Polish People's Party (1945–1949)
The Polish People's Party (Polish Peasant Party, Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe – PSL) existed in post-World War II Poland from 1945 to 1949. In a period of increasing solidification of communist power in Poland but with the political system retaining some formal adherence to multiparty democracy principles, the PSL was a broadly left-wing non-communist party that was not allied with the communists. The PSL was defeated by the communist-based bloc in the rigged legislative elections of 1947. Polish People's Party in post-World War II politics A provisional government, declared as the Polish Committee of National Liberation was established by Polish communists and allied politicians in July 1944 in Lublin, when Poland was being liberated from the Nazi German occupation by the Soviet and Polish armies. The communists were pressured by the United States and Britain, as discussed by their leaders with Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference, to admit into the Polish government participants of the democratic opposition, including members of the London-based Polish government-in-exile. Former prime minister of that government, Stanisław Mikołajczyk, returned to Poland in June 1945 and became deputy prime minister and minister of agriculture in the so-called Provisional Government of National Unity, dominated by the communists and