Editing Polish Workers' Party (section)

==The PPR's World War II foundations==

On 28 June 1940, soon after the [[Katyn massacre]], Stalin received [[Wanda Wasilewska]], an unofficial leader of Polish communists, at the [[Moscow Kremlin]]. The event initiated a reorientation of Soviet policies in regard to Poles. As a result, a wide range of official political, military, social, cultural, educational and other Soviet-Polish projects and activities commenced in 1940 and continued during the years that followed.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 577–578"/>

The [[Operation Barbarossa|German attack on the Soviet Union]] in June 1941 changed the course of [[World War II]] and with it the nature of Polish-Soviet governmental relations. Pressured by the British government, the London-based [[Polish government-in-exile]], led by [[Władysław Sikorski]], signed an [[Sikorski–Mayski agreement|agreement with the Soviet Union]], which included a Soviet recognition of the Polish government. A [[Anders' Army|Polish army]] was formed in the Soviet Union, but was soon taken out of there and into the [[Middle East]] by [[Władysław Anders]]. The Katyn massacre perpetrated by the Soviets on Polish [[Prisoner of war|POW]]s was revealed and the Soviet Union "suspended" diplomatic relations with the Polish government. Prime Minister Sikorski was [[1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash|killed in an airplane crash]] in July 1943. These and other factors, including disagreements about future borders, caused the Polish-Soviet relations to deteriorate.<ref name="Brzoza 312–322"/>

Meanwhile, Stalin, beginning in the summer of 1941, pursued other Polish options, utilizing Polish communists and other Poles willing to cooperate, many of whom were present at that time in the Soviet Union. Polish language radio broadcasts began in August 1941; they called upon the Poles in Poland to unconditionally engage in anti-German resistance. Some prewar Polish officers were transferred to occupied Poland to conduct pro-Soviet conspiratorial activities and the Polish communists worked in November on organizing the Poles in the Soviet Union.<ref name="Brzoza 312–322"/><ref name="Brzoza Sowa 529"/> Among the communist groups that became active in Poland after [[Operation Barbarossa]] was the Union for Liberating Struggle (''Związek Walki Wyzwoleńczej''), whose leaders included [[Marian Spychalski]].<ref name="Brzoza 357–359"/>

A September 1941 attempt to transport activists from the Soviet Union to Poland was unsuccessful, but beginning in late December, a group of Polish communists which included [[Marceli Nowotko]], [[Paweł Finder]], [[Bolesław Mołojec]] and [[Małgorzata Fornalska]], was parachuted into Poland. They had Stalin's permission to create a new Polish communist party.<ref name="Brzoza 357–359"/> In Polish society the communists could count on marginal support only, so to avoid negative connotations it was decided not to include the word "communist" in the party's title. The party took the name "Polish Workers' Party."<ref name=Thompson>{{cite book |title=The World Today Series: Nordic, Central and Southeastern Europe 2008|last=Thompson |first=Wayne C. |year=2008 |publisher=Stryker-Post Publications |location=Harpers Ferry, West Virginia |isbn=978-1-887985-95-6}}{{page needed|date=January 2019}}</ref>  The PPR, intended in some sense as a continuation of the prewar KPP, was established in [[Warsaw]] on 5 January 1942, when some of the new arrivals met with local communist activists.<ref name="Brzoza 357–359"/>

The new party, which presented itself as an anti-[[Nazism|Nazi]] Polish patriotic front, distributed a manifesto printed in Moscow entitled ''To workers, peasants and intelligentsia! To all Polish patriots!'', in which it called for an uncompromising struggle against the German occupier. A leftist, formally democratic program was proposed and the party, whose operations concentrated mostly in the [[General Government]], grew to about six thousand members by the summer of 1942. From 1943, an affiliated youth organization existed; it was called the Union for the Struggle of the Youth (''Związek Walki Młodych'').<ref name="Brzoza 357–359"/>

The PPR operated under the [[Central Committee]] led by Secretary [[Marceli Nowotko]]. Nowotko was killed on 28 November 1942. Mołojec took over as secretary (party chief), but he was suspected of arranging Nowotko's murder and subsequently condemned and executed by the ruling of the party court. In January 1943, Finder became secretary and the three-person Secretariat also included [[Władysław Gomułka]] and [[Franciszek Jóźwiak]].<ref name="Brzoza 357–359"/>

[[Gwardia Ludowa]] (the People's Guard) military organization originated together with the party it served. It was led by Mołojec and then Jóźwiak. Gwardia Ludowa attacked Germans in Warsaw and organized partisan units in the countryside, primarily to destroy the German communication facilities.<ref name="Brzoza 357–359"/>

In February 1943 the PPR undertook talks with the [[Government Delegation for Poland]], which represented in occupied Poland the Polish government-in-exile, and the central command of the underground [[Home Army]], on possible cooperation. The negotiations made no progress because of the irreconcilable points of view of the two sides. After the Soviet Union broke diplomatic relations with the Polish government (25 April 1943), the contacts were terminated and the PPR's attitude toward the exile government-led Polish authority became hostile.<ref name="Brzoza 357–359"/>

The war progressively radicalized Polish society and the communists tried to take advantage of the situation by forming a coalition with other leftist and agrarian forces. However, a common "democratic front", meant as a platform for the future power struggle, failed to materialize because the rival parties were generally unwilling to cooperate with the PPR.<ref name="Brzoza 357–359"/>