THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC 435most shocking case, however, centred on a former hero of the anti-Nazi under-
ground movement, Maj. Emil Fieldorf (1897-1953), pseudonym 'Nil'. Fieldorf
had headed the Home Army's subversive 'K-Div' force, and was later in charge
of the 'NIE' organization. He survived several years after the war in the Soviet
Gulag, only to be picked up for a second time on his return to Poland. He was
arrested, tortured, and eventually hanged in February 1953 on totally false
charges of collaboration with the Nazis. Thirty years later, when publicly inter-
viewed, the man responsible for these criminal, pseudo-judical proceedings,
Jakub Berman, showed no trace of shame or remorse.^31
In economic affairs, absolute priority was given to heavy industry. The
revised Six-Year Plan for 1950-5 was conceived by the so-called metalozercy
(metal-eaters), who pressed for unlimited production of iron and steel. In
Cracow, the ancient university city was overshadowed by the construction and
the pollution of Nowa Huta, a new suburb supporting the Lenin Steelworks, the
largest of its kind in the country.
In agriculture, absolute priority was given to forced collectivization. The
campaign to deprive the peasants of their ownership of the land, and to coral
them into State Agricultural Enterprises (PGRs) and into voluntary production
co-operatives gained rapid momentum. The jargon, with its careful avoidance
of the Russian word 'kolkhoz', fooled no one. Between 1950 and 1955, the offi-
cial number of collective farms rose from 12,513 to 28,955. The private peasant
faced the prospect of elimination.^32
The Roman Catholic Church was systematically attacked. In the years after
the war, the authorities had applied their favourite 'splitting' techniques to the
Church in the same way as to the political parties. They did this partly by pro-
moting the schismatic Polish National Church, and partly by launching a series
of anti-Catholic, pseudo-religious organizations, such as PAX (1947), Caritas,
and Veritas (1950), which usurped the functions of the Church's former social,
charitable, and cultural enterprises. Their chosen instrument in this campaign
was the former Fascist leader, Boleslaw Piasecki (1915-79), the Director of
PAX, who had been spared by the NKVD presumably on condition of his future
collaboration.^33 The aim was to destroy the reputation of the Hierarchy, and to
create a bloc of Catholic opinion which was prepared to co-operate with the
state on the Party's terms. When the campaign misfired, and the Hierarchy cat-
egorically forbade both priests and people to have any dealings with Piasecki or
with any of his organizations, harsher methods were adopted. In 1950, much of
the Church's property with the exception of church buildings and churchyards,
was confiscated. Priests were arrested in large numbers, and were harassed by
the police. Arrangements for the religious education of children were inter-
rupted. In 1953, in response to continued defiance, Cardinal Wyszyriski was
interned and placed under close detention at the remote monastery of
Komancza in the Bieszczady Mountains.
The Stalinist system was formalized by the passing of the Constitution of 22
July (sic) 1952, which marked the declaration of the 'Polish People's Republic