Communist Party of Poland - 1918-1921

1918-1921

The KPRP was founded on 16 December 1918 as the result of the fusion of the Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) and the Polish Socialist Party-Lewica (Left) on the basis of the program of the former group. Elections for the Workers Councils which sprang up in early 1919 revealed that the new party had a level of support almost equal to that of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS). However this support was undermined by both national feeling and due to the party being driven underground by reactionary legislation. The KPRP would be illegal for the rest of its life but took part, in the shape of Józef Unszlicht, in the founding of the Communist International in March 1919.

Despite the immense difficulties facing the new party the KPRP promoted the unification of the trade union movement and opposed the war on the country’s eastern frontier. Clashes in this unsettled region became a full scale war with Russia in April 1920 as Jozef Pilsudski, in alliance with Symon Petliura, launched a successful attack into the Ukraine. This was successfully repulsed and the Red Army advanced to the gates of Warsaw only to be pushed back in its turn and defeated on the banks of Vistula. The war being ended by the Treaty of Riga in March 1921.

The war posed problems for the KPRP as its opposition to Polish nationalism ranged it alongside the invading Red Army which to many patriotic workers appeared to be traitorous to the newly established nation state. Due to the support of the government by the nationalist PPS, efforts by the KPRP to agitate for workers solidarity with the Red Army were forestalled and with the retreat of the Red Army the possibility of Poland becoming a bridge to revolutionary Germany faded. However at the height of the Red Army offensive a Provisional Revolutionary Committee was established on August 2, 1920 consisting of Julian Marchlewski, Feliks Dzierżyński, Feliks Kon, Josef Unszlicht and Edward Próchniak. Established as a cadre for a future workers council state in Poland its establishment was politically fruitless but for its abandonment of the traditional Marxist position on the land question as understood by the Polish Marxists in favour of Vladimir Lenin’s more tactical position.