The history of Poland from 1945 to 1989 spans the period of Marxist–Leninist regime in Poland after the end of World War II. These years, while featuring general industrialization, urbanization and ma
Lech Wałęsa speaks during the strike at the Gdańsk Shipyard, August 1980
Lech Wałęsa votes in the 1989 Polish parliamentary election
Destroyed Warsaw, January 1945
The PKWN Manifesto, officially issued on 22 July 1944. In reality it was not finished until mid-August, after the Polish communist Moscow group was joined by the late-arriving Warsaw group, led by Władysław Gomułka and Bolesław Bierut.
Władysław Gomułka
Videos
Władysław Gomułka was a Polish communist politician. He was the de facto leader of post-war Poland from 1947 until 1948, and again from 1956 to 1970.
Gomułka in 1960
Gomułka in recaptured Warsaw, 1945
Gomułka's speech on 24 October 1956 in Warsaw
Gomułka (left) greeted by members of the Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation in East Germany.