In communist Poland, the first mass workers' protest involving a general strike and street demonstrations, took place five decades ago in Poznań. Terminated by a bloody crackdown, the events have come to be interpreted today as the "beginning of the end" of communism in Poland.

Following Joseph Stalin's death on March 5, 1953, the first cracks appeared on the monolith of the empire he created. In June 1953, uprisings broke out in Berlin and other East German cities, and were bloodily suppressed. In the Soviet Union, a new policy of "overcoming mistakes and perversions" was embarked upon. The most striking break from the Stalinist past occurred at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when the new party leader, Nikita Khrushchev, strongly dissociated himself from Stalinist crimes and condemned his cult of personality. In his speech, Khrushchev rejected the idea that class struggle would become exacerbated as the building of communism progressed. He admitted the option of realizing communism along nation-specific paths. Such words offered the hope of at least partial liberalization for the countries that had remained under brutal Soviet domination since the end of World War II.

Following some measure of liberalization, the press became a catalyst for reforms. In October 1955, groups like the Krzywe Koło Club, whose members included opposition writers, began to appear. The discussion back then was dominated by issues including the rule of law in public life, Poland's independence in the international workers' movement, and the role played by the pro-Western Home Army (AK), persecuted by the communists though they had fought for Poland's liberation from the Nazi Germany occupation. The first tentative attempts were also made to criticize the "security" apparatus, the secret police. The fear instilled in citizens by the brutal "security" ministry, the mainstay of communist power in Poland, started to show signs of dissipating.

Following speeches and essays by the intelligentsia expressing their disapproval of the personality cult and Stalinist crimes, workers began to voice their dissatisfaction with the living conditions that, contrary to the assurances of communist propaganda, were deteriorating rather than improving.

Withdrawn promises
Disillusionment with the new authorities, who referred to themselves as "worker-peasants," found its sharpest manifestation in Poznań. In this important industrial center in June 1956, workers took to the streets. These strikes quickly developed into full-blown riots. The dissatisfaction of Poznań workers had been continuously aggravated since autumn 1955 by the underlying economic reality. The staff of Poznań's largest factory, the H. Cegielski Metallurgical Plant, which between 1949-1956 was renamed after Stalin, protested against irregularities in the methods used to calculate wages, unrealistic indicators concerning production and efficiency increases, and poor work conditions.

The management was unable to meet the demands of the staff, who sent petitions, letters and delegations seeking direct contact with the government and party authorities in the capital. One delegation, composed of 17 worker representatives and 10 of the management, went to Warsaw June 26, 1956 presenting their demands at the Ministry of Engineering Industry and the Central Council of Trade Unions. The promises the delegation received were partly withdrawn the very next day by the minister acting on behalf of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) leadership. True, talks were to be continued, but the situation had already become very tense by then. The discussions, mass meetings, election of delegates and drafting of a list of demands at the Cegielski factory were also closely followed at other factories in Poznań. On June 27, workers at a number of these factories decided to go on strike when it was revealed that they in essence had lost their June bonus, accounting for 20-30 percent of their wages, because the production quotas had been increased.

The rebellion
On June 28, protests spread throughout Poznań and quickly transformed into bloody disturbances. Starting at 6 a.m., workers organized strikes in the city's largest plants, and then took to the streets in a procession that developed from a workers' demonstration into a mass manifestation by the residents of Poznań. A crowd of about 100,000 assembled in front of the City's People's Council Presidium headquarters in the former Prussian Imperial Palace. Workers demanded that the authorities withdraw the imposed production quotas, cut prices and raise wages. At this point the demonstration was still peaceful. Attempts were made to talk with representatives of the Provincial People's Council, but then the workers demanded direct talks with Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz.

At one point, a rumor spread through the crowd about the alleged detention of members of the workers' delegation that had been to the talks in Warsaws. As a result, a crowd several thousand strong set off towards the prison and destroyed it, letting out 257 prisoners and destroying prison files. The prosecutor's office and court buildings were also captured, their files thrown out into the street and burnt. At one point, firearms fell into the hands of the protesters. One of the groups went to the railway station, halting train traffic. Devices used for jamming Western radio programs were thrown down from the roof of the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) building on Dąbrowskiego Street. The crowd gathered in front of the court building, preventing firefighters from extinguishing the blaze. The unrest in the area of the prison, courthouse and the prosecutor's office lasted through noon.

Crackdown
Another group of demonstrators attacked the Provincial Public Security Office (UBP - the infamous communist secret political police founded and controlled by the Soviet NKVD) building on Kochanowskiego Street, where reinforcements had arrived earlier. At about 10:40 a.m., the first shots were fired from the building. In the afternoon, the authorities deployed regular military units to the city, at first just the 19th Armored Division, then another armored division and two infantry divisions. Altogether the city's pacification required over 10,000 soldiers, about 400 tanks and more than 30 armored vehicles. Under Deputy Minister of Defense Stanisław Popławski's command, those forces fought with groups of civilians, mostly young people, armed with 188 kinds of weapons, including one automatic rifle and bottles with gasoline. The violent exchanges lasted the afternoon of June 29, with sporadic shots fired through June 30. During the clashes, more than 70 people were killed, including a few soldiers and UBP functionaries, with about 900 injured on both sides.

Beginning on June 28, the authorities started to detain rioters. Those arrested were treated brutally. The intensive investigation, which employed the torture of detainees, was conducted by functionaries from Warsaw who intended to confirm the authorities' claim that the instigators of the events of June 28 were members of opposition groups or foreign agents. The authorities, were not, however, able to prove this claim.

Cut that hand off
For years afterwards, many people associated the Poznań June with the graphic phrase: "he who raises their hand against the people's state, let them know that the people's state will cut that hand off," which is a quote from one of Prime Minister Cyrankiewicz's speeches. Additionally, the image of Romek Strzałkowski, a 13-year-old participant in the demonstrations who was killed during the crackdown, became a powerful symbol of opposition to the authorities.

At the time of those dramatic events, hardly anything was known about them outside of Poznań, as the city was instantly isolated from the rest of the country. Later, however, the events got a lot of publicity both at home and abroad, mainly due to the fact that during the events the city was hosting the Poznań International Fair. The PZPR Politburo's official statement later announced that the perpetrators of the riots were "imperialist agents and the reactionary underground" that "managed to instigate street disturbances." Cyrankiewicz went to the capital of Wielkopolska. Edward Gierek, then a secretary of the PZPR Central Committee, headed the commission that investigated the events in Poznań.

Beginning of the end
The events of June 1956 came as a shock to both the authorities and the public. They in effect accelerated processes that culminated in October 1956, the beginning of a short political "thaw." The experiences of June were also important for the processes of change in other "people's democracies" in the post-Stalinist period. Some historians believe that thanks to the June events in Poznań, the Polish "October revolution" (a power shift that led to the "patriot," Władysław Gomułka taking the reins of power) that followed later that year did not end with a Soviet intervention, in sharp contrast to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

According to historian Stanisław Jankowiak, 1956 should be treated as marking the beginning of the "process that was to bring about the collapse of communism in Poland." This process continued over the 34 years that followed. "It brought many protests and armed bids for independence, suppressed by the authorities, who more than once resorted to the use of weapons in order to defend their position. But eventually Poland regained independence," wrote Jankowiak. From this perspective, the 50th anniversary of the Poznań June Uprising, the name used by the celebrations' organizers, is an opportunity for recollection and historical reflection, and not only for Poznań's residents.