organizational autonomy was recognized by the Kremlin, they must reach an agreement with the PPR and not with the PSL. The Communist puppets were summoned to Moscow and ori August 27 formulated the terms of the PPR-PPS pact. The Socialists knew very well how strong was the opposition of the rank-and-file members of the PPS to the united front pact and to entrance into the government bloc which means one list of candidates, and on Stalin's advice they ousted the outstanding leaders of this opposition within the PPS. All Socialists who had been loyal to the great traditions of social democracy lost their governmental posts except those who, like Cyrankiewicz, capitulated. Again the PPR-PPS block offered the PSL 25 per cent. of the representation in the Government-but not the key posts of Minister of the Interior, of Foreign Affairs, of the Army, of the Economy-if Mikolajczyk would agree to a single list of candidates in a prearranged " election." His answer was that he realized the necessity, under the circumstances, of giving the PPR far more authority than they could possibly win in a free election, and the necessity of friendly relations with Soviet Russia. But he insisted that any pact that he would sign must guarantee the independence of not only the PSL, but of the PPS and Christian Labour Party as well. The agreement must provide for the honest fulfilment of the Yalta pledge of free elections and the legal functioning of all anti-Nazi, democratic parties-even the conservative National Democratic Party which heroically and loyally participated in the five-year battle against the Nazi invasion. By refusing the offer of the government bloc, OsubkaMorawski said on January 17, 1947, Mikolajczyk sealed the political doom of the PSL. Meantime the legitimate leader of the Catholic, liberal Labour Party, Karol Popiel, had been forced to resign from his I party in July, 1946, and it was transformed into an organization that the Catholic hierarchy denounces as spurious. An atheist, Dr. Feliks Widy-Wirski (now Acting Minister of Propaganda)1 was duly installed as leader of the Christian Labour Party l 1 The Ministry of Propaganda has since been abolished and its agendas transferred to an office, headed by the Communist leader, Jacob Be~ma11, BibliotecaGino Bianco
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