Wpływ przemian październikowych 1956 roku na stosunki PRL z państwami socjalistycznymi (NRD, Czechosłowacja, Albania, Węgry, Bułgaria, Rumunia)

Abstract

Progress of the events of 1956 in the Polish People's Republic and the conclusive tense relations on the line Warsaw-Moscow were very carefully followed by the other countries remaining under the inIluence of Russia in which the resolutions of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union met with no response. Leaders of the Parties in the German Democratic Republic, the Republic of Czechoslovakia, the Albanian People's Republic, the Hungarian People's Republic and the People's Republic of Bulgaria as well as in the People's Republic of Romania, with an increasing alarm and worry watched the reactions to the secret article by N. Chruszczow about Poland. growing social unrest. crisis within the Party, the Poznań events. and especially the course of the 81h Plenary Assembly of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party and Władysław Gomułka returning to leadership. These events were recognized as a threat of disintegration to the whole of the Eastern Block. Such a point of view was dominating in the relations between Poland and the above mentioned countries for several years following the 1956. Definitely the most critical attitude towards the 1956 changes in Poland and their consequences was adopted by the leaders of the German Socialist Unity Party. Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the Albanian Labour Party, who, being afraid of losing their authority and leadership, did not implement, even on a limited scale, de-Stalinism reforms. This led to a definite cooling of or even to a crisis in the relations between the Polish People's Republic and the German Democratic Republic and Albania. The leading authorities of those countries, alerted to a threat of a spread of the "Polish epidemic", initiated in 1956 a widespread propaganda campaign against the Polish People's Republic and new leaders of the Polish United Workers' Party using the arguments of counter-revolution and revisionism. This campaign was continued long after the "October" and the contacts with Warsaw, not only in terms of politics but also in such fields as culture, science and even economy, gradually got narrower. The October changes were also negativelyreacted to by the leaders of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, the Bulgarian Communist Party and the Romanian Workers' Party. This, however, did not result in drastic cooling of the relations with Poland, like in the case of the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia or Albania, yet a clear reserve could be observed in the attitude of the above mentioned parties both to the team of W. Gomułka as well as the corrections in the political system introduced by it into the Polish People's Republic. Also in those countries the "Polish experiments" were strongly criticized, often comparing them with the revisionism in Yugoslavia and trying to limit all the contacts with Poland. Apparently the most characteristic case was Hungary, where the authorities with the leader J. Kadar, yet keeping a distance towards the Polish solutions, did aim at getting closer to the new leadership of the Polish United Workers' Party in order to build up a better image in their own society.