XX11 CHRONOLOGY
1936 Launching of Central Industrial Region
1939 British Guarantee of Poland (31 March)
Nazi-Soviet Pact (23 August):
I939-1945 Second World War
1939 September Campaign: Poland partitioned by Germany and
USSR (28 September)
1941 German invasion of USSR: Polish-Soviet Treaty
Implementation of Nazi 'Final Solution' begins
1943 USSR severs diplomatic relations with Polish Government-
in-Exile: Warsaw Ghetto Rising (April)
1944 Warsaw Rising (1 August-2 October)
1944-5 Liberation: complete occupation of Polish lands by Soviet
Army
1945 Transfer of international recognition from Polish
Government-in-Exile in London to Provisional
Government of National Unity in Warsaw (28 June)
Potsdam Conference (July)
1945 Moscow Show Trial of the wartime resistance
1944-90 'PEOPLE'S POLAND' under Soviet control
1944 Lublin Committee (PKWN) formed (22 July)
1944—1947 'Civil War': liquidation of all resistance to Soviet supremacy
1945 Provisional Government of National Unity formed
1946 Referendum (30 June)
1947 First Elections to the Sejm (19 January): Allied protest
Supression of democratic parties: flight of Mikolajczyk
1948 Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) formed: one-Party
State
1948—1956 Period of Stalinism
1949 Onset of collectivisation and central planning Judicial
repression of all opposition
1952 Constitution of Polish People's Republic (22 July)
1953 Arrest of the Primate, Cardinal Wyszynski
1955 Formation of Warsaw Pact by the USSR
1956 'The Thaw': III Plenum of the PZPR independently elects
W. Gomulka as First Secretary (October)
1956-90 Poland of National Communism
1965-6 Reconstitution of Comecon (23 May)
1968 March events
1970 Baltic Riots: fall of Gomulka
1976 Constitutional amendment:
June events: rise of politi
1978 Election of Cardinal Karol Wojlyla as Pope John Paul II
1979 First papal visit (June)