The Workers’ Revolt in Poland and the Yugoslav Reactions
The Workers’ Revolt in Poland and the Yugoslav Reactions

Author(s): Andrzej Stypułkowski
Subject(s): Social history, Interwar Period (1920 - 1939)
Published by: CEEOL Digital Reproductions / Collections
Keywords: Polish workers' uprise;
Summary/Abstract: Right from the beginning of the Polish December revolt the Jugoslav press and radio gave full coverage of the events. The first comments were restrained and avoided anything which could have looked provocative. As the situation developed, however, and along with the indirect criticism of Gomulka and his team in the Polish press, the Jugoslav commentators became more straightforward and began to voice their criticism of Poland under Gomulka. It was written that no system, ‘least of all the socialist one’, could feel satisfied by being ‘less bad than other systems’. Then Belgrade weekly Nedeljne informativne novine attempted to draw a lesson from the Polish events which took place between ‘two explosive crises: the 1956 crisis of Poznan, and the one which took place in Gdansk several days ago’. Gomulka was quoted, who in October 1956, had refused to accept the thesis that workers’ strikes were ‘deeds of foreign agents and provocateurs’. Gomulka, although anti-bureaucratically minded and full of ‘good intentions’, was not able to solve the problems because he had failed to change the system.

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