abstract
| - The Polish 1968 political crisis, also known in Poland as March 1968 or March events (Polish: Marzec 1968; wydarzenia, wypadki marcowe) was a major student and intellectual protest action against the government of the People's Republic of Poland. The economy had been failing for years, prices had risen faster than pay on may occasions and the communist party was getting more authoritarian as time moved on. The 1962 Szczecin military parade accident had further aggravated the situation in Szczecin. The crappy Polish economy was in it's death throws and a drastic increase in the prices of meat went into effect in 1967 causing much hardship and anger. The market was further destabilized in 1968 by the rumours of an upcoming currency exchange and the ensuing economic panic, something that East Germans had lived with for years. Work quoters went up, pay went down and meat began to run out. Press censorship went up as well, so intellectual life was badly stifled. Poland's first Secretary Gomułka was a politically fossilised dinosaur, who afraid of all changes. The boredom of stagnation (a pivotal trait of Polish communist thinking), the mood of hopelessness, fear and lack of career prospects thus generated social conflict. The disparity between the expectations raised by the Polish October movement of 1956 and the actuality of the "real socialism" life of the 1960s led to mounting frustration.
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