ABSTRACT
In the late 1940s, the Polish communists took power, entered a close alliance with Moscow, and introduced a Soviet-style socialist system. But Poland never totally conformed to the Soviet model. Large sectors of Polish society remained anticommunist. The Catholic Church successfully resisted attempts to suppress it and retained its integrity and autonomy. Also, Polish farmers never fully entered into the communist system of agricultural collectivization. Finally, an active dissident intelligentsia kept democratic ideas alive. 1
