1968 Polish political crisis

1968 Polish political crisis
1968 Polish political crisis
Part of the Protests of 1968
	The commemorative plaque at the University of Warsaw for the students demanding freedom of speech in 1968
Date	March 1968
Location	A number of cities across Poland, including Warsaw, Kraków, Lublin, Gliwice, Wrocław, Gdańsk, Poznań, and Łódź
Caused by	Reformist demands and protests, political crisis within the PZPR.

The Polish 1968 political crisis, also known in Poland as March 1968, Students' March, or March events (Polish: Marzec 1968; studencki Marzec; wydarzenia marcowe), was a series of major student, intellectual and other protests against the ruling Polish United Workers' Party of the Polish People's Republic.^[1] The crisis led to the suppression of student strikes by security forces in all major academic centres across the country and the subsequent repression of the Polish dissident movement. It was also accompanied by mass emigration following an antisemitic (branded "anti-Zionist") campaign^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] waged by the minister of internal affairs, General Mieczysław Moczar, with the approval of First Secretary Władysław Gomułka of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). The protests overlapped with the events of the Prague Spring in neighboring Czechoslovakia – raising new hopes of democratic reforms among the intelligentsia. The Czechoslovak unrest culminated in the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia on 20 August 1968.^[6]^[7]

The anti-Zionist campaign began in 1967, and was carried out in conjunction with the USSR's withdrawal of all diplomatic relations with Israel after the Six-Day War, but also involved a power struggle within the PZPR itself. The subsequent purges within the ruling party, led by Moczar and his faction, failed to topple Gomułka's government but resulted in an exile from Poland of thousands of communist individuals of Jewish ancestry, including professionals, party officials and secret police functionaries appointed by Joseph Stalin following the Second World War. In carefully staged public displays of support, factory workers across Poland were assembled to publicly denounce Zionism.^[2]^[8] At least 13,000 Poles of Jewish origin emigrated in 1968–72 as a result of being fired from their positions and various other forms of harassment.^[9]^[10]^[11]

^ Kemp-Welch, Anthony (2008). Poland under communism: a Cold War history. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-511-38738-8.
^ ^a ^b Dariusz Stola. ""The Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland of 1967–1968." Archived 2020-06-07 at the Wayback Machine The American Jewish Committee research grant. See: D. Stola, Fighting against the Shadows (reprint), in Robert Blobaum, ed., Antisemitism and Its Opponents in Modern Poland. Cornell University Press, 2005.
^ Stola, Dariusz (2006-03-01). "Anti-Zionism as a Multipurpose Policy Instrument: The Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland, 1967–1968". Journal of Israeli History. 25 (1): 175–201. doi:10.1080/13531040500503021. ISSN 1353-1042. S2CID 159748636. The "anti-Zionist" current of the campaign contained old anti-Semitic cliche's, new 'socialist' charges or old ones recycled. The old accusations could have been (and sometimes actually were) copied from prewar anti-Semitic literature.
^ Cherry, Robert D.; Orla-Bukowska, Annamaria (2007). Rethinking Poles and Jews: Troubled Past, Brighter Future. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-7425-4666-0. Marian Marzynski is a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust hidden in a Catholic orphanage only to leave in 1968 during the regime's anti-Semitic campaign
^ Marcus, George E. (1993). Perilous States: Conversations on Culture, Politics, and Nation. University of Chicago Press. p. 226. ISBN 978-0-226-50447-6. The anti-Semitic campaign of 1968 probably began as a fight within the Communist Party, which used anti- Semitism as a tool."
^ Excel HSC modern history By Ronald E. Ringer. Page 384.
^ Encyclopedia of the Cold War, Volume 1 By Ruud van Dijk. Page 374. Taylor & Francis, 2008. ISBN 0-415-97515-8. 987 pages.
^ The world reacts to the Holocaust By David S. Wyman, Charles H. Rosenzveig. Ibidem. Pages 120-122.
^ Dariusz Stola, Kampania antysyjonistyczna w Polsce 1967 - 1968 [The Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland 1967–1968], pp. 213, 414, published by Instytut Studiów Politycznych Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Warsaw 2000, ISBN 83-86759-91-7
^ Andrzej Leon Sowa, Historia polityczna Polski 1944–1991 [The Political History of Poland 1944–1991], pp. 346–347, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 2011, ISBN 978-83-08-04769-9 Book review at Historia.org.pl.
^ Monika Krawczyk (March 2013), Nie zapomnę o Tobie, Polsko! (I will not forget you, Poland). Archived 16 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine Forum Żydów Polskich.

[1] Kemp-Welch, Anthony (2008). Poland under communism: a Cold War history. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-511-38738-8.

[stola1968-2] Dariusz Stola. ""The Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland of 1967–1968." Archived 2020-06-07 at the Wayback Machine The American Jewish Committee research grant. See: D. Stola, Fighting against the Shadows (reprint), in Robert Blobaum, ed., Antisemitism and Its Opponents in Modern Poland. Cornell University Press, 2005.

[3] Stola, Dariusz (2006-03-01). "Anti-Zionism as a Multipurpose Policy Instrument: The Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland, 1967–1968". Journal of Israeli History. 25 (1): 175–201. doi:10.1080/13531040500503021. ISSN 1353-1042. S2CID 159748636. The "anti-Zionist" current of the campaign contained old anti-Semitic cliche's, new 'socialist' charges or old ones recycled. The old accusations could have been (and sometimes actually were) copied from prewar anti-Semitic literature.

[4] Cherry, Robert D.; Orla-Bukowska, Annamaria (2007). Rethinking Poles and Jews: Troubled Past, Brighter Future. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-7425-4666-0. Marian Marzynski is a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust hidden in a Catholic orphanage only to leave in 1968 during the regime's anti-Semitic campaign

[5] Marcus, George E. (1993). Perilous States: Conversations on Culture, Politics, and Nation. University of Chicago Press. p. 226. ISBN 978-0-226-50447-6. The anti-Semitic campaign of 1968 probably began as a fight within the Communist Party, which used anti- Semitism as a tool."

[RE-R-6] Excel HSC modern history By Ronald E. Ringer. Page 384.

[Rv-D-7] Encyclopedia of the Cold War, Volume 1 By Ruud van Dijk. Page 374. Taylor & Francis, 2008. ISBN 0-415-97515-8. 987 pages.

[DW-CR-120-8] The world reacts to the Holocaust By David S. Wyman, Charles H. Rosenzveig. Ibidem. Pages 120-122.

[Stola_213,_414-9] Dariusz Stola, Kampania antysyjonistyczna w Polsce 1967 - 1968 [The Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland 1967–1968], pp. 213, 414, published by Instytut Studiów Politycznych Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Warsaw 2000, ISBN 83-86759-91-7

[Sowa_346–347-10] Andrzej Leon Sowa, Historia polityczna Polski 1944–1991 [The Political History of Poland 1944–1991], pp. 346–347, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 2011, ISBN 978-83-08-04769-9 Book review at Historia.org.pl.

[Krawczyk-11] Monika Krawczyk (March 2013), Nie zapomnę o Tobie, Polsko! (I will not forget you, Poland). Archived 16 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine Forum Żydów Polskich.

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