THE ORIGINS OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE POLISH PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF 22 JULY 1952

• Authors: Borecki P.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The subject of the creation of the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic is not yet sufficiently examined. This is because the most important and crucial decisions on the content of the future constitution were taken by a select group which included state and party leaders of the Polish People's Republic. Having taken power in Poland, the Communists arbitrarily rejected the April 1935 Constitution, and declared that the March (1921) Constitution is in force. The official work on constitution that took place between May 1951 and July 1952 within the Legislative Sejm, as well as in its Constitutional Committee and subcommittee, was a phoney activity. Its purpose was, above all, to give the appearance of legality and social acceptance to the decisions taken outside parliament, or even outside Poland, in the Soviet Union. In order to improve social acceptance, a public debate on the constitution was held between January and April 1952. The debate had, in fact, a proclaiming nature. The contents of the draft of a basic law was determined, most of all, by the leaders of the Polish United Workers Party (PUWP) and two commissions of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist party existing from June 1949 to March 1951. Moreover, Stalin himself exerted influence directly on some provisions of the constitution inserting (probably in early autumn 1951) around 50 corrections into its text. The contents and origins of the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic show that it was intended to confirm the systemic transformations which were taking place since 1944. The Constitution was one of the last basic laws adopted in the countries of the Soviet bloc in Europe after WW II. Its was consistent with the Stalinist concept of the basic law as the so-called constitution of balance. The circumstances of the creation of the Constitution of 1952 proves that at that time the Polish state lacked democracy and sovereignty. This constitution was, in fact, imposed on the people by the then policy-makers from the PUWP, under the supervision of Stalin.

Keywords

EN

COMMUNIST AUTHORITY; HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (POLAND); SOVIET BLOC

Discipline

• LAW_&_ADMINISTRATION: LAW & ADMINISTRATION

• Publisher: Kancelaria Sejmu / Chancellery of the Sejm
• Journal: Przegląd Sejmowy
• Year: 2007
• Issue: 5(82)
• Pages: 75-87
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Borecki P.

• P. Borecki, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Wydzial Prawa i Administracji, ul. Krakowskie Przedmiescie 26/28, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

07PLAAAA03366914