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 * July
 * Communist controlled Committee of National Liberation formed in Moscow.
 * Sikorski dies in an air crash; Stanislaw Mikolajczyk succeeds him as Premier of the London-based Polish Government-in-exile.


 * December
 * Tehran summit conference agrees that Curzon Line, roughly corresponding to Nazi-Soviet boundary of late 1939, should be Poland's postwar, eastern frontier.

1944


 * July
 * Soviet troops enter territory of present-day Poland, install Polish Committee of National Liberation as de facto government.


 * August
 * Warsaw uprising 1 August-3 October, led by non-Communist underground and supported by the West, is crushed by Nazi forces while Soviet troops stand inactive on eastern approaches to the city.

1945


 * January
 * USSR recognizes Committee of National Liberation as the Provisional Government of Poland.


 * July
 * Government of National Unity, formed in June after international negotiations in pursuance of the Yalta Agreement, is recognized by major Western powers.


 * August
 * Potsdam Conference places German territories east of Oder-Neisse line under Polish administration pending a peace treaty.


 * September
 * Poland denounces Concordat with Vatican.

1947


 * January
 * Fraudulent elections result in demise of non-Communist political opposition led by Mikolajczyk, who flees Poland in October.

1948


 * September
 * Gomulka, as exponent of "Polish road to socialism," is removed from post of Secretary General of the Polish Workers Party.


 * December
 * Polish Socialist Party is absorbed by Polish Workers Party to form Polish United Workers Party; Boleslaw Bierut becomes party leader.

1949


 * November
 * Konstantia Rokossovskiy, Soviet marshal of Polish birth, is appointed Minister of National Defense.

1952


 * July
 * Constition of Polish People's Republic is promulgated.

1953


 * September
 * Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, Primate of Poland, is placed under house arrest.

1955


 * May
 * Warsaw Pact is signed on 14 May.

1956


 * March
 * Bierut dies in Moscow; Edward Ochab succeeds him as party leader.


 * June
 * Workers' "bread and freedom" uprising in Poznan.


 * October
 * Gomulka is elected as party First Secretary in face of Soviet hostility, Marshal Rokossovskiy and Polish Stalinists are removed from power, Cardinal Wyszynski is released, spontaneous dissolution of collective farms is sanctioned by Gomulka, and the party's weakness permits wide non-Communist activity.


 * November
 * Polish-Soviet Declaration is signed as basis of more equitable relations between the two Communist parties and states; long period of mutual ideological accommodation begins.

1957


 * January
 * Elections result in 98.4% vote for Gomulka-sponsored candidates; gradual tightening of domestic controls ensues.


 * June
 * United States grants first interest-free credits for purchase of US surplus agricultural commodities.

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070029-7