Abstract
The article aims to present the culture-forming role of the Catholic Church, which emerges from selected communications of the Polish Embassy at the Vatican, in opposition to the sovietisation of Polish culture developed by the communist authorities of the People’s Republic of Poland in the years 1956–1968. Materials from the Archive of the Jozef Pilsudski Institute in America and available literature constituted the basis for the analysis. The undertaken research considering the sources fills a significant gap in the knowledge about the Catholic Church’s opposition to the process of sovietisation of Polish culture during the Cold War. It should be emphasised that in the post-war period the Church was the institution that shaped Christian values and a kind of “bastion” of resistance to the authorities whose one of the goals was to sovietise Polish culture. It continued the discourse on the ground of the expression of the inability to reconcile the communist ideology with Christian values in European, including Polish, culture. It also acted as a correspondent for the affairs of oppressed nations subjected to the course of sovietisation. The undertaken research is an answer for lack of knowledge on the Catholic Church opposition towards the process of sovietising Polish culture during the Cold War. All the above allows the hypothesis that the Catholic Church during this period was the only one successful opposition to the PRL authorities which were against the Polish culture and society.
Highlights
The role of the Catholic Church in the society dominated by the influence of the communist authorities in Poland in 1945–1989 deserves special recognition in the era of easier access for historians to archival sources and objective historical accounts
The focal point of the discussion is the content of the information elaborations of the Polish Embassy at the Vatican, created based on various sources from the country and abroad, such as contacts with the Polish government in exile, national and foreign press, analysis of legal acts issued by the PRL authorities, contacts with representatives of the Holy See or the hierarchs of the Catholic Church in Poland
Sovietisation of Polish culture and society during these two periods characterised the differences in the PRL authorities’ politics, which were caused by the efficiency of informational activities of the Catholic Church and the influence of the Catholic Church on international public opinion
Summary
The role of the Catholic Church in the society dominated by the influence of the communist authorities in Poland in 1945–1989 deserves special recognition in the era of easier access for historians to archival sources and objective historical accounts. Primate Wyszyński supported the demand with six manifestations of the unlawful participation of the authorities in exerting pressure on the Church and the Polish society This concerned the creation of political guidelines in relation to teaching religion, limiting the rights of nurses, formulating unfair tax laws for the clergy, foreclosing access to higher education for priests and religious, prohibitions and restrictions on the development of Catholic associations, as well as the lack of recognition of existing church institutions as legal persons [CEROV 1, 1962]. The escalation of social anger and the massive protests of the Polish society of March 1968 were clear examples of opposition towards sovietisation and the communists’ attempts to eradicate the values, traditions and beliefs that the Polish nation had adhered to for many centuries, with a significant contribution of Christian values [Eisler 1991: 323]24
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