Subtitle:

Polska 1944/45-1989 : studia i materiały 12 (2014)

Contributor:

Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Publisher:

Instytut Historii PAN

Place of publishing:

Warszawa

Description:

p. 205-217 ; Eng. summary

Type of object:

Journal/Article

Abstract:

The press played an important part in the process of de-Stalinisation which began in Poland in the autumn of 1954. After the Third Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party (Polish acronym: PZPR) in 1955 journalists acquired the possibility to publish articles criticising the polity of the Party during last five years and expose crimes of the repression apparatus in that period. It was the all-Polish weekly Po prostu (Quite Simply) that led the way in this regard, and it published many articles devoted to those subjects. Po prostu described faults and pathologies of the socialist state, together with poverty and neglect of the Polish province. A series of articles published in the second half of 1956 in Po prostu was devoted to the functioning of the judiciary at Kielce. A reportage entitled “At the peripheries of law and order” described the instances when a manager of the Administrative Department of the Voivodeship Committee of the PZPR at Kielce influenced court trials or even their court sentences. In the period of the so-called “Polish thaw” these “forbidden” so far subjects were undertaken also by journalists from the voivodeship of Kielce. Such periodicals as Słowo Ludu (Word of People) and Ziemia Kielecka (Kielce Land) published articles condemning the period of Stalinism and assessing the attitude of local party’s authorities during the Eight Plenum of the Central Committee of the PZPR. In October 1956 the press played the part of catalyst, expressing expectations of the nation and criticising the errors of the past period, which could be noticed also on the example of the voivodeship of Kielce. But after the press fulfilled its task, the state authorities blocked for journalists the possibility of free expression and publication, which was symbolised by the closure of the weekly Po prostu in the autumn of 1957.

Relation:

Polska 1944/45-1989 : studia i materiały

Volume:

12

Start page:

205

End page:

217

Detailed Resource Type:

Article : original article

Format:

application/pdf

Resource Identifier:

oai:rcin.org.pl:59744 ; 2450-8357

Source:

IH PAN, sygn. B.155/12 Podr. ; IH PAN, sygn. B.156/12 ; click here to follow the link

Language:

pol

Language of abstract:

eng

Rights:

Creative Commons Attribution BY-ND 4.0 license

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. [CC BY-ND 4.0] May be used within the scope specified in Creative Commons Attribution BY-ND 4.0 license, full text available at: ; -

Digitizing institution:

Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Original in:

Library of the Institute of History PAS

Access:

Open