online bulletin
| Poznan June 1956 |
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| Thursday, 17 June 2010 14:46 |
 In June 1956, at the time of the Stalinist terror, Poznan workers claimed ?bread and freedom.? 100,000 workers of the biggest Poznan plants participated in the demonstration. The communist authorities suppressed the rebellious citizens in a bloody manner. The death toll was placed at 70 people, and more than a thousand sustained injuries. Introduced in Poland in the mid 1940s, the Stalinist system brought the dictatorship of the communist part, limitation of activity for a number of organisations, forced collectivisation of rural areas, liquidation of private trade and craftsmanship. The opponents of the new Polish political system were persecuted by the communist secret police. In Poland, at the beginning of the 1950s, numerous arrests, imprisonment without court decisions, show-trials and extortion of testimonies with tortures were the order of the day. The people?s dissatisfaction was magnified by difficulties in obtaining food and worsening work conditions. At the same time, the authorities raised working standards, forcing people to be more efficient.
The first serious rebellion of those dissatisfied with the new system took place in Poznan on the 28th of June 1956. The workers of the biggest Poznan plant, Hipolit Cegielski Factory (at that time named after Joseph Stalin) were the first to protest. In the morning of the 28th of June, a column of about 10,000 workers marched out of the Wilda district towards the centre of Poznan. The workers of other plants joined them on the way. Virtually all significant factories in the city stopped working. Before midday, Plac. Mickiewicza was occupied by a crowd of about 100,000 people crying for ?bread? and honest pay for their work. Right before noon on the 28th of June a rumour about the alleged arrest of one of the workers? delegations spread in the crowd of protesters. Several thousand people started for ul. Młyńska to reach the Custody Suite. The rebellious workers stormed the building, freed the prisoners, and obtained weapons there. The demonstration moved to the Security Office on ul. Kochanowskiego where the secret police was based. The first shots were fired from the office?s windows. Then the streets of Poznan were the site of a regular battle between the militia and the protesting workers who gained weapons after seizing military posts operating at every university. The exchange of fire lasted till late in the evening. According to official data, more than 60 civilians and 10 soldiers and members of the security apparatus died in combat. The death toll included a dozen or so children (among them was 13-year-old Romek Strzałkowski who became the symbol of the Poznan June, and today one of the streets in the Jeżyce district is named after him). About 1,000 people sustained injuries. After several hours of combat the Poznan authorities summoned the army. The pacification of Poznan involved a total of more than 10,000 soldiers, about 400 tanks and more than 30 armoured personnel carriers. The arrests of the participants in the workers? protests started in the evening of the 28th of June. The detainees were treated with extreme brutality. Several hundred people were subject to court trials.  The events of the Poznan June 1956 triggered changes throughout the country.The autumn saw the arrival of the so-called ?thaw?, that is the departure from the Stalinist terror, and the Poznan workers were ?rehabilitated?. The Poles raised protests against the communist rule several times more in 1968, 1970, 1976 and 1980. The result was the establishment of the ?Solidarity? civic movement and the final collapse of communism that took place in 1989. |
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