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The history of Poland from 1945 to 1989 spans the period of Soviet communist dominance imposed after the end of World War II over what had become the Polish People's Republic. These years, while featuring general industrialization and urbanization and many improvements in the standards of living in Poland, were marred by social unrest and economic depression. Near the end of World War II, the advancing Soviet Red Army pushed out the Nazi German forces from occupied Poland. The Yalta Conference sanctioned the formation of a new compromise coalition provisional government of Poland until free elections. Joseph Stalin manipulated the implementation and a practically communist-controlled Provisional Government of National Unity was formed in Warsaw, ignoring the Polish government-in-exile based in London. The Potsdam Agreement of 1945 ratified the westerly shift of Polish borders and approved its new territory between the Oder-Neisse and Curzon lines. Poland, as a result of World War II, for the first time in history became an ethnically homogeneous nation state without prominent minorities due to the destruction of indigenous Polish-Jewish population in the Holocaust, the flight and expulsion of Germans in the west, resettlement of Ukrainians in the east, and the repatriation of Poles from Kresy. The new government solidified its political power over the next two years, while the communist Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) under Bolesław Bierut gained firm control over the country, which would become part of the postwar Soviet sphere of influence in Central and Eastern Europe. Following Stalin's death in 1953, a political "thaw" in the Soviet sphere allowed a more liberal faction of the Polish communists, led by Władysław Gomułka, to gain power. By the mid-1960s, Poland began experiencing increasing economic, as well as political, difficulties. In December 1970, a consumer price hike led to a wave of strikes. The government introduced a new economic program based on large-scale borrowing from the West, which resulted in a rise in living standards and expectations, but the program meant growing integration of Poland's economy with the world economy and it faltered after the 1973 oil crisis. In 1976, the government of Edward Gierek was forced to raise prices again, and this led to another wave of public protests. This vicious cycle of repression and reform and the economic-political struggle acquired new characteristics with the 1978 election of Karol Wojtyła as Pope John Paul II. Wojtyła's unexpected elevation strengthened the opposition to the still authoritarian and ineffective system of nomenklatura-run state socialism practiced at that time, especially with the Pope's first visit to Poland in 1979. In early August 1980, the wave of strikes resulted in the founding of the independent trade union "Solidarity" (Polish ''Solidarność'') led by electrician Lech Wałęsa. The growing strength and activity of the opposition caused the government of Wojciech Jaruzelski to declare martial law in December 1981. However, with the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union, increasing pressure from the West, and dysfunctional economy, the regime was forced to negotiate with its opponents. The 1989 Round Table Talks led to Solidarity's participation in the 1989 election; its candidates' striking victory gave rise to the first of the succession of transitions from communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe. In 1990, Jaruzelski resigned as the President of the Republic of Poland and, after the December 1990 elections, was succeeded by Wałęsa. ==Creation of the Polish People's Republic (1944–48)== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Poland (1945–89)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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