Poznan June: 1956 Anti-Soviet Uprising DOCUMENTARY 

5:53 The factory itself was known as ZiSPO at that time, being a short for "Zakłady Imienia Stalina - Poznań", or "Factory of [named after] Stalin - Poznan". Before 1949, when this name was imposed, the factory was, and is known today, as HCP - named after its founder Hipolit Cegielski, Polish enterpreneur, teacher, writer and social activist of the 19th century. The name HCP (Hipolit Cegielski - Poznań) was reintroduced on 1 November 1956, four months after the uprising. The street along which the protesters marched towards the city center, previously named after Felix Dzerzhynski (much like Rokossovsky, an ethnic Pole), was renamed "28th of June 1956 Street" in 1990. 6:09 - actually the administrative building in question (the Voivodeship Comittee of the Communist Party building) is located next to the Imperial Castle, on the opposite side of Kościuszki Str. I used to have classes there, and our lectures were held in the same hall as the Party meetings - I kid you not, when I first entered it six years ago not much have changed there since June 1956, you could literally just slap a Lenin's portrait and some Communist slogan on the wall and you could shoot Cold War documentaries there. There is a secret passage behind the main tribune, which, if our teachers were not pulling jokes on us, was built after 1956 to allow the evacuation of the Party members in case protesters stormed the building again. Why I was having classes there is also an interesting very late-Cold War tale: in 1990 a group of students from the Independent Students Association (NZS) occupied the building, after rumors started spreading that the Communist Party will be spreading their possessions and real estate among its successors to avoid giving it up to the new government. The students demanded that the party reveals its true assets and that the building is donated to Adam Mickiewicz University (UAM) in Poznań. The occupation of the building was succesful, and it was transfered to UAM's Faculty of History; renamed Collegium Historicum, it was its seat until 2015, when the Faculty was moved to Morasko Campus north of the city center. 7:05 - this area (Adam Mickiewicz Square) is now occupied by the Monument of June 1956 Victims, aka the Poznań Crosses, unveiled in 1981 for the 25th anniversary of the protests. In December of that year, hardline Communists under gen. Jaruzelski imposed martial law on Poland, and the crosses became a symbol of struggle between the Polish population and the Communist government; often, demonstrations were held under them, and people clashed with the militia forces. Since then, the dates of other anti-Communist protests and events were added (1968, 1970, 1976, 1980 and 1981). Of a side note, the two roads which intersected on the right side of the image (you cannot see them because of the crowd) also reflect the Soviet rule over Poland in that period: at that time, and in fact till 1989, these streets were renamed by the Communist government to Red Army Street (now Święty Marcin) and Stalingrad Alley (now Independence Alley, running between the buildings in the background). 7:26 - the radio jamming device was thrown off the roof of Social Insurance Institute (pl. ZUS) on Dąbrowskiego Str. in the Jeżyce district, where most of the violence took place. I live about two minutes walking distance from it, as well as the prison which was stormed by the protesters in 1956. 7:54 - the fraternisation of the Polish Army's soldiers, militiamen, and the protesters led to severe changes in the organisation of the Polish Civil Militia (MO)*, because it was poorly trained and it did not even have proper weaponry to disperse a crowd - the militiamen in Poznań were given wooden table legs because they weren't even issued rubber batons, seen by the Communist government as a symbol of a pre-war, capitalist State Police. After 1956, the Security Service (SB) was subordinated to the Civil Militia, which led to a steady worsening of Militia's image among general population: now MO and SB wore the same uniforms, so nobody could tell them apart. Moreover, the MO was finally equipped with riot shields and the aforementioned batons, and the infamous ZOMO (Zmotoryzowane Odwody Milicji Obywatelskiej - MO's Motorised Reserves) was formed specifically for "riot control" (with brute force). These formations were almost universally hated by the Polish population, with the ironic nickname "the beating heart of the party" ("bijące serce partii", where the adjective "bijące", much like in English, can mean both "beating [heart]" and "beating [someone]") being one of the less contemptous and vulgar; many of its former members are ostracized to this day, and some who were involved in the killings of workers in Gdynia, Gdańsk and Silesia in 1970s and 1980s, were formally accused of crimes against Polish nation (e.g. for firing at the miners of Wujek Coal Mine in 1981). *unlike the police, the Civil Militia was more militarized in nature, because in its early years one of its tasks was the aforementioned supression of anti-Soviet forces in Poland, such as the Polish Cursed Soldiers, remnants of fascist fighters, or Ukrainian nationalists in south-eastern Poland. Therefore it was equipped with heavy weaponry such as submachine guns, machine pistols, heavy machine guns and armoured personnel carriers that are more typical of a regular army rather than police force (unless you live in the US, that is). The Civil Militia was reformed in State Police in 1990s, and therefore a lot of said weaponry and anti-partisan duties were taken away from it. 8:57 - perhaps the most famous victim of Poznan June of 1956 was a 13 year old boy Romek Strzałkowski, who was captured during the protests and shot dead by a female Security Service officer in one of the militia garages next to the police station. His death was never properly investigated by the Communist authorities, and his parents were forced to remain silent about their son's death. Currently one of the streets in the Jeżyce district is named after him, and also one of the adjacent alleyways is named after Peter Mansfeld, a boy who fought in the Hungarian Uprising in October 1956, was captured and tortured by the Hungarian secret police, and held in prison for two years before his execution, because the Hungarian law did not allow for sentencing a minor to death, so they hanged him as soon as he turned 18. 12:40 - one interesting developement in that period was that gen. Jan Frey-Bielecki of the Polish Air and Air Defence Force ordered a secret aerial reconaissance of the Soviet troop movement in the Kaliningrad Oblast (bordering north-eastern Poland) during the June 1956 protests, and allegadly (although this one is from a rather dubious source) ordered the Polish Air Force to attack Soviet armoured column should it actually turn towards Warsaw in October of that year. Though a Communist himself, who took part in supression of the anti-Soviet underground, Frey-Bielecki was also a reformer, and the first Polish commander of the post-war PolAF (previously the position was held by a Soviet officer). He was removed from his office in 1963, in part because of his rebellious attitude: after the Soviet Union broke the agreement to give Poland a licence to produce the MiG-21 supersonic fighter locally, he ordered to research a possibility to acquire Swedish Saab J-35 Draken fighters instead, which would be the first time a Warsaw Pact member bought a non-Soviet or non-locally produced military equippment. 13:26 - true to the traditional Polish-Hungarian friendship, the Poles had sent over 2 mln dollars worth of material support for the Hungarian insurgents, of which 44 tonnes were ferried by air, and over 11,2 thousand Poles volunteered to donate blood for the injured Hungarians; Posnanians themselves donated 21 tonnes of various goods (food, medicine, clothing etc.), as well as 1 mln Polish zloty of financial aid. In 2013, the assistance received by Hungarians was commemorated with a monument at the Poznan Main Station, built by a Hungarian company TriGranit.

gomułka famous quote: "we were standing over the abyss, but we made a big step forward!" :D

One of the starting points of the Hungarian Revolution in the same year was actually a solidarity protest held for the Polish workers, at the statue of Józef Bem, who was a Polish freedom fighter fighting for both countries' independence in the 19th century. Polak, Wegier, dwa bratanki

I'm a simple Hungarian I see Poland I hit like. Much love and respect to Poland from Hungary.

“Have solidarity with us” I see what you did there.

I am from Poznan and I feel thankful for this video :)

I was surprised at how the Soviets eventually dealt with this situation. I was expecting violent repression. But not this. My compliments to all those who made this video a reality.

Rokkosovski was known to have bitterly said "In Russia I'm known as a Pole, in Poland they call me Russian."

That little Solidarność teaser at the end :)

I'm working right now, I *could be* working, but nah, I'll watch this instead!

« The Great Moustache » killed me! XD

Last time i was somewhere this early Poznań was changed to Posen, then Poznań, then Posen, then Poznań again.

Nice. When you can, cover the pro-Stalinist protests in the Georgian SSR.

Ah, socialism with a human face. It was best summed up by a great Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert, who's quote I'll try to translate: "Socialism with a human face is an unbearable phantom to me. If there exists a monster, then it should have a face of a monster. I simply cannot stand such hybrids, I flee the room through the window, screaming."

A great video as always, but I would like to point out, that Gomułka was not in fact a leader of a nationalist faction within the Polish communist party. He declared himself as an internationalist through and through and although he was often accused of a "right - wing deviation" (and spent some time in jail because of these accusations), when he got back into office, he was openly hostile towards any manifestations of nationalist sentiments. It was not until the 60's when a nationalist faction truly emerged in PZPR (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza - United Polish Workers' Party) under the leadership of Mieczysław Moczar. And while they declared loyalty towards Gomułka, they covertly tried to replace him with someone else. It also needs to be said, that they were directly responsible for persecutions against Jewish people in Poland in 1968, which led to mass emigration. Poland lost many intellectuals, scientists, engineers and so forth due to antisemitic tensions caused by communist nationalists. Just to clarify, I'm not trying to defend Gomułka, he's not remembered fondly in Poland, yet I felt I had to address certain statements which I found not 100% correct. Other than that - I'm looking forward to another video, cheers!

There was some interesting footage of Poznan around the 5 minute mark that appeared quite a bit like the city today. Maybe the buildings are a bit more spruced up a bit now, but the shapes of the buildings didn't seem to have changed much around the Rynek from when these were taken. As an expat, much appreciated the introduction to our northern neighbor's post-war history...

Hey channel the cold war. I would love if you can make a video about the escape of Ioan Pacepa, the right hand of Ceausescu, he spied for washimgton bucharest and moscow and I want to see a video made in deep as you do :)

Thank you for your wonderful work 👍 I knew ZERO about Poznan and only heard of Hungry and Czechoslovakia. I always thought that Poland somehow was too quiet during that time yet they were the first to break free🤔

Thanks for this episode. Poznań June is often being forgotten. Much love from Poland! Also loved how basically every name staring with Poznań and "Obywatelska" was butchered. That was kinda cute.

I pay homage to some 70 bave people from Poznań, including a 13 years old boy Romek Strzałkowski, who sacrificed their lives for a free and democratic Poland. In Poznań there an interesting museum dedicated to the 1956 Uprising and an impressive monument called "the Poznań Crosses" unveiled thanks to Solidarity movement in 1981 to commemorate the 25th anniversary. The inscription on the monument says that the people of Poznań were fighting for religious freedom, liberty, respect of law and bread.

The system will create its own Stalin.

Really love this channel, it deserves way more subscribers. Please do a video on the India - China war of 1962.

Uprisings occur not when tyranny is at its height, but when they loosen their grip. The lesson there is rather terrifying.

Poland kind of calmed down when they saw what was going on in hungary.

I have never heard of this in any of my textbooks. I thought I had heard bits and pieces about everything. But replacing Russian bureaucrats with Polish ones; canceling Polish debt to Soviet Russia; ending collectivization; relaxing censorship; and relaxing repression of the Catholic Church. Woah. I got that solidarity joke at the end.

Stalin died but his mustache lives on

The newspaper "Trybuna Ludu" presented in the video (2:53) is from the year 1971. Not relevant for the 1956 Poznan uprising.

Stalin's mustache AND an Obi Wan quote in the same episode??? Epic.

4:00 and yet some people still want to resurrect it, either because they believe Stalin is a myth, or that they could be the next Stalin.

I remember there was a pre 1989 Polish tv series that was broadcasted on Channel4 UK. I think it was set in pre 1914, either during the 1890's or 1900's, most probably Krakow (Austria-Hungary) or Poznan (German Empire). It was a family drama revolved around around a middle income professional family.

Good video. Kudos for "milicja obywatelska". If I was a English native I would just go with "Citizen's Militia" :P

Eeeee - that newspaper was from 1971 not from 1956.

Poland is not yet lost.

Hungarian revolution please

only thing i knew about the polish uprising was that Hungarians held a memorial protest and that kickstarted the hungarian uprising

14:20 I see what you did there.

Now there's a long street in Poznań named ‘28 czerwca 1956 roku‘ which I think is a bad name for a street. Something like ‘Poznańskiego Czerwca’ would be better.

I like this set better than the new one

Good episode. But why the hell there are Warsaw Uprising videos while you speaking about fights in Poznań???

Funny thing is that great many Poles never heard of Poznan or Hungarian events at the time. My older relatives didn't found out about it until mid 1970s when underground press copied articles from emigration press.

You should cover Comecon.

Każdy prowokator czy szaleniec, który odważy się podnieść rękę przeciw władzy ludowej, niech będzie pewny, że mu tę rękę władza ludowa odrąbie, w interesie klasy robotniczej, w interesie chłopstwa pracującego i inteligencji, w interesie walki o podwyższenie stopy życiowej ludności, w interesie dalszej demokratyzacji naszego życia, w interesie naszej Ojczyzny. ~ Cyrankiewicz, 1956

Way more informative than the 1956 Museum

Poznan is such a beautiful City 🌃.

2:53 This edition of "Trybuna Ludu" is from 1971 not from 1956. Both refer to plenums of Polish Communist Party which choose new 1st Secretary after massacres of protestants by Police and Army and by coincidence both had number VIII. You could ask however someone who speaks Polish or at least check the date.

4:08 Fewer statements could have more truth in them than this one.

Don't forget about the Plzeň uprising of 1953. Plus the many mini uprisings throughout the Baltic states where a guerrilla army waged sabotage against Soviet authorities.

Hey I live in Poznan

You use videos from different historic events (from Warsaw Uprising 1944 through de Gaulle's visit in Poland in 1967 to Gierek era) to tell the story of June 1956 in Poland !!!

Thanks for providing subtitles. Polish words are difficult to grasp in a speech in English.

Polish people: *goes protest* Pro-Soviet Polish Government: Hey Khrushchev I need your help there! Can you help me to clean them up?! Khrushchev: Sure! I'll do it. Clean all of the mess without the trace, boys! Soviet Army: Leaving to us! *AK47 loading sound* Khrushchev: Oh btw. Don't forget to bring our new tanks there!

one month before my mother was born in poznan

Cool video, Can you make Peasant Revolts in 1937 in Poland Against the government?

Not related to the video, but will the channel ever cover Rhodesia, and the Bush War? Not much is taught about the former nation, since it has been incorrectly branded as an Ethnostate. I would love to see the channel cover it, since Rhodesia held off two different Communist Armies, that were both funded through different Communist nations. Just an idea for a video. Also love the channel.

The question is who was behind the rumour of arresting the delegation.

2:55 front page of the communists mouthpiece "Trybuna Ludu" dated: Feb 1971 ( 15 years after Poznan riots !!) totally irrelevant to the interesting topic anyway.

1:15 You forgot to mention the joint Soviet - Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939.

Important factor to note is the fact that Poznań is in Western Poland, citizens there were used to rule of law and "ordnung" of ex-Prussian occupation. For them soviet rule and Russian mindset was shock!

David, what's the story with that coffee mug?

You forgot to mention that the protesters even managed to steal a tank

Poland must continue to stand up against Russian interference like it always did. For human rights, freedom of press and the rule of law! Those are the pillars of the proud polish nation, standing for Europe against the totalitarians in Moscow!

The great mustache 😂

4:18 I don't know what do you mean by saying society in this context but Polish Society had never been looking neither towards Stalin nor Soviet Union in general with godlike reverence. In contrary, everything what's Russian-Soviet was despised which is far away even from sympathy as far as I know English. But Let's assume you had regime rulers in mind, right?

is that a real coffee on his table? or just a prop?

We, in Poland had 3 parties for whole communism time: Polish United Workers' Party = the main one = typical communism party , and two satellite: Democratic Party (party of citizens of big cities, educated people, like doctors, engineers etc.) and United People's Party (party of farmers). As I'm from Poznań I like video very much.

0:40 "Some of the Comic-con nations" Are you telling me Communist nations were big on comic conventions?

Poland seems to be an interesting story.

oby-vat-el-ska would be correct. The yel sounds a bit too russian.

These people were actually oppressed.

"Stalin is not the issue, the issue is the socialist governance, which inevitably causes Stalins."

Any Polish people? What did you think?

I am not happy with mixings photos from different moments of Polish history.

👍

Polska Zawsze!

2:02 I don't know if you noticed while doing the research but Rokossovsky was from Poland and his father was from Polish nobility.He was also tortured during Great Purge due to his polish origin.Just because he is a soviet citizen doesn't mean he is russian.

Will David Introduce the Prague Spring 1968 🇨🇿 or Tiananmen Square Massacre 1989 🇨🇳 in this Channel ?

Tone

Forgotten city uprising against oppressive communist government in Poland. Poznan 1956 !!!!

Amnesty for the Home Army was a great move. What could go wrong? And more freedom for the Catholic church, that gave Nazi war criminals aid and comfort, brilliant move!

I want to know your opinion why the Soviets failed.

Plus, Gomulka used a Polish tendency to scapegoat the Jews and blame them for the revolt. A wave of antisemitism ensued and tens of thousands of Jews were forced out of the country.

Ocupation ended in 1994 - last russian soldiers left garrisons in Poland.

'We stated, as if it was a statement that no historian had ever said before' Learn to pronounce Poznan. I'm sure you can find someone from there in Toronto.

You have to work on you Polish pronunciation!! It hurt my ears 👂 ,!!!

Rokossovsky wasn't Russian.... he was Polish....

*Killed by a speech*, epic!😂

The Great Mustache. 🤣🤣🤣

mam z tego zadanie domowe lmao

Hoping to see on this channel all the atrocities committed by the americans and other western powers during the cold war

Those Poles * tsk * * tsk *

Stop yammering and give me history!

Stalin lives!

Poznan was Posen just 11 years before that ... most of the Polish people there were Poles driven out from Eastern Poland taking over the homes of the Germans. To this day Polish people West of the old German border vote differently than people to the East. The old German border is clearly visible on today's election maps.

Thank you for this. It would have been nice if you have drawn a parallel to what happened in the USSR in 1962, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novocherkassk_massacre