1952 Polish legislative election

Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 26 October 1952.[1] They were the first elections to the Sejm, the parliament of the Polish People's Republic. They were also the first under undisguised communist rule; the government had dropped all pretense of being a coalition after the fraudulent 1947 election. The official rules for the elections were outlined in the new Constitution of the Polish People's Republic and lesser acts.

1952 Polish legislative election

October 26, 1952
All 425 seats in the Sejm
Turnout	95.00%
Leader Bolesław Bierut Party FJN - PZPR Leader since December 22, 1948 Leader's seat Warsaw-Prague Seats won 388 (PZPR - 273, ZSL - 90, SD - 25), 91.2%
Premier before election Józef Cyrankiewicz PZPR Premier Józef Cyrankiewicz PZPR

Background

The communists had spent the five years since winning the rigged 1947 elections tightening their grip on the country. A little more than a year after the election, what remained of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), nominally a partner in the communist-dominated "coalition," merged with the communist Polish Workers' Party (PPR) to form the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR).[2][3] However, the merger was concluded almost entirely on PPR terms and by this time the PPS was largely subservient to the PPR.[4][3] Despite this, former socialist Józef Cyrankiewicz remained as prime minister.[5] By 1949, the Polish People's Party (PSL), which had led the opposition in 1947,[6][7] had been emasculated when it was forced to merge with the splinter pro-communist People's Party to form the United People's Party (ZSL).[8]

PPR leader Władysław Gomułka, who had been largely responsible for the PPR's heavy-handed suppression of opposition, believed he was now free to pursue a more independent course. He wanted to adapt the Soviet blueprint to Polish circumstances and considered himself to be both a communist and a Polish patriot. He was also wary of the Cominform, and opposed forced collectivization of agriculture. However, he was pushed out as party leader in 1948, accused of "rightist-nationalist deviation." He was succeeded by President Bolesław Bierut, a hardline Stalinist.[9][7]

Conduct

The election set the tone for all subsequent elections held during the communist rule in Poland. As would be the case with all future elections, only PZPR-allowed candidates participated, and then the results were falsified as needed. Along with the 1947 election, the 1952 election is considered among the least free of elections held in communist Poland. This was typical of the era of Stalinization. The Bierut government, like its kindred regimes in the rest of the Soviet bloc, was determined to tighten its control over society as much as possible. All opposition parties had been either eliminated or driven underground by this time. The regime's opponents were persecuted. Voters were presented with a single list from the Front of National Unity (FJN), comprising the PZPR and its two satellite parties, the Democratic Party (SD) and the ZSL. The number of candidates permitted to run in the elections was equal to the number of seats in parliament.[10]

There were 425 seats.[11] The number of seats would be increased in the subsequent elections.[11] In return for accepting the "leading role" of the PZPR—a condition of their continued existence—the minor parties in the Front received a fixed number of seats in the Sejm.[12]

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats
Front of National Unity	Polish United Workers' Party	15,459,849	99.8	273
	United People's Party			90
	Democratic Party			25
	Independents			37
Blank ballots		31,321	0.2	–
Invalid votes		4,645	–	–
Total		15,495,815	100	425
Registered voters/turnout		16,305,891	95.0	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

The official results showed that 99.8% of the voters approved the FJN list. Candidates from the FJN parties took 91.2% of the Sejm seats, with 8.7% falling to nominal independents. Within the FJN, the PZPR won an absolute majority with 273 seats (64.2% total), its best result both in total number of seats and percentage of the Sejm controlled.[11] However, as the other parties and "independents" were completely subservient to the PZPR, communist control of the Sejm was complete.[11][13] In later years, the communist-dominated lists would be credited with between 98 and 99% of the vote, a practice continued until 1989.

The term of the Sejm elected in 1951 was due to end in 1956, but due to political shifts in Poland, the next elections took place in early 1957 in a more liberal atmosphere, although still not free.[10]

References

1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1491 ISBN 9783832956097
2. "Polish History - Part 13". Poloniatoday.com. Archived from the original on January 17, 2008. Retrieved 2009-08-22.
3. Poland at Encyclopedia Britannica
4. Władysław Gomułka at Encyclopedia Britannica
5. Józef Cyrankiewicz at Encyclopedia Britannica
6. Dariusz Baliszewski. "Wprost 24 - Demokracja urn". Wprost.pl. Archived from the original on 2009-02-08. Retrieved 2009-08-22.
7. Wrobel, Piotr (2014). Historical Dictionary of Poland 1945-1996. Routledge. ISBN 9781135927011.
8. David Ost, Solidarity and the Politics of Anti-Politics, pp. 34-36, 1990 Philadelphia, Temple University Press, ISBN 0-87722-655-5
9. Boleslaw Bierut at Encyclopedia Britannica
10. (in Polish) Bartłomiej Kozłowski, Wybory styczniowe do Sejmu 1957 Archived 2009-01-03 at the Wayback Machine Last accessed on 5 April 2007
11. Norman Davies (May 2005). God's Playground: 1795 to the present. Columbia University Press. p. 459. ISBN 978-0-231-12819-3. Retrieved 3 June 2011.
12. Poland: a country study. Library of Congress Federal Research Division, December 1989.
13. Andrzej Paczkowski; Jane Cave (2003). The spring will be ours: Poland and the Poles from occupation to freedom. Penn State Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-0-271-02308-3. Retrieved 3 June 2011.

Further reading

• Jerzy Drygalski, Jacek Kwasniewski, No-Choice Elections, Soviet Studies, Vol. 42, No. 2 (Apr., 1990), pp. 295–315, JSTOR
• George Sakwa, Martin Crouch, Sejm Elections in Communist Poland: An Overview and a Reappraisal, British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Oct., 1978), pp. 403–424,