An Apparent Attempt to “de-Stalinize” the Bar. Open session of the Basic Party Organization of the Polish United Workers' Party at the Bar Association in Warsaw on October 26 and 30, 1956

The study consists of two parts. The first part is an analysis of the issue already mentioned in the title, while the second part contains redacted sources (they will be published in the next issue). The aim of the study is to present the so-called open meeting of the ‘Basic Party Organization’ of the Polish United Workers’ Party [PZPR], operating at the Bar Association in Warsaw, which took place in the last days of October 1956, during the so-called political thaw. This ‘open meeting’ was meant to be interpreted – according to the intention of its organizers from the PZPR – in the context of the so-called de-Stalinization at the Warsaw Bar. The course of this meeting, however, proves that the real intention of the Basic Party Organization within the Warsaw Bar was not to de-Stalinize, but to quickly close the question of accountability for the 1945-1956 period.

Key concepts: Polish Bar in the People’s Republic of Poland; Warsaw Bar Association in the People’s Republic of Poland; Polish United Workers’ Party; Basic Party Organization at the Bar Association in Warsaw; Stalinization; de-Stalinization; Polish October 1956


This article is published in Polish