Commonly known as the Poznań June, the protests broke out on June 28, 1956, after the authorities refused to raise wages and reduce the workload of those employed at the city’s Cegielski engineering plant. However, what started as a spontaneous industrial action, soon swelled into something far bigger.
Furious that they had been docked their bonus pay after their work quota had been increased, workers at the Cegielski factory took to the streets at around 6.30 a.m. Marching towards the city center, they were soon joined not just by other workers from neighboring factories, but also students and locals disillusioned with the government - even watching police officers are known to have broken rank and joined the procession.
Making their way towards the local party headquarters in the city center, by the time the protestors had reached the Adam Mickiewicz monument by the university, their numbers had ballooned to around 100,000.
Voicing their grievances, the protestors called for wage increases and lower food prices. They also demanded Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz visit to listen to them first-hand.
As the crowd grew, tensions rose. Soon, this ugly mood would tip into violence. Rumors that the negotiating delegation had been arrested lit the fuse, and by 11 a.m. the masses had stormed the prison. In the ensuing chaos, inmates were freed and the jail’s armory ransacked.
With the situation spiraling out of control, government buildings and police stations were targeted by the mob. When the Ministry of Public Security came under threat, shots were fired into the crowd.
Faced with escalating anger and a loss of control, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party took the decision to pacify what had become a full-blown revolt. Around 10,000 troops and militia poured into Poznań, supported by approximately 400 tanks.
Over the next two days, protestors fought soldiers using petrol bombs and captured small arms. In the mayhem, it’s known that at least 58 people lost their lives, though the true number was likely far higher. Tragically, among the dead was 13-year-old Romek Strzałkowski, the youngest casualty of the uprising.
Brutally suppressed, order was restored on June 30. In the aftermath, a wave of arrests were made in the crackdown that followed.
However, the protest had not been in vain. Stung by the size of the revolt, the government was forced to make a string of concessions. Moreover, the bloody events in Poznań expedited the country’s de-Stalinization, paving the way for a more moderate leadership.
Saliently, the Poznań June had also demonstrated the power and will of the people. Brief as the rebellion was, its impact on the country would be lasting. Awakening a culture of protest, many historians have since posited that it was in Poznań that the first cracks in the Communist system were exposed. Nothing would ever be the same.
Speaking at a memorial ceremony yesterday in Poznań, Tomasz Siemoniak, the Minister of Internal Affairs, said: “This was the first act against the Communist government… We are proud of what happened here. It gave [the Polish people] enormous strength, [strength] from which the Solidarity movement later drew from, and to which Saint John Paul II appealed, and to which we all appealed to when regaining our freedom in 1989.”
He added: “I would like to express my deep gratitude to all the inhabitants of Poznań. You are the descendants of those great people who were the first to say ‘no’ [to the Communist government].”
