THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC 437instrument of policy. The security forces were not given the unlimited licence
that they had enjoyed in 1944—7. Fraud and chicanery were widespread, but vio-
lence was not. The remnants of the bourgeoisie and the intellectuals, though
denied all free expression, were not liquidated. The Church, though assailed on
all sides, was not, as in Bulgaria or the Ukraine, suppressed. The peasants,
though deprived of legal claim to their land, were not deported. By comparison
with Czechoslovakia or Eastern Germany, the progress of collectivization was
slow, and incomplete.
Although the Stalinist system remained intact in Poland until October 1956,
the first cracks in the monolith appeared soon after Stalin's death. Already in
October 1953, the collectivization campaign, supposedly the main indicator of
society's progress towards socialism, was slowed down on the Party's orders. In
October 1956, it was called off altogether. In December 1954, following
appalling disclosures in the West by one of its former officials, Jozef Swiatlo, the
dreaded Ministry of Security was abolished, and its Director, Stanislaw
Radkiewicz, dismissed.^35 At the same time Gomulka and his associates were
released from house arrest, though not as yet readmitted to public life. The
Censorship was relaxed to the extent that one or two critical comments made
their appearance. Adam Wazyk's Foemat dla doroslych (Poem for Adults), pub-
lished in July 1955, was widely taken as a sign of things to come:
They ran to us shouting,
'Under Socialism
A cut finger does not hurt.'
But they felt pain.
They lost faith.There are overworked people;
there are people from Nowa Huta
who have never been in a theatre;
there are Polish apples unavailable for children;
there are children spurned by criminal doctors;
there are boys forced to tell lies;
there are girls forced to tell lies
there are old ladies thrown out of their houses by their husbands;
there are exhausted people dying from heart attacks;
there are people slandered and spat upon,
people assaulted on the streets
by common hoodlums, for whom legal definitions can't be found;
there are people waiting for a scrap of paper;
there are people waiting for justice;
there are people who wait a long time.
We should make demands on this earth
About overworked people,
About keys that fit locks,
About houses with windows,