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Studies and articles

Vol. 7 (2014): Język polityki – historia i współczesność

Zdobywanie władzy — zawłaszczanie języka (akcje propagandowe poprzedzające powstanie PRL)

  • Irena Kamińska-Szmaj
Submitted
1 June 2016
Published
01-06-2016

Abstract

Winning power — appropriating the language (propaganda campaigns preceding the emergence of the Polish People’s Republic)


The aim of the article is to present the struggle for power in Poland during the Nazi occupation and the first few years following the Second World War. The Polish Workers’ Party, taking advantage of Stalin’s support, seized power, using the fait accompli method. Power was seized and consolidated through propaganda campaigns carried out in the press and by means of leaflets and brochures. The Manifesto of the Polish Committee of National Liberation was a document establishing a new political system and beginning an appropriation of the language by one party, which, through censorship and coercion measures, ensured for itself unlimited power over the form and content of all open communication. In the hands of an authoritarian government language became an omnipotent tool of manipulation used to enslave society.