After Stalin' s death in1953 many things were changed in Poland and Soviet Union. New leader of USSR,Nikita Khrushchev, began
the process od destalinization, after he had denouncedthe personality cult in his speech. The communist system imposed on the Centraland Eastern Europe ceased to be a monolith. The changes under way in the USSRhave forced the communist
authorities in Poland to review their policy. Thefirst attempts at criticizing the "security", the much-hated pillarof the communist power in Poland led to loosening the grip of a psychosis offear. System of planned economy have failed in early 1950s.
Workers were upsetbecause of low wages. They didn't have the chance of handling their demands togoverment. Terrible shop supply was another problem. The immediate reason ofthe outburst of dissatisfaction in Poznań was the issue of irregularities incalculating wages, unrealistic indicators of production growth and efficiency,as well as very poor working conditions in the plants. The place where the feelingsof dissatisfaction converged were the former Hipolit Cegielski Poznańfactories, renamed after the war to J. Stalin Poznań (ZISPO) factories. Afterthe delegacy of workers failed, worker's riots started. In the morning of June 28thstaff of W-3 division of the Stalin factories (ZISPO - former Hipolit CegielskiPoznań factories) walk out of their jobs and gather in one of the halls. Staffof other divisions joined them in protest. Half hour later they left thefactory and marched toward city centre. A lot of workers joined them. At 11 o'clock, about 100,000 people assembled on the square in front of the Castle,surrounded by buildings occupied by the city and party authorities and policeheadquarters. A delegation of protesters' representatives hold talks with thecity authorities. The delegates demanded direct talks with the Prime Ministerand the 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers'Party. A group of demonstrators broke into the Castle, the seat of cityauthorities. Following talks with the city authorities, the delegation enteredthe building of provincial authorities of the communist party. Thedemonstration became street fights. Police decided to attack demonstrationswith firearms. In the early morning of June 29th, army units enteredthe city and started pacyfication. About 60 died.September was the beginningof the so-called "Poznań trials": the "trial of three" and"trial of nine" at the Provincial Court in Poznań. The judgment inthe "trial of three" was passed on October 8th - the defendants weresentenced to 4-year and 4.5-year imprisonment. The judgment in the "trialof nine" was passed on October 12th 1956 - the 7 defendants were sentencedto prison terms ranging from 2 to 6 years, and 2 were declared not guilty. Poznań June has led topolitical changes in October 1956, and this first mass social protest againstthe communist regime paved the way to the full independence regained by Poland.At the same time, after the October transformations in Poland, a decision to drawa "curtain of silence' over the Poznań events was taken very quickly. Forthe next 25 years the communist authorities blocked any information on thesebloody events. Historians were denied any source research, and the censorshipeffectively eliminated any mentions of June 1956. The most active participantsof these events have been persecuted for years.The memory of June 1956 was cherished by the families of participants ofthese events and among the residents of Poznań. Graves of the fallen, buried atnight and under guard of Security officers, were treated with respect andremembrance. Behind the curtain of silence, the legend of the Poznań BlackThursday began to emerge based on memories and oral transmissions.A breakthrough in the struggle for remembrance of June 1956 took place afterAugust 1980 events. One of the first initiatives of the Independent Self-GoverningTrade Union "Solidarity" was to erect a monument commemorating PoznańJunNow, after fall ofcommunist dictatorship, we have a lot of signs ofJune events. There are monuments, books and street names, that concern Poznańuprising. Each year there are celebrations of annual of Poznań events.