Dethroning Stalin: The Polish Legacy of 1956

Kemp-Welch, Anthony (2006) Dethroning Stalin: The Polish Legacy of 1956. Europe-Asia Studies (special issue), 58 (8). pp. 1259-1282.

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

This contribution examines the Polish experience of de-Stalinisation and its consequences. In 1956, Polish communists first acknowledged that society could no longer be ruled without listening to its voice. Khrushchev's ‘secret speech’ denouncing aspects of Stalin's rule was published in full. During the ensuing October crisis, Gomułka persuaded the Soviet leadership to restore the outward semblances of national sovereignty. The Polish Party admitted that domestic campaigns against private agriculture and the Catholic Church had failed, and both were promised a permanent place within the ‘socialist order’. But workers' hopes for economic rationality and intellectuals' aspirations for a freer public life were soon disappointed. They did not revive until the 1970s.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of History
Depositing User:	EPrints Services
Date Deposited:	01 Oct 2010 13:56
Last Modified:	28 Mar 2025 03:55
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/9246
DOI:	10.1080/09668130600996523

Actions (login required)

View Item