The Social Composition of Polish United Workers’ Party Leadership

Abstract

In this article, the authors discuss the social standing of the members of central party bodies and regional leaders of the Polish United Workers Party. For this purpose, a database was created, including 1677 individuals holding 3148 offices. The communist elite was strongly positively selected on the basis of genealogical ties to the prewar social elite, as well as occupation and education. The central authorities of the PZPR were most “elite” during the Stalinist period, while their ties to the prewar elite weakened in the 1970s. Kinship ties between the democratic opposition leaders and the pre-war social elite were more pronounced than those observed among the communist party leadership.