Description
Between the Nazi occupation and the anti communist revolution of 1956, Poland underwent 12 years of Stalinist rule. Using recently opened archives, historians and social scientists from four countries analyize the rise and fall of this system. The book is organized in three parts, which are: construction (external and domestic), conflicts (above all, communists against the Church and peasantry), and collapse (during 1956). An Epilogue reviews the whole period in the light of contemporary political debates.