ABSTRACT
Contradictions in Leninist theory and methods of socialist transformation have contributed to the ideological and practical failure of the Bolshevik project throughout Eastern Europe. By 1948 economic recovery in Poland was under way, the worst of the post-war hardships had been alleviated, the Communist and Socialist parties had merged, and the opposition of the Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe had been neutralized, thus stabilizing the internal economic and political situation and giving the Communist party the dominance it sought. The Communist party was not in undisputed control of the political apparatuses in 1944 when a provisional government, which also included the Peasant party and the Socialist party, was formed in the eastern zones liberated from the Nazis by the Soviet Union. An alternative view of socialist development locates politics and particularly political consciousness and action outside of and affected but not directly determined by economic structures.
