Represje wobec zbuntowanego miasta : śledztwa i procesy

A gloomy announcement of repressions that the residents of rebellious Poznań could anticipate was the threat voiced by then Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz on 29th June. He said that “he who raises their hand against people’s state, shall have that hand cut off”. On the next day, Edward Gierek, one of the First Secretaries of the Polish United Workers’ Party Central Committee also threatened severe punishment at the funeral of one of the victims. Remembering what ",Stalinist justice" looked like, the residents of Poznań feared the lots of the accused. A conviction dominated that innocent people would be prosecuted. The author presents several trials that were conducted. All verdicts passed in the “trial of three ” (Józef Foltynowicz and Jerzy Sroka - 4 years and 6 months imprisonment, Kazimierz Żurek- 4 years imprisonment), and in the,”trial of nine ” (Zenon Urbanek, Stanisław Jaworek, Ludwik Wierzbicki - 6 years imprisonment, Józef Pocztowy - 3 years imprisonment, Janusz Biegański - 2.5 years imprisonment, Łukasz Piotrowski -1.5 years imprisonment, Stanisław Kauffmann - 2 years in suspension for 5, moreover, Jan Suwart and Leon Olejniczak were acquitted) were significantly lower than expected. The judges deliberately withdrew from harsh regulations of the Decree from 1946. It is worth mentioning that in the case of the “trial of ten ”, the judge first resumed the trial in order to examine new witnesses, next adjourned and finally dropped it. Undoubtedly, the speech made by Władysław Gomułka on the 7th Plenary Session of the Polish United Workers’ Party Central Committee contributed to this because he stated that “the reasons of the Poznań tragedy and deep dissatisfaction of the whole political class resided in us, party leadership, the government”. Such an interpretation conducted by Person Number One in the country in fact closed any possibilities of continuing repression.