ABSTRACT
Unintended consequences are typically the bane of politicians anywhere. In the Soviet bloc, they compromised regime strategies and subverted the policies, programs, and strategies in play. Communism was born out of outrage at economic injustice, including child labor, long working hours, low pay, outright exploitation, and the absence of provisions for either universal medical care at government expense or pensions. Communism may be understood as a system based on organizational monopoly and planning in which a single party is hegemonic and exercises control over the media, religious life, and also aspects of the social life of citizens. The regimes understood that some believers might be prepared to cooperate within the system, even though they would not join the explicitly atheist communist party. Among the priorities of the incoming regime were the transformation of Poland into an ethnically homogeneous community and the country’s economic transformation into an industrialized, socialist economy.
