coordinate activities against the opposition and the independence underground in the period preceding the "people's referendum" and the elections to the Legislative Sejm
|
| June 30 |
A People's referendum was held, preceded by a nationwide campaign to combat the political opposition - primarily the PSL and the independence underground. A special Soviet group led by Colonel Aron Palkin participated in the campaign to falsify the referendum results
|
| July 4 |
Kielce pogrom
|
| July 5 |
The decree of the State National Council came into force, proclaiming the establishment of the Main Office for the Control of the Press, Publications and Entertainment
|
| September 20-23 |
The last session of the KRN was held. During the session, the date of elections to the Legislative Sejm was set for January 19, 1947 and the main assumptions of the country's economic reconstruction plan - the three-year plan - were adopted.
|
| September 26 |
The decision was announced to create an electoral bloc of PPR, PPS, SL, and SD, propaganda called the Bloc of Democratic Parties.
|
| 1947 |
January 19 |
Legislative election rigged, 100,000 ORMO men deployed to intimidate voters
|
| February 19 |
Adoption of Small Constitution of 1947
|
| April 28 |
Operation Vistula begins
|
| November 24 |
Auschwitz trial begins in Kraków
|
| 1948 |
February 25 |
The General Youth Organization "Service to Poland" was established.
|
| March 10 |
During the joint meeting of the Central Committee of the PPR and the Central Electoral Commission of the PPS, the formal decision was made to unite the parties.
|
| April 25 |
The Higher Marxist School was established at the Central Committee of the PZPR.
|
| 1949 |
January 1 |
State Agricultural Farms were established (since 1976 operating under the name of State Agricultural Enterprises).
|
| June 1-5 |
The 2nd Trade Union Congress took place
|
| November 25-27 |
The Congress of the Unity of the People's Movement took place, which resulted in the merger of PSL and SL into the United People's Party. The chairman of the Supreme Council was Józef Niećko, and the chairman of the Supreme Executive Committee was Władysław Kowalski.
|
| 1950 |
January 23 |
Communists establish administration over the church charity organization "Caritas"
|
| July 21 |
The law on the 6-year plan for economic development and building the foundations of socialism for the years 1950-1955 was passed
|
| March 10 |
A Special Bureau was established within the MPB, entrusted with the task of combating provocations in the workers' movement.
|
| March 20 |
A new administrative organization was established. Thus, the provincial offices, county offices, and the positions of governors, starosts, and city presidents were liquidated and were replaced with voivodeship, powiat and city National Councils. The act transformed them into local state administration bodies, which was another stage in the centralization of power.
|
| April 19 |
The Office for Religious Affairs was established, and soon its local agencies were established at the provincial, city and district national councils.
|
| June 28 |
A new administrative division of the country was formed, and the number of voivodeships increased to seventeen. This division into voivodeships remained until the administrative reform carried out in 1975
|
| July 6 |
Treaty of Zgorzelec signed in the border with East Germany
|
| October 14 |
The verdict in the trial of the 4th Main Board of WiN has been announced: Leader Łukasz Cieplinski and his six associates were sentenced to death, three people to long-term imprisonment
|
| October 16 |
The Institute for Training of Scientific Cadres at the Central Committee of the PZPR began its operations.
|
| 1951 |
February 15 |
The Treaty on the Exchange of Territories was signed in Moscow between the Polish and Soviet governments
|
| July 31 |
Trial of the Generals who served in the anti-Nazi resistance during World War II
|
| August 2 |
Władysław Gomułka is arrested
|
| September 9 |
Stefan Matryka, the narrator of the propaganda radio program Fala-49, was shot dead
|
| November 6 |
In Żerań, in the northern part of Warsaw's Praga district, the Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych, which had been under construction since 1949, was launched
|
| 1952 |
Aprill 16 |
August Emil Fieldorf is sentenced to death
|
| July 22 |
Adoption of Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland by the Legislative Sejm
|
| August 30 |
The All-Polish Committee National Front was established under the chairmanship of Boleslaw Bierut.
|
| October 26 |
First Legislative election by the one-party rule
|
| 1953 |
February 9 |
The Council of State issued a decree on the appointment of church clergy, in which the communists gave themselves the right to directly interfere in the personnel policy of the Church
|
| March 14 |
Michał Rola-Żymierski is arrested in a political struggle
|
| June 3 |
One of the changes in the management of the Soviet sphere of influence was the decision - formally taken by the Commission for National Defense of the Polish People's Republic - to send some of the Red Army generals who had been recommended to the Polish People's Army in previous years to the USSR.
|
| December 5 |
A clear signal of the "thaw" was the recall of Dymitr Woźnienski and Antoni Skulbaszewski from the Polish People's Republic to the USSR. Both were sentenced to 10 years in prison in the USSR for violating the rule of law.
|
| December 17 |
Józef Światło, deputy director of Department X of the MBP, fled to West Berlin. The fugitive surrendered to American intelligence
|
| 1954 |
March 10-17 |
During the Second Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party, where Nikita Khrushchev was a special guest, a decision was made to imitate the changes introduced in the USSR.
|
| March 18 |
The State Council implemented the decisions of the 2nd Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party, dismissing Bolesław Bierut from the position of Prime Minister and entrusting this position to Józef Cyrankiewicz. At the same time, Władysław Dworakowski ceased to be Deputy Prime Minister, and Hilary Minc was dismissed from the position of Chairman of the State Economic Planning Commission to be replaced by Eugeniusz Szyr.
|
| August 3 |
The operation codenamed X-2 began, the aim of which was to displace about 1,400 nuns from Lower and Upper Silesia. They were moved to 8 labour camps located in convent buildings in the Krakow and Poznan regions.
|
| September 25 |
An administrative reform was carried out, in which the four-level structure was replaced by a three-level division. The changes consisted of the liquidation of communes, while the administrative boundaries of the gromadas were simultaneously extended.
|
| November 24-25 |
A secret meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party was held. Cliques began to emerge within the Polish United Workers' Party leadership, representing different possibilities of getting out of the political and economic crisis that was plaguing the Polish People's Republic.
|
| December 7 |
The MBP was dissolved, and in its place the Committee for Public Security and the Ministry of Internal Affairs were established.
|
| 1955 |
April 30 |
The broadcast of TVP's regular programme has begun.
|
| May 14 |
Signing of the Warsaw Pact
|
| 1956 |
February 19 |
The first public criticism of Stalin's actions in the Polish People's Republic. "Trybuna Ludu" published a statement signed by the central committees of the Polish United Workers' Party, the Communist Party of Poland.
|
| March 12 |
Death of Bolesław Bierut
|
| March 20 |
The 6th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party was held, during which the memory of Bierut was honored
|
| June 28 |
Poznań 1956 protests
|
| October 21 |
Polish October, return of Władysław Gomułka
|
| 1957 |
January 20 |
Legislative election
|
| August 12-14 |
The tram drivers in Łódź went on strike. It was one of 11 strikes in Łódź and one of many taking place in the country at that time.
|
| 1959 |
October 18 |
Price increase of average 25% for meat, animal fats and meat products was introduced
|
| October 28 |
Jerzy Morawski, a member of the reformist Puławians group in the Polish United Workers' Party, resigned from his membership in the Political Bureau and the Secretariat of the Central Committee.
|
| December 3-5 |
The congress of delegates of the Polish Writers' Union was in session. Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz was elected the new president
|
| 1960 |
May 30 |
Stormy protests took place in Zielona Góra in response to the authorities' attempt to close down the Catholic House inhabited by priests.
|
| 1961 |
April 16 |
Legislative election
|
| 1964 |
June 15-20 |
The 4th Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party took place, which strengthened the so-called small stabilization. Gomułka outlined economic plans for the coming years, assuming a 50% increase in industrial production. In the five-year period of 1966-1970, 1.5 million new jobs were to be created, and the national income was to increase by 30%. Gomułka, who was formally re-elected to the position of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, sharply criticized the leaders of the Chinese communists for the split.
|
| August 13 |
Edward Ochoba was appointed Chairman of the State Council after Aleksander Zawadzki's death on August 7.
|
| November 9 |
The Provincial Court for the Capital City of Warsaw sentenced the famous writer Melchior Wankowicz to three years in prison, which was changed to one and a half years under an amnesty.
|
| 1965 |
February 2 |
The court sentenced to death Stanisław Wawrzecki, director of the Municipal Meat Trading Company - the main defendant in the so-called meat affair. The sentence was carried out on April 9, it was the only one carried out after 1956 in the Polish People's Republic for a crime of an economic nature.
|
| May 30 |
Legislative election
|
| July 20 |
Gen. Tadeusz Pietrzak became the new commander-in-chief of the Citizens' Militia.
|
| November 18 |
Letter of Reconciliation of the Polish Bishops to the German Bishops
|
| December 3 |
In Zabrze, during the Miner's Day celebrations, Gomułka summed up the second five-year plan (1961-1965)
|
| 1968 |
March |
Political crisis
|
| August 20 |
End of Prague Spring with the invasion of Czechoslovakia
|
| 1970 |
December 7 |
Signing of Treaty of Warsaw; Warschauer Kniefall
|
| December 14 |
1970 protests begin
|
| 1974 |
February 4 |
The 1st National Conference of the PZPR
|
| 1978 |
October 16 |
Election of Pope John Paul II
|
| 1980 |
|
Gdańsk Agreement
|
| March 14 |
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 007
|
| August 17 |
21 demands of MKS
|
| 1981 |
May 28 |
Death of Primate Poland Stefan Wyszyński
|
| 1981 |
December 13 |
Martial law begins
|
| 1983 |
|
Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa receives the Nobel Peace Prize.
|
| July 22 |
Martial law ends
|
| 1984 |
|
Father Jerzy Popiełuszko murdered by Polish secret police.
|
| 1989 |
April 4 |
Signing of the Round Table Agreement
|
| April 7 |
April Novelization
|
| June 4 |
Parliamentary election
|
| July 19 |
Lech Walesa becomes President
|
| August 24 |
Tadeusz Mazowiecki becomes first non-communist prime minister in the Eastern Bloc
|
| December 31 |
The People's Republic of Poland becomes the Republic of Poland
|
References:
[4][5]
|
