1946 Polish people's referendum

People's referenda (referendum ludowe) of 1946, also know as "3 times YES" (3 razy TAK) was a referendum held in Poland on 30 June 1946 on the authority of State National Council (Krajowa Rada Narodowa) (order of 27 April 1946). It was a test of popularity of forces vying for political control of Poland after Second World War. It became the sign of things to come: the results which showed the communists didn't have a major support were rigged to show they had an overwhelming support.

The referendum comprised of three general questions:

• Are you in favour of abolishing the Senate of Poland?
• Do you want the adoption in the future Constitution of the economic system, carried out by means of agricultural reform and nationalisation of basic national industries, with the preservation of statutory rights for private initiative?
• Do you want the adoption of the western border of the Polish State on the Baltic Sea, the Oder River and the Nysa River? (the so-called Oder-Neisse line)

Parties of the pro-communist "Democratic Bloc" (PPR, PPS, SD, SL) campaigned for the "3 times YES". PSL, which realised that the voting had a much higher stake – the independence and future of Poland – decided to advocate voting "no" on the first question, even through it was opposed to Senate since before the war. As PSL was a party based on peasant's support who supported the agricultural reform, it couldn't advocate voting no on the second question. Nonethelss, the opposition to the first "yes" was later used by communists to declare more liberal PSL activists as 'the traitors'. "Wolność i Niezawisłość" party argued for "no" to the first two questions, while NSZ wanted "no" for all three, viewing the "no" as a protest for annexation of eastern Kresy by the Soviet Union.

The official results, published on 12 July of 1946, showed that 13,160,451 were eglible for voting out of which 11,857,986 (90,1%) took part in the vote. 11,530,551 votes (97,2%) were valid. For the first question, "yes" was given by 68% voters, "no" by 32%. For the second, "yes" by 77,2%, "no" by "22,8". For the third, "yes" by 91,4%, "no" by 8,6%.

However, the official results were far from the actual results. Elections have been rigged by the communists and their supporters. Communists, who had already de facto control of much of the government, and were backed by army (both Polish Wojsko Ludowe and Soviet Red Army), used police (Milicja Obywatelska) and secret services (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa) to switch the real ballot boxes for false ones, stuff them with false votes, destroy the votes not in favour or simply falsify the votes. Voting in the army has done on command and without secrecy.

In Kraków, were opposition managed to ensure the fair voting, the "no" results were: 84%, 59% and 30% for questions 1 to 3. Despite the protests of oppositon, led by Stanisław Mikołajczyk, and representatives of United Kingdom and United States, the results were declared by the governemnt as sound and fair.

The materials published after the Communists lost power in Poland in 1989 show, that the nationwide results were: for the first question, "yes" was given by 26,9% voters, "no" by 73,1%. For the second, "yes" by 42%, "no" by "58". For the third, "yes" by 66,9%, "no" by 33,1%.

PSL estimated that 3xYES was given by 15% of respondents. Secret protocols of PPR show 27%. Official results were 68%.

The referendum showed the weakness of communists and encouraged them to increase the repressions and presecusion of the oppositions, and discouraged them from holding any fair votes in the future. However, it should be noted that communists did had a significant support base – at least 20% of voters did support their policies without any duress.

References

• Davies, Norman, 1982 and several reprints. God's Playground. 2 vols. New York: Columbia Univ. Press. ISBN 0231053533 and ISBN 0231053517
• M.Turlejska, Zapis pierwszej dekady, 1945-1954
• POLSKA. HISTORIA Article in Polish PWN Encyclopedia, online version. Accessed on 11 July 2005. Polish language.