(Cambridge Concise Histories) Jerzy Lukowski, Hubert Zawadzki - A Concise History of Poland-Cambridge University Press (2006)

Nazi invasion of the USSR (22 June); Polish-Soviet treaty signed 111 London by Sikorski and ambassador Maisky (30 July)

Wannsee conference (January): gradual liquidation bv the Nazis of Jewish ghettoes in occupied Poland; creation of the communist Polish Worker Party (PPR) (January); creation of the Home Army (AK) (14 February)

Union of Polish Patriots formed in USSR (March); Jewish insurrection in the Warsaw ghetto (April-May); revelation of the Katyn massacre (April); Stalin suspends diplomatic relations with the Polish government-in-exile (23 April); General Sikorski killed off Gibraltar (4 July); decisions of the Three-Power conference at Teheran on Poland's future frontiers (November-December)

Creation of the Soviet-backed Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) (22 July); Polish forces in action at the battles at Monte Cassino (May), Falaise (August) and Arnhem (September); Warsaw Uprising (1 August-2 October); Mikolajczyk resigns from the premiership of the government-in-exile (24 November); PKWN declares itself the ‘Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland’ (31 December)

Yalta Conference (February); communist-led Polish ‘provisional government' signs 20-year treaty of friendship with USSR (21 April); UK and USA withdraw their recognition of the Polish government in London (5 July); Potsdam Conference establishes the Oder-Neisse line as the western limit of Polish administration (July-August); Polish-Soviet frontier agreement (1 6 August) Decree for the nationalization of industrial enterprises (3 January); start of systematic deportation of the German population from Poland (14 February); rigged referendum (30 June); anti-Jewish pogrom in Kielcc (4 Julv); Polish armed forces in the West dissolved (3 September)

r 94 5

1946

1947

1948

1949

1950

1951

1952

1954

¹9 5 5 Г956

Communists and their allies win rigged elections in Poland (T9 January); elimination of anti-communist opposition; government in Warsaw declines participation in the Marshall Plan (9 July); Mikolajczyk flees to the West (21 October)

Stalinist regime introduced; Polish Socialist Party unites with the communists to form the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) (15-21 December)

Creation of a central economic planning office (ro February); pro-communist United Peasant Party created (27-29 November); start of collectivization of farms

Launch of the Six Year Plan for rapid industrialization (2) July)

Gomulka arrested (2 August)

First Polish-language broadcast front Munich by Radio Free Europe (3 May); introduction of the Stalinist constitution: proclamation of the Polish People’s Republic (22 July)

Jozet Swiatlo’s revelations 011 Radio Free Flurope (December)

Central Committee of the PZPR condemns Stalinist repression (2 1 - 24 January); formation of the Warsaw Pact (14 May)

Workers uprising in Poznan (28-29 June); Gomulka becomes leader of the PZPR (2 r October): end of

Stalinism in Poland; Cardinal Wyszytiski released from detention (19 October)

Polish-Soviet friendship treaty renewed for another 20 years (8 April); Polish bishops’ letter of reconciliation to German Roman Catholic episcopate (т 8 November)

^т 965

1966

T967

1968

1970

1971 ^x97²

^т975

T976

197 8

^г979

1980

1981

т 983

1983

1987

1988 T989

Rival State-Church celebrations of the millennium of Polish statehood and of Poland’s baptism (April and June) Arab-Israeli war (June) leads to communist condemnation of ‘Zionists’ in Poland Student protests across Poland (March); anti-Semitic purge of the PZPR (March): forced emigration of intelligentsia of Jewish origin

West Germany recognizes de facto the Oder-Neisse Line as the western border of Poland (7 December); strikes in Gdansk and along the coast (14-19 December); Edward Gierek replaces Gomulka as communist leader (20 December)

Strikes in Szczecin (22-24 January)

Vatican recognizes the post-war Polish ecclesiastical administration in the ex-German territories (June) Helsinki Final Act signed (1 August): recognition of post-war borders and of human rights Workers’ demonstrations in Radom (25 June); creation of the Committee for Defence of Workers (KOR)

(23 September)

Cardinal Karol Wojtyla is elected Pope John Paul II (16 October)

Pope John Paul II visits Poland (2-10 June)

Strikes spread across Poland (July): the creation of Solidarity with Lech Walysa as leader (16 August); Milosz’s Nobel Prize for literature (9 October)

Rural Solidarity recognized by the authorities (12 May); General Jaruzelski replaces Kania as PZPR leader (18 October); Jaruzelski introduces martial law (T2-13 December)

Martial law formally suspended (22 July); Walesa receives the Nobel Peace Prize (5 October)

Warsaw Pact renewed for further 20 years (26 April) President Reagan ends sanctions against Poland (19 February)

Find of jamming of Radio Free Europe (1 January)

Round table talks between the communist government and the opposition (6 February-3 April); semi-free elections (4 June); Gorbachev’s consent for Poland to determine its own political'future (3 July); Tadeusz