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THE LAICIZATION OF YOUNG MEMBERS OF THE TROOPS AND BRIGADES OF THE 'SERVING POLAND' NATIONAL ORGANISATION (1948-1953)

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Lesiakowski K.

Dzieje Najnowsze

2006

issue 2

55-80

One of the foremost political objectives of the Polish authorities during the Stalinist era was to bring up a new generation of citizens free from the impact of the Catholic Church and religion. The youth laicization programme was implemented upon different levels and by resorting to assorted measures. One of them was the 'Sluzba Polsce' (Serving Poland) National Organisation (SP). Next to economic tasks and civil defence, the SP brigades and troops pursued also a political education programme. The practical aspect of the striving towards weakening the ties between members of the young generation and the catholic creed entailed various anti-catholic and anti-religious campaigns. The SP was used for sabotaging retreats, assorted religious ceremonies, visits paid by bishops, etc. Young people recruited to work in the brigades found themselves under even greater pressure. Far from their families, parish church and environment, they were entrusted to stalinist educators. The SP political cadre gradually forced through a ban on morning and evening prayers, and effectively opposed group prayers in tents and barracks, as well as the dispay of crosses and other religious symbols in lodgings. Sunday became a day for specially prepared activities aimed at breaking the habit af attending church services. Frequently, the brigades were burdened with additional work organised during the holidays and granted a special propaganda setting, a policy which resulted in numerous complaints and tension. The young people demanded conducive opportunities for cultivating religious practices. Complaints were written by their parents and protests were voiced by the clergy. In view of the increasingly harsh policy applied towars the Catholic Church since 1949, such protests remained ineffective. Generally speaking, in 1948-1953 SP played an infamous role of an organizer and executor of a programme aimed at laicization of the Polish young people, especially those of peasant origin

THE RECRUITMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE INTO BRIGADES OF THE 'SERVICE FOR POLAND' UNIVERSAL ORGANISATION (1946-1955)

100%

Lesiakowski K.

Dzieje Najnowsze

2004

issue 2

155-175

After the end of WW II the young Polish generation became engaged on a mass scale in the six-year plan in order to supplement the gaps created by a labour force deficit . A prominent part in the youth-oriented plans of the Polish communists was performed by the 'Service for Poland' Universal Organisation, whose brigades in 1948-1955 were composed of tens of thousands. Such an enormous campaign called for numerous organisational and propaganda efforts as well as an efficiently functioning apparatus of recruitment and employment. The enlistment and transport to workplaces revealed the true attitude of the young generation towards the Stalinist project of modernising Poland. It soon became apparent that the recruitment was by no means voluntary, and that evading it was threatened with penal sanctions. Despite the penalties, young people and their parents sought assorted methods to avoid working in the brigades. The recruitment apparatus was concerned only with meeting the demands of the distribution lists imposed upon particular regional commands. Hence the brigades were frequently joined by family breadwinners, pregnant women, or the ill and the weak. The incorrectly conducted recruitment and the often badly organised transport of thousands of young people constituted, however, a mere introduction to the fate awaiting them in the 'Service for Poland' brigades.

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2 Dzieje Najnowsze

2 Lesiakowski K.

1 2006

1 2004

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THE LAICIZATION OF YOUNG MEMBERS OF THE TROOPS AND BRIGADES OF THE 'SERVING POLAND' NATIONAL ORGANISATION (1948-1953)

THE RECRUITMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE INTO BRIGADES OF THE 'SERVICE FOR POLAND' UNIVERSAL ORGANISATION (1946-1955)