Visiting foreign ministers from the Visegrad Group, which comprises Poland and three regional neighbours, laid wreaths at a monument in Poznań to the victims of the June 1956 revolt, considered to be a landmark protest against the country’s communist regime.
‘Fighting for a free Poland’
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said: “Those who challenged the communist authorities in 1956 were fighting not just for the dignity of labour in Poland at the time, they were fighting for a free Poland and... for a free, united Europe.”
On 28 June that year, workers from the Cegielski plant, then called the Joseph Stalin Works, marched through the streets to protest against the refusal of the authorities to reduce their work norms and to raise wages. The march turned into a demonstration of over 100,000 people as the city’s population rushed to join in.
Protesters broke into a prison and ransacked the security office of the local branch of Poland's secret police. The communist authorities used 10,000 troops and 380 tanks to quell the unrest. Fifty-eight people were killed and some 240 civilians were wounded. About 840 people were arrested or detained.
'Unacceptable authority'
The mayor of Poznań, Jacek Jaśkowiak, has told Polish state news agency PAP that the events of 65 years ago were "the first attempt [in communist Poland] to fight for freedom, all the more courageous as it came after a period of Stalinist repression. The people of Poznań rebelled against an unacceptable authority in what was the first step towards the regaining of freedom and democracy.”
Jaśkowiak noted the arrogance of the authorities at the time, and the threat of then Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz that “the hand raised against the power of the people will be cut off.”
He praised the heroism of the people of Poznań who decided to act even though they were aware that the chances for victory were slight.
(mk-pk)
Source: IAR/PAP