History of Poland (1945–1989) in the context of "Polish United Workers' Party"

The August Agreements (Polish: Porozumienia sierpniowe) was a set of four accords reached between the government of the Polish People's Republic and the striking shipyard workers in Poland. The accord, signed in late August 1980 by government representative Mieczysław Jagielski and strike leader Lech Wałęsa, led to the creation of the trade union Solidarity and was an important milestone towards the eventual end of Communist rule in Poland.

In summer 1980, faced with a major economic crisis, the Polish government authorized a rise in food prices, which immediately led to a wave of strikes and factory occupations across the country. On 14 August workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk went on strike after the sacking of Anna Walentynowicz, five months before she was to retire. The Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee, headed by Wałęsa, issued a list of 21 demands to the government. Thanks to popular support within the country, the workers held out until the government gave in to their demands, and an agreement was formalized on 31 August.

Solidarity (Polish: „Solidarność”, pronounced [sɔliˈdarnɔɕt͡ɕ] ), full name Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity" (Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy „Solidarność” [ɲɛzaˈlɛʐnɨ samɔˈʐɔndnɨ ˈzvjɔ̃zɛɡ zavɔˈdɔvɨ sɔliˈdarnɔɕt͡ɕ], abbreviated NSZZ „Solidarność”), is a Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. Subsequently, it was the first independent trade union in a Warsaw Pact country to be recognised by the state.

The union's membership peaked at 10 million in September 1981, representing one-third of the country's working-age population. In 1983 Solidarity's leader Lech Wałęsa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the union is widely recognized as having played a central role in the end of communist rule in Poland. This led to the appointment of the first noncommunist Prime Minister since the 1940s.

The Neumark (German pronunciation: [ˈnɔʏmaʁk] ), also known as the New March (Polish: Nowa Marchia) or as East Brandenburg (German: Ostbrandenburg [ˈɔstˌbʁandn̩bʊʁk] ), was a region of the Margraviate of Brandenburg and its successors located east of the Oder River in territory which became part of Poland in 1945 except some villages of former districts of Königsberg in the New March and Weststenberg remained in Germany.

Called the Lubusz Land while part of medieval Poland, the territory later known as the Neumark gradually became part of the German Margraviate of Brandenburg from the mid-13th century. As Brandenburg-Küstrin the Neumark formed an independent state of the Holy Roman Empire from 1535 to 1571; after the death of the margrave John, a younger son of Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg, it returned to Elector John George, the margrave's nephew and Joachim I Nestor's grandson. With the rest of the Electorate of Brandenburg, it became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 and part of the German Empire in 1871 when each of those states first formed. After World War I the entirely ethnic German Neumark remained within the Free State of Prussia, itself part of the Weimar Republic (Germany).

From 1945 to 1990, the divided Germany began with the Berlin Declaration, marking the abolition of the German Reich and Allied-occupied period in Germany on 5 June 1945, and ended with the German reunification on 3 October 1990.

Following the collapse of the Third Reich in 1945 and its defeat in World War II, Germany was stripped of its territorial gains. Beyond that, more than a quarter of its old pre-war territory was annexed by communist Poland and the Soviet Union. The German populations of these areas were expelled to the west. Saarland was a French protectorate from 1947 to 1956 without the recognition of the "Four Powers", because the Soviet Union opposed it, making it a disputed territory.

The Constitution of the Polish People's Republic (also known as the July Constitution or the Constitution of 1952) was a communist state constitution that acted as the supreme law. It passed in communist-ruled Poland on 22 July 1952. It superseded the post-World War II provisional Small Constitution of 1947, which in turn replaced the pre-war April Constitution of 1935.

The 1952 constitution introduced a new name for the Polish state, the Polish People's Republic (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL), replacing the previously used Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita Polska). The communist-led Sejm (legislature) was declared to be the highest state authority. The real source of supreme state power, the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR), was not regulated by the constitution; it was ruled by its own statute. The constitution legalized many practices that had been introduced in Poland, in the wake of the Soviet Red Army and the Polish People's Army defeat of Nazi Germany in 1944–1945, by Polish-communist governmental bodies, including the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) and its successors.

The Polish People's Army (Polish: Ludowe Wojsko Polskie, pronounced [luˈdɔvɛ ˈvɔjskɔ ˈpɔlskʲɛ]; LWP) was the second formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the East during the latter stages of the Second World War (1943–1945), and subsequently the armed forces of the Polish communist state (1945–1989), which was formalized in 1952 as the Polish People's Republic.

The creation of communist-led Polish armed forces that were outside the command of the Polish government-in-exile was allowed and facilitated by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, following efforts made in the early 1940s by Soviet-based Polish exiles Wanda Wasilewska and Zygmunt Berling.

Bolesław Bierut ([bɔˈlɛswaf ˈbʲɛrut] ; 18 April 1892 – 12 March 1956) was a Polish communist activist and politician, leader of communist-ruled Poland from 1948 until 1956. He was President of the State National Council from 1944 to 1947, President of Poland from 1947 to 1952, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party from 1948 to 1956, and Prime Minister of Poland from 1952 to 1954. Bierut is believed to have worked as an NKVD informant or agent prior to 1945, although his relationship with the Soviet agency has been a subject of debate among historians. As communist leader, he implemented aspects of the Stalinist system in Poland. Together with Władysław Gomułka, his main rival, Bierut is chiefly responsible for the historic changes that Poland underwent in the aftermath of World War II. Unlike any of his communist successors, Bierut led Poland until his death.

Born in Congress Poland on the outskirts of Lublin, Bierut joined the Polish Socialist Party in 1912. Later he became a member of the Communist Party of Poland and spent some years in the Soviet Union. He was sentenced to a prison term in 1935 for conducting illegal labor activity in Poland by the anti-communist Sanation government and was later released in 1938. During World War II, Bierut was an activist of the newly founded Polish Workers' Party (PPR) and subsequently the chairman of the State National Council (KRN), established by the PPR. Trusted by Joseph Stalin, Bierut participated in the Potsdam Conference, where he successfully lobbied for the establishment of Poland's western border at the Oder–Neisse line.

Jakub Berman (23 December 1901 – 10 April 1984) was a Polish communist politician. An activist during the Second Polish Republic, in post-war communist Poland he was a member of the Politburo of the Polish Workers' Party (PPR) and then of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). From 1948, he was considered the second most powerful politician in Poland after President Bolesław Bierut, until he was removed from power in 1956, following Bierut's death.

Alongside Bierut, Berman was responsible for party oversight of the Stalinist Ministry of Public Security, commonly known as the "UB". Under Berman's leadership, 200,000 people were imprisoned for alleged political crimes, and 6,000 were executed.