From the Soviet Establishment of the "Provisional Government" to the Allied Recognition of It as the "Provisional Government" of National Unity

On December 31, 1944 the "Council of National Unity," sitting in Lublin, proclaimed its National Liberation Committee to be the Provisional Government of Poland. Mr. Bierut, the Chairman of the "Council of National Unity" was declared temporary President of liberated Poland. The Provisional Government consisted of five members from the Socialist and Peasant Parties, four members from the Workers' Party, two members from the Democratic Party, and one "nonparty" army general, but actually all of them were communists or were closely controlled by them. The Yalta agreement was hailed by both Roosevelt and Churchill as the best possible settlement, whose execution would mean Poland's freedom and independence. As the record of Yalta points out, Roosevelt wanted to find a formula to "save the Polish face," and to quiet the disturbed Americans of Polish origin. The British hope to fulfill the Yalta decision centered on Mikolajczyk—that he would accept it and go to Poland, via Moscow, to join the new Government.