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Ethnic and Social Diversity in the Membership of the Communist Party of Poland: 1918 - 1938

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Gabriele Simoncini
Gabriele Simoncini*
Affiliation:
The City College of New York, New York City, USA
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Extract

The Communist movement in interbellum Poland was a small political entity that did not constitute a threat to the power of the state, nor did it become a visible presence since it failed to attract a majority of the working class. The movement, overall, consisted of a number of parties, organizations and groups, usually illegal, but some at times provisionally legal. The Communist Party of Poland - CPP (Komunistyczna Partia Polski - KPP) was the main party, entrusted with the guiding role by the Comintern, and also the umbrella organization and ideological reference point for the Communists throughout the twenty-year existence of the Second Polish Republic. The CPP was originally formed under the name “Communist Workers' Party of Poland” - CWPP, (Komunistyczna Partia Robotnicza Polski-KPRP). In 1920, it briefly took on the designation “Section of the Communist International” of which it was a founding member. By virtue of its name, the Party proclaimed a total proletarian orientation, ignoring the reality of an almost completely agricultural Poland at the time.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 22 , Issue S1: Special Issue - Ethnopolitics in Poland , Summer 1994 , pp. 55 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 by the Association for the Study of the Nationalities of the USSR and Eastern Europe, Inc. 

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References

Notes

1. For an extensive bibliography on the CPP and on its leadership see G. Simoncini, Revolutionary Organizations and Revolutionaries in Interbellum Poland. A Bibliographical Biographical Study. Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston-New York, Queenston-Canada, Lampeter-United Kingdom, 1992, pp. xi 278. In English, the history of the CPP is outlined in: M. K. Dziewanowski, The Communist Party of Poland. An Outline of History, Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, 1959 and 1976, pp. 55-154. And further sketched in: J. B. de Weydenthal, The Communists of Poland: An Historical Outline Revised Edition, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, 1986, pp. 1-33. A more focused study on CPP is: G. Simoncini, The Communist Party of Poland 1918-1929, Dissertation, Columbia University, New York, 1991. See also: J. Schatz, The Generation. The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Communists of Poland. Berkeley, 1991. In Polish, the more or less orthodox Marxist literature lists: J. Kowalski, Trudne Lata. Problemy rozwoju polskiego ruchu robotniczego 1929-1935, Warszawa, 1966; J. Kowalski, Komunistyczna Partia Polski 1935-1938, Warszawa, 1975; B. Kolebacz, Komunistyczna Partia Polski 1923-1929. Problemy ideologiczne, Warszawa, 1984. Of general interest not intended for the specialist see H. Cimek and L. Kieszczyński, Komunistyczna Partia Polski 1918-1938, Warszawa, 1984. And a summary simplified sketch: A. Czubiński, Komunistyczna Partia Polski 1918-1938, Warszawa, 1985. Studies on the CPP appeared in the journal: Z pola walki, published in Moscow in the interwar period, and the homonymous Z pola walki published in Warsaw since 1958.Google Scholar

2. On the KPRP see the monograph study F.Świetlikowa, Komunistyczna Partia Robotnicza Polski 1918-1923, Warszawa, 1968.Google Scholar

3. On the party's dissolution see J. Maciszewski, ed., Tragedia Komunistycznej Partii Polski, Warszawa, 1989.Google Scholar

4. On some theoretical aspects of the early CPP's revolutionary attempts and revolutionary strategies within the working movement see G. Simoncini, Teoria e prassi nei consigli operai polacchi del 1918-1919, Dissertation, University of Pisa, 1982.Google Scholar

5. Of interest is Procesy integracyjne w ruchu robotniczym w latach 1918-1923, Warszawa, 1979. A collective work produced for internal use by the Wyższa Szkołta Nauk Społtecznych of the Central Committee of the United Polish Workers' Party.Google Scholar

6. Very useful are two brief studies by Jerzy Tomaszewski:Rzeczpospolita wielu narodów, Warszawa, 1985, and Ojczyzna nie tylko Polaków, Warszawa, 1985.Google Scholar

7. Of interest on the two parties are J. Radziejowski, Komunistyczna Partia Zachodniej Ukrainy 1919-1929. Węzłtowe problemy ideologiczne, Kraków, 1976. A reworked version appeared later in English. And A. Bergman, Komunistyczna Partia Zachodniej Białtorusi w latach 1924-1928, in Rocznik Białtostocki, Vol. VII, Białtystok, 1967.Google Scholar

8. See the recent interesting study J. Schatz, The Generation. The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Communists of Poland, Berkeley, 1991.Google Scholar

9. The revolutionary wing seceded from the Bund and organized its own party, the Kombund, which joined the CPP in 1923 after having failed to push the Bund toward revolutionary positions or to join the Comintern as an autonomous Jewish Communist party. See Iwański G., “Żydowski Komunistyczny Związek Robotniczy Kombund w Polsce 1921-1923,” Z pola walki, No. 4, 1974, pp. 43-78.Google Scholar

10. The types of sources:Google Scholar

A. Archival - PartyGoogle Scholar

1) AIML, Archiw Profinterna. f. 538 op. 25. Polsha 1934. Contains information on the CPP territorial organizations at regional, provincial, and factory level.Google Scholar

ii) Materiałty w sprawie stanu organizacyjnego partii. 1 .VIII. 1935. CA KC PZPR 151-VII-1, t.19. Produced by the CPP's Representative Committee to the Executive Committee of the Comintern.Google Scholar

iii) “Albert” (Wiktor Żytlowski), Z zagadnień organizacyjnych KPP, Nowy Przegląd No. 2-3, 1932. “Albert,” Stan organizacyjny Komunistycznej Partii Polski, Nowy Przegląd No. 10, 1933. “Albert,” Uwagi w sprawach organizacyjnich, Nowy Przegląd, No.3, 1935. Reports on CPP organization and statistics published in its theoretical organ.Google Scholar

B. Archival - PoliceGoogle Scholar

i) Poufny Przegląd Inwigilacyjny (PPI), Warszawa, 1921-1939.Google Scholar

Information Bulletin published at different times by different offices of the state political police. Contains detailed information on repressive activities and on individuals.Google Scholar

C. Archival - QuestionnairesGoogle Scholar

i) Ankiety osobowe. Uczestnicy zjazdów partyjnych. CA KC PZPR. A collection of 436 questionnaires answered by Party Congresses delegates: II Congress, 1923: 69 delegates. III Congress, 1925: 60 delegates. IV Conference, 1925: 58 delegates. IV Congress, 1927: 95 delegates. V Congress, 1930: 67 delegates. VI Congress, 1932: 87 delegates.Google Scholar

ii) Ankiety 1949-. CA KC PZPR. A collection of questionnaires produced by the Central Committee of the United Polish Workers' Party after the war, addressed to the former participants in the workers' movement. From 1949 through the end of the fifties. About 8000 questionnaires answered, a part of them by communists of the period 1918-1939. Partial analyses of this collection were published in the multivolume serial publication Polska Klasa Robotnicza, Vol. V, VI, Warszawa, 1970-1971. And also in Z. Szczygielski, Czlonkowie… Google Scholar

D. Published studiesGoogle Scholar

i) Piasecka, J., J. Auerbach, Stan organizacyjny KPP (1929-1933), Z pola walki, No. 1, 1965.Google Scholar

ii) Słtownik biograficzny dzialaczy polskiego ruchu robotniczego, Red. Feliks Tych, Warszawa, Vol. I (A-D), 1978. Vol. II (E-J), 1987.Google Scholar

iii) Szczygielski, Z., Człtonkowie KPP 1918-1938 w świetle badań ankietowych, Warszawa, 1989.Google Scholar

iv) Szczygielski, Z., Warszawska organizacja Komunistycznej Partii Polski. Problemy organizacyjne, in Warszawa II Rzeczypospolitej, Vol. I, Warszawa, 1968.Google Scholar

v) F. Świetlikowa, Liczebność okręgowych organizacji KPP w latach 1919-1937, Z pola walki, No. 2, 1970, pp. 187-201.Google Scholar

vi) Wajn, H., Więźniowie polityczni w Polsce 1918-1939, Z pola walki, No. 4, 1965.Google Scholar

11. Materiałty w sprawie stanu organizacyjnego partii, CA KC PZPR, 151/ VII-1, t.19. Google Scholar

12. Szczygielski, Z., Człtonkowie… p. 21.Google Scholar

13. Sprawozdanie z Rady Partyjnej zwołtanej w połtowie lutego 1919 r., Warszawa, 1919, p. 17. Also J. Kowalski, Komunistyczna… pp. 68, 75.Google Scholar

14. Szczygielski, , Czlonkowie… p. 83.Google Scholar

15. II Zjazd Komunistycznej Partii Robotniczej Polski. Protokoly obrad i uchwałty, Warszawa, 1968, pp. 307-312. Also “Albert,” Z zagadninen… p. 50.Google Scholar

16. Kowalski, J., Komunistyczna… p. 89.Google Scholar

17. IV Plenum KC KPZU, VI 1930, CA KC PZPR, 165/III, t.25, k.26. Also J. Kowalski, Komunistyczna… p. 91.Google Scholar

18. Kowalski, J., Komunistyzcna… p. 89.Google Scholar

19. Szczygielski, Z., Człtonkowie… p. 31.Google Scholar

20. Ibid., p. 59.Google Scholar

21. Ibid., p. 109.Google Scholar

22. Ibid., p. 43.Google Scholar