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Borstal

A borstal was a type of youth detention centre in the United Kingdom, several member states of the Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland. In India, such a detention centre is known as a borstal school.

Borstals were run by HM Prison Service and were intended to reform young offenders. The word originated from the first such institution established in 1902 near the English village of Borstal in Kent, and is sometimes used loosely to apply to other kinds of youth institutions and reformatories, such as approved schools and youth detention centres. The court sentence was officially called "borstal training". Borstals were originally for offenders under 21, but in the 1930s the maximum age was increased to 23. The Criminal Justice Act 1982 abolished the borstal system in the UK, replacing borstals with youth custody centres.

In India, borstal schools are used for the imprisonment of minors. As of 31 December 2014, there were twenty functioning borstal schools in India, with a combined total capacity of 2,108 inmates.

United Kingdom
The Gladstone Committee (1895) first proposed the concept of the borstal, wishing to separate youths from older convicts in adult prisons. It was the task of Sir Evelyn Ruggles-Brise (1857–1935), a prison commissioner, to introduce the system, and the first such institution was established at Borstal Prison in a village called Borstal, near Rochester, Kent, England, in 1902. Although originally created to be a typical prison, Borstal evolved into something new, with the name still recognised today. The redesigned prison regime focused on education rather than punishment, aiming to avoid inmates reoffending.

The system was developed on a national basis and formalised in the Prevention of Crime Act 1908. The regimen in these institutions was designed to be "educational rather than punitive", but it was highly regulated, with a focus on routine, discipline and authority during the early years. Borstal institutions were originally designed to offer education, regular work and discipline, though one commentator has claimed that "more often than not they were breeding grounds for bullies and psychopaths."

The Criminal Justice Act 1982 officially abolished the borstal system in the UK, introducing youth custody centres instead. As society had changed the system was then already outdated especially since the late 1960s and early 1970s, with many borstals being closed and replaced with institutions called Detention Centres and, from 1972, also with Community Service Order sentences.

Corporal punishment
Except in Northern Ireland, the only corporal punishment officially available in borstals was the birch for mutiny or assaulting an officer, and this could be imposed only by the visiting magistrates, subject in each case to the personal approval of the Home Secretary, just as in adult prisons. Only male inmates over 18 might be so punished. This power was very rarely used – there were only seven birching cases in borstals in the 10 years to 1936. This birching power was available only in England and Wales (not in Scottish borstals). Caning as a more day-to-day punishment was used in the single borstal in Northern Ireland but was not authorised in Scotland or England and Wales. Confusion on this matter arises perhaps because in approved schools, a quite different kind of youth institution based more on the open "boarding school" model, caning was an official punishment for young people (maximum age 19).

Commonwealth
A similar system under the name "borstal" or "borstal school" has also been introduced in several other Commonwealth countries.

India
In India, nine states, namely Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, have borstal schools in their respective jurisdictions. Tamil Nadu had the highest capacity, at 678 inmates (as of 2014). Himachal Pradesh and Kerala are the only states that have the capacity to lodge female inmates in two of their borstal schools. There are no borstal schools in any of the union territories.

Ireland
In Ireland the Criminal Justice Act, 1960 (Section 12) removed the term "borstal" from official use. This was part of a policy to broaden the system from reform and training institutions to a place of detention for youths between 17 and 21 for any sentence which carried a prison term. The only borstal in the state was based for most of its existence in Clonmel, in County Tipperary. Founded in 1906, it finally closed in 1956, when the remaining detainees were transferred to the newly established St. Patrick's Institution in Dublin. Industrial schools performed a similar function to borstals.

Literature

 * Irish writer Brendan Behan wrote of his experiences in the English borstal system in his autobiography Borstal Boy (1958). It was later adapted into play and film versions.
 * Alan Sillitoe's short story "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner" (1959) is included in the book of the same title. A boy's period in a borstal for robbing a bakery is recounted. The film version followed in 1962 in which Tom Courtenay starred and the director was Tony Richardson.
 * In Roald Dahl's children's book Matilda (1988), Hortensia initially refers to the school as "borstal" on Matilda's first day.
 * Alan Figg's book Borstal 80 gives a personal account of time served 1980 to 1981 at Portland Borstal.

Cinema

 * The British film, Boys in Brown (1949) stars Richard Attenborough, Dirk Bogarde and Jack Warner. It looks at life in a borstal and the challenges faced by those who go through them.
 * Scum (1977), a once banned Play for Today and its cinema remake Scum (1979) are set in a borstal. Ray Winstone, in a very early role, features in both versions.
 * Young Raymond Briggs is threatened with being sent to "Borstal" by a police officer after being suspected of trying to steal "valuable billiard cues" from a golf club in the animated film Ethel & Ernest (2016).
 * Scrubbers (1982) British drama film set in a girls' borstal, directed by Mai Zetterling and starring Amanda York and Chrissie Cotterill.

Television

 * In the fourth episode of the first series of the show Fawlty Towers, titled "The Hotel Inspectors", the main character, Basil Fawlty, is chastised by his wife, Sybil, for his harsh treatment of their guests. She tells him, "This is a hotel, not a borstal." Basil later ingratiatingly repeats the line to a guest whom he believes to be a hotel inspector.
 * A ninth series episode of the BBC television show Father Brown, titled "The Wayward Girls" and first broadcast in January 2022, was set in a borstal.
 * In the first series, 6th episode, of Downton Abbey, Lady Sybil Crawley asks her father's permission to be driven to Ripon to attend a Borstal committee meeting ("I've missed the last two"), but instead she has the chauffeur, Branson, drop her at the location where the by-election vote count is being announced. She is injured in a brawl; Branson and her father's cousin Matthew rescue her.
 * Dog Borstal is the title of a British television series in which dog trainers address challenging behaviour by dogs.
 * The "Crime" episode of the 1997 British comedy series Brass Eye featured a segment satirizing the borstal system.

Music

 * The British rock band Faces recorded a song (written by Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, and Ian McLagan) called "Borstal Boys" on their final studio album Ooh La La.
 * The British punk rock band Sham 69 had a top 40 hit single with a song called "Borstal Breakout" in 1977.
 * The British rock band Humble Pie recorded a song called "30 Days in the Hole" that included the lyric "Some seeds and dust, and you got Borstal."
 * The British ska/rock band Madness based their song "Land of Hope and Glory" from the album One Step Beyond... on one of their members' time in a borstal for petty theft.
 * The British singer-songwriter Richard Thompson included a song called "I Can't Wake Up to Save My Life" on his 1994 album Mirror Blue, which included the lines "Things I done make my dreams turn bad, like borstal boys coming home to Dad", an image similar to "chickens coming home to roost".
 * The German punk band Oxymoron released a track titled "Borstal" on their 1995 album "Fuck The Nineties...Here's Our Noize".
 * The British synthpop band Bronski Beat featured a mince pie-eating competition in Borstal with lead singer Jimmy Somerville winning the contest in the music video of the cover song "It Ain't Necessarily So" from the album The Age of Consent.
 * The Borstal is a punk rock band from Jakarta, Indonesia.
 * Borstal is a heavy hardcore band from London, with Brujeria and Knuckledust members (including lead singer, Pelbu).
 * Borstal is a song by British hip hop group Monster Florence
 * The British rock band Squeeze included a song called "Vicky Verky" on their 1980 album Argybargy, which included the lines "Well he went off to Borstal, He said that he was forced to, Rob the flats of Hi Fis, 'Cause she was ill and she would cry".

title: Borstal


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Malik

Malik (מֶלֶךְ; ملك; variously Romanized Mallik, Melik, Malka, Malek, Maleek, Malick, Mallick, Melekh) is the Semitic term translating to "king", recorded in East Semitic and Arabic, and as mlk in Northwest Semitic during the Late Bronze Age (e.g. Aramaic, Canaanite, Hebrew).

Although the early forms of the name were to be found among the pre-Arab and pre-Islamic Semitic speakers of the Levant, Canaan, and Mesopotamia, it has since been adopted in various other, mainly but not exclusively Islamized or Arabized non-Semitic Asian languages for their ruling princes and to render kings elsewhere. It is also sometimes used in derived meanings.

The female version of Malik is Malikah (ملكة; or its various spellings such as Malekeh or Melike), meaning "queen".

The name Malik was originally found among various pre-Arab and non-Muslim Semitic speakers such as the indigenous ethnic Assyrians of Iraq, Amorites, Jews, Arameans, Mandeans, Syriacs, and pre-Islamic Arabs. It has since been spread among various predominantly Muslim and non-Semitic peoples in Central Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia.

Etymology
The earliest form of the name Maloka was used to denote a prince or chieftain in the East Semitic Akkadian language of the Mesopotamian states of Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia and Chaldea. The Northwest Semitic mlk was the title of the rulers of the primarily Amorite, Sutean, Canaanite, Phoenician and Aramean city-states of the Levant and Canaan from the Late Bronze Age. Eventual derivatives include the Aramaic, Neo-Assyrian, Mandic and Arabic forms: Malik, Malek, Mallick, Malkha, Malka, Malkai and the Hebrew form Melek.

Moloch has traditionally been interpreted as the epithet of a god, known as "the king" like Baal was an epithet "the master" and Adon an epithet "the lord", but in the case of Moloch purposely mispronounced as Moleḵ instead of Meleḵ using the vowels of Hebrew bosheth "shame".

Political
Primarily a malik is the ruling monarch of a kingdom, called mamlaka; that term is however also used in a broader sense, like realm, for rulers with another, generally lower titles, as in Sahib al-Mamlaka. Malik is also used for tribal leaders, e.g. among the Pashtuns.

Some Arab kingdoms are currently ruled by a Malik:
 * Bahrain, formerly under a hakim, or "ruler", until 16 August 1971, then under an emir, or "prince", and since 14 February 2002 under a malik.
 * Jordan, formerly the Emirate of Transjordan;
 * Morocco, formerly a Sultanate;
 * Saudi Arabia. On 10 June 1916, the Grand Sharif of Mecca assumed the title of King of the Hejaz; from 29 October 1916 "King of the Arabs and Commander of the Faithful"; from 6 November 1916 recognized by the allied powers only as King of the Hejaz, Commander of the Faithful, Grand Sharif and emir of Mecca; also assumed the title of Caliph on 11 March 1924; from 3 October 1924: King of the Hejaz and Grand Sharif of Mecca. In 1925 Nejd conquered Hijaz, so the Sultan of Nejd added the title "King of Hijaz". On 22 September 1932 Nejd and Hejaz were renamed as Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, full style: Malik al-Mamlaka al-'Arabiyya as-Sa'udiyya ("King of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia"); from 1986 prefixed to the name: Khadim al-Haramayn ash-Sharifayn ("Servant (i.e. Protector) of the Two Exalted Holy Places [Mecca and Medina]").

Other historic realms under a Malik include:
 * Egypt – the former khedivate and subsequently independent sultanate was ruled by Malik Misr ("King of Egypt") from 1922 to 1951; and Malik Misr wa's Sudan ("King of Egypt and the Sudan") from 16 October 1951 until the proclamation of the republic on 18 June 1953
 * Iraq – between 23 August 1921 and 2 May 1958, Iraq was ruled by a Hashemite Malik al-'Iraq ("King of Iraq"). Among the indigenous Assyrians and Kurdish Jews, the term has been (and still is) used since pre-Arab and pre-Islamic times for the title of tribal chief, for example Malik Khoshaba of the Bit-Tyareh tribe.
 * Libya – Idris I (1890–1983) (Sayyid Muhammad Idris as-Sanusi, heir of a Muslim sect's dynasty) reigned as Malik al-Mamlaka al-Libiyya al-Muttahida ("King of the United Libyan Kingdom") from 24 December 1951 through 25 April 1963 and Malik al-Mamlaka al-Libiyya ("King of the Libyan Kingdom") until 1 September 1969.
 * Maldives – between 1965 and 1968, Muhammad Fareed Didi ruled the Maldives as Jala'ala ul-Malik ("King" and the style of "His Majesty"); previous rulers were styled Sultan of Land and Sea and Lord of the twelve-thousand islands, holding both the Arabic title of Sultan and the more ancient Divehi title of Maha Radun or Ras Kilege.
 * Oman – the Nabhani dynasty ruled Oman between 1154 and 1470; later it was an imamate / Sultanate.
 * Tunisia was formerly ruled by maliks (1 year).
 * Yemen – between 1918 and 27 September 1962, and in dissidence to March 1970, the imamate of Yemen was ruled by Imam al-Muslimin, Amir al-Mu'minin, Malik al-Mamlaka al-Mutawakkiliyya al-Yamaniyya ("Imam of the Muslims, Commander of the Faithful, King of the Mutawakkilite Yemeni Kingdom").
 * Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India – The Muslim rulers bestowed the title of Malik on loyal tribal leaders and chieftains in South Asia. The Mughal and colonial India, the princely state of Zainabad, Vanod was ruled by a Malek Shri (Shri is an emphatical honorific).

Malik has also been used in languages which adopted Arabic loanwords (mainly, not exclusively, in Muslim cultures), for various princely or lower ranks and functions.
 * In Armenia, the title of Melik was bestowed upon princes who ruled various principalities, often referred to as Melikdoms.
 * In Georgia, among the numerous Grandees, often related to Armenia:
 * In the fourth class, (Sul-didibuli-tavadi) of the Kingdom of Kartli, commanders of banners (sadrosho), sixth and last in that class, the Malik of Somkhiti (Somkhiti is the name of Armenia in Georgian).
 * In the sixth class, Grandees of the second class (mtavari) of the Kingdom of Kartli, ranking first of the second subclass, Grandees under the Prince of Sabaratiano: the Malik of Lori (Lori – a region in Armenia), head of the house of Melikishvili.

The word Malik is sometimes used in Arabic to render roughly equivalent titles of foreign rulers, for instance the chronicler Baha al-Din Ibn Shaddad refers to King Richard I of England as Malik al-Inkitar.

Religious

 * The sacrament of Holy Leaven in the Assyrian Church of the East
 * It is also one of the Names of God in Islam, and is then al-Malik (الملك) or The King, Lord of the Worlds in the absolute sense (denoted by the definite article), meaning the King of Kings, above all earthly rulers.
 * Hence, Abdelmelik ("servant of [Allah] the King") is an Arabic male name.
 * In Biblical Hebrew, Moloch is either the name of a god or a particular kind of sacrifice associated historically with Phoenician and related cultures in North Africa and the Levant.
 * Melqart ("king of the city") was a Phoenician and Punic god.
 * The Melkites (from Syriac malkāyâ, ܡܠܟܝܐ, "imperial") are the members of several Christian churches of the Middle East, originally those who sided with the Byzantine emperor.

Compound and derived titles

 * Malika is the female derivation, a term of Arabic origin used in Persia as the title for a Queen consort. Frequently also used as part of a lady's name, e.g. Malika-i-Jahan 'Queen of the World'.
 * Sahib us-Sumuw al-Malik (female Sahibat us-Sumuw al-Malik) is an Arabic title for His/Her Royal Highness, notably for Princes in the dynasty of the Malik of Egypt.

The following components are frequently part of titles, notably in Persian (also used elsewhere, e.g. in India's Moghol tradition):
 * - ul-Mulk (or ul-Molk): – of the kingdom; e.g. Malik Usman Khan, who served the Sultan of Gujarat as Governor of Lahore, received the title of Zubdat ul-Mulk 'best of the kingdom' as a hereditary distinction, which was retained as part of the style of his heirs, the ruling Diwans (only since 1910 promoted to Nawab) of Palanpur.
 * - ul-Mamaluk (plural of ul-mulk): – of the kingdoms.

In the great Indian Muslim salute state of Hyderabad, a first rank- vassal of the Mughal padshah (emperor) imitating his lofty Persian court protocol, the word Molk became on itself one of the titles used for ennobled Muslim retainers of the ruling Nizam's court, in fact the third in rank, only below Jah (the highest) and Umara, but above Daula, Jang, Nawab, Khan Bahadur and Khan; for the Nizam's Hindu retainers different titles were used, the equivalent of Molk being Vant.

Pashtun usage
The Arabic term came to be adopted as a term for "tribal chieftain" in the tribal areas of northwestern Pakistan. In tribal Pashtun society in Pakistan, the Maliks serve as de facto arbiters in local conflicts, interlocutors in state policy-making, tax-collectors, heads of village and town councils and delegates to provincial and national jirgas and Parliament.

Punjabi usage
In the Punjab, "Malik", literally meaning "King" or "Lord" is a title used by some well-reputed specific Punjabi aristocrat bloodlines with special lineage, more formally known as Zamindars. The Actual clans to hold and originate this esteemed title are the "Awan" Tribe, They are Martial Warrior Tribes which are also associated with different aspects throughout different generations and periods of history, It is believed that they originated as a clan of warriors who later on settled as wealthy landlords. Malik Awans in Punjabi Ethnology are considered to be Honourable Warriors.

The Muslim Malik community is settled all over Pakistan, and the Sikh Malik are settled in India. The Malik are also known as the Gathwala. The Gathwala are now designating themselves as Maliks. Due to the popularity of the Malik title, many Punjabi sub-castes, such as Gujarati⠀Punjabis and many others, have adopted title to gain acceptance in the Punjabi caste system.

General usage
Malik or Malek is a common element in first and family names, usually without any aristocratic meaning.

A

 * Malik Ambar, Ethiopian military leader for the Ahmadnagar Sultanate
 * Malik Al Nasir, British author and poet
 * Malik Shakeel Awan, Pakistani politician

B

 * Malik Basit or Malik B (1972–2020), American rapper
 * Malik Beasley (born 1996), American basketball player
 * Malik Bendjelloul, Swedish Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, and child actor

C

 * Malik Carney (born 1995), American football player
 * Malik Clements (born 1996), American football player
 * Malik Cunningham (born 1998), American football player

D

 * Malik Davis (born 1998), American football player
 * Malik Dixon (born 1975), American basketball player

E

 * Malik Ellison (born 1996), American basketball player
 * Malik Evans (born 1980), American politician

F

 * Malik Fitts (born 1997), American basketball player

G

 * Malik Gabdullin, Kazakh writer
 * Malik Gaines (born 1973), American artist
 * Malik Gaisin (born 1959), Russian businessman
 * Malik Golden (born 1993), American football player

H

 * Malik Hairston (born 1987), American basketball player
 * Malik Hamm (born 2000), American football player
 * Malik Harris (born 1997), German singer
 * Malik Harrison (born 1998), American football player
 * Malik Heath (born 2000), American football player
 * Malik Henry (born 1997), American football player
 * Malik Herring (born 1997), American football player
 * Malik Hooker (born 1996), American football player

J

 * Malik Jackson (disambiguation), multiple people
 * Malik Jefferson (born 1996), American football player
 * Malik Johnson (born 1998), Canadian soccer player

K

 * Malik Ata Muhammad Khan, Chieftain of Malik-Awan Clan, A Renowned feudal lords and states man
 * Nawab Malik Amir Mohammad Khan, Nawab of Kalabagh, Patriarch of Malik-Awan Tribe
 * Malik Feroz Khan Noon, former Prime Minister of Pakistan
 * Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana, Punjab Unionist party Premier of the Punjab
 * Malik Khoshaba, Assyrian tribal leader of the Tyareh tribe
 * Malik Knowles (born 2000), American football player

M

 * Malik McDowell (born 1996), American football player
 * Malik Monk (born 1998), American basketball player
 * Malik Mothersille (born 2003), English footballer

N

 * Malik Nabers (born 2003), American football player
 * Malik Newman (born 1997), American basketball player

O

 * Malik Obama (born 1958), Kenyan-American businessman
 * Malik Osborne (born 1998), American basketball player

P

 * Malik Peiris, Sri Lankan scientist
 * Malik Pinto (born 2002), American soccer player
 * Malik Pope (born 1996), American basketball player

R

 * Malik Rahim (born 1948), American activist
 * Malik Reaves (born 1995), American football player
 * Malik Reed (born 1996), American football player
 * Malik Reneau (born 2003), American basketball player
 * Malik Riaz, Pakistani businessman and a real estate investor
 * Malik Rose (born 1974), American basketball player
 * Malik Rosier (born 1995), American football player

S

 * Malik Scott (born 1980), American boxer
 * Malik Sealy (1970–2000), American basketball player
 * Malik Sekou (born 1964), American lawyer
 * Malik Shabazz (1925–1965), also known as Malcolm X, an American Muslim leader and human rights activist
 * Malik Stanley (born 1996), American football player

T

 * Malik Taylor (born 1995), American football player
 * Malik Tchokounté (born 1988), French footballer
 * Malik Tillman (born 2002), American soccer player
 * Malik Turner, American rapper
 * Malik Turner (American football) (born 1996), American football player

W

 * Malik Washington (born 2001), American football player
 * Malik Williams (born 1998), American basketball player
 * Malik Willis (born 1999), American football player

Y

 * Malik Yoba (born 1967), American actor and occasional singer

Z

 * Malik Zaire (born 1995), American football player

Surname

 * Abdul Malik, Brigadier (rtd.), first Pakistani cardiologist, founder of National Heart Foundation
 * Anu Malik, Indian singer and music director
 * Armaan Malik, Indian singer
 * Art Malik, Pakistan-born British actor
 * Humaima Malik, Pakistan-born Pakistani actress
 * Feroze Malik, Pakistan-born Pakistani actor, originally known as Feroze Khan
 * Kenan Malik (born 1960), Indian-born British science writer
 * Nikunj Malik, Indian actress
 * Rami Malek, American actor
 * Shoaib Malik, Pakistani cricket player
 * Steve Malik (born c. 1965), American businessman and sports team owner
 * Tashfeen Malik, Pakistani American terrorist
 * Terrence Malick (born 1943), American film director, screenwriter, producer
 * Veena Malik, Pakistani actress, TV host and model
 * Wendie Malick, American actress, former model
 * Yakov Malik, Soviet diplomat
 * Yasin Malik, Kashmiri politician
 * Zayn Malik (born 1993), English singer

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Malik


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Lahiri Mahasaya

 Shyama Charan Lahiri (30 September 1828 – 26 September 1895), best known as Lahiri Mahasaya, was an Indian yogi and guru who founded the Kriya Yoga school. He was a disciple of Mahavatar Babaji. According to the book America's Alternative Religions by Timothy Miller, Lahiri Mahasaya's life was described in Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi as a demonstration of the spiritual attainment that could be achieved by a householder "living fully in the world". A part of Lahiri Mahasaya's face is pictured on the cover of The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Biography
Lahiri Mahasaya was born to Gourmohan and Muktakeshi Lahiri on 30 September 1828, in village Ghurni, Dist. Nadia, West Bengal, India, according to Yogananda. In 1832, a flood killed his mother and destroyed their home, after which his family moved to Varanasi, where he received education in philosophy, Sanskrit, and English. His father arranged for him to be married to Kashimoni in 1846, and he taught her how to read. In 1851, he began working as a clerk and tutor.

On 27 November 1861, Lahiri Mahasaya met Babaji in Ranikhet. Babaji taught him a meditation technique called Kriya Yoga, which Lahiri Mahasaya then taught to many others, including his wife, Paramahansa Yogananda's parents, and Sri Yukteswar Giri, guru of Yogananda.

title: Lahiri Mahasaya


text:
Talk:Rock-climbing equipment

Rewrite this
This should be more of summary or list article that gives links to the individual articles on the gear. Currently, there is too much text, and without the attached references from the articles. There is also a lot of other grear that has Wikipedia articles that is not listed here? 78.16.238.146 (talk) 21:43, 25 March 2023 (UTC)

wrong link
Herzog links not to the climber, but to the SA guy — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.144.254.43 (talk) 22:59, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

 * ✅.thanks. Aszx5000 (talk) 23:13, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

Overhaul of article
I was planning on overhauling this article (tagged since 2008). There is too much text (and most of it unreferenced) when there are already standalone articles on the individual equipment items; we just need to summarize and link to them. In addition, we could broaden this out to cover (and link to) the wider climbing equipment fields (e.g. ice tools). Aszx5000 (talk) 12:44, 9 September 2023 (UTC)

 * I am going to re-structure these are bullet-points to link to the main articles (rather than whose sub-sections that just repeat content from the main articles). Also taking out some of the photos but will restore images when the structure is done. Aszx5000 (talk) 14:51, 9 September 2023 (UTC)
 * I have cut out the bulk of the NPOV/unreferenced text and stripped it down to a more readable format. I have checked WP for rock climbing equipment articles to ensure that everything in linked to here.  I will now start to build up the referencing in the article, and use the best books in this area, over the next few days. Will re-do lede and add some better images at the end. Aszx5000 (talk) 17:00, 10 September 2023 (UTC)
 * ✅ this now. Aszx5000 (talk) 18:30, 14 September 2023 (UTC)

Proposal to move tricams to the "Passive" Section
Although its true that tricams have an "active" and a passive mode" so do hexes? Like you can put a hex face first into a consticting crack or in a parallell crack you can rely on their toqueing action to keep them in place. they still have no moving parts and are pulled into place by the forces acting on them. Tri cams are (conceptually) the same thing, they are a piece of metal that gets stuck when you pull on it. Tamoraboys (talk) 11:02, 11 November 2023 (UTC)

 * +1 no problem with that - always felt they were more passive than active (good to clarify that they have an "active" use). thanks. Aszx5000 (talk) 11:24, 11 November 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Rock-climbing equipment


text:
Talk:The Dirty Dozen

Wrong
This page is wrong. Lee Marvin and one more actor survive. Watch the movie and see. (144.74.164.107)

The comment you are referring to is: Of the twelve, only Wladislaw (Number 9) (Bronson) survives.

You're correct - there were three survivors: Reisman (Lee Marvin), Wadislaw (Charles Bronson), and Reisman's assistant, Sgt Bowren (Richard Jaeckel). However, of those three, only Wadislaw was one of the twelve. The article is correct as-is. --Raul654 01:23, 20 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * So much for the characters who survive the plot. Now what about the actors who are still with us? In a timeless online encyclopedia, how helpful is it to record (under Cast) a bald statement like "Six members of the Dirty Dozen are deceased" ? So I checked it out and, yes, it's actually true for today! I've included the essential "As of" component, but really—since the survivors now range in age from 74 to 89—a whole series of edits are going to be needed before the whole dozen have dropped off the twig. I say let's just delete this useless dated information. Bjenks (talk) 07:28, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

True story
The movie is also based on a true story, so it is not entirely fictional.

 * Based on a true story? According to this review the movie was not based on a true story. --68.76.219.110 06:23, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

The movie is extremely fictional, twelve unidentifiable soilders did not raid a German officer's manor before D-Day, not to mention the ridiculous props. The M3 grease gun was no the standard sub MG for the army in 1944, the Tommy was, and most units had Garands or Carbines anyway.
 * The M3 SMG was a standard issue in 1944, mainly to AFV crews - it would make more sense for a commando unit to jump with M3s rather than Thompsons, though one has to remember it is just a movie. What "most units" did is rather irrelevant. Besides which, Marvin trained on the M3 while in the USMC and was already familiar with its use - as the propmaster found out on the set when he tried to "instruct" Marvin in its use.Michael Dorosh 18:22, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Plot addition
This part was added by 64.114.5.2:

 * The movie focuses on Lee Marvin's character training the "Dirty dozen" to fight like good soldiers. His unorthodox methods of training prevail, and they all become very competent combatants. their skill is demonstrated during the "war games" scene, in which the Dirty Dozen use sneakiness and cunning to prevail; proving to Marvin that they are ready to attempt the big mission, the attack on the a Nazi Party party.

And I don't know how to integrate it in, but I know it doesn't belong at the bottom of the article. Someone, please merge this in and delete my comment here. Cburnett 20:02, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)

saw it last night on TV
Am I the only one who noticed that they violated the Geneva conventions multiple times? --Carl 07:13, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
 * The Geneva convention applies to prisoners of war - it does not apply to someone being held by his own military. →Raul654 07:32, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
 * No, I mean the Dozen themselves broke the rules of war: they had no dog tags, they misused uniforms, they targetted officers, they killed German civilians (yes, it would have been hard to let the wives escape without it backfiring, but the way they did it was still really slack), and during the war game they faked out the medical personnel. All of that is really, really sketch. If you saw a movie about Germans sneaking into England and throwing hand grenades and gasoline onto a group of Majors cowering in the basement, would you really be completely comfortable with it? Nevermind that the Nazis are bad guys; the Dozen are no saints either. --Carl 09:40, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

How about The Eagle has Landed where German troops sneak into the UK dressed as Polish troops!

 * Ahhh, the wonders of patriotism. The movie is obviously a pro-american movie, just like the majority of movies made about WW2. But of course "the Dozen are no saints either." That's why they are "dirty". I mean, they were pulled out of prison! Bornyesterday 12:41, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

Well, I understand that being "bad" is part of their appeal, since they're rebels who don't follow the rules. But I think the rules in question which they aren't following are kind of important ones. So important that it's obscene that they're the protagonists of the movie. Of course, the 60's also brought us Bonnie and Clyde along with everything else. It's just funny to celebrate these guys just because they're on our side. Anyhow, wikipedia isn't a forum, so I guess I'll let it go with that. I just think it might be interesting if someone who knows more about the rules of war could make a definitive list of all the ones being broken. --Carl 12:40, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
 * The "rules of war" specifically ALLOW the use of enemy uniforms as a legitimate ruse de guerre - see the article on Brandenburg Commandos or read Spaeter's history of same. You're not allowed to fight in enemy uniform, but you are permitted to wear them to fool the enemy up to the point of contact.Michael Dorosh 18:25, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Isn't that the point of the film? (Interestingly, as far as I recall, no German character does anything particularly "evil" during the entire movie, although they're supposed to be the bad guys.) Remember it was made in 1967, when USA, particularly the younger generation, was growing weary of the ongoing Vietnam war. 惑乱 分からん * \)/ (\ (< \) (2 /) /)/ * (talk) 18:40, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

So,the germans broke the geneva convention all the time and if they obayed the rules they wouldnt be there in the first place. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.226.24.105 (talk) 04:43, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Please, this movie is just fiction. Penal battalions weren't used in English or American Army. Red Army really had penal battalions, with great success.Agre22 (talk) 22:28, 20 September 2009 (UTC)agre22

TV Show
I seem to recall their being a short lived TV Series based on the movie back in the late 80's on Fox TV. I think it only lasted two seasons. Don't know if that's worth mentioning.
 * I think it should be given a separate article. Charles Essie (talk) 00:09, 27 October 2013 (UTC)

TV Show Error
There are more than 6 episodes. Episode list for "Dirty Dozen: The Series"

The True Story???
In the book EM Nathanson states that he heard of such units in existance.

While the story may be based on the "Filthy Thirteen": a small group of airborn demolision experts whose story was documented by this book (see http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932033122/103-1119820-6772601?v=glance&n=283155), I did hear from a war veteran who served in the Marine Corps that there really were units of convict soldiers who were sent on dangerous missions. These missions tended to be so secret that even after the war they were not talked about. Furthermore, since most of those involved were killed few lived to talk about it.

Can someone verify this? I looked for reliable sources but came up with nothing.

Piercetp

Can't add anything to your question, but Nathanson put the "he heard of" statement in the novel as a prelude to the story...not to indicate that it had any truth.--Buckboard 10:32, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
 * And it says "I have heard a legend that there might have been men like them, but nowhere in the archives of the United States Government, or in its military history did I find it recorded." —Centrx→talk • 00:18, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

 * It reminds me a bit of events surrounding the formation of the Special Air Service... It's a good read if you like those old yarns; Paddy Mayne saved from a court-marshall by founder David Stirling, hand-picked men, operational deniability. But apart from those parallels it was more obviously people in whose countries the war was actually happening who fought in small groups.  There were many 'Dirty Dozens' (from partisans to commandos), but unhelpfully for the task of tracing an American lineage for this film (and similar films), they were Europeans rather than Americans. It strikes me as an example of one of those unwitting cultural translations (which is my interest); making movies about what one saw, rather than what one did.  Hakluyt bean (talk) 20:24, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Remake?!?
Today was the first I'd heard about it, but apparently the movie's being remade:

 * IMDb

 * Dark Horizons

 * Hollywood.com

-- MyrddinEmrys 05:27, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
 * And the US has yet again managed to enter a never-ending war on unclear grounds. Doesn't seem coincidental. 惑乱 分からん * \)/ (\ (< \) (2 /) /)/ * (talk) 18:42, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

Was Sinatra responsible for Trini's abrupt departure?
Can anyone verify this story I heard years ago: Sammy Davis was on tour with Frank Sinatra, injured himself, and Sinatra had Lopez' charater killed off so that Lopez could replace Sammy right away on the tour? It's a great story if it's true, but I can't find a citation for it. Anyone else? 24.15.68.10 07:40, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
 * The latest DVD release has an interview with Lopez where he does mention being talked into leaving the film to further his singing career. 139.48.25.61 (talk) 22:17, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

 * Is it a worthy detail to add to the article, to explain that Lopez left to further his singing career? Right now, the article just says that he left, and offers no explanation.  Best regardsTheBaron0530 (talk) 15:26, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:200755.1020.A.jpg
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BetacommandBot (talk) 19:14, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

This movie is just fiction
This movie is just fiction. Penal battalions weren't used in English or American Army. Red Army really had penal battalions, with great sucessAgre22 (talk) 22:21, 20 September 2009 (UTC)agre22

Legacy
I did not know the following until I edited See Also: according to IMDB Dirty Dozen was the inspiration for an entire sub-genre/niche of prisoner cum soldier films. Ie Devil's Brigade and Kelly's Heroes along with a host of others. [] This represents a lasting legacy for this film and inclusion would greatly improve the article. I've reverted the See Also for now, let's discuss how to better integrate this legacy into the article. Lionelt (talk) 23:19, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * If there are sources---other than IMDB---a subsection could be created to discuss the film's influence. But, a simple list of titles in the see also section is not illuminating. ---  RepublicanJacobite  The'FortyFive'  23:37, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

Too Late the Hero
The suggestion that the 1970 film by Aldrich is a sequel to this film is based on one article in Time magazine.

It stated: "Cinema: Jungle Rot". Time. June 8, 1970. http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,909350,00.html "War may be getting a bad name, but it still pays at the box office. Ask Director Robert Aldrich. His 1967 movie The Dirty Dozen made millions by drafting a gang of incorrigible convicts into a mission behind enemy lines. Too Late the Hero is a kind of sequel to The Dirty Dozen, based once again on a World War II suicide mission."

The key words here are "a kind of". That clearly does not make it so, especially as this is an editorial in review and therefore pure opinion not categorical fact. The suggestion that Too Late the Hero is a sequel to The Dirty Dozen is a purely a version of WP:OR and not based on any reliable quote or source pertaining directly to the director Robert Aldrich. The allusion to the Dirty Dozen therefore should be changed to state that this is opinion and not actual fact.

Characters
I have removed the characters section as unsourced, original research, and repetition of elements of the plot and cast sections. Why would we need a "characters" section separate from the "cast"? If someone has a good explanation for that, I would like to hear it. ---  RepublicanJacobite  The'FortyFive' 22:09, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

 * (Here's why a "Characters" section would be good: a list showing how each character died in the movie. I've tried several times to see all 11 convict deaths but always get confused.  Perhaps it could just be another column in the Cast Table.)  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.174.205.1 (talk) 05:36, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

 * Not all deaths are shown on screen: Jiminez (killed in the parachute drop), Posey (presumably killed the same time as Bravos by the armoured car), Gilpin (killed on the roof when he blows up the mast).

There is a problem with the formatting of the cast section. Someone with a better grasp of html should fix it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alexjamesrich (talk • contribs) 16:13, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

Well we hardly do see that Gilpin is killed, I don't know what happens afterwards and Gilpin however is likely MIA because his body wasn't seen killed on screen, as for Posey was never shown killed on screen so to tell you this I don't know exactly what happens to Posey even at the end claims in the credits both he and Gilpin are dead, highly unlikely, Posey maybe taken Prisoner of War or was executed afterwards or maybe saved by Resistance or if so might have asked Reisman to mistaken list him KIA in records, Gilpin well that's another story never seen on screen be killed on the roof but likely if possible taken Prisoner of War it isn't possible he died since however he wasn't nearest to the antenna because if he was closest he would be dead, but he does duck down and I am not shore what happens to Gilpin on screen sorry, as for Posey last seen fighting alongside Bravos only saw Bravos killed but Posey isn't seen on screen killed off. Trooper201 (talk) 09:18, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

Spelling of Names
• “Glenn Gilpin” versus “Gilpin, S.”? • “Jiminez” or “Jimenez”? JDAWiseman (talk) 19:06, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

Lineage of movie
"The Charge at Feather River" seems to have inspired "Major Dundee" which seems to have inspired "The Dirty Dozen". 50.202.81.2 (talk) 16:47, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

True to novel?
It would be interesting to know how closely the film follows the novel. Valetude (talk) 14:54, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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Irrelevant Article From Wiki Page
I've place this here because in some ways it is interesting but at the same time it's trivia. Most movie scripts based off of novels often condense plots for the sheer reason of runtime, expediency and exposition. Maybe it could be added to the novel page (if there is one?) to show how the novel was trimmed for the big screen. It really doesn't add anything more to the understanding of the film.

The attack on the French chateau, a set-piece action sequence and the climax of the film, is referenced in past tense in the form of an official army report, using the false document technique. Rather than dressing in U.S. Army fatigues, Reisman, Bowren, and the Dozen parachuted into France with Nazi fatigues and were issued German weapons.
 * Differences from the novel

The characters of Milo Vladek and Tassos Bravos were not in the novel. Instead, the novel featured Myron Odell, a sensitive medic who claims to be innocent of raping and mutilating a girl, and Calvin Ezra Smith, an older and religious soldier.

The character of Archer Maggot was in no way a religious fanatic as portrayed on screen, but was a Alabaman gangster who was convicted of rape. Rather than Maggot jeopardizing the mission, it was Odell. After Odell killed a woman in the chateau he loudly announces his guilt, thus exposing the team.

Sawyer had a much larger role in the novel. Sawyer was the only prisoner out of the dozen that had seen combat (these traits were given to Wladislaw in the movie). Sawyer was also the prisoner that imitated a general during the inspection of Colonel Breed's men (this sequence was given to Pinkley in the movie).

Lever was a robber who was caught in a stick-up (these traits were given to Franko in the movie). Gilpin was a drifter from the southwest who specialized in construction and demolitions. Jimenez was a nineteen year old from California who liked the cook.

The African-American prisoner in the novel was named Napoleon White, a former Lieutenant who did not want to fight on anybody's side. Throughout the novel, White and Maggot clashed. Ironically, after White was wounded during the mission, it was Maggot who was assigned to care for him and wait for the invading Allies to arrive.

Posey was an Ute Indian who insisted on letting his hair grow long during the Dozen's training. During the pre-invasion rainfall, Posey did a rain dance (this sequence was written out of the original script). During the mission, Posey applied warpaint onto his face, despite being in Nazi fatigues.

Wladislaw was a jumpy Chicago native with a thick accent. He was taken under White's wing throughout the novel and the two became friends. During the latrine beating, Wladislaw managed to escape, rather than having his fellow prisoners rescuing him.

Reisman was much younger in the novel and was a Captain by the time he was assigned to Project Amnesty. Reisman had a sexual relationship with a British tavern girl by the name of Tess Simmons. The character of Tess Simmons was in the initial script but was written out.

In the novel, the majority of the men survived the mission but were listed as Missing in Action. Those who were missing were: Reisman (confirmed wounded), White (confirmed wounded), Pinkley, Sawyer, Posey, Jimenez (confirmed wounded), Maggot and Wladislaw. The rest of the Dirty Dozen was killed in action. Sgt. Clyde Bowren was the only individual that was recovered and confirmed alive. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.129.3.207 (talk) 14:53, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

origin of the name
during the battle of France, the 12th squadriglia (italian translation, perhaps the original is wing) of Battle was nicknamed Dirty Dozen (from Alistair Horne, Come si perde una battaglia, [To lose a battle] Le Scie Mondadori 1970, pag.253 -- for the page in the english edition search in the index the names Gray and Galland)

p151.29.25.24 (talk) 09:15, 26 October 2019 (UTC)ietro

title: Talk:The Dirty Dozen


text:
Polish Workers' Party

The Polish Workers' Party (Polska Partia Robotnicza, PPR) was a communist party in Poland from 1942 to 1948. It was founded as a reconstitution of the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) and merged with the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) in 1948 to form the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). From the end of World War II the PPR led Poland, with the Soviet Union exercising moderate influence. During the PPR years, the centers of opposition activity were largely diminished, and a socialist system was established in the country.

Arriving from the Soviet Union, a group of Polish communists was parachuted into occupied Poland in December 1941. With Joseph Stalin's permission, in January 1942 they established the Polish Workers' Party, a new communist party. The PPR established a partisan military organization Gwardia Ludowa, later renamed Armia Ludowa. In November 1943, Władysław Gomułka became secretary (chief executive) of the Central Committee of the PPR. On 1 January 1944 the party created the State National Council (KRN), proclaimed to be a wartime parliament of Poland; the body was chaired by Bolesław Bierut. In June 1944 the Union of Polish Patriots, a rival to the PPR Polish-communist organization operating in the Soviet Union, recognized the KRN as "the true representation of the Polish nation". The PPR was initially a small party with marginal support; it grew because of its alliance with the victorious Soviet Union.

In July 1944 the Polish communists, working in close cooperation with Stalin and other Soviet leaders, established and declared in liberated Lublin a provisional executive quasi-government of Poland, which they called the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN). In the PKWN Manifesto issued at that time, the PKWN claimed its authority in Poland and promised post-war reconstruction as well as land reform. The KRN and the PKWN were established when the Polish government-in-exile in London was the internationally recognized government of Poland. By the end of 1944, the PKWN was replaced with the Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland, recognized by the Soviet Union, with which it signed in April 1945 a 20-year friendship, alliance and cooperation treaty. As a result of the Yalta Conference Allied determinations, the Provisional Government was converted to a formally coalition Provisional Government of National Unity (TRJN) in June 1945. The Polish government-in-exile was excluded from participation and the PPR ended up controlling the new government, which was soon recognized by the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries. Establishment of a permanent government was conditioned on national elections being held, as mandated by the Allies. In the meantime the PPR engaged in a massive program of rebuilding the country and its industry, in combating and containing the various forms and manifestations of opposition to its rule, but also in manipulating the election preparation process to ensure the party's lasting domination.

The 1946 Polish people's referendum, followed by the 1947 Polish legislative election, were rigged and declared a decisive victory of the PPR's "Democratic Bloc". The only legal opposition, the Polish People's Party, was marginalized. Gomułka's victory, however, was short-lived. Pressured by the Cold War, Stalin had no more patience for the Polish leader's national brand of communism, and from August 1948 the PPR was led by Bierut. In December 1948, the PPR and the purged PPS were merged to form the PZPR. What was left of democratic and pluralistic practices and pretenses was abandoned and Poland entered its period of Stalinist rule.

Communist Party of Poland and its demise
The Communist Party of Poland (KPP, until 1925 the Communist Workers' Party of Poland) was an organization of the far-left. The views adhered to and promulgated by its leaders (Maria Koszutska, Adolf Warski, Maksymilian Horwitz, Edward Próchniak) led to the party's difficult relationship with Joseph Stalin already in 1923–24. The Communist International (Comintern) condemned the KPP for its support of Józef Piłsudski's May Coup of 1926 (the party's "May error"). From 1933, the KPP was increasingly treated with suspicion by the Comintern. The party structures were seen as compromised due to infiltration by agents of the Polish military intelligence. Some of the party leaders, falsely accused of being such agents, were subsequently executed in the Soviet Union. In 1935 and 1936, the KPP undertook a formation of a unified worker and peasant front in Poland and was then subjected to further persecutions by the Comintern, which also arbitrarily accused the Polish communists of harboring Trotskyists elements in their ranks. The apogee of the Moscow-held prosecutions, aimed at eradicating the various "deviations" and ending usually in death sentences, took place in 1937–38, with the last executions carried out in 1940. The KPP members were persecuted and often imprisoned by the Polish Sanation regime, which turned out to likely save the lives of a number of future Polish communist leaders, including Bolesław Bierut, Władysław Gomułka, Edward Ochab, Stefan Jędrychowski and Aleksander Zawadzki. During the Great Purge, seventy members and candidate members of the party's Central Committee fled or were brought to the Soviet Union and were shot there, along with a large number of other activists (almost all prominent Polish communists were murdered or sent to labor camps). The Comintern, in reality directed by Stalin, had the party dissolved and liquidated in August 1938.

The PPR's World War II foundations
On 28 June 1940, soon after the Katyn massacre, Stalin received Wanda Wasilewska, an unofficial leader of Polish communists, at the Moscow Kremlin. The event initiated a reorientation of Soviet policies in regard to Poles. As a result, a wide range of official political, military, social, cultural, educational and other Soviet-Polish projects and activities commenced in 1940 and continued during the years that followed.

The German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 changed the course of World War II and with it the nature of Polish-Soviet governmental relations. Pressured by the British government, the London-based Polish government-in-exile, led by Władysław Sikorski, signed an agreement with the Soviet Union, which included a Soviet recognition of the Polish government. A Polish army was formed in the Soviet Union, but was soon taken out of there and into the Middle East by Władysław Anders. The Katyn massacre perpetrated by the Soviets on Polish POWs was revealed and the Soviet Union "suspended" diplomatic relations with the Polish government. Prime Minister Sikorski was killed in an airplane crash in July 1943. These and other factors, including disagreements about future borders, caused the Polish-Soviet relations to deteriorate.

Meanwhile, Stalin, beginning in the summer of 1941, pursued other Polish options, utilizing Polish communists and other Poles willing to cooperate, many of whom were present at that time in the Soviet Union. Polish language radio broadcasts began in August 1941; they called upon the Poles in Poland to unconditionally engage in anti-German resistance. Some prewar Polish officers were transferred to occupied Poland to conduct pro-Soviet conspiratorial activities and the Polish communists worked in November on organizing the Poles in the Soviet Union. Among the communist groups that became active in Poland after Operation Barbarossa was the Union for Liberating Struggle (Związek Walki Wyzwoleńczej), whose leaders included Marian Spychalski.

A September 1941 attempt to transport activists from the Soviet Union to Poland was unsuccessful, but beginning in late December, a group of Polish communists which included Marceli Nowotko, Paweł Finder, Bolesław Mołojec and Małgorzata Fornalska, was parachuted into Poland. They had Stalin's permission to create a new Polish communist party. In Polish society the communists could count on marginal support only, so to avoid negative connotations it was decided not to include the word "communist" in the party's title. The party took the name "Polish Workers' Party." The PPR, intended in some sense as a continuation of the prewar KPP, was established in Warsaw on 5 January 1942, when some of the new arrivals met with local communist activists.

The new party, which presented itself as an anti-Nazi Polish patriotic front, distributed a manifesto printed in Moscow entitled ''To workers, peasants and intelligentsia! To all Polish patriots!'', in which it called for an uncompromising struggle against the German occupier. A leftist, formally democratic program was proposed and the party, whose operations concentrated mostly in the General Government, grew to about six thousand members by the summer of 1942. From 1943, an affiliated youth organization existed; it was called the Union for the Struggle of the Youth (Związek Walki Młodych).

The PPR operated under the Central Committee led by Secretary Marceli Nowotko. Nowotko was killed on 28 November 1942. Mołojec took over as secretary (party chief), but he was suspected of arranging Nowotko's murder and subsequently condemned and executed by the ruling of the party court. In January 1943, Finder became secretary and the three-person Secretariat also included Władysław Gomułka and Franciszek Jóźwiak.

Gwardia Ludowa (the People's Guard) military organization originated together with the party it served. It was led by Mołojec and then Jóźwiak. Gwardia Ludowa attacked Germans in Warsaw and organized partisan units in the countryside, primarily to destroy the German communication facilities.

In February 1943 the PPR undertook talks with the Government Delegation for Poland, which represented in occupied Poland the Polish government-in-exile, and the central command of the underground Home Army, on possible cooperation. The negotiations made no progress because of the irreconcilable points of view of the two sides. After the Soviet Union broke diplomatic relations with the Polish government (25 April 1943), the contacts were terminated and the PPR's attitude toward the exile government-led Polish authority became hostile.

The war progressively radicalized Polish society and the communists tried to take advantage of the situation by forming a coalition with other leftist and agrarian forces. However, a common "democratic front", meant as a platform for the future power struggle, failed to materialize because the rival parties were generally unwilling to cooperate with the PPR.

Polish communist institutions in the Soviet Union
Facilitated by Stalin, communist-controlled Polish civilian and military institutions were also formed in the Soviet Union. The leading roles in them were initially assumed by Wanda Wasilewska, a daughter of former Polish minister and Piłsudski's associate, herself a friend of Stalin, and the Polish officer Zygmunt Berling. From October 1940, Berling led a group of Polish officers working to establish a Polish division within the Soviet Red Army. The Union of Polish Patriots, proposed and organized from January 1943, had its founding congress in June 1943 and was led by Wasilewska. Berling, Alfred Lampe, Stefan Jędrychowski, Andrzej Witos and Bolesław Drobner were among the communists and individuals of other political orientations active in the organization, people willing to participate in a communist-dominated undertaking. After the Soviet authorities closed the branches of the Polish government's delegation in Soviet controlled territories, the union, assisted by a Soviet agency, established a social welfare department to look after the Poles scattered throughout its range of operations. The Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division, commanded by Berling, was formed beginning in May 1943. The division fought at the Battle of Lenino in October 1943. The Polish National Committee, intended to develop into a communist government, was organized under Wasilewska from December 1943, but its formation was abandoned when Moscow found out about the existence of the State National Council in Warsaw. The Polish civilian and military activities in the Soviet Union were managed from January 1944 by the Central Bureau Communists of Poland. Its important members were Chairman Aleksander Zawadzki, Wasilewska, Karol Świerczewski, Jakub Berman, Stanisław Radkiewicz, Roman Zambrowski, Hilary Minc and Marian Spychalski. Some of them would later form the core of the Stalinist and strictly pro-Soviet (internationalist in outlook) faction of Poland's ruling communists, who worked closely with Bolesław Bierut and were opposed to the national PPR current led by Gomułka. On the military side, the First Polish Corps was formed from the Kościuszko Division and expanded into the First Polish Army in March 1944, still under command of General Berling. The army was incorporated into the 1st Belorussian Front.

Gomułka's leadership, State National Council, Polish Committee of National Liberation
In November 1943 Finder and Fornalska were arrested by the Gestapo, which also took the PPR's radio equipment. Communication between Warsaw and Moscow was no longer possible. Władysław Gomułka became secretary of the Central Committee of the PPR on 23 November 1943 and Bierut became a member of the Secretariat.

The PPR published the "What are we fighting for" (O co walczymy) program declaration. Democratic ideas and future elections were proclaimed there, while the government-in-exile and the Underground State were denied the right to represent the Polish nation. Territorial changes after the war were indicated and nationalization of industry was promised together with land reform.

At that time the Central Committee decided to create the State National Council (Krajowa Rada Narodowa, KRN), a quasi-parliament rival to the government-in-exile and the Underground State institutions. The council was established on 1 January 1944 and was chaired by Bierut. Members of splinter socialist and peasant groups were co-opted to participate. The communist partisan military formation was now named Armia Ludowa (AL); it was placed under command of General Michał Rola-Żymierski.

After communications with Moscow were restored, a KRN delegation left for Moscow. Upon arriving there, they were officially greeted by Soviet officials and in June the Union of Polish Patriots had to recognize the KRN as the "true representation of the Polish nation". After the second KRN delegation arrived in Moscow, the Polish communists, in close cooperation with Stalin and other Soviet leaders, began working on a temporary executive government to administer the Polish lands (west of the Bug River) liberated by the Soviet and Polish communist armies. On 22 July 1944 the new organ, named the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN), was officially established in the Lublin province. The PKWN Manifesto was issued, in which the committee claimed its authority in liberated Poland and announced fundamental and wide-ranging reconstruction and systemic changes, most prominently a land reform, to be implemented in the country. The socialist Edward Osóbka-Morawski was the PKWN's head and General Żymierski led the defense department, which diminished the role of General Berling. Most of the remaining PPR and KRN leaders left Warsaw and entered the Soviet-controlled territory. Zenon Kliszko and few others stayed in the capital to coordinate communist activities in the still occupied part of Poland.

Government-in-exile after Sikorski's death
After the death of Prime Minister Sikorski, the important figures in the exile government in London were President Władysław Raczkiewicz, the newly nominated Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk and Commander-in-chief Kazimierz Sosnkowski. During the Tehran Conference (November–December 1943) Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill determined the geographic location of the future Polish state (between the Oder River and the Curzon Line) without consulting or even notifying the Polish leaders. Czechoslovakia, previously Poland's partner for a planned confederation, signed in December 1943 a friendship treaty with the Soviet Union. As a result of the developing Soviet wartime advantage, the Polish government was gradually abandoned by its allies.

Early in January 1944, the Soviet forces crossed the 1939 border of Poland. The British pressured the Polish government to accept the Soviet conditions for a resumption of Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations and practical cooperation (a recognition of the Curzon Line border and removal of anti-Soviet politicians from the Polish government), but the Polish side balked. Mikołajczyk advocated compromising with the Soviets for the sake of preserving the country's independence, while Sosnkowski, counting on the outbreak of war between the Allies, rejected making any concessions. In February Churchill publicly announced his government's support for a Curzon Line Polish-Soviet border anyway.

In June 1944, Mikołajczyk officially traveled to the United States, where President Roosevelt suggested that he visits the Soviet Union to conduct political discussions. Roosevelt also asked Stalin to invite the Polish prime minister for talks on a resumption of bilateral relations. On 30 July Mikołajczyk arrived in Moscow accompanied by Foreign Minister Tadeusz Romer and Stanisław Grabski, chairman of the National Council. The PKWN had already been established and Stalin proposed negotiations between the two Polish representations aimed at their unification. The talks with Bierut, Osóbka-Morawski and Wasilewska did take place, but Mikołajczyk found the communist ideas and demands unacceptable, even though he was offered the job of prime minister in a combined government. The PKWN leaders were willing to grant the pro-Western Poles only four out of the eighteen discussed ministerial seats. Mikołajczyk reported to the government delegate in Poland that the Soviets would consider establishing diplomatic relations if the Poles first agreed between themselves, that "the Soviet government has not yet finally sided with the (Polish) communists", but "Polish communists are determined to exploit the situation for turning Poland into a communist state". Thus the prime minister, himself unable to convince his government of the necessity of offering significant concessions to victorious communists, believed that Polish communist leaders were effectively blocking his deal with Stalin. After Mikołajczyk's return to London, the government-in-exile came up with its own version of compromise proposals which included the PPR's participation in the government, but they were rejected by the PKWN.

Defeat of Operation Tempest and the Warsaw Uprising
In 1944, the lack of Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations and the resultant inability to conduct negotiations forced the Polish leadership to undertake political and military actions in an attempt to create a fait accompli situation in Poland that the Soviets would be compelled to accept. According to the planned Operation Tempest, the retreating German forces would be attacked by the Home Army, temporary Polish civilian administration would be installed in the liberated areas and its members, representing the government-in-exile, would greet the incoming Soviets as the rightful hosts. Consequently, in the spring and summer of 1944, the Polish underground waged numerous military operations in the areas where the Soviet advance was taking place. The actions resulted in military and political defeats, because the Soviets disarmed, arrested and deported the Home Army fighters, while the Western Allies cultivated good relations with the Soviet Union and were not interested in investigating the Polish claims of mistreatment or lending the Poles practical support. Fighting and winning a battle for Warsaw seemed the only opportunity left for the mainstream Polish independence movement.

The establishment of the PKWN provided an additional motivation for starting the Warsaw Uprising on 1 August 1944. The Soviets did not join the battle and stopped their offensive. The insurgents were being overpowered by the Germans and the belated rescue attempt in September by the 1st Infantry Division of Berling's First Polish Army ended in a bloody defeat. The Home Army capitulated on 2 October, Warsaw was subsequently largely demolished per Adolf Hitler's orders, and the Polish government-in-exile was no longer capable of staging major armed demonstrations in Poland. General Sosnkowski, having criticized the lack of effective aid to the Warsaw Uprising participants from the Allies, was removed from his top command position in September 1944.

Mikołajczyk's resignation, Provisional Government
In October, Churchill and Anthony Eden went to Moscow, as did Mikołajczyk, Grabski and Romer. They negotiated again with Bierut, Osóbka-Morawski and Rola-Żymierski. Mikołajczyk resisted the British and Soviet pressure to accept the communist territorial and other demands. In November in London, the Polish government rejected the Curzon Line border again. President Roosevelt disappointed the Poles by designating the Polish, British and Soviet governments as the proper forum for border discussions, but Prime Minister Mikołajczyk, unable to convince his colleagues of the need for further compromises, resigned on 24 November 1944. The Polish government, now led by Tomasz Arciszewski, was no longer seriously considered by the Allies.

On 31 December 1944, the State National Council converted the PKWN to the Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland, with Osóbka-Morawski as the prime minister. The Soviet Union recognized the new institution and the Western Allies did not object. The KRN and the Provisional Government gradually strengthened their position, as the Soviet NKVD facilitated the process by performing large scale arrests of opponents of communist rule.

The Provisional Government signed a 20-year friendship, alliance and cooperation treaty with the Soviet Union on 21 April 1945.

Communist-led war effort
The leftist, Soviet-allied Polish armed forces, placed under the authority of the PKWN and then the Provisional Government, were rapidly expanded, ultimately to about 400,000 people in two armies. In the summer of 1944, the First Polish Army established bridgeheads on the Vistula'a left bank south of Warsaw and in August its 1st Armoured Brigade fought the Germans at the Battle of Studzianki.

Many diversionary military actions and other combat operations were undertaken by Armia Ludowa and the Soviet partisans in September and October 1944, especially, but not only, in the Kielce province. At the end of October, led by the AL commander Mieczysław Moczar, most units broke through the front lines to the Soviet-Polish side.

The Soviet offensive was resumed on 12 January 1945. On 17 January the First Polish Army led by General Stanisław Popławski entered the destroyed Warsaw. It fought on the 1st Belorussian Front and during the following month participated in overcoming strongly fortified German defenses at the Pomeranian Wall, losing 6,500 soldiers; in March it took Kolberg. The 1st Armoured Brigade fought within the 2nd Belorussian Front and contributed to the liberation of Gdańsk and Gdynia. The First Army forced its way across the Oder River on 16–17 April and reached the Elbe near Spandau on 3 May. Its 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division and other Polish formations participated in the final Battle of Berlin. The Second Polish Army, led by General Karol Świerczewski, operated with the 1st Ukrainian Front. It crossed the Lusatian Neisse on 16 April and heading for Dresden suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Bautzen, due to poor command. However, a German rescue force heading for Berlin was stopped. Helping to defeat Nazi Germany in Poland, the two Polish armies suffered losses equal to the Polish military losses encountered during the September Campaign of 1939—66,000 soldiers killed (according to Antoni Czubiński).

Provisional Government of National Unity
The Polish social Left was critical with respect to the prewar Sanation-ruled Second Polish Republic and called for the establishment of a more just and democratic post-war Poland. A return to the March Constitution of 1921 was advocated. These postulates and the Soviet demand for Poland's eastern Kresy territories were accepted by the PPR and allied Polish Socialist Party (PPS) leaders, with considerable support from the agrarian movement politicians, who were also opposed to the April Constitution (1935) regime. Leftist sentiments, increasingly prevalent in Poland in 1944 and 1945, mixed with the widespread unease and fear regarding Poland's expected domination by the Soviet Union.

Further determinations regarding the future of Poland were made at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. The United States and Britain accepted the Soviet position in respect to postwar borders (the extent of Poland's western expansion at the expense of Germany was not specified), but differed with the Soviets on the issue of participation of the London-based government-in-exile in the formation of Poland's new compromise government. The Allied leaders ultimately authorized converting the existing in Poland, communist-dominated Provisional Government to Provisional Government of National Unity (TRJN), with greater participation of democratic and pro-Western forces, but no formal role for the government-in-exile. The TRJN was charged with conducting free elections soon, based on which a permanent Polish government would be established. As for the practical implementation, a commission representing the three great powers negotiated the issue of the TRJN in Moscow and the talks had been stalled for a long time, until joined by former Prime Minister Mikołajczyk of the government-in-exile. In June Mikołajczyk agreed to a temporary deal, which turned out to permanently favor the communist side.

The exact shape of the TRJN was determined during talks in Moscow on 16–21 June 1945. The KRN and the Provisional Government were represented there by seven politicians, including Bierut and Gomułka, three representatives, including Mikołajczyk, came from the emigrant circles and there were five non-communists from Poland. Mikołajczyk unsuccessfully tried to limit the dominant role of the communists and became only a deputy prime minister. Mikołajczyk's People's Party was granted the right to nominate ⅓ of the KRN members; Wincenty Witos and Stanisław Grabski were the new vice-chairmen of that body. On 28 June 1945, Chairman Bierut of the KRN created the TRJN, and on 5 July the US and the United Kingdom withdrew their recognition of the government-in-exile.

The TRJN was led by the socialist Prime Minister Osóbka-Morawski of the previous Provisional Government. Gomułka and Mikołajczyk were included as deputy prime ministers. The formally coalition government had seven PPR members, six from the peasant People's Party and Polish Socialist Party each, and two from the centrist Democratic Alliance (SD). The government was controlled by the PPR and other politicians reconciled to the reality of Soviet domination. Mikołajczyk's party however, aware of its popularity, counted on winning the planned parliamentary elections and was the only participant that actually thought of the TRJN as being temporary.

Formation of a new sociopolitical system, PPR's role and program
Operating within the Soviet-controlled international environment, regardless of the results of the upcoming mandated elections, the Polish communists had no intention of giving up political power and made no secret of it. Nonetheless, many of them believed that the reforms they undertook under the evolving new system would remain popular and would enable them to win future elections.

The PPR invoked the tradition of social struggle in the Second Polish Republic and the party gained support of many politicians of leftist orientation from the peasant and socialist movements, who shared that point of view. The PPR promised radical land ownership and agrarian reforms as well as nationalization of the industry, banking and trade. The communists used nationalistic rhetoric of the prewar National Democracy movement in regard to the post-German "Recovered Territories".

A "Democratic Bloc" of parties was organized around the PPR; it included pro-communist factions of the socialist, agrarian and centrist movements. Mikołajczyk's Polish People's Party was legalized and functioned independently as the only formal opposition; other political formations were banned and their supporters persecuted.

The PPR itself comprised different factions, reflecting different experiences of its members. Some of the PPR leaders referred to the Communist International tradition and proclaimed internationalist ideas. They believed in strict hegemony of the Soviet Union, which they saw as both necessary and desirable. This group was led by activists of Jewish origin: Jakub Berman, Hilary Minc and Roman Zambrowski, and by Bolesław Bierut. Berman, Minc and Zambrowski spent the war in the Soviet Union and were leaders of Polish-communist organizations formed there under Joseph Stalin's supervision. PPR chief Władysław Gomułka led the faction that also believed in the (politically necessary) Polish-Soviet alliance, but wanted to form it on more pragmatic bases. They stressed the Polish national interest and wished to pursue a more limited cooperation, as conditioned by that interest. All PPR factions were actually strongly dependent on and therefore practically dominated by Stalin's regime.

In a broader historical perspective, the cooperation of Polish communists, other leftists and some non-leftist politicians with Stalin prevented a territorial reduction of the Polish state of great magnitude. In geopolitical reality, such reduction would be irreversible.

Incorporation of post-German territories, postwar reconstruction and state socialist reforms
Poland's eastern borders had not become a major international issue, as the Western powers accepted the Soviet position in this regard. Decisions concerning the Polish–German border were made at the Potsdam Conference, where Stalin lobbied for Poland's maximal extension in the west, arranged for the Polish government delegation to present their point of view and in the end thwarted the long-standing British policy (aimed at keeping some of the lands in question for the future German state). In Poland, the PPR led the massive "Recovered Territories" propaganda campaign, the Allied-authorized expulsion of ethnic Germans and the repopulation of the region by Poles "repatriated" from the lost Kresy eastern areas. The exact eastern boundary was determined in the Polish–Soviet treaty signed on 16 August 1945, which finalized the contested issue of Lviv (the city stayed on the Soviet Ukrainian side of the border). The resettlement of Ukrainians who lived on the Polish side followed.

The settlement and development of post-German lands was considered a high priority and the Ministry of the Recovered Territories, established in November 1945, was led by Gomułka himself. Being convinced of the crucial importance of the acquired areas for Poland, he energetically pursued their economic development and integration with the rest of the country. After the war, Polish officials had to engage in complicated bargaining with the Soviet authorities, who considered industrial installations in former Germany their war loot and wanted to take as much of it as possible to the Soviet Union. The land reform decree was issued by the PKWN on 6 September 1944. Over one million peasant families benefited from the parcellation of larger estates and post-German property (6 million hectares of land). The act and its implementation concluded the various land reform attempts and partial realizations that went back to the partitioned Poland and Second Polish Republic periods. Thousands of State Agricultural Farms were also established (1.5 million hectares). They were intended as model farming enterprises, demonstrating, in addition to their role in food production, the progressive ways of agriculture. The reforms, whose consequences fundamentally altered the antiquated social and economic structure of Polish society, were sharply criticized by advocates of the inviolability of property rights. Existence as a social class of ziemiaństwo (large scale land owners) was undercut, while the free market economic system was for the most part still functioning in the country.

Reforms of more moderate nature were undertaken in regard to private industry. Various, sometimes chaotic developments took place in 1944–45, including the taking over of thousands of enterprises by workers' councils. A charged national debate that followed resulted in the KRN statute of 3 January 1946. It was decided that the state would take over enterprises that employed over 50 people on a given shift, but the owners who were Polish or foreign (not German) would be paid compensation. Based on that statute, 5,870 enterprises were nationalized by 1948, while 15,700 were left in private hands.

Central planning got started with the establishment of the Central Planning Office in November 1945, directed by socialist Czesław Bobrowski. The Economic Committee of the Council of Ministers was led by Hilary Minc. The economic reconstruction of Poland was undertaken, combined with prospective planning for the next 12 years. 230,000 residential apartments were built in the cities and 300,000 in the country in 1945–47, which resulted in more evenly spread population, living under considerably improved conditions.

Compulsory general education was brought back and higher education was tuition free. A shortage of teachers had to be addressed first and many were needed, given the massive program of elimination of illiteracy and part-time evening schooling for the employed. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) helped with food, clothes and equipment for the Polish people (the assistance amounted to 22% of the country's national income in 1946). Inflation went up to 38% in 1947, but was brought down to 4% in 1949. In late 1946 Poland's economy approached the 1938 prewar level, which allowed gradual discontinuation of the previously imposed rationing of mass consumption products.

Legislation concerning the Three-Year Plan (1947–49) for economic development was passed by the KRN in 1946 and again in 1947 by the new "Legislative Sejm" (parliament) that replaced the KRN after the 1947 Polish legislative election. In 1947, the Sejm proclaimed the right to work. Unemployment was eliminated and real wages increased by 58% during the plan years, but still lagged behind their 1938 level. The public sector produced 50% of the national income in 1947, which went up to 64% in 1949. The private sector was being reduced, while the network of cooperative enterprises experienced significant growth in the area of trade.

Political struggle and persecution of opposition
Politicians in Poland connected in the past to the Sanation and National Democracy formations did not recognize the new realities and waged a determined campaign against the communist authorities, boycotting decisions of the government, especially the ones having to do with the establishment of administrative and military structures. This led to conflicts and intensified repressions. Polish internal security organs were created and resolved, in cooperation with their Soviet counterparts, to disable the opposition using persecution and terror. The political confrontations were accompanied by armed activity of anti-government conspiracy groups.

The Polish Catholic Church, led by Cardinal August Hlond until his death in 1948, took an anti-regime stand. It coped with difficulties related to the lack of Polish church organization in the Recovered Territories. In the fall of 1945, with permission from the Vatican, the Church embarked on the establishment of provisional administrative structures in the territories taken from Germany. Authorization for permanent Polish church administration there was not forthcoming and the instability in this area added to the existing German-Polish antagonisms.

In April 1946, a new volunteer citizen militia ORMO was formed to help the police (Milicja Obywatelska), political police (UBP), the Internal Security Corps, the Polish army, the Soviet political police (NKVD), and the Soviet army to eliminate armed opposition to the government. The NKVD killed, arrested, harassed, and used propaganda to suppress and discredit opponents of the regime. Already during the 1944–48 period, many were imprisoned or taken to the Soviet Union, some executed under court rulings. The whole security system was directed by Soviet politician Lavrentiy Beria.

Government authorities offered two amnesties for fighters from the opposition militia groups, which originated from remnants of the disbanded Home Army and other organizations. Tens of thousands of oppositionists took advantage of the amnesties declared in 1945 and 1947. Some were subjected to further prosecution and imprisonment, but the amnesties effectively terminated the anti-communist armed resistance movement.

Elections of 1947 and elimination of legal opposition
The replacement of postwar cooperation among the great powers with the Cold War derailed the planned peace conference—the issue of Poland's western border was not going to be amicably resolved. In the West only France clearly upheld its support for Poland in the border dispute. "Revisionist" circles had a prominent voice in what was becoming West Germany and the PPR, for existential reasons, felt compelled to strengthen its policy of reliance on the Soviet Union. The TRJN was now in no position to maneuver any degree of independence for itself.

The PPR delayed nationwide parliamentary elections because it believed that the ongoing implementation of reforms would move the public opinion in its favor. The party strengthened its position by first holding a referendum in June 1946, intended as a plebiscite for or against the new system. For the election, the PPR-dominated Democratic Bloc prepared a unified list of candidates; the Polish Socialist Party agreed to join the bloc, but the Polish People's Party, led by Mikołajczyk, refused. The bloc was also opposed by other groups, some of which were not legally registered, while other were semi- or fully conspiratorial and hostile to the bloc.

The referendum asked three questions: about abolishing the Senate (parliament's upper chamber), future constitutional moderate socialist reforms, and the permanency of Poland's western and northern borders. The ruling regime needed to show an overwhelming support for its program before the elections. Accordingly, the referendum was conducted under considerable pressure (such as heavy military and police presence) and the results were falsified to give the Democratic Bloc a strong majority it wanted.

The PPR and its allies in the bloc were large parties, each with membership in hundreds of thousands, supported in addition by the several million-strong trade union structure. They had public security forces at their disposal. The also large and popular People's Party invoked Poland's Western connections and its tradition of struggles for independence. It was supported by the Catholic clergy. The campaign was harsh and the PPR was often subjected to antisemitic Żydokomuna accusations. Given the Soviet pressure, the bloc could not just have won elections by receiving a majority of the votes; it had to produce a result impressive enough for propaganda purposes.

The communists feared losing the elections to Mikołajczyk's party and that this outcome would cause a complete Soviet occupation of Poland. During the election campaign, the PPR targeted the People's Party, the Democratic Bloc's main (but not only) election rival, arresting its candidates, harassing them, and denying them public exposure. About one hundred opposition party activists were murdered; many PPR members were also killed.

In the 1947 Polish legislative election the bloc claimed to have won 80% of the votes, but the election was widely seen as fraudulent. Factors such as the scale of the fraud or who actually received the largest number of votes are not known. The campaign and election results eliminated the People's Party from the political scene, which left Poland with no legally functioning opposition. Mikołajczyk, harassed and threatened, fled the country in October 1947.

Removal of Gomułka, Stalinism, Polish United Workers' Party
In accordance with the announced election results, the PPS, which competed within the Democratic Bloc, received two more legislative mandates than the PPR. The Presidency of Poland was reestablished by the Sejm and Bolesław Bierut, previously chairman of the KRN, was given that job. Józef Cyrankiewicz, a socialist, became the new prime minister and Gomułka was kept as deputy prime minister. The intermediate Small Constitution of 1947 was passed by the Sejm. The newly created Council of State had emergency powers and was led by the president. Despite the elections conducted under communist control and amnesty for armed and political opponents declared by the Sejm, the situation in Poland underwent further polarization.

Because of the deepening division in international politics and the emergence of two mutually hostile blocs, Stalin demanded stricter loyalty in the Soviet sphere; purges of circles and individuals considered ideologically corrupt or otherwise unreliable were pursued. Gomułka's criticism of Soviet policies was now seen as inappropriately nationalistic. Gomułka's "Polish road to socialism", adapting to conditions specific to Poland, was no longer tolerated as Stalin tightened his control over the PPR. Gomułka and his group were removed from positions of responsibility and in August 1948 the Central Committee installed Bierut as general secretary of the PPR. Bierut would strictly follow the Soviet lead and remold Polish society on the Stalinist model.

The PPR pressured the remaining left-wing faction of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) to merge the two parties. The merger occurred in December 1948 and the Polish United Workers' Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR) was formed. The merger was conducted almost entirely on PPR terms; the PPS had by then been "purified" with the expulsion of hundreds of its members.

The Polish People's Party managed to survive for another year, albeit under growing harassment. In 1949, its remains merged with a pro-communist splinter party to form the United People's Party (Zjednoczone Stronnictwo Ludowe, ZSL).

Under PPR rule, the Republic of Poland was a declared "people's democracy" and was not officially considered a socialist entity. Private property and free market functionality were tolerated and the role of the state was not overly exposed. All this had changed with the establishment of the PZPR: the Six-Year Plan of heavy industrial development was imposed and the building of state socialist system and society commenced in earnest.

title: Polish Workers' Party


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Focus Features

Focus Features LLC is an American independent film production and distribution company, owned by Comcast as a division of Universal Pictures, which is itself a division of its wholly owned subsidiary of NBCUniversal. Focus Features distributes independent and foreign films in the United States and internationally.

In November 2018, The Hollywood Reporter named Focus Features "Distributor of the Year" for its success behind the year's breakout documentary film Won't You Be My Neighbor? and Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman. The studio's most successful film to date is Downton Abbey, which garnered $194.3 million at the worldwide box office.

History
Focus Features was formed in 2002 by James Schamus and David Linde and formed from the divisional merger of USA Films, Universal Focus and Good Machine, as well as the several assets of the Vivendi-affiliated film studio StudioCanal. USA Films was created by Barry Diller in 1999 when he purchased Interscope Communications, October Films and Gramercy Pictures from Seagram and merged the three labels together;  USA Films was led by Scott Greenstein. Universal Focus was the specialty film arm of Universal Pictures that was created in 1999 as Universal Classics, which was led by Paul Hardart and Claudia Gray, to replace the October Films label in order to get a group of titles to be distributed by USA Films, focused on the marketing of niche-based acquisitions by Universal Pictures International, Working Title, WT2 Productions, Revolution Films and DNA Films, and eventually rebranded into Universal Focus by 2000.

In March 2004, Focus Features revived Rogue Pictures as a genre label, which was once used by October Films in the late 1990s. Rogue Pictures would be led by the same team who led the standard Focus management.

On October 2, 2013, James Schamus was fired from his position as CEO of Focus, with the New York offices being shut down in the process. He was succeeded by Peter Schlessel, whose company FilmDistrict would be merged into Focus and folded into the trade name High Top Releasing. This became effective in January 2014, and several titles developed under FilmDistrict would be released under Focus. Under Schlessel, the company began to acquire films with a wider commercial appeal, much like his previous company. In May 2015, Gramercy Pictures was revived by Focus as a genre label, that was on action, sci-fi, and horror films.

In February 2016, Focus merged with Universal Pictures International Productions as part of a new strategy to "align the acquisition and production of specialty films in the global market". Following this, along with several disappointing box office returns, Schlessel was let go from the company and replaced with Peter Kujawski.

In April 2017, Vine Alternative Investments re-acquired the pre-2008 Rogue film library from Focus Features.

Focus World
In August 2011, Focus Features launched Focus World, a label focusing on the video on demand market with initial plans to distribute 15 films per year, with one film being released per month.

Australia

 * Roadshow Entertainment (2003–2009)
 * Icon Film Distribution (2004–2012)
 * Universal Pictures (2006–present)

United Kingdom

 * Momentum Pictures (now Entertainment One) (2006–2014)
 * Entertainment Film Distributors (2002–2008)
 * Universal Pictures (2006–present)

Canada

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 * Entertainment One (2013–2016)
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As a distributor, Focus' most successful release in North America to date is the 2019 film Downton Abbey, which earned $84.5 million during its first weekend at the box office and surpassing Brokeback Mountain, which earned $83 million at the North American box office. However, this is not counting the domestic total of Traffic, which earned $124.1 million under the USA Films banner. The animated film Coraline was also highly profitable for the company. Although suffering its share of unsuccessful releases, Focus has been consistently profitable, and its international sales arm (unusual among studio specialty film divisions) allows it to receive the foreign as well as domestic revenues from its releases. Its DVD and movie rights revenues are boosted by cult classics including Wet Hot American Summer.

title: Focus Features