Topic: The Stalinist Period in Poland

Target group

8th‑grade students of an elementary school

Core curriculum

The period of Stalinism in Poland characterizes the Stalinist repression system in Poland and assesses its effects;

XXXVIII. Stalinism in Poland and its effects. Students:

presents political, economic and social and cultural changes during the Stalinist period;

discusses the Stalinist terror system in Poland and assesses its effects;

explains the causes and effects of Poznan's June 1956 (Poznań Uprising) and the significance of the October events of 1956.

General aim of education

The student will learn about the realities of the Stalinist period in Poland.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• what was work competition;

• what was the Polish socioeconomic life during the Stalinist period;

• what were the manifestations of Stalinist propaganda and cult of personality;

• why did the authorities enter into a fight with the Church and what did it look like;

• what was socialist realism;

• what was the significance of the Polish People’s Republic’s Constitution of 1952.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Introduction

1. The teacher states the subject of the lesson, explains the aim of the lesson and together with students determines the success criteria to be achieved.

2. The teacher plays the recording of the abstract. Every now and then he stops it, asking the students to tell in their own words what they have just heard. This way, students practice listening comprehension.

Realization

1. Reading the content of the abstract. The teacher uses the text for individual work or in pairs, according to the following steps: 1) a sketchy review of the text, 2) asking questions, 3) accurate reading, 4) a summary of individual parts of the text, 5) repeating the content or reading the entire text.

2. Discussing information presented on the timeline. The teacher then divides the class into groups - as many as there are events on the axis. Each team works on one assigned issue, deepening the information contained in the abstract. Then the students present their discussions.

3. The teacher together with the students sums up the current course of classes.

4. Students analyze the illustration and execute Task 2 and Task 3. To answer the question, they can use Internet sources or other publications. The teacher checks the correctness of the answer and provides feedback to the students.

5. Students in pairs solve the Exercise 1. The teacher checks if the task has been correctly completed and gives feedback to students.

Summary

1. The teacher asks: If there was going to be a test on the material we have covered today, what questions do you think would you have to answer?
   If the students do not manage to name all the most important questions, the teacher may complement their suggestions.

2. The teacher asks a willing student to summarize the lesson from his point of view. He asks other students if they would like to add anything to their colleague's statements.

Homework

1. Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

2. Make at home a note from the lesson, for example using the sketchnoting method.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

The Stalinist Period in Poland

The birth of the Polish United Workers’ Party in 1948 is considered the beginning of Stalinism in Poland. All authority was concentrated in the hands of one party, with its representatives controlling every aspect of the Poles’ lives. The state’s functioning was watched over by the all‑powerful Ministry of Public Security, which, using its elaborate terror apparatus and omnipresent indoctrination, caused widespread fear in the Polish society. All manifestation of oppositional thinking and resistance, even within the party (the arrest of Władysław Gomułka in 1951) were brutally dealt with. As a result of the repression and purges, thousands of people, including many activists and soldiers that did great services to Poland, such as General Fieldorf or Rittmeister Pilecki, lost their lives.
In the economic sphere, Soviet‑model production plans were introduced (such as the Six Year Plan of 1950‑1955), and the production was geared towards catering to the expanding army. Agriculture was subjected to further collectivization, and the peasants that protested (kulaks) were persecuted and universally condemned. In workplaces, competition between the workers (the Stakhanovite movement) and raising the production norms became common place. It did not, however, raise the wages, which was met with resentment from the regular workers.
Propaganda gained a very important role in the state, imposing the “one‑and‑only” vision of the world on its receivers. Art was employed as its tool, with socialist realism becoming its leading philosophy. It portrayed the Soviet Union as the ideal country, with its leader, Joseph Stalin, portrayed as the ideal human being. To a lesser degree, the cult of personality of the President of the State Council, Bolesław Bierut, played a role in his portrayals.
One of the Polish renditions of Stalinism’s characteristics was the fight against the Catholic Church, since 1948 led by Primate Stefan Wyszyński. The concordate was severed, decrees against the Church’s officials and followers were announced, and priests were being accused of spying for the USA. At the culmination of the fight, Primate Wyszyński was interned (1953‑1956) for his disagreement against the authorities’ influence on the appointment of Church officials (the famous “Non possumus” letter).
The adoption of the 22 July 1952 Constitution, which changed the state’s name to “Polish People’s Republic” (PRL) and handed the authority over to the “working people of the cities and countryside”, summed up the Stalinist period in Poland. The greatest testament of the USSR’s influence on Poland was the fact that the project of the Constitution was translated into Russian, and Stalin himself wrote his comments in the text.
The end of Stalinism did not come about even on the day of the cruel dictator’s death on 5 March 1953. It only arrived 3 years later, at the 20th Congress of the CPSU, when the new Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, denounced his predecessor and accused him of distorting the system and committing crimes.