Przygotowanie wyborów do Sejmu PRL I kadencji w 1952 roku jako element procesu sowietyzacji Polski po II wojnie światowej

The article is a historical and political analysis of the preparation of the 1952 election to the first-term Sejm of the Polish People’s Republic. The electoral system implemented in Poland at that time was based on the electoral practice of the Soviet Union both in general and in many details. According to the Soviet political patterns, the MPs were nominated long before the voting day by the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party, who carefully planned the Sejm composition, both politically and socially. Each candidate had to be verified and nothing was accidental. In an attempt to secure its undivided power, the Communist Party would not let the citizens choose their political representatives. The way in which the Sejm of the Polish People’s Republic was elected in 1952 and in later years had very little to do, aside from the name, with free elections, which are invariably at the heart of every democratic political system.