On June 28, 1956, workers' demonstrations in western Poland's regional capital, Poznań, evolved into a fully fledged two-day revolt, when employees of the Joseph Stalin Metalworks (as the pre-war factory founded by Hipolit Cegielski was known at the time) took to the streets believing that this was the only way to force recognition of their demands.
The workers' anger stemmed from the fact that they felt cheated by the communist authorities, as their productivity standards were being constantly raised - which meant they had to work more and harder for the same wages. They also demanded improved health and safety conditions and better work organization that would eliminate long hours of downtime. Wage increases and price reductions were also among the workers' demands.
In the face of all this, the Cegielski factory workers began threatening a warning strike. On June 26, their delegation traveled to Warsaw, to present their demands to the Ministry of Machine Industry and the Main Board of the Metalworkers' Union. Minister Roman Fidelski agreed to many of the demands in talks with workers' representatives - but coming to Poznań on June 27, he made no concrete pledge of fulfilling them - which only added fuel to the fire.
Early in the morning of June 28th, the Cegielski workers declared a strike and then marched outside the plant. The demonstrators wanted to present their demands to the Municipal National Council, located at Adam Mickiewicz Square (then named after Stalin). During the march, they were joined by workers from other plants.
Historians point out that the Cegielski factory workers were not the only ones in the city with reasons to be disillusioned with the reality of living in the "communist paradise", as Poznań was being neglected by the Polish authorities at the time. The region saw less investment than the others - and the city, severely damaged during the Red Army offensive in 1945, still felt these wounds more than a decade later. In addition to difficult housing conditions, Poznań residents were plagued by the high prices of basic necessities, painful especially since wages there were 8% below the national average at the time.
Despite all this, at the beginning of the June 28 demonstration many people hoped for a successful dialogue with the authorities. Poznań residents marching through the city sang the national anthem and other patriotic songs, behaving well and even taking care not to trample on the lawns.
This peaceful demonstration reached the buildings of the Municipal National Council and the Provincial Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) - but then the emotions intensified among the thousands-strong crowd, as a rumor spread that the delegation sent to Warsaw had been arrested upon its return.
Faced with this news, a group of demonstrators marched toward the prison on Młyńska Street, climbed over the wall, and opened its gates. The guards did not resist, and over 250 prisoners were released - although the rumor that delegates were among them proved false. Weapons were also seized from the prison armory.
Meanwhile, other enraged demonstrators stormed the district court and prosecutor's office building adjacent to the prison - and the documents they threw out of the windows were burned in the street. Some protesters then moved to the Poznań International Fair - and thanks to the presence of Western journalists at the event taking place there, the communist authorities were unable to suppress information about what had happened in Poznań.
Soon after - the situation escalated, and the first shots were fired on Kochanowskiego Street, in front of the headquarters of the Provincial Public Security Office - a hated communist political police which has been serving as a post-war apparatus of mass terror.
People were killed and wounded in the shootout, and one of the fatalities was thirteen-year-old Romek Strzałkowski, although the circumstances of his death remain uncertain to this day. A company from the Armored Forces Officers' School sent to help the political police was disarmed by the protesters - while clashes also broke out in other parts of the city.
Upon hearing of what was happening in Poznań, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party approved the decision to pacify the city using military force. Command of the operation was entrusted to Deputy Minister of National Defense, General Stanisław Popławski a military officer seconded from the USSR's Red Army during World War II, who became one of the dark symbols of the Poznań June.
On Popławski's orders, the 19th Armored Division was dispatched to the city center, joined in the evening by units of the 10th Sudeten Armored Division and the 4th and 5th Infantry Divisions. In total, nearly 10,000 soldiers, 359 tanks, and 31 assault guns arrived - and the soldiers heading to Poznań were told by their commanders that the unrest was instigated by West German agents.
A party and government delegation from Warsaw, led by Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz, was also sent to the city.
On June 29, the center of Poznań, filled with thousands of demonstrators the previous day, was occupied only by tanks - and the rebelion was effectively stifled. In some places, however, gunfire continued to ring out on the morning of June 30th.
All in all, the toll of Poznań June was tragic. Estimates put the death toll between 57 and 79, including 8 soldiers and police officers, and over 600 people were injured. Mass arrests which began on June 28 yielded so many detainees, that a special "filtration point" was set up at Ławica Airport, where police officers abused the arrested en masse. Of the over 700 randomly apprehended, approximately 300 were charged, often on trumped-up accusations - which nevertheless ruined lives all the same.
The Poznań June 1956 protests were the first mass workers' uprising in Poland against the communist authorities and significantly accelerated the political and economic changes in the Polish People's Republic. They are also cited by some historians as an inspiration for the Hungarian Revolution of October 1956 - also bloodily suppressed by the communist authorities, in this case with Moscow's involvement though.
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Source: PAP, IAR, polskieradio.pl