1956 Uprising

June 2006 marked the 50th anniversary of The Poznań Riots, the first recognized strike and street demonstration in Communist Poland. Although brutally suppressed this show of people’s strength remains an intense source of pride for the local community, and though it would be another 33 years until the people of Poland would enjoy complete freedom from the Kremlin the uprising led to a significant liberalization of Soviet policy in Poland, and would act as a prelude to the 1980 Lenin Shipyard Strikes in Gdańsk that saw the birth of the Solidarity movement.
The death of comrade Stalin in 1953 provoked a certain degree of optimism among Poles and promised an end to the social and political terror associated with the Soviet Union’s hegemony of Central and Eastern Europe. But these hopes were to prove short-lived and Nikita Khruschev’s address to the 20th Convention of the USSR’s Communist Party in 1956 spoke of strengthening socialism’s grip on the East, and of the dangers of individualism. Simmering with discontent the Polish media helped stir local discord and on June 28 strikes broke out in Poznań’s factories – originally in the Stalin brick factory (later the Hipolita Cegielskiego Factory), before spreading to the city’s other major industrial plants. An estimated 100,000 workers descended on the Municipal National Council (now the Zamek building), chanting slogans like ‘Bread and Freedom’ and ‘Out with Bolshevism’, while demanding lower prices, higher wages and a reduction in work quotas.
Initially peaceful, the protests took a violent turn when it was revealed that the team negotiating on behalf of the strikers up in Warsaw had been arrested and detained by the authorities. Infuriated by this break in protocol the demonstrators stormed Poznań prison, liberating 257 inmates, destroying records and seizing armaments. Armed with 188 assorted small arms and petrol bombs the insurgents marched back to the city centre to continue their protests. With a volatile atmosphere threatening to run out of control the communist authorities reacted in their traditional manner – by overreacting. Under the command of Stanisław Popławski 10,300 soldiers were deployed to Poznań, as well as 400 tanks and 30 armoured personnel carriers. Fierce street battles followed, but with the city cut off from the outside world, order was eventually restored on June 30. The clashes left 76 civilians (unofficial estimates claim the number to be vastly higher) and eight soldiers dead, and over 600 strikers injured. Victims included Roman Strzałkowski, a thirteen year old boy shot through the heart while waving a Polish flag, and the news of the riots helped spark off an equally heroic anti-communist uprising in Budapest. Although Poland was to suffer another three decades of Communist control the riots had a huge influence in the shaping of post-war Poland. The Polish Communist Party was left reeling from the chaos, and several Stalinist hardliners found themselves dismissed in a bid to appease the people. Władysław Gomułka was appointed First Secretary and limited social reforms and a small-scale lifting of press censorship followed. A museum commemorating the events of 1956 has been opened in the Zamek on ul. Św. Marcin. It is definitely worth taking a while to visit to really understand the momentous events of the Poznan June.