Church and State in Communist Poland

Prior to World War II, Poland was a nation of almost 35 million people, most of whom were Catholic. With the institution of a Communist Soviet regime following the war, a legal strategy for persecuting the church was implemented. This text explores the nature of Polish Catholicism in the first half of the twentieth century and the changes it underwent under the policies of Soviet Communism. Of particular note are the laws and policies that were employed by the state in order to destroy religiosity in general, and Catholicism in particular. The text also explores the way that the strong tradition of Polish culture prepared the populace to be uniquely resistant to attempts to destroy its Christian religious life. It is ultimately, a story of the triumph of the people over the state.