PORTRET ZBIOROWY LIDERÓW POLSKIEJ PARTII SOCJALISTYCZNEJ (1944–1948)

Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, called “reborn” by its supporters, and “licensed” or “false” by its antagonists, was created on 10th–11th September 1944, during a socialists’ conference held in Lublin (so-called 15th Congress of the PSP). The power elite in the party was made up of 57 people in total. It was a circle dominated by well educated men, mostly young and middle-aged, most of whom had been bound up with the party since the 1920s and 30s. On average, every second one of them was in the occupied country between 1939 and 1945, and only every eighth in the Soviet Union. Despite this, one should not underestimate the influence of the so-called “natives” in the PSP elite, since they were functioning within two, ideologically different, streants of Polish socialism. That was why they found it relatively easy to sever links with their socialist past and made their way into the ranks of the newly created Communist authorities.