The Press Committee of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party, 1956–1957

Abstract

In 1955–1956 the communist system underwent deep erosion, and one of the most important and evident signs of it was decreased control the party exercised over propaganda. This gave the press wide readership, and made some of journalists feel as representatives of the people. Wladyslaw Gomulka’s coming to power began a process of consolidation of the system and regaining of stability – this applied to the whole system, including propaganda. The Press Committee of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party was meant as a concession to journalists: they were given a forum to formulate in which they could legally formulate their postulates for the price of loyalty to Gomulka. From the very beginning, however, the journalists who were members of the Press Committee and the party leaders had diverging interests. This made the actual activity of the Committee very limited. The political subjectivity of journalists was brutally challenged in the autumn of 1957, which was marked by a symbolic closure of the weekly Po Prostu . The Press Committee underwent a fundamental restructuring and its tasks changed. But a period of several months of its existence makes an important contribution to the political history of the press and propaganda in the Polish People’s Republic.