La politique des autorités communistes en Pologne, à la lumière des rumeurs dans les années 1949-1953

Abstract

The policy of communist authorities in Poland as seen through rumors in the years 1949-1953 The article deals with the image of the Polish Communist authorities during the period of deep Stalinism (1949-1953) in the light of common knowledge and rumors circulating among the ordinary people in Poland. The study is based mainly on information collected by the Polish political policy (bezpieczeństwo) and local committees of the Polish Communist Party. 1. The common knowledge reveals much about the fears and the hopes of Polish society during the Stalin era. 2. The main factor which accelerated gossips and rumors was the difficulty in acceding to credible information about the real situation in Poland. However the circulation of rumors was also partly favored by censorship as a means of controlling society. The Polish speaking radio stations existing in the West during the Stalin period (first of ail Radio Free Europe) were very important sources of knowledge about Poland and the rest of the world, but listening to those broadcasts was banned by Communist law. 3. Among the major themes studied by the authors are the collectivization of agriculture, the expected outbreak of the third world war, the provision of food, the limitations of human rights and the persecution of the Catholic Church. 4. Rumors show that a remarkable increase of optimism in Poland follows Stalin's death in Mardi 1953.