Published: 2024-10-28

Verification of Members of the Polish United Workers’ Party in Katowice Voivodeship Between 1957–1958 (Against the Background of the Nationwide Campaign)

Adam Dziuba Logo ORCID

Abstract

In 1957, intra-party discussions in the PUWP ended, and the party leadership focused on integrating the organization around the doctrine established in October 1956. The party’s central authorities began to fight activists questioning the new “party line” – dogmatists attacking it as departing from communism, and revisionists expecting further reforms. In the fall of 1957, the PUWP leadership also decided to conduct a campaign against activists in conflict with the law, corruption and demoralization. A general verification of members according to ideological and moral criteria began. The verification campaign lasted until the first months of 1958 and ended with the removal of less than 20 percent from the PUWP members. In Katowice Voivodeship, the purge lasted the longest, and, as a result, over 30,000 people left the party, i.e. over 20 percent of the members. The data indicate that less than 10 percent of activists were deprived of their ID for ideological reasons, and just over 3 percent were in conflict with the law. The highest percentage of those removed from the ranks – almost 72 percent, were passive members or removed at their own request.

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Dziuba, A. (2024). Verification of Members of the Polish United Workers’ Party in Katowice Voivodeship Between 1957–1958 (Against the Background of the Nationwide Campaign). Wieki Stare I Nowe, 19(24), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.31261/WSN.2024.24.02

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Vol. 19 No. 24 (2024)
Published: 2025-01-31


ISSN: 1899-1556
eISSN: 2353-9739

Publisher
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

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